Composing Music 3: Advanced

I needed a course to fit around my life and OCA provides just that

Level:: 3
Credits:: 60
Length:: 15 months approx.
10hrs per week
Cost:: £595
payment options

Course Overview

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This course will develop your technical and artistic skills as a composer and leads to a substantial piece of work using advanced compositional techniques. There are no course materials. Instead, the course takes the form of a compositional plan which you negotiate with your tutor, who will be an established composer. Students embarking on this course usually have in mind a major piece of work which they want to write, for instance a symphonic work, an oratorio, an opera or a song cycle. The student and their tutor-composer work together for about a year as the piece develops. This personal and very flexible approach is usually greatly appreciated by students and tutors and significant works are often the result of this close collaboration.

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The OCA provides a framework which you use to develop and agree a compositional plan with your tutor.

The course aims to help you produce, with guidance, a major composition or series of compositions; develop the use of advanced compositional techniques; establish the art of developing, revisiting and reforming musical ideas over a sustained period.

Distance Tuition

You are allocated a tutor and receive their details in your course pack. You work from the course materials and send regular assignments to your tutor. These are returned to you with comment and advice. The course fee includes tutor feedback on your set assignments, but you can purchase feedback and comment on additional pieces of work if you wish.

Face to Face Tuition

You choose a tutor within travelling distance (call OCA on 0800 731 2116 to find your nearest tutor) and you meet them at mutually agreeable times and dates. You are entitled to an agreed number of hours tuition, typically five hours. Tutors work from their own studios or other suitable teaching space. You can find out where your nearest tutor is by contacting Academic Services on 0800 731 2116.

Six assignments. Students also maintain a learning log.

For more information on assessment, click here - Assessment and how to get qualified booklet - to download the booklet PDF.