Undergraduate

The Wits Bachelor of Music Degree

In the Bachelor of Music (BMus) degree there are three main types of teaching: practical, theoretical and academic. These run concurrently through the first three years of your degree. The practical teaching happens in the Music Performance Studies courses and includes one-on-one instrumental or vocal tuition, class practical (in which you perform for your peers and learn critiquing techniques) and ensemble lessons (performing in groups). The theoretical teaching happens in the Music Literacies and Skills courses. In this course you work progressively from establishing musical literacy (that is, reading and writing music) to learning various composition techniques as well as developing aspects of general musicianship. The academic teaching is done in the Music in History and Society courses and develops your ability to think about and reflect on music.

In each of your first three years you will have one Music Performance Studies course, one Music Literacies and Skills course and one Music in History and Society course to focus on. In your first two years you take two Bachelor of Arts (BA) courses (one in the first semester and one in the second) in addition to your music courses. You are able to choose from a wide variety of BA courses. In third year you will also have the opportunity to pick up other courses such as Performing Arts Management, Introduction to the World Wide Web as Creative Medium and Introduction to Animation.

Fourth year is about specialisation. In addition to compulsory courses in Music Criticism and Music Business Studies you can choose a specialisation in composition, performance, community music, music research, and/or music business. Each of these specifications runs through the whole year.

See the electronic Prospectus for detailed descriptions of the different disciplines of study: Performance, Composition, Music History, Community Music, and Music Business.

Foundation Programme

If you show talent in your audition but are not at the required technical or theoretical level to enter into the 1st year of the degree you may be offered a place in the Foundation programme: This adds an extra year onto your degree (making it five years in total) but offers you the opportunity to get up to the level required to enter the 1st year of the BMus.