What’s the difference between a BMus and BA Degree?
My daughter has decided she wants to study music at university. Until now, I have been only vaguely aware of the BMus degree as opposed to BA. Is it true that the BMus is more practical or performance based than the BA? And do you know how both BA and BMus are perceived by employers (including non-musical ones)?
Thank you very much for your question. While I’m not an expert in degree courses, maybe my own experience could be a starting point for your research. Here’s a little about my background:
I studied music at Queen’s Belfast where a BMus and BA were both offered within the school of music. I chose BMus as I wanted to have the ‘specialist’ degree qualification. The difference in this case was in the required modules. My BA friends were free to take whichever modules interested them each year from the school of music courses, along with any other modules offered across the school of arts (politics, languages, anthropology, art history etc.), whereas the BMus students had to focus on classes from the school of music, including harmony and counterpoint, various music history modules and so on.
Once we had taken all the mandatory courses, we could choose from any other modules across the school of arts and still get a BMus. I studied French and German in my first year, then afterwards focused exclusively on music. It was great academic and technical music training and I’m really glad I chose the BMus route.
I also applied to Durham, Leeds and Newcastle, all of which looked great. I advise finding somewhere the music dept is very active and organises lots of concerts, has a partnership with a local orchestra, artist in residence programmes etc. and ideally one that is situated in a musical city. Gaining experience and developing relationships with people in the various activities are what’s ultimately going to make someone employable, not the name of their degree. I suggest making a shortlist of schools that can offer these experiences then looking through the league tables to see where the various schools of music sit on the list.
If your daughter doesn’t know exactly what area she wants to pursue then best to get a good degree from a great university. Degree subject isn’t too important in many job searches, and arts degree courses generally are more about learning and education in the broader sense.
Hope this is of some help. Good luck in your search and do let us know what your daughter chooses!
Rhoda Barfoot is a violinist and experienced strings teacher and is director of The Strings Family. Think of Rhoda as your personal advisor for the stringed instruments world! If you have a question about stringed instruments, music study or related topics, check with Ask Rhoda on The Strings Family website.