The Student Room Group

Masters in music without undergrad music

I thought I'd make a thread here as it's not something I'm looking to do for quite some time. Don't want to hassle an admissions officer over a distant goal :tongue:. Maybe 10 years?

Would it be feasible for me to get a masters in music with a science degree and a diploma?

It certainly seems possible.

The RCM, for exampls says

An undergraduate degree or diploma, or an equivalent international qualification, usually in music. Students who wish to take the MMus may be requested to demonstrate appropriate knowledge and ability as part of the admissions process.


and also


If you are applying for the Master of Music (MMus) programme you may be requested to submit two examples of recent written work, such as essays, directly to the RCM as part of the admissions process. You may also have an interview to discuss your work. You will be told if you need to do this. This is not necessary for the Master of Performance (MPerf) course.




So I hope a reasonable conclusion is that a diploma of the right standard would be sufficient and I may have to have recent examples of essays.
(edited 8 years ago)
Original post by Kvothe the arcane
I thought I'd make a thread here as it's not something I'm looking to do for quite some time. Don't want to hassle an admissions officer over a distant goal :tongue:. Maybe 10 years?

Would it be feasible for me to get a masters in music with a science degree and a diploma?

It certainly seems possible.

The RCM, for exampls says

An undergraduate degree or diploma, or an equivalent international qualification, usually in music. Students who wish to take the MMus may be requested to demonstrate appropriate knowledge and ability as part of the admissions process.

and also

If you are applying for the Master of Music (MMus) programme you may be requested to submit two examples of recent written work, such as essays, directly to the RCM as part of the admissions process. You may also have an interview to discuss your work. You will be told if you need to do this. This is not necessary for the Master of Performance (MPerf) course.

So I hope a reasonable conclusion is that a diploma of the right standard would be sufficient and I may have to have recent examples of essays.


I'm touched by your faith in me, but my knowledge of music is zilch. If you can satisfy the tutors at the university that you have sufficient knowledge, then yes, you can do it. It's a much more flexible process of admission than undergraduate, but that's the limit of my knowledge, I'm afraid.
I know someone who did Ancient and Modern History at Ox, who went onto study an MMus in performance (recorder) at the RCM. I think technically speaking, it is entirely doable. How often it happens, I am less sure. You'd probably want to have more than one diploma to stand a realistic chance of beating the competition to get a funded place/scholarship, as the course is very expensive without one! Or at least the Masters I would have wanted to do at the RAM was £10K tuition fees per year :headfire:
Thank you for you replies @The_Lonely_Goatherd and @Carnationlilyrose


In the end, I decided it was best to go straight to the horses' mouth. I contacted a few Conservatories and it'd be fine. They'd be more concerned about my level of playing. I'm not sure if it'd be similar for a non-Conservatorie MA from a place like Goldsmith. Perhaps they'd place more emphasis on previous written (humanities/arts) work.
Original post by Kvothe the arcane


In the end, I decided it was best to go straight to the horses' mouth. I contacted a few Conservatories and it'd be fine. They'd be more concerned about my level of playing. I'm not sure if it'd be similar for a non-Conservatorie MA from a place like Goldsmith. Perhaps they'd place more emphasis on previous written (humanities/arts) work.


Yeah I think university music departments would be a bit more strict about things like previous written work :yes: You could ask around, though. Depending on whether there's a performance pathway and how much written work/non-performance-related stuff there is within said pathway, it could potentially be another viable option. But you would have to read the fine print carefully and again ask around :yes:

It's worth noting that some universities have direct links to conservatoires anyway, so any instrumental teaching would come from a conservatoire tutor in those instances (e.g. KCL and the RAM) :yes:

Quick Reply