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MUSI1311: Study Skills in Music

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Type	Tied
Level	1
Credits	20
Availability	Available in 2024/2025
Module Cap
Location	Durham
Department	Music

Prerequisites

A Level Music or the equivalent (see also https://www.durham.ac.uk/study/courses/music-w300/).

Corequisites

None.

Excluded Combinations of Modules

None.

Aims

To prepare students for further undergraduate Music studies by consolidating skills in several areas: musical literacy and the interpretation of musical texts; research skills; academic ethics, especially with regard to plagiarism, paraphrasing, citation etc.; other essay-writing skills, including linguistic and critical skills regarding the analysis of discourse on music.

Content

The module outlines the main sub-disciplinary areas in music scholarship and ways in which they inter-relate. Sessions focus on three main areas. The first develops foundational music-analytical skills, focusing on score-reading. The second is on technical skills required for advanced written work on music. The third is to do with analytical thinking and argumentation. The module thus provides tools and skills that are relevant across the curriculum.

Learning Outcomes

Subject-specific Knowledge:

Students will understand at an appropriate level the nature of Music as an academic discipline, and contextualise it within major contextual debates.
Students will become familiar with undergraduate-level research methods, principles of good practice in scholarly work, foundational concepts of musical structure, and underlying principles of various sub-disciplines.

Subject-specific Skills:

Foundational music-analytical skills (e.g., recognition of harmonic patterns; classification of theme types), which will serve as a basis for more far-reaching analytic projects in other modules.
Skills needed in undertaking research and writing musicological essays or preparing presentations, e.g., optimal use of databases; appropriate citation.

Key Skills:

Critical skills in analysing concepts and texts; constructive self-criticism in essay-writing and argumentation.

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

The module will be taught in a single term. Weekly lectures will cover the main topics. Lectures work in conjunction with directed reading, which may be discussed in the lecture.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Activity	Number	Frequency	Duration	Total	Monitored
Lectures	10	weekly	2 hours	20	Yes
Group tutorials	2	Throughout the term	30	1	Yes
Reading and preparation				179
TOTAL				200

Summative Assessment

Component: Score analysis		Component Weighting: 50%
Element	Length / Duration	Element Weighting	Resit Opportunity
Annotated score and analytical commentary	1000 words	100	yes

Component: Essay		Component Weighting: 50%
Element	Length / Duration	Element Weighting	Resit Opportunity
essay	1500 words	100	yes

Formative Assessment

Formative exercises will be set in preparation for the summative assessments and/or to address specific topics.

More information

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