Important information
Late applications may be considered. Please email admissions@rcs.ac.uk to enquire
An Overview
This is the UK’s only Bachelor of Music degree dedicated to traditional and folk music. Aspiring performers on this course explore Scotland’s unique and dynamic musical traditions as a conceptual, critical and creative framework within which to achieve a distinctively personal voice as an artist. This is interwoven with a solid basis in contemporary and eclectic performance practice.
Our curriculum recognises that the innovative nature of Scottish traditional music today must be embraced, and that the creative development of the individual is the most important way to ensure traditional music flourishes from one generation to another.
You can expect to learn in a busy department where your musical roots and creative artistry will be nurtured and developed through one-to-one tuition, academic context, performance opportunities, masterclasses and lots of ensemble work, all aimed at helping you fulfil your potential.
The programme offers the following Principal Studies:
- Accordion
- Cello
- Fiddle
- Flute/Whistle
- Gaelic song
- Guitar
- Percussion (pipe band snare drum, drumkit, bodhran)
- Piano
- Scots song
- Scottish Harp (normally gut-strung)
You will work closely with some of the world’s top solo and collaborative teachers and performers to consolidate your performance technique, repertoire and personal style as a traditional musician, interwoven with development as a critical, creative, entrepreneurial and/or teaching artist. This includes exploring both the established parameters of folk and traditional music and the shared technical vocabulary that links folk to classical and jazz worlds. External learning opportunities include an Isle of Skye residency, touring, teaching placements and work placements in Scotland and overseas, as well as appearances at high-profile events, including Glasgow’s renowned Celtic Connections festival, Piping Live!, international occasions of state and a range of UK, European and North American festivals.
The BMus with Honours (Traditional Music) places emphasis on the creative development of the individual and allows the curriculum to be relevant to aspiring musicians from anywhere in the world. We have welcomed students from as far afield as Japan, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Australia, USA, Canada, the Netherlands, Germany, England, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
Institution Code:
R58
Programme Code:
250F
UK Deadline:
Late applications accepted
International Deadline:
Late applications accepted
Programme Structure
In your first year, you will consolidate and enhance your technique and your grounding in traditional repertoire in your principal study instrument or voice, interwoven with development as a critical and creative artist, able to connect and engage critically with your own experience as a traditional or folk musician.
You will receive an introduction to music theory and website design, as you not only begin to construct your identity as a musician, but interpret it to the world. This year also features a grounding for all students in Scots and Gaelic song, sources and folklore so as to instill a shared foundation in the roots of Scottish music and its relationship to language and culture.
Year 1 has a total of 120 credits across the modules below.
Principal Study Exam Requirements
Year 1 Performance A (Recital):
Internal recital, 30 minutes in duration, consisting of a varied programme of traditional repertoire developed over the course of the academic year and drawn from key composers and collections/sources.
Year 1 Performance B (Recital Audition):
Two in-lesson recitals (Last week of T1 and of T2) in which you should prepare a programme of 10-15 minutes duration, demonstrating evidence of progress in performing traditional repertoire from composers and collections/sources fundamental to your Principal Study discipline.
In your programme you should articulate how they are informing your own personal stylistic approach. Material demonstrated in these lessons may be performed formally on the occasion of Performance A.
In your second year, you will continue to nurture and extend your knowledge and practical skills as a solo and collaborative traditional musician through a broadening exploration of technique, repertoire and style relative to your instrument or vocal tradition.
You will extend your skills in group Scots and Gaelic singing and in programming, performing and calling a ceilidh. You will expand outwards as a musician-researcher, exploring historic and social contexts and concepts, and draw relationships between practice, perception and context.
You will further nurture your composition and arrangement skills and expand your entrepreneurial skillset with reference to multiple audiences, licensing issues, intellectual property, marketing and digital music distribution.
Year 2 has a total of 120 credits across the modules below.
Principal Study Exam Requirements
Year 2 Performance A (Recital):
Internal recital, 30 minutes in duration, consisting of a varied programme of repertoire drawn from different regional, national, period or other styles/repertoires (or similar), developed over the course of the academic year and open to observation by other students and staff.
Year 2 Performance B (Recital Audition):
Two in-lesson recitals (Last week of T1 and of T2) in which you should prepare a programme of 10-15 minutes duration, demonstrating evidence of progress in performing different regional, national, period or other styles/repertoires fundamental to your Principal Study discipline, drawn from appropriate sources (both traditional and contemporary). In your programme you should articulate how they inform your own personal stylistic approach. Material demonstrated in these lessons may be performed formally on the occasion of Performance A.
Year three will see you develop a solid musical persona through fluent knowledge and expertise informed by your principal study and a consolidation of your critical artistry in research and reflection. You will do this whilst developing your pedagogical knowledge and your practical skills in teaching traditional music in a range of environments.
You will address essential vocational issues in greater detail, such as self-assessed taxation, contract negotiation, creative arts funding and administration and the option of a formal work placement, in addition to an ongoing array of elective opportunities to be found in the department, the Royal Conservatoire and beyond; thereby continuing to nurture your own distinct artistic specialisms in a traditional, folk, or broader arts context.
Year 3 has a total of 120 credits across the modules below.
Principal Study Exam Requirements
Year 3 Performance A (Public Recital):
Public recital, 45 minutes in duration, that articulates a specific theme developed over the course of the academic year. Your theme may be soloist in nature or may involve collaboration with other singers or instrumentalists, accompaniment and (if appropriate) improvisation. Your programme may include, or indeed emphasise, your own compositions and arrangements so long as this is in alignment with your recital’s theme and your tutor’s approval. You may involve a maximum of two accompanists in your public recital.
Year 3 Performance B (Recital Auditions):
Two in-lesson recitals (Last week of T1 and of T2) in which you should prepare a programme of 15 minutes duration, demonstrating evidence of progress in performing project material being developed to date that contribute to the theme of the final public recital. Material demonstrated in these lessons will be performed formally on the occasion of Performance A.
Year four — the Honours year — occasions a synthesis of your critical, technical and creative development as a traditional musician or piper. In addition to engaging in your own substantial project work, deeply rooted in both tradition and innovation, toward an independent and original contribution to the field, you will continue to take advantage of the array of elective opportunities to be found in the department, the Royal Conservatoire and beyond. The Honours year is student-centred: working to achieve a distinct identity and musical voice within your own established parameters, culminating in a themed final public recital.
Year 4 has a total of 120 credits across the modules below.
Year 4 Performance A (Public Recital 70%):
Public recital, 45 minutes in duration, that articulates your distinct idiomatic voice
through a specific theme or project developed over the course of the academic year
in collaboration with your tutor(s) and, if appropriate, your peers, making explicit
your depth of learning in one or more specialisms. You may involve a maximum of
two accompanists in your public recital.
Year 4 Performance B (Recital Audition) Indicative content:
Two in-lesson recitals (last week T1 and T2) in which you should evidence examples
of project material being developed to date that contribute to the theme of the endof-
year public recital. Material demonstrated in these lessons will be performed
formally on the occasion of Performance A.
Year 4 Research Paper (20%)
A paper of c. 4,000 words analysing a chosen topic relevant to your performance
practice and professional/artistic aspirations.
Year 4 Viva examination (10%)
A 20-minute viva examination to discuss your learning and forward planning.
Meet the Staff
Alistair McCulloch
Lecturer in Fiddle and Professional Skills
Marie Fielding
Lecturer in Performance (Traditional Music)
Graduate Destinations
The Traditional Music programme has an excellent track record of graduate employment or self-employment within six months of graduation — upward of 90%. The programme prepares students for a wide and varied range of careers in traditional music; not all related to performance. Our graduates have gone on to establish their own recording labels, agencies or other entrepeneurial ventures; to tour extensively around the world; to become noted composers, producers and broadcasters; and to earn teaching qualifications to become classroom teachers; even to go on to further study in psychology and law.
Some noted alumni of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland’s Department of Traditional Music include:
- Finlay MacDonald (Principal of the National Piping Centre; The Finlay MacDonald Band)
- Findlay Napier (Back of the Moon; Findlay Napier and the Bar-Room Mountaineers)
- Emily Smith
- Paul McKenna and Ruairidh MacMillan (The Paul McKenna Band)
- Daniel Thorpe (The Daniel Thorpe Trio)
- Cameron Drummond (Highland Society of London Double Silver Medallist; Strathallan School)
- Calum MacCrimmon (Man’s Ruin; Seudan; Breabach)
- Siobhan Miller and Jean Leslie
- Gillian Frame (Back of the Moon, Glasgow Fiddle Workshop)
- Simon McKerrell (Reader in Music and Society, University of Newcastle)
- Angus MacPhail (Skippinish)
- Jenna Reid
- Stuart Cassells (Red Hot Chilli Pipers)
- Kathleen MacInnes
- Deirdre Graham
- James Graham
- Jack Smedley, David Foley and Steven Blake (Rura)
- Robyn Stapleton (BBC Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the Year 2014)
- Ainsley Hamill (Barluath)
- Gordon Bruce (Highland Society of London Double Silver Medallist)
- Grant McFarlane (CherryGrove)
- Iona Fyfe, Scots traditional singer
- Connor Sinclair, Gold medallist piper and whistle player
- The Canny Band: Sam Mabbett, Calum Convoy, Michael Biggins (Trad Awards 2021)
Traditional Music Performances
A collection of performances from our Traditional Music department.
Why Choose Us?
The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland is in the World Top 10 for performing arts education 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020 and 2021 (QS World Rankings)
We are uniquely placed in the UK to deliver the BMus (Hons) Traditional Music programme, working alongside professionals partners such as the National Piping Centre to really ensure our students get the very best from their education.
In addition to our position as educators and our reputation for having expert staff renowned in the field of Scottish traditional music, this programme offers additional benefits you won’t get studying anywhere else:
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Unparalleled one-to-one tuition
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Sang Scuil / Sgoil nan Òran
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Technique and Healthy Practice
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Performance Class
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Folk Ensemble
Gallery
Traditional Music is based, appropriately enough, at the heart of the Royal Conservatoire, occupying its centrally-located Studio C recording, rehearsal and teaching area. The Royal Conservatoire’s Studio C is a large yet intimate space at the heart of the Renfrew Street campus, functioning as the living hub of BMus and MA/MMus Traditional Music activity at the Royal Conservatoire (including band studies, group projects, masterclasses and informal sessions) and providing rehearsal, recording, PA and storage facilities.
Practice accommodation in the Royal Conservatoire’s Renfrew Street campus has increased prodigiously in recent years, accommodating all types of musical activity, from solo to band, singing to piping. The National Piping Centre offers further purpose-designed practice space for Highland piping students. Areas within the building have been Wi-Fi-enabled and all students have access to the network using their own laptops and portable devices.
IT provision in the Whittaker Library has increased in recent years to accommodate 16 PC workstations, (incorporating Sibelius 7), bringing the total open access student PC provision to 52 machines (and counting). This is further enhanced by the Royal Conservatoire’s Digital Training Unit and Language Lab facilities.
Students have access to over 70 relevant e-journals and 14 electronic databases and online archives, including Tobar an Dualchais / Kist o Riches, HOTBED, Oxford Music Online, IPA Source, JStor and Naxos. The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland’s Whittaker Library continues to support Scottish Music students via a dedicated full-time Music Librarian and a full-time Performance Librarian.
Just as the Traditional Music Department occupies the heart of RCS, so RCS occupies the heart of Glasgow, a UNESCO City of Music. Students can take advantage of our central location to avail themselves of the National Piping Centre, the Scottish Music Centre at City Halls, the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall and a teeming network of folk music sessions at pubs throughout the city.