We’re proud of the difference our students and alumni are making. Dive into the stories of how they’re leading in their fields and transforming knowledge into meaningful action.
The National Association of Schools of Music (NASM), our accreditation and standards organization, recognizes a body of knowledge and skills common to all baccalaureate degrees in music. This core includes:
Performance
Musicianship Skills and Analysis
Composition and Improvisation
History and Repertory
Technology
Synthesis
Student Learning Outcomes for the Music Major
Performance skills
Technical skills requisite for artistic self-expression in at least one major performance area
An overview understanding of the repertory in the major performance area
The ability to read at sight with fluency
Rehearsal and conducting skills
Keyboard competency
Musicianship skills and analysis
An understanding of the common elements and organizational patterns of music and their interaction, the ability to employ this understanding in aural, verbal, and visual analyses
The ability to take aural dictation
Sufficient understanding of and capability with musical forms, processes, and structures to use this knowledge and skill in compositional, performance, analytical, scholarly, and pedagogical applications according to the requisites of their specializations
The ability to place music in historical, cultural, and stylistic contexts
Composition and Improvisation
Sufficient understanding of the tools necessary to create music both extemporaneously and in written form
The ability to demonstrate a basic command of compositional process and design
The ability to demonstrate a basic command of creative improvisational process
The ability to engage in the process of realizing composed and improvised work through collaborative performance
History and Repertory
A thorough knowledge of the output of significant composers from each major musical period including the present
An understanding of the stylistic traits of each period including principal characteristics of major composers and significant musical genres of each era
An understanding of the culture of each musical period—i.e. the political, social and artistic contexts in which music was created
A knowledge of the primary sources of music historical writing, critical commentary and analysis
Technology
The ability to use technologies current to their area of specialization
The ability to use contemporary music notation software
Synthesis
The ability, by the end of undergraduate study, to work on musical problems by combining, as appropriate to each situation, their capabilities in performance; aural and visual analysis; composition and improvisation; history and repertory; and technology