Community Music in Principle - MUS00113M

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  • Department: Music
  • Credit value: 20 credits
  • Credit level: M
  • Academic year of delivery: 2025-26

Module summary

This module examines core principles underpinning the practice of community music, including inclusivity and democracy, creativity, transformation and theories of change, reflective and reflexive practice, and considerations of quality.

Module will run

Occurrence Teaching period
A Semester 1 2025-26

Module aims

During this module, you will study how community music creates opportunities for transformation and development of participants and practitioners. This is achieved through the study of principles of inclusivity and democracy within a workshop setting, transformative processes and theories of change, artist development through reflective practice, and practitioner health and wellness through a focus on artist care. There is also an introduction to assessing how quality can be measured in the community arts context.

Theoretical groundwork is combined with practical and creative skills that can be applied in a range of settings.

Module learning outcomes

By the end of the module all you should be able to:

  • Contribute to music-making activities rooted in the key principles of community music;

  • Use established models of reflective practice to evaluate your own and others’ work;

  • Apply your knowledge of social/educational contexts and the core principles of community music to the design of projects in response to given briefs;

  • Think, debate and write critically about at least one core principle of community music.

  • Engage with academic research and examples of practice within your chosen area of focus, reflecting on connections between theory and practice.

Indicative assessment

Task % of module mark
Essay/coursework 100

Special assessment rules

None

Additional assessment information

of the following, to form 100% of the module assessment:

  • 3000-word essay

  • 2000-word workshop plan with contextual annotations/commentary

  • Practical workshop and 1000-word contextual commentary

Alternative options for those with relevant prior experience, with the approval of module leader only, and subject to availability of examiners for any live element:

  • Performance influenced by community music principles, accompanied by 1000-word contextual commentary

  • Composition/arrangement influenced by community music principles (scores/instructions/recordings as appropriate to the type of composition), accompanied by 1000-word contextual commentary

Indicative reassessment

Task % of module mark
Essay/coursework 100

Module feedback

You will receive written feedback in line with standard University turnaround times.

Indicative reading

Bartleet, Brydie-Leigh, and Lee Higgins, eds. 2018. The Oxford Handbook of Community Music. New York, NY: Oxford University Press,.

Camlin, Dave. 2023. Music Making and Civic Imagination: A Holistic Philosophy. Bristol: Intellect Books.

Everitt, Anthony. 1997. Joining in: An Investigation into Participatory Music. London: Gulbenkian Foundation.

Higgins, Lee. 2012. Community Music: In Theory and in Practice . Edited by Oxford Academic. New York: Oxford University Press.

Higgins, Lee and Lee Willingham. 2017. Engaging in Community Music: An Introduction. London: Routledge.

Ledwith, Margaret. 2022. Participatory Practice: Community-Based Action for Transformative Change. Bristol: Policy Press.

Matarasso, Francois. 1997. Use or Ornament: The Social Impact of Participation in the Arts. Stroud: Comedia/Demos.

Veblen, Kari K., David J. Elliott, Stephen J. Messenger, and Marissa Silverman, eds. 2013. Community Music Today. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield Education.

Willingham, Lee, ed. 2021. Community Music at the Boundaries. Waterloo, Ontario, Canada: Wilfrid Laurier University Press.