Who will be admitted?
Popular Music is a consecutive master’s degree programme aimed at bachelor’s degree holders with practical musical experience at a high level who want to deepen and expand their existing knowledge.
Professional Direction
Bachelor’s Degree Subject
In order to be considered for admission, you must have a university degree in one of the following subjects:
- Pop Music Design or Music Business from the Popakademie Baden-Württemberg
- Music, e.g. New Music, Classical Music, Jazz, Popular Music
- Music Education
- Musicology
- Literature (German, English)
- Cultural Studies
- Media-related Studies
- Art and Design
Structure
Selection Procedure
Pre-Selection
- Application form including motivation and qualifications
- Recording with 3 titles for concentration Performing Artist or Educating Artist and with 5 titles for concentration Producing/Composing Artist
Entrance Exam
Written Exam
- Analysis of musical pieces regarding melodic, harmonic and rhythmic structure as well as in terms of form, arrangement and aspects of technical production
- Written essay on a topic from history of aesthetics of popular music
Example Questions
- Notate the melody of the first refrain/chorus.
- Identify the accompanying harmonies and notate them as chord symbols.
- Describe the melody. What can you say about the audio material, the motifs and the structure?
- Analyse the harmonic structure.
- Identify the structure by naming the individual parts and giving the respective time signatures
- How are the lead vocals mixed in terms of space and effects?
Audition
- Public, live performance, either with an accompanying band or solo with playback. Here you have a total of 15 minutes to perform 3 to 5 titles (either your own compositions or your own original covers of others’ compositions).
- For the Producing/Composing Artist concentration it is possible to play your own works on CD or on your own laptop.
- After that, an ad-hoc exam will take place in private, during which you will be asked about your musical abilities. The exam ends with a one-on-one interview on musically relevant questions and your personal motivation.
- Questions about your ability to implement ideas and flexibility of musical accompaniment in various styles and genres of popular music
- Playing of your own productions, only for Producing/Composing Artist: technical and aesthetic questions about the productions
- Private conversation about music-related questions, about the written exam, your qualifications and motivation