Bachelor
Though you may not think that music and science go together, there is a wonderful synergy between the passion for creating music and a love of scientific knowledge. Choosing between the two can be hard so why not make the most of your talents and study both science and music in a double degree course.
With this course, your knowledge of human biology may help you unravel the physiological response that music creates. Your knowledge of physics or mathematics could help you create great music, perhaps as you specialise in creative music technology.
This course leads to two separate degrees:
You will gain all the benefits of each degree course (see Bachelor of Science/Bachelor of Music) and be fully equipped to pursue a career in either field separately or to combine the two in your chosen work. Physics, mathematics and music have been related for millennia in the art and science of acoustics but the links are much more extensive. The latest developments in physics, psychology, human biology, materials science, information science and statistical analysis all give us new answers to ancient questions about music - what it is, why we make it, how we make it, why we listen to it and how it is changing. Whether your music specialisation is in Performance, Composition, and Creative music technology or Popular music, a broad understanding of science will illuminate and enrich the experience.
And if your main focus is science, music expertise will offer interesting opportunities not available to everyone - perhaps working on treatments for auditory conditions or mapping sound to interaction.
The research into the possibilities of music is also ongoing and creating new jobs dedicated to the many effects of music, music perception or the performance and technical underpinnings of instruments. Alternatively you could combine your knowledge of physics, mathematics and computing to become a sound engineer.