Welcome to the Popular Music course at Canterbury Christchurch University. My name is Robert Stillman and I’m the Course Director for Popular Music. The course team are delighted that you've chosen to study with us and are really looking forward to working with you on your studies to help you achieve your goals as a student. I’ll meet you in your first week - welcome week. In the meantime please don't hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions.

Robert Stillman
Course Director

Your Teaching Timetable

Teaching for your course will begin w.c 21 September 2026.

To help you plan your first few weeks, you can view an overview of the teaching activities for your course.

View your first semester teaching timetable.

On a mobile device, click the arrow next to “Search” at the top right of the page to view your timetable.

If your course is taught in groups, the overview will show activities for all groups. You will only need to attend sessions for your allocated group.

Once teaching begins, your individual timetable and group allocation will be available in MyTimetable provided you have completed online registration and created your computing account.

Your Semester 1 Modules

Performance Skills

Popular Music Making

Success Modules - you will complete 3 of these 5 credit modules*

*Success Modules

Your Journey to Success at CCCU is a compulsory success module. You'll then choose two more Success modules from a choice of eight.

These modules are completed online (asynchronous learning) and are not timetabled, so they won't appear in your teaching timetable.

Key dates

Academic Calendar: Semesters

View key dates for this Academic Calendar for 2026-27 including when teaching starts and finishes and when you break for holidays.

Welcome

​Welcome Week is an essential introduction to your course and to the wider university. It will help you to feel confident and prepared for studies right from the start.

In welcome week you'll find out more about the course including how the course runs and your timetable, and you’ll meet staff who will be teaching you in your first semester and other students you'll be studying with.

​There will also be a number of activities for you to get to know the course staff team and the other students on the course. During this week you’ll find out about your timetable and any groups that you might be in for practical classes, and you’ll start to gain access to Blackboard, our online repository of learning materials for your modules. You will also meet your Personal Academic Tutor.

Getting started

​Your Course

​In your first semester, you will study:

A 30 credit module called Performance Skills (this incorporates your instrumental lessons, weekly theory classes, weekly rehearsals with a tutor where you’ll be assigned to a band from your year group, and a weekly rehearsal with a staff-run ensemble with students from different year groups)

A 15 credit module called Popular Music Making which incorporates an introduction to creating music in a DAW - we use Logic - and also introduces you to elements of live sound and working on stage with a P.A., lighting and monitors.

You will also take 3 x 5 credit modules called Success Modules which are delivered online and which you can study in your own time.

To Prepare

​​Please prepare a piece to play in your first performance class (this will be the week after Welcome Week).

This can be a solo piece or something with a backing track. We are really looking forward to hearing you perform and this will help the tutor to assign you to a relevant performance group for your group rehearsals and performance classes.

​As a student on the Popular Music course you will have individual (one-to-one) instrumental/vocal lessons (e.g. drums, bass, guitar, piano/keyboard, vocals etc.).

Students tend to focus on one instrument (especially in the second and third year) and have weekly lessons on this, but you can take two instruments if you would like to, alternating each week (for instance, if you are a singer and a guitarist and would like lessons on both).

We’ll ask you to confirm your choice in Welcome Week so that arrangements can be made for these lessons. You’ll start these one-to-one lessons in the second teaching week of the semester.

Your Must Do Tasks

Once you have been invited to register for your course, there are some key tasks you'll need to complete to make sure you are ready to become a CCCU student. 

Registration invitations are sent towards the end of August. We'll send yours to the email address you used when you applied, so please check this inbox regularly to make sure you don't miss any important information.

Pre-course reading

​​You may find it helpful to look at these in advance of your studies:

​For the theory element of the Performance Skills module:

  • ​Wyatt, K. (1998) Harmony and Theory. Hal Leonard.

​For the Popular Music Making module:

International student success programme

International students: don't miss out! Make sure you register for our international student success programme which provides practical advice on preparing to live and study in the UK.

Contact details

Have a question?

Speak to our friendly team for support.