Curriculum and Programs of Study

The philosophy behind the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings in Mercer University’s Townsend School of Music is that success in today’s music profession requires skills beyond the major.

We at the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings believe in training the next generation of musicians not just in music, but in all the skills they’ll need to navigate through the music business. Being a subset of a larger University allows our students to take advantage of invaluable educational opportunities, including selecting a BM performance degree with elective studies in an outside field. Today’s musician is creative, smart, capable and innovative, and to foster the skills necessary to achieve our students’ goals, a BM with Electives in Business has been specifically offered to and curated for the McDuffie Center student. See the description of this degree below. All descriptions of other degrees offered at the Undergraduate and Graduate levels can be found in music school student handbooks here, including Bachelor of Music, Bachelor of Arts in Music and Artist Diploma.

For more on the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings vision for curriculum, Click here to hear Robert McDuffie’s interview with Fred Child on Performance Today.

A Unique Advantage: Bachelor of Music with Electives in Business

This degree is uniquely designed to allow a student to develop highly specialized technical skills and knowledge for an instrument or voice.  Excellence as performers is the School's goal for students majoring in this degree. They are held to a higher standard of technical ability, artistry, and difficulty. In addition, students pursuing this degree will choose an area of elective study outside of music. Various options include: Business, English, Art, Communication, Psychology, and Theatre.  

The student takes a minimum 60 required credits in the major area and supportive courses in music. The most distinctive feature of this degree is the double credit hours given for applied lessons from the sophomore year. This credit is assigned to compensate the student for the double amount of practice time spent to intensely prepare for the weekly applied lesson. The major areas of applied study include voice, piano, organ, harpsichord, orchestral instruments, wind instruments, percussion instruments, and guitar (Robert McDuffie Center for Strings is only for violin, viola, cello and bass). 

Individual performance skills are nurtured in weekly private lessons, weekly studio classes, weekly Recital Hour, monthly recitals, semester-end juried examinations, junior recitals, and senior recitals. Students are required to participate in at least one ensemble per semester, and most students perform in more than one. Large and small ensemble experiences are available in each applied music area. Other required courses specifically designed for this degree program include pedagogy of the instrument/voice and literature of the instrument/voice. Teaching in a discipline invariably leads to the synthesis of knowledge about the subject area as well as heightened clarity of communication of that knowledge. 

An additional 18 elective credit hours must be chosen from a field outside of music. The general studies requirements are met by taking 39 credits of the Common Core from the Distributional Program or the Great Books Program within the College of Liberal Arts. To satisfy this degree with a Business focus, the following elective courses are offered:

ECN 150 – Principles of Microeconomics

ACC 277 – Accounting for Non-majors

MKT 377 – Hospitality

MGT 328 – Leadership

MKT 320 – Professional Selling

MKT 337 - Social Media Marketing

Additional requirements for this degree include attendance at 150 recitals during the undergraduate years of study, a 30-minute junior recital, and a 45- to 60-minute senior recital.