LASALLE College of the Arts

MA Music Therapy

Singapore, Singapore

DURATION

2 Years

LANGUAGES

English

PACE

Full time

APPLICATION DEADLINE

30 Mar 2025

EARLIEST START DATE

01 Aug 2025

TUITION FEES

SGD 10,764 / per semester

STUDY FORMAT

On-Campus

Key Summary

About: The MA Music Therapy program offers training in therapeutic music practices. It spans two years and prepares students to use music as a tool for healing and emotional support in various settings. The program emphasizes practical experience alongside theoretical learning, focusing on the unique needs of individuals.

Career Outcomes: Graduates can pursue diverse roles such as music therapists, supporting clients with mental health issues, disabilities, or developmental disorders. Opportunities exist in hospitals, schools, rehabilitation centers, and private practice.

Introduction

Become a qualified music therapist and use your musical skills to improve people’s well-being.

The MA Music Therapy programme is delivered within a robust framework of musical aesthetic excellence, well-evidenced theories, and rigorous clinical practice training that is informed by professional ethics, guidelines, and best practices. It is the only such program in Singapore.

You will contribute to the health, wellness, and well-being of people across the lifespan of your practice that is deeply rooted in cultural contexts, including those encountered in Singapore and across the region.

The profession of music therapy is the scientifically informed use of music interventions within a therapeutic relationship that aims to provide functional, educational, rehabilitative, or well-being outcomes. Music therapists have a deeply rooted identity as musicians. With education/training, this relationship with music finds new meanings in the application of musical skills, aesthetic mastery, and therapeutic competencies within health-giving and health-maintaining contexts.

The practice involves working in therapeutic public health settings such as acute hospitals, community hospitals, hospices, mental health institutions, nursing homes, group homes, community centers, and NGOs, as well as providing consultations and care in private practices.

Music therapists provide therapeutic services across all age groups ranging from infants to children and adolescents, adults, and older adults (including those living with dementia). These services may be offered in such settings and contexts as pediatric units, education environments, medical facilities, and sspecializedprogramcare facilities including purpose-built palliative units and hospices.

Credentialed music therapists such as graduates from this programme are governed under a strict code of ethics and professional standards to ensure a high level of integrity in their practice with children and vulnerable adults.

Why apply

Become a trained music therapist: Develop the skills and knowledge needed to launch your career in the fast-growing field of art-based therapies.

First of its kind in Singapore: This programme is a response to the growing recognition of the important contribution music therapy can make to enabling people to tackle the challenges and difficulties they are facing and live fulfilled and resilient lives.

Vibrant creative community: Study in a dynamic learning environment and learn by practice through an extensive programme of clinical placements.

Real-world learning: Our curriculum is a carefully designed blend of contextualised context and practice suitable for Singapore and the region, plus an international orientation that makes it relevant to the wider international professional field of music therapy.

Career Opportunities

Curriculum

Full-time

Orientation to Music Therapy (15 credits)
Approaches in Music Therapy (15 credits)
Music Therapy Methods (15 credits)
Clinical Musicianship (15 credits)
Clinical Applications in Music Therapy I: Children & Adolescents (15 credits)
Clinical Placement I (15 credits)
The Agora (30 credits)
Clinical Applications in Music Therapy II: Adults (15 credits)
Clinical Placement II (15 credits)
Final Research (60 credits)
Music Therapy in Professional Contexts and Culture (15 credits)
Clinical Placement III (15 credits)

Modes of assessment

Written Assignment
Seminar Presentation
Thesis or Project Work
Student Designed Assessment

Curriculum framework

The LASALLE MA framework aims to provide graduates with a competitive edge that will meet the demands of the dynamic cultural and creative sector.

The MA framework has the following common structure:

Core modules

You will study three core modules* according to your chosen programme of study. These modules aim to equip you with discipline-specific skills relevant to your area of research inquiry.

*For the MA Art Therapy and MA Music Therapy programmes, there will be additional modules for clinical placements.

Common module – the Agora

The common module, the Agora, has been designed to prepare you for the intensely collaborative experience of a creative career. You will be guided to reflect on the ‘place’ of your particular discipline in society, the economy, and the environment. You will consider and experiment with combining your discipline with others (multidisciplinary), blending your skills and knowledge with those of other disciplines (interdisciplinary) or even discovering new ways of working together (transdisciplinary).

The Final Research module

Research methods will be embedded into the Final Research (thesis) module. Within this module, formal and dedicated ‘research weeks’ will occur in the first and second semesters. The research weeks will be distinctive points within your program to allow you to concentrate fully on your research. The spread of its delivery is intended to provide you time to reflect, synthesise and consolidate your learning, and develop your research questions. You will also be provided six hours of supervision of your research.

Besides the immersion in the postgraduate research culture built through shared learning modules, the MA framework provides a transformative educational experience designed to shape you into a future-ready professional, equipped with the skills and expertise demanded by the industry.

Sustainability and care

LASALLE recognizes the important role of artists and designers in creating a sustainable and caring world. The curriculum provides opportunities for students to identify and explore issues around sustainability (from ecology and global climate change to the sustainability of their own creative practices and wider cultural communities) and care (for the well-being and advancement of oneself and others).

The College actively encourages students to engage with and investigate these crucial contemporary issues as part of their studies, including through their projects, and critical and creative outputs. Through interdisciplinary learning and strong engagement with these topics, the aim is to empower students to lead the way toward sustainable practices and caring communities within the cultural and creative industries.

Materials

Basic materials for learning are provided by the College.

As a developing artist, you are required to have certain items that are personal to you and cannot be shared. Such items include books, dance shoes, rehearsal clothes, safety boots, portable musical instruments, paints, canvas, basic tools, design software, cameras, etc., that will support you through your three-year learning journey. The College does not encourage the purchase of extravagant or costly materials or equipment. Our lecturers can provide you with affordable suggestions.

You are also encouraged to have your own laptop for education. If you do not own one, computer labs are available on campus with the requisite software for you to undertake your work.

There may be opportunities for you to undertake extra-curricular study trips to enhance your overall learning. Trips are not compulsory and may incur additional costs.