Unleash Your Ministry Potential with a Music and Worship Bachelor’s Degree from Liberty
Imagine using your vocal or musical ability to lead a church in worship. If you have a passion for music and want to pursue a rewarding career in ministry, we have a degree that can help. Our Bachelor of Science in Music and Worship offers a general degree track designed to give you more freedom to personalize your degree to your unique interests and career goals.
From directing the worship programming at your church to becoming a contemporary Christian artist, our music and worship degree can prepare you to excel in your career. Courses focus on all major areas of music study including musicianship, harmonic practices, conducting, production and audio engineering, and congregational leadership. Additionally, you will get various hands-on experiences with practicums and internship hours in your field of interest.
By pursuing the general track, you have the freedom to choose the elective courses you are most interested in. For example, if you want to use music to reach people from different cultures or religions, you can take various global studies courses. Overall, we want you to feel confident and excited about the material you are studying. Embrace your creative freedom with Liberty.
Award-Winning Campus
At Liberty, you’ll find an affordable, high-quality education that equips students like you for the real world. Our commitment to excellence helped us rank among Niche.com’s Top 3 college campuses in America. Earning your degree from a nonprofit university with state-of-the-art resources like ours can help set you apart from your peers.
Why Choose Liberty’s Music and Worship – General Degree?
Today’s music ministers and worship leaders need to be more than skilled musicians. Choosing Liberty means partnering with a school that understands the need for a well-rounded education. We have the resources you’ll need to develop and stand out.
Prestigious Academics Taught by Expert Faculty
All of our music and worship degrees are accredited by the National Association of School of Music (NASM). This means that you will walk away with credentials recognized by employers and churches across the nation.
We believe the caliber of education and the success of our students is due to the incredible team of professors and faculty in our School of Music department. When you choose Liberty, you are gaining one-on-one training from members of our 45 full-time faculty. These men and women are professionals in their field with years of real-life experience and degrees from some of the most prestigious music schools in the nation.
Choose Liberty and have all of these resources at your fingertips. Your future in music and worship is just a degree away, so why wait? Get started now!
What Will You Learn in Our General Music and Worship Degree?
At Liberty, we aim to make our degrees as customizable as possible. The general track of our music and worship degree provides just that. If you are interested in developing your vocal ability, you could choose to complete the primary music course requirements in voice. If you are looking to advance your guitar skills, you could choose the guitar as your primary instrument.
Our students must also select a secondary instrument. The following are the options available to our music and worship students:
- Guitar
- Piano
- Strings/Brass/Woodwinds/Percussion
- Voice
Aside from the instrumental courses, you’ll take, our music and worship degree includes ensemble courses, practicums, and internships. These opportunities give you the ability to put your talent to the test in a real-world worship setting. You will also gain a strong foundational knowledge in harmonic practices and theory, musicianship, creative worship, music production, audio engagement, basic conducting, and worship choir.
Review the Degree Completion Plan, and check out our featured courses below to learn more about what you’ll be studying!
Featured Courses
MUSC 105 – Harmonic Practices and Theory I
Here’s what you’ll learn:
- A practical introduction to harmonic, melodic, and rhythmic principles of music.
- Musical elements including key signatures, scales, intervals, chords, chord construction, and chord progression, which are the foundation for harmonic analysis of traditional, contemporary Christian, popular, and jazz music.
- The Nashville number system and jazz harmony practices as accepted methodology for music analysis.
MUSC 107 – Musicianship I
Here’s what you’ll learn:
- Listening skills are developed through rhythmic, harmonic, and melodic dictation.
- Refined skills through daily sight-singing and rhythm exercises from a variety of styles.
- Special attention is given to tonal center referencing, which is the ability to identify harmonic rhythm while listening to a variety of musical styles.
MUSC 207 – Musicianship III
Here’s what you’ll learn:
- Provides in-depth instruction into musicianship as a continuation from the previous two courses.
- This course focuses on the continued development of the musician’s listening skills as applied to tonal center referencing, harmonic dictation, melodic identification, and rhythmic imitation.
MUSC 423 – Congregational Contextualization and Leadership
Here’s what you’ll learn:
- This is a study of congregational worship practices in the evangelical traditions.
- Special attention is given to establishing methodology for evaluating ministry context and demographics.
- Attention is also given to song selection, programming, conducting concepts, vocal and band rehearsal techniques, and the integration of multimedia, drama, and creative movement into the congregational ministry.
Highlights of Our Music and Worship Degree
- Access to 45 full-time faculty members with degrees from some of the most prestigious music schools in the nation.
- Our music programs are accredited by the National Association of Schools of Music (NASM).
- Our Center for Music and Performance is housed in a 141,000-square-foot building.
- Our Center for Worship has been voted “Best of the Best in Higher Education” six years in a row by Worship Leader Magazine.
- We are designated as an “All-Steinway” school.
- Liberty Music Group (LMG) is our very own on-campus recording studio and professional music publishing and recording company.
- Our alumni have gone on to become Dove-award winning Christian artists and songwriters.
- All coursework is market-driven and focuses on developing your skills for the current industry.
Music and Worship – General Track Degree Information
- Residential
- 120 total credit hours
- Transfer in up to 75% of your total degree
- This program falls under the School of Music
- View the Degree Completion Plan
- View our course catalog
Career Opportunities for Music and Worship Degree Graduates
- Associate director of worship programming
- Contemporary Christian artist
- Director of worship and drama
- Director of worship arts
- Director of worship conferences
- Director of worship technology
- Music and worship evangelist
- Music minister
- Worship and missions director
- Worship leader or pastor
Admission Requirements for Undergraduate Degrees
Every application is reviewed by the admission committee on a case-by-case basis, meaning there are no set minimums for acceptance. However, all applicants must submit the following documents* for admission:
- Admission application
- Official high school transcripts
- Official college transcripts (if applicable)
- Results from the CLT, SAT, or ACT are not required for admission, but may be used in consideration for merit-based aid.
- Admission essay
*Note that additional documentation may be requested by the admission committee after your application has been received.
