MusicIcon: Two eighth notes.

Photo: Three young musicians formally dressed in black stand in a row playing saxaphones.

Application Deadline

  • Spring: November 15
  • Fall: June 1

Class begins

  • Spring 2024: Monday, January 8
  • Fall 2023: Monday, August 21

Degree Awarded

Master of Arts
in Music

WSU College

College of Arts and Sciences

Enhance Your Skills, Energize Your Career

WSU’s Master of Arts in Music program, offered completely online, is designed to provide music professionals and educators a convenient and effective way to expand their musical knowledge and develop their careers. This flexible, 100%-online degree is ideal for music educators seeking to enhance their skills and credentials while continuing to work in their teaching positions. It is also an excellent choice for aspiring music teachers and those who work—or wish to work—in the music industry as composers, arrangers, or producers.

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What You’ll Learn

Whether you have yet to begin working in the music field or are a seasoned professional, this degree will advance and invigorate your career. The program starts with a core curriculum designed to teach critical and musical thinking, symbolic reasoning, communication skills, practical musical abilities, and cultural diversity. Students choose elective courses based on their interests and professional goals.

Students may choose to focus their learning experience into one of three emphases:

  • Music Education: Provides advanced studies for prospective or current music educators.
  • Composition: Prepares students to pursue careers as composers and arrangers of concert, film, and game media, to teach composition in private or classroom settings, or to pursue doctoral work in music composition.
  • Jazz: Focuses on one or more aspects of jazz, including composition, arranging, pedagogy, or history, in preparation for careers in jazz.

Choosing an emphasis is not required to complete the degree.

WSU Music Program Strengths

  • At WSU, the music faculty is a dedicated community of award-winning teachers, performers, and composers. They are nationally recognized figures in their respective fields. Faculty members have extensive and diverse professional experience as educators, composers, recording artists/engineers, and arts administrators. Many have received accolades for their excellence in teaching and creative activity.
  • Graduate students from the WSU School of Music teach at major universities, community colleges, and public schools. Students have continued their postgraduate work at other prestigious music programs around the country and have achieved success in the music industry as performers, teachers, conductors, composers, arrangers, arts administrators, and sound engineers.
Graphic: Crimson and black duotone of Brian Hall clocktower in background, with white treble clef in foreground, and white text Be a Musician. Be a Leader. Be a Coug. School of Music Washington State University.

Get Started: Application Process

If you have questions about the degree, please contact Graduate Program Coordinator Dr. Chris Dickey at chris.dickey@wsu.edu.

  • A prospective online Music MA student must have earned (or is in the process of earning) a baccalaureate degree in music from an accredited college or university.
  • The applicant must have a current or final overall GPA of at least 3.0, a current or final GPA of 3.0 in all music coursework, and a current or final GPA of at least 3.0 in both Music History and Music Theory combined, including aural skills.

Prospective students must fill out an online application that will be submitted directly to the Graduate School. The Graduate School will share this information on to the School of Music. As part of the online application, graduate student applicants supply:

  • Official or unofficial transcripts
  • Names and email contact information for three references, who are contacted electronically for letters by the Graduate School
  • Written Statement of Purpose, at least three paragraphs long, explaining their professional goals and how graduate study will assist them. They may also discuss any aspects of their life that may not be apparent on their application or transcripts but of which they would like the faculty to be made aware.

In addition to the online application, applicants submit these items directly to Graduate Coordinator Dr. Chris Dickey (chris.dickey@wsu.edu):

  • Link to an audition recording, which must be an unedited recording of a performance or recording session that took place in the past 12 months
  • Music Education emphasis applicants submit a Teaching Philosophy Statement. In this statement, you outline why you want to teach, what you want to teach, and how you want to teach. For the section on how you want to teach, you must reference specific examples of educational methods.
  • Composition emphasis applicants submit scores and recordings of recent compositions.
  • Jazz composition emphasis applicants submit scores of original compositions and/or arrangements

Entering graduate students take diagnostic placement examinations in theory (including aural skills) and music history prior to enrolling in classes. These examinations help plan the student’s course of study, including remedying deficiencies.

If a student is deficient in music theory or music history, that student may not enroll in 500-level music theory or music history courses until that deficiency is remedied. Study guides are available on the School of Music graduate studies page.

Program of Study—30 semester credits

All courses are available online.

18 credits

  • MUS 560 – Introduction to Graduate Studies in Music (2 credits)
  • MUS 553 – Seminar in Music Theory (2 credits)
  • MUS 550 – Seminar in Analysis (2 credits)
  • MUS 561 – Seminar in Literature of 20th Century Music (2 credits)
  • MUS 566 – Seminar in Music History: Baroque (2 credits)
  • 500-level Performance Studies (4 credits)
  • MUS 700/702 – Thesis or Special Project (4 credits; the final 2 credits must be taken in the semester in which the student takes the final oral exam)

12 credits minimum

  • MUS 500-level – Composition, Jazz Composition, Jazz Arranging
  • MUS 500-level – Conducting Studies
  • MUS 596 – Topics in Music (6 credits allowed, must be arranged with specific instructors)
  • MUS 362 – History of Jazz (3 credits)
  • MUS 363 – Women in Music (3 credits)
  • Online courses for 500-level credits not within the School of Music pertinent to the student’s musical goals.

Teaching and learning (T & L) courses are not available to graduate students in this program without separate application to the WSU College of Education.

12 credits minimum

The Thesis option allows an additional 5 credits of MUS 700, which is included in the 30 required credits. The final 2 credits must be taken in the semester in which the student takes the final oral exam.

  • MUS 500-level – Composition, Jazz Composition, Jazz Arranging
  • MUS 500-level – Conducting Studies
  • MUS 596 – Topics in Music (6 credits allowed, must be arranged with specific instructors)
  • MUS 362 – History of Jazz (3 credits)
  • MUS 363 – Women in Music (3 credits)
  • Online courses for 500-level credits not within the School of Music pertinent to the student’s musical goals.

Teaching and learning (T & L) courses are not available to graduate students in this program without separate application to the WSU College of Education.