BMus (Hons) Jazz Performance

Program Overview

This 4-year BMus (Hons) Jazz Performance degree at the University of Chichester develops practical performance and theoretical knowledge in jazz music. Students will explore the history, repertoire, and theory of jazz, and develop their skills through one-on-one tuition, ensemble work, and regular jazz nights. The program culminates in an extended recital in the final year, showcasing students' technical and expressive maturity.

Program Outline

Degree Overview:

This 4-year BMus (Hons) Jazz Performance degree will develop your practical performance and theoretical knowledge. The first three years of the course develops your skills and explores the context of jazz music. Your final year will focus exclusively on performance and includes an extended recital. You will join the jazz community and attend weekly jazz workshops, with regular jazz nights available on campus. The course encourages you to develop an appreciation of jazz as music of diversity, inclusivity and creativity, and as a collaborative community art form. On this course you will: Have the opportunity to attend regular concerts. Hear from guest artist masterclasses, with recent masterclasses including Jason Rebello, Sue McCreeth and Simon Purcell. Perform in ensemble work. Receive high quality one-one tuition in an internationally renowned teaching faculty. Jazz Studies within the Music Subject Area at the University of Chichester aims to provide students with high quality tuition combined with an exciting and enjoyable educational journey that challenges the individual through practical and theoretical skills. All students within the department have opportunities to become part of the jazz community, whether they are jazz musicians or not, and the curriculum encourages students to develop an appreciation of jazz as music of diversity, inclusivity and creativity. These values underpin the ethos of the teaching and are embedded within the curriculum so our students, who will inherit this growing tradition, foster a lifelong learning attitude to any creative endeavour and can appreciate jazz as a collaborative community art form.

Outline:

Year One

• First Study: You will work on your technical development and expressive facility in performance in a bespoke way with regular one to one tuition.
We pride ourselves in helping you to form an excellent working relationship with your one to one tutor, which will enable you to identify areas for development, understand your specialist discipline with mindful awareness.
• Ensemble: You will produce a professional standard performance, demonstrating confidence within your chosen repertoire(s) and technical and expressive maturity.
You will need an appropriate balance in programming and the ability to lean towards either a supporting or leadership role and develop your skills in hosting events and presenting the work to others.
• Introduction to Jazz Theory: Jazz theory is an important part of the overall development and toolbox of the developing jazz musician.
This module will explore harmony, melody and rhythmic aspects of jazz theory and will seek to demonstrate through group analysis, how these components can be applied to standard jazz repertoire.
• Jazz Repertoire: This module will explore a different composer and selected compositions each week.
You will analyse selected work both theoretically and contextually and examine different versions and arrangements of the piece.
• Second Study: This particular programme includes a flexible second study option, which can be chosen in order to enhance your skillset in a bespoke way.

Year Two

• First Study: You will work on your technical development and expressive facility in performance in a bespoke way with regular one to one tuition.
We pride ourselves in helping you to form an excellent working relationship with your one to one tutor, which will enable you to identify areas for development, understand your specialist discipline with mindful awareness.
• Ensemble: You will produce a professional standard performance, demonstrating confidence within your chosen repertoire(s) and technical and expressive maturity.
You will need an appropriate balance in programming and the ability to lean towards either a supporting or leadership role and develop your skills in hosting events and presenting the work to others.
• The Roots of Jazz: You will explore the roots of jazz and focus on the development of jazz between 1890 and 1930 as you critically analyse the social, political and cultural context in New Orleans.
• History of Modern Jazz: This module will look at jazz from two perspectives.
Initially, the module will look at the history of jazz, starting with its birth in New Orleans and examining its stylistic developments concentrating on a number of key figures and movements in its evolution up to present day. However by the 1960’s, the free jazz movement began to blur the boundaries and definitions of what jazz is. Therefore, this module will also address the issue of the process that jazz has fore grounded as an evolving art form which constantly borrows from other musical influences to create ever-renewing hybrid forms of music. In looking at these two perspectives, the answer to the question ‘what is jazz?’ will be clarified alongside an appreciation for its rich and varied musical legacy.
• Masterclass: This module continues to develop your performance and communication skills and your sense of performance context.
You will develop your repertoire, your understanding of style and your skill in preparing for audition or performance.
• Second Study: This particular programme includes a flexible second study option, which can be chosen in order to enhance your skillset in a bespoke way.
• Professional Resilience: This module will explore a range of different strategies designed to offer support to the emerging arts practitioner and will introduce students to a number of different models of successful self-development.

Year Three

• First Study: You will work on your technical development and expressive facility in performance in a bespoke way with regular one to one tuition.
We pride ourselves in helping you to form an excellent working relationship with your one to one tutor, which will enable you to identify areas for development, understand your specialist discipline with mindful awareness.
• Ensemble: You will produce a professional standard performance, demonstrating confidence within your chosen repertoire(s) and technical and expressive maturity.
You will need an appropriate balance in programming and the ability to lean towards either a supporting or leadership role and develop your skills in hosting events and presenting the work to others.
• Arranging for Jazz: You will develop your ability to take standard repertoire from the jazz canon and rearrange it into your own personal vision, which is a key skill within the jazz domain.
You will develop a personal repertoire of arrangements and compositions to prepare you to secure gigs in the future.
• Post Modern Jazz: You will seek to find answers in a postmodern jazz world and ask if the intrinsic identity of jazz has been lost and where it can go from here.
You will gain an understanding of its evolution since Coltrane by listening, playing, and analysing jazz from the 50’s to the present day.
• Second Study: This particular programme includes a flexible second study option, which can be chosen in order to enhance your skillset in a bespoke way.
• Professional Resilience: This module will explore a range of different strategies designed to offer support to the emerging arts practitioner and will introduce students to a number of different models of successful self-development.
• Masterclass: This module develops your advanced performance and communication skills and your sense of performance context.
You will develop your repertoire, your understanding of style and your skill in preparing for audition or performance.

Year Four

• Recital: This module’s content will depend on the choice of performed material of the individual students, but will focus on three main areas of personal development:
the achievement of technical and expressive maturity the identification of a demonstrably appropriate repertoire or a mix of repertoire which is able to foreground individual strengths the acquisition and consolidation of strong performance and communication skills.
• Ensemble: You will produce a professional standard performance, demonstrating confidence within your chosen repertoire(s) and technical and expressive maturity.
You will need an appropriate balance in programming and the ability to lean towards either a supporting or leadership role and develop your skills in hosting events and presenting the work to others.
• Second Study: This particular programme includes a flexible second study option, which can be chosen in order to enhance your skillset in a bespoke way.
• Professional Resilience: This module will explore a range of different strategies designed to offer support to the emerging arts practitioner and will introduce students to a number of different models of successful self-development.
• Masterclass: This module develops your advanced performance and communication skills and your sense of performance context.
You will develop your repertoire, your understanding of style and your skill in preparing for audition or performance.

Assessment:

You will be assessed through a range of assignments including essays, exams, exhibitions, performance and practical work, project work, presentations and seminar discussions.

Teaching:

You will study using lecturers, seminars, practical classes and workshops. You will learn from a core team of experienced and qualified tutors alongside a wide-ranging team of more than 60 specialist instrumental and vocal teachers. As well as supporting student development and the student experience our staff are active, practicing professional musicians and researchers who regularly perform and record. You will be supported by your one-to-one tutor and your module tutors, as well as your Academic Advisor.

Careers:

This BMus (Hons) Music (or BA) with Jazz Studies degree will prepare you for a range of careers after you graduate. You will have the opportunity to develop a variety of transferable skills and specific subject knowledge to prepare you for life after university. Past music graduates have secured various roles in jazz performance, including: Gigs and functions Cruise musicians Performing their own music at jazz clubs, concerts and festivals Teachers at all levels of education Music arrangers Setting up their own record label and online resources Group instrumentalists Further Study You could choose to continue your studies at postgraduate level. Study options at the University of Chichester include: MA Music Performance MA Music Teaching PGCE PhD/MPhil The course is highly practical with opportunities to perform in ensembles on campus and the local area, and take part in weekly jazz nights. Students who have undertaken this in the past have found it to be an amazing experience to broaden their horizons, a great opportunity to meet new people, undertake further travelling and to immerse themselves within a new culture. You will be fully supported throughout the process to help find the right destination institution for you and your course.