Bachelor of Music in Jazz Studies

The Bachelor of Music in Jazz Studies degree prepares students for careers as jazz professionals. Drawing upon the resources of the Chicago jazz scene, faculty members are highly celebrated performers, teachers, composers, and arrangers. The program is comprised of applied jazz lessons, jazz ensembles and combos, jazz improvisation, jazz theory and history, arranging and composition, and pedagogy. Learning Outcomes - Students will be able to: Perform with an acceptable tone quality, pitch and rhythmic accuracy, dynamic control, articulation, and expressiveness. Participate in a musical ensemble, with appropriate technique and musicality. Identify and analyze the elements of music in a given piece, including an understanding of its compositional processes, aesthetic properties, and artistic, social, and historical context. Identify significant composers and works in the Western music tradition, and trace the evolution of musical styles through the Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and Contemporary periods, as well as in jazz and select world music cultures. Hear, notate, analyze, and perform music through aural skills, sight-singing, and keyboard skills. Demonstrate basic conducting knowledge and skills for both instrumental and vocal settings. Develop an expanded global awareness and cultural understanding through musical study Describe basic information about health and safety within the contexts of practice, performing, teaching, and listening; topics will include hearing, vocal, and musculoskeletal health and injury prevention. Program Specific Outcomes- Perform and improvise on an instrument as a soloist or in an ensemble, with technical proficiency, e.g., tone production, intonation, articulation, technical facility, and rhythmic conception, and musicality at the level of an advanced student or higher. Read and sight-read music, with correct musical interpretation. Demonstrate an understanding of jazz theory and harmony; possess a vocabulary of jazz figures applicable to improvisation. Demonstrate growing maturity in musical concepts Demonstrate growing maturity in musical concepts - using tools of performance to create artistic products. Work independently by fulfilling weekly musical assignments in applicable courses, applied lessons, and ensembles. Teach jazz principles and techniques on one’s major instrument. Understand the historical context of music from significant periods of jazz history. Compose and arrange music for small and large jazz ensembles. Career Options: Arranging, Composing, Education, Music editing, Music production, Performance, Recording.