BMus (Hons) Jazz Performance

Performance Development

You will work one-on-one with a vocal or instrumental specialist to assess your current repertoire and begin an exploration of new work.

This module provides an overview of skills particular to your individual vocal or instrumental style, and you will explore different approaches to performance.

Ensemble

You will explore a musical style in your practical work and build confidence in your approach to chamber music and other relevant ensemble styles. You will learn to work as a team in presenting and preparing a performance under the direction of a specialist ensemble coach.

Personal Development

You will be introduced to a range of strategies designed to offer support to the emerging arts practitioner, including models of successful self-development.

This module will help you develop self-awareness in your strengths and weaknesses, and will include workshops on a variety of tools, such as mindfulness, managing stress, nutrition, setting achievable goals, employability and careers, yoga, tai chi and vocal health.

Masterclass

This module develops your basic performance and communication skills and your sense of performance context. You will develop your repertoire, your understanding of style and your skills in preparing for an audition or performance.

You will take part in group performance classes as well as individual tutorials to develop your work, as well as your skills in forming critical judgements of performance.

Jazz Theory and Repertoire

You will explore key figures in jazz history, from the 1920s through to more contemporary composers in the jazz tradition.

This module will introduce you to the basic aspects of jazz theory with a view towards developing improvisation, composition and arranging skills.

Ensemble 2

As in year one, this module allows you to explore your potential as a team player in performance. You are encouraged to explore the commercial potential for your performing ensemble, and longer-term planning and repertoire-building strategies will be emphasised in rehearsals and coaching sessions.

Masterclass 2

This module is intended to extend performance and communication skills and to further enhance a sense of performance context. You will continue to develop your current repertoire as a singer or instrumentalist, your understanding of style, and your skill in preparing for an audition or performance.

The importance of communicative performance and of an actively engaging relationship with the listener will be emphasised in group performance classes, and a good standard of critical self-reflection will be encouraged in preparing you for the assessment task.

Performance Development 2

In this module you will develop an exploration of musical style in practical work and be encouraged to approach new and more ambitious repertoires.

A more sophisticated relationship to presenting performance and to preparing for audition will be encouraged, while you work under the direction of an individual vocal or instrumental-specialist teacher.

You will be emboldened to take risks in selecting material for study and to question previously held assumptions about the limits of your capacity to achieve as performers.

Roots of Jazz to Modern Jazz

Previous jazz experience is needed to take this module.

This module will explore the roots of jazz, primarily focusing on the development of jazz between 1890 and 1930 and critically analysing the social, political and cultural context in New Orleans.

The module will also examine the music and musicians that helped to create jazz and will consider the relevance of early jazz with regards to contemporary jazz education and performance.

The focus of study will go on to explore important developments in jazz from its birth in New Orleans to the present day. By examining the history of jazz’s inception through to the current developments, you will gain a broad understanding of the major styles and the particular innovators in the field.

Languages

You will develop your knowledge of a variety of repertoire in the three main languages being studied, with weekly lectures in French, Italian and German.

You will be exposed to essential language skills and pronunciation for song and opera, and enhance your understanding and practical skills in addressing the challenges in working within different musical styles and languages.

Music Performance Practice 2

This module will be delivered in workshop/masterclass style sessions, which balance theoretical and practical concepts, addressing aspects associated with the craft of expressive music performance, including the development of expressive facility, the art of responsiveness, using artistic performance devices and developing rapport with an audience.

Working in a complementary way to the performance development in your first year, this module allows you to focus on your expressive palette by deconstructing the concept of expressive performance into a variety of component parts.

You will be guided to consider acoustic and non-acoustic variables such as phrasing, articulation, dynamic range, tonal quality, and use of pace and gesture, in order to most effectively utilise your growing technical and musical facility.

Professional Resilience 2

A successful career as a performance professional needs to be informed, alongside artistic and communication skills, by an understanding of the nature of personal strengths and weaknesses.

This module will seek to develop this self-awareness and to encourage a confident approach to the world beyond university, enabling a tailored combination of learning and practice approaches which encourages an awareness of individual character and circumstances.

Self-Employment and Promotion

This module will explore the local and national marketplace for instrumental, vocal or dance teaching, as well as music and musical theatre performance and acting. It will introduce you to a number of different models of successful positioning within it.

A successful career as a professional needs to be informed, alongside performance and communication skills, by an understanding of the nature of self-employment in business, as well as the skills needed to become employed. This module will seek to develop this, and to encourage a confident approach to the world beyond university, enabling a tailored financial, business and career planning which encourages an awareness of local markets and circumstances.

Second Study

The second year of study is intended to develop an exploration of musical style in practical work and to encourage a willingness to approach new and more ambitious repertoires. A more sophisticated relationship to presenting performance and to preparing for an audition will be encouraged, and you will undertake this work under the direction of an individual vocal or instrumental specialist teacher.

Performance Development 3

This module allows you to risk more ambitious personal development in performance without being required to produce work that is entirely polished and finished for assessment, although progressively higher levels of polish will be encouraged as you move towards graduate-level assessment challenges.

Repertoire building and a variety of performance contexts are discussed, leading to a clearer view of the possible achievement outcomes for each individual. Longer-term planning and practice preparation strategies will be emphasised in individual lessons.

Ensemble 3

In this module, you will work towards more polished and professional standards in group performance and presentation, and will seek to add to your experience in performing independently off campus.

This module aims to consolidate existing repertoire and to foreground strengths within the group’s overall repertoire. You will undertake this work under the direction of a specialist ensemble coach, as well as taking part in hosting the department’s programme of performance events.

Masterclass 3

This module explores issues of style and technique relevant to your specialist performance context. As you continue to develop your first study repertoire as singers or instrumentalists, yourunderstanding of style, and your skill in preparing for audition or performance are supported through peer observation and learning in the masterclass environment.

The importance of communicative performance and of an actively engaging relationship with the listener will be emphasised in group performance classes, and a good standard of critical self- reflection will be encouraged in preparing you for the assessment task.

Jazz Arranging and Postmodernism

Previous jazz experience is needed to take this module.

This module will develop key skills in rearranging standards from the jazz canon. You will look at a number of specific techniques on how to re-create jazz standards in a stylistically inventive manner. The module also allows you to build on your skills to develop a more personalised sound and style within jazz.

You will debate whether Jazz is a style or a process, and be introduced to a variety of models, both practical and theoretical, to recent developments in jazz up to the present day. By exploring the work of such artists as Anthony Braxton and Weather Report, and critical frameworks such as Foucault and Lyotard, Jazz, in this context, will be redefined as a ‘process’, albeit still rooted in a tradition.

You will examine jazz as a form of social transformation, jazz from a postmodern perspective, jazz and issues of gender and jazz as a global phenomenon alongside other related subjects. You will be encouraged to examine and work with the ‘jazz process’, which can be traced back to the very first inception of jazz in New Orleans.

Music Performance Practice 3

Practice is an activity that consumes most of the time you spend playing or singing, and usually, there is a target or goal associated with the practice activity.

This module is about how we should practise, what we are trying to achieve by practising, and, through more useful and intelligent practice, how to achieve each goal as it comes along.

You will explore how we feel about the music we’re performing, or planning to be able to perform, and how we feel about the often competitive context set by our performance goals. You will learn that we can change how we feel about achieving our goals, and that most of this change will, inevitably, happen through the autodidactic process – through practice.

Professional Resilience 3

This module is designed to help you identify challenges in your journey towards becoming a trained professional, and to provide a variety of tuition and support opportunities for personal development.

You will explore a range of different strategies designed to offer support to the emerging arts practitioner and will be introduced to a number of different models of successful self-development.

A successful career as a performance professional needs to be informed, alongside artistic and communication skills, by an understanding of the nature of personal strengths and weaknesses. This module will seek to develop this self-awareness and to encourage a confident approach to the world beyond university.

Business Project

This module will explore examples of business projects in commercial and publicly funded arts. You will also look at the different marketing models and explore an overview of the evolving social and political cultures which have influenced the arts over the last 40 years.

Building on your experience so far, you will be expected to experiment with different approaches to your own marketing and general business strategies to extend your imaginative range within the individual projects.

One to One and Group Teaching

This module will introduce a range of techniques in structuring lessons, communicating expressive, musical concepts and problem-solving designed to create an exciting and stimulating learning experience for individual learners embarking on the early stages of study.

You will engage in workshop activity designed to explore the potential of strategies and materials that could be used in group teaching contexts, reflecting on relationships between this activity and individual learning.

A student-written and arranged piece played for a varied ensemble made of your peers, alongside additional workshop activity, will provide hands-on experience in gauging a musical level and managing a group.

Languages

You will develop your knowledge of a variety of repertoire in the three main languages being studied, with weekly lectures in French, Italian and German.

You will be exposed to essential language skills and pronunciation for song and opera, and enhance your understanding and practical skills in addressing the challenges in working within different musical styles and languages.

Second Study 2

This module allows you to risk more ambitious personal development in performance without being required to produce work that is entirely polished and finished for assessment, although progressively higher levels of polish will be encouraged as you move towards graduate-level assessment challenges.

Repertoire building and a variety of different performance contexts are discussed, leading to a clearer view of the achievement outcomes that are possible for each individual. Longer-term planning and practice preparation strategies will be emphasised in individual lessons.

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:

1. the achievement of technical and expressive maturity
2. the identification of a demonstrably appropriate repertoire or a mix of repertoire which is able to foreground individual strengths
3. the acquisition and consolidation of strong performance and communication skills.

Ensemble 4

At the graduate level, six students will seek to achieve polished and professional standards in group performance and presentation, and will consolidate their experience in performing independently off campus.

This module aims to confirm existing repertoire(s) and to foreground strengths within the group’s overall repertoire. You will undertake this work under the direction of a specialist ensemble coach.

During this module, you will also take part in hosting the department’s programme of performance events.

Masterclass 4

This module seeks to consolidate issues of style and technique particular to your specialist performance context. As you continue to develop your current first study repertoire as singers or instrumentalists, your understanding of style, and your skill in preparing for audition or performance is intended to be supported through peer observation and learning in the masterclass environment.

The importance of communicative performance and of an actively engaging relationship with the listener will be emphasised in group performance classes, and a good standard of critical self- reflection will be encouraged in preparing you for the assessment task. You will discuss aspects of performance practice relevant to your individual instrument or voice, and develop your skills in the formation of critical judgements of performance.

Second Study 3

As in the previous years of study, this module allows you to risk more ambitious personal development in performance without being required to produce work that is entirely polished and finished for assessment, although progressively higher levels of polish will be encouraged as you move towards graduate-level assessment challenges.

Repertoire building and a variety of different performance contexts are discussed, leading to a clearer view of the achievement outcomes that are possible for each individual. Longer-term planning and practice preparation strategies will be emphasised in individual lessons.

Personal Development 4

This module is designed to provide tuition and advice to help you identify challenges in your journey towards becoming a trained professional, and to provide a variety of tuition and support opportunities for personal development.

You will explore a range of different strategies designed to offer support to the emerging arts practitioner and will be introduced to a number of different models of successful self-development.

Languages 4

You will continue to consolidate your knowledge of a variety of repertoire in the three main languages being studied. You will work to build confidence in assessing the qualities that are looked for in shaping vocal tone, as you further explore personal repertoires.