90%
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Top 15
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31st
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Overview
This four-year BMus (Hons) Jazz Performance degree will develop your practical performance and theoretical knowledge.
The first three years of the course develop your skills and explore 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 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 guests including Jason Rebello, Sue McCreeth and Simon Purcell.
- Perform in ensemble work.
- Receive high quality one-to-one tuition in an internationally renowned teaching faculty.
- Explore contextual modules including Jazz Repertoire, Jazz Theory, Jazz History and Postmodern Jazz.
Our mission
Jazz Studies 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 Music 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.
Becky Wolff
Teaching and Assessment
How you will learn
You will study through 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.
You will be assessed through a range of assignments including essays, exams, exhibitions, performance and practical work, project work, presentations and seminar discussions.
Saara Sofia Paakko
The Course
What you will study
You will study a selection of core and optional modules in each year. Each module is worth a number of credits and is delivered differently, depending on its content and focus of study.
Modules
Select a year
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 and 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.
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 and 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 1960s, 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 foregrounded 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.
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 and 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 ’50s 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.
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.
Facilities
Use industry-standard spaces and equipment
Chapel
Perform in our on-site Chapel, an acoustically superb performance venue which is a fantastic venue for performances and rehearsals.
Learning Resource Centre
The Learning Resource Centre (LRC) contains the library, a café, IT/teaching rooms and the Support and Information Zone (SIZ).
Library
Our campus library holds more than 200,000 books and over 500,000 eBooks.
Lecturers
Learn from experienced performers, musicians and tutors
You will be taught by a core team of experienced and highly 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. We have around 140 professional tutors who visit campus regularly throughout the semester to deliver our practical and contextual modules. You will be supported by your one-to-one tutor and your module tutors, as well as your Academic Advisor.
Study Abroad
Explore the opportunity to study part of your course abroad
As a student at the University of Chichester, you can explore opportunities to study abroad during your studies to enrich your educational experiences.
It’s a chance to broaden your horizons, a great opportunity to meet new people, undertake further travelling and to immerse yourself within a new culture.
You will be fully supported throughout the process to help find the right destination and institution for you and your course. We can take you through everything that you will need to consider, from visas to financial support, to ensure you get the best out of your time studying abroad.
Careers
Where you could go after your studies
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.
University of Chichester alumni who have completed a full undergraduate degree at the University will receive a 15% discount on their postgraduate fees.
Course Costs
Course Fees 2025/26
UK fee
International fee
EU/EEA Fee Reduction Scholarship
EU/EEA students automatically pay the equivalent of UK fees via the EU/EEA Fee Reduction Scholarship
For further details about fees, please see our Tuition Fees page.
For further details about international scholarships, please see our Scholarships page.
To find out about any additional costs on this course, please see our Additional Costs page.
Scholarships may be available for selected instruments; please enquire with the Head of Music.
Entry Requirements
Typical offers (individual offers may vary):
UCAS
A Levels
BTEC
IB
IELTS
Auditions
You will need to demonstrate your ability in dance, acting and singing during your performance audition. If you have a high level of performance skills you may be considered for a lower academic offer.
Contextual offers
We believe everyone deserves an equal opportunity to pursue higher education, regardless of their background.
When we receive your application we consider your personal circumstances and the factors surrounding your achievements to see if you are eligible for a contextual offer. This is an offer with a reduced entry tariff – typically the equivalent of 16 fewer UCAS points (two A-level grades).
Find out more about our contextual offers.
Interviews and Auditions
Auditions and interviews usually run from January until March/April.
We aim to offer you a genuine dialogue during your application process. This gives you a sense of worth and achievement from the audition process itself; a sense of ownership for you during the process and, ultimately, is an opportunity for us to get a clear understanding of who you are, what you need and how we can best prepare you for your degree.
We judge you on your skills, your potential and your personality, not your background.
If you are invited to audition you will receive an email asking you to book your audition date on ChiView. If you are unsuccessful we will email you to let you know.
You can usually choose between multiple days on ChiView at one time. If none of the current dates suit you please contact admissions@chi.ac.uk.
Once you have booked your audition, you will be able to access the audition guidance document on ChiView – just log into the ChiView portal, click on ‘Events schedule’ and then ‘View details’ to access the document, which will tell you how to prepare for your audition, what to expect on the day, etc.
If your situation changes and you can no longer attend your audition date, you should cancel your booking in ChiView by visiting your ‘Event Schedule’ and clicking ‘Cancel Attendance’. You also need to inform the admissions team by emailing admissions@chi.ac.uk, so we can send you a new audition invitation.
Sometimes if you are viewing your ChiView portal on a phone you will not be able to see the page correctly. If this happens you should try again on another device.
You may need to clear your browser history.
If you are still unable to see the ‘View details’ button, please check that you have successfully booked your audition by clicking ‘respond to interview invitation’.
If all else fails please email admissions@chi.ac.uk with your query and applicant number.
Once you have booked your audition, please log into the ChiView portal, click on ‘Events schedule’ and then ‘View details’ to access the audition guidance document, which will tell you (amongst other things) what will happen at the audition itself, a basic itinerary of the whole day, parking information, etc.
In brief, there should be an introductory talk by the department, the chance to meet lecturers and other applicants, as well as your opportunity to perform for the audition panel.
After your audition, the panel will discuss your performance and pass our decision onto the admissions team, who will update UCAS and email you with the outcome, whatever it might be.
- We make bespoke offers: Your offer is specifically for you. If we offer less than your predicted grades, this will reflect the potential and quality of your audition and we’d like to take a bit of pressure off of you heading into your exams.
- We don’t do unconditional offers: Unless you already have your grades (you are a mature student), we will always insist on certain grade achievements because we want you to succeed in all aspects of your academic life including your A levels, BTEC, etc.
- If you do not get the grades you wanted: Don’t panic. You received an offer because you were good enough for the department at audition. On Results Day, just ring us on the clearing hotline, so we can discuss things with you.
- We may offer you a different course: We may offer you a place on an alternative, relevant course within the department, rather than offer you the course you applied for. If this is the case, we will state this in your offer letter/email and update your course on UCAS. We will explain our reasoning, which will revolve around placing you on the most appropriate course where we think you will thrive.
Charlie
FAQs
Frequently asked questions
Click the ‘Apply now’ button to go to relevant UCAS page.
Many qualifications have a UCAS Tariff value. The score depends on the qualification, and the grade you achieved.
Head to the UCAS Tariff Points web page where you can find a tariff points calculator that can tell you how much your qualification and grades are worth.