B.M. in Studio Music and Jazz Voice

Dept Code: MSJ

The vocal curriculum in Studio Music and Jazz is designed for interested and qualified vocalists who desire to continue to develop to the highest degree their backgrounds and skills in the performance of studio music (recording), jazz, and contemporary pop music. Admission to this major pre-supposes music training in jazz.

Advanced Writing and Communication Skills

Courses

All students are required to successfully complete 3 Advanced Writing and Communication Skills (AWC) courses. Student degree requirements will include courses that meet the desired communication outcomes in evaluated and revised writing, speaking, stage presence, and audience engagement.

All Studio Jazz Vocal students will successfully complete:

1. MCY 141 Musical Trends and Traditions, which will include substantial evaluated and revised writing components.

2. MSJ VO3 Private Lesson Senior Recital, which will include evaluated communication skills in attracting an audience, engaging an audience during performance, and preparing program notes or similar media as appropriate to the medium/venue.

3. MSJ 213 Analysis & Evolution of Jazz Styles II, which will include discipline specific communication skills.

Assessment

There will be at least 2 specific assessments in each Advanced Communications Skills course for communications or writing equivalent to 4000 words, evaluated and revised.

Curriculum Requirements

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EMC core courses require a grade of “C” or higher.  Lessons require a grade of "B-" or higher.

Suggested Plan of Study

Mission

The mission of the Studio Music and Jazz Performance Program is to:

• Prepare jazz instrumentalists to enter the music profession or graduate school.
• Identify, recruit, and retain high quality students who seek to pursue studio/jazz performance as a career.
• Foster faculty creativity and performance which serves as a role model for students.
• Develop, and revise courses in jazz improvisation, jazz arranging/composition and provide on and off campus performance opportunities.
• Produce in our on campus facility, recordings for the Down Beat Student Music Awards, compact disks, radio and Internet broadcast.
• Provide a platform of learning that includes performance, composition/arranging, technology, conducting, scholarship and production.

Goals

• Students will develop musical performance skills necessary to make them competitive in the jazz world.
• Students will develop performance skills in a variety of large and small ensembles that allow a student to participate in the professional jazz world.
• Students will develop the skills necessary to play in a chamber setting emphasizing spontaneous interaction and improvisation.
• Students will develop the skills necessary to play in large jazz ensembles emphasizing the development of ensemble skills necessary in a reading situation.
• Students will perform a senior recital of sixty-minute duration that demonstrates their capabilities in the jazz idiom.
• Students will develop the skills necessary to arrange and compose in a variety of styles appropriate to the jazz and contemporary music field.

Student Learning Outcomes

• Jazz Vocal students will demonstrate an exceptional level of fluidity, fluency and facility in their vocal technique by the time they graduate.
• Jazz Vocal students will demonstrate an exceptional level in their improvisational structure by indicating the harmonic scheme, phrasing of melodic musical statement and creative use of compositional and stylistic components.
• Jazz Vocal students will demonstrate an exceptional level in their interpretation of jazz literature. Interpretation will be appropriate, relevant, and complimentary beyond the expectations of the musical task.