Jazz music theory

Programme content

Jazz Theory provides you with a practical and competent theoretical foundation to underpin your artistic and pedagogical development as a jazz musician with sound technical knowledge.

You will learn a wide range of analytical tools that will enable you to understand, apply and hear different harmonic structures and relationships. A deeper understanding of functional harmony, scale and chord theory, and the interplay of tension and relaxation in music will enhance the quality of your overall musical creativity, both in improvisation and composition. You will develop advanced listening skills and be able to identify and apply complex rhythms. You will also learn various compositional techniques, the range and transposition of the instrumental groups relevant to jazz, and be able to independently create arrangements from lead sheets or your own compositions.

You will also gain a detailed overview of the development of jazz history, be able to place periods and protagonists in a historical context and acquire basic techniques of musicological work. You can then develop and deepen your skills and knowledge in a range of optional subjects. In this way, you will also be prepared in theory in a very practical way and in the best possible way for today's diverse development opportunities for improvising musicians.