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Graduate Certificate in Jazz Studies

The Graduate Certificate in Jazz Studies is a one-year program that provides opportunities for continued development of skills in jazz-specific areas, such as improvisation, pedagogy, and arranging. The certificate is available to degree-seeking and non-degree seeking students alike, non-music as well as music majors, and is designed as an intensive into jazz performance. The program will deepen the student’s preparation for a career in jazz performance or prepare the student for further study in jazz.

Prerequisites

Entrance into the Graduate Certificate program requires a live audition, though video-recorded auditions will be acceptable in rare cases, by permission of the Director of Jazz Studies. Entrance into the program also requires completion of a Bachelor of Music degree (or demonstrated equivalent), with a GPA of 3.0 in the last 60 credit hours. In the event that a candidate does not meet the required prerequisites for a specific curriculum, appropriate course(s) may be added as additional requirements.

Course Requirements

Music 7210: Advanced Jazz Harmony and Arranging I (2 credits)
Music 7211: Advanced Jazz Harmony and Arranging II (2 credits)
Music 7645: Graduate Jazz Improvisation (2 credits)           
Music 7317: Historical Studies in Jazz and Popular Music (3 credits)           
Music 8841/46: Jazz Band/Combo (2 credits)
Studio Instruction (7345/7455) or additional credits in Ensembles (8841/46) (2 credits)
Total: 13

In addition, Certificate applicants must demonstrate basic jazz keyboard proficiency to the Director of Jazz Studies. If insufficient, Music 1620, Jazz Piano Class, will be added as a required, remedial course (not for graduate credit).

Audition Requirements

Instrumentalists (other than drummers):

  • Prepare one jazz standard and one blues in the key of your choice, improvising on each piece.
  • Provide your own accompaniment (Aebersold or other play-along CD).

Drummers:

  • Perform the following grooves at the prescribed tempos:
    • Swing at 120 bpm
    • Double-Time Swing at 240 bpm
    • Bossa Nova at 100 bpm
    • Samba (double-time bossa nova) at 100 bpm (half-note)
    • Funk/Hiphop at 100 bpm
    • Ballad (with brushes) at 80 bpm
    • Alternating four (4) measures swing with four (4) measures solo at 120 bpm

Vocalists:

  • Prepare one medium up-tempo jazz standard and one ballad, no more than one chorus of each.
  • Provide your own piano accompaniment (Aebersold or other play-along CD).

In addition, all students interested in the Graduate Certificate will be required to take a written jazz theory exam. The exams are scheduled the first week of classes each semester.

Standards are generally defined as songs from the “Great American Songbook” (composers like Gershwin, Kern, Porter, Rodgers, Hart, et al.). The definition of ‘standard’ has expanded to include famous jazz pieces written and performed by jazz artists like Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, and others.

Standards may include, but are not limited to the following tunes. You may select any tune you wish that qualifies as a jazz standard based on the definition above:

  • All the Things You Are
  • Blue Bossa
  • All Blues
  • There Will Never Be Another You
  • A Foggy Day
  • Have You Met Miss Jones
  • Summertime
  • On Green Dolphin Street
  • Just Friends
  • Stella by Starlight
  • There is No Greater Love
  • The Song Is You

Applying

Non-degree-seeking students, in addition to the audition, should submit an online application to the MU Graduate School.  Click here for more information.

Degree-seeking students do not have to complete a separate application but should make their intentions to pursue the Graduate Certificate known to the Associate Director of the School of Music and the Director of Jazz Studies as soon as possible.

For more detailed information, or to schedule an audition, contact the Director of Jazz Studies, Dr. Arthur White at whitear@missouri.edu or 573-882-3430.