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Introduction

Aimed at jazz performers with outstanding potential, creative flair, and a hunger for musical adventure, the BMus (Hons) programme will prepare you for the diverse demands of the jazz profession.

Key Features

Whilst studying on the BMus (Hons) programme you will:

  • create music as a jazz instrumentalist/vocalist at a level that will prepare you to enter the profession on graduation
  • establish a secure artistic identity and develop a range of sophisticated professional skills
  • perform as a soloist, in small and large ensembles, to a diverse range of audiences
  • gain an understanding of the music profession and its audiences in contemporary society
  • develop collaborative, innovative and entrepreneurial skills
  • develop your communication skills to a professional level as an artist through your instrument/voice/compositions
  • engage audiences through informed discussion and written work

How to Apply

Course Details

By the end of four years of professional training, you will have an established individual musical identity underpinned by strong technique and musicianship. You will have developed keen awareness of a range of performing practices and traditions as required by the contemporary music profession. You will have the opportunity to develop supplementary musical skills and knowledge which will enhance your employability and support you in entering the career pathway of your choice. There is an emphasis on learning through practical activities in all elements of the programme.

The Jazz Singers’ Pathway enables singers to personalise their vocal study, allowing a degree of flexibility distinct from instrumentalists.

Course Structure:

Year of Study Credits  Weighting
 Year 1  120  Pass/Fail
 Year 2  120  10%
 Year 3  120  30%
 Year 4  120  60%

 

Modules:

Professional Studies 

This core module is offered throughout the four-year programme. One-to-one tuition is central, and Principal Study can be used flexibly depending upon the departmental syllabuses and student needs. Offered alongside this is an extensive array of departmental classes which provide supplementary knowledge and skills. Department-specific teaching skills are included in the second year of departmental classes. Provision for small and large group and ensemble performance also form part of this module.

Cross-departmental provision includes classes on informed performing practice, musicians’ health and well-being, movement for musicians and technology for learning.

Academic Studies

These core modules support the learning in Professional Studies through the provision of knowledge and skills that enable graduates to be thoughtful, informed and articulate musicians.

Students of the Jazz pathway will receive classes which deal with music history and context relating to jazz traditions, jazz harmony, composition, arrangement and rhythmic origins from other related traditions.

The Artist as…

In each year students receive classes that relate to the broader professional landscape. From the first year, students begin to develop the essential leadership skills required by the profession, and begin to explore and orientate their professional aspirations.

The second year focuses on teaching and community career opportunities, which have become a highly significant feature of today’s music profession. Alongside this students explore how repertoire can be presented creatively to potential audiences.

Entrepreneurialism and business skills are a central feature of the provision at year 3, and are essential navigational tools for the freelance musician.

The final year gives students the opportunity to explore their own musical aspirations, personality and domain through individualised project work, often in an external setting.

CoLab

CoLab is a unique module to Trinity Laban that you will take in each year of the programme. CoLab is an exceptional learning space in which you will be encouraged to take creative risks and explore the boundaries of your art form in collaboration with staff and students from both the Faculties of Dance and Music at Trinity Laban, other leading artists from across the artistic spectrum and many of our professional partner organisations. The range of projects is both extensive and eclectic including a wide-range of musical styles and genres, interdisciplinary work with dance, art and theatre and creative discipline specific options. Projects may be proposed and led by staff (internal and external) and students alike.

Find out more about CoLab.

Electives

Students may select one elective in each of years 3 and 4.

Please note: The folowing is an indicative list; not all electives will necessarily run every year.

If you have a query about electives please contact the programme leader: H.Koller@trinitylaban.ac.uk

Year 3

Options may include:

  • Analysis for Performance – Communicating Form
  • Arranging for Small Ensembles
  • Collaborative Composition for Performers
  • Conducting
  • Critical Popular Music
  • Digital Musicianship for Performers
  • Essential Performing Practice
  • Improvisation and Interpretation
  • Instrumental and Vocal Teaching
  • Introduction to Music Psychology
  • Neglected Repertoires: Taste, Formation and the Canon
  • Opera and Theatre

Year 4

Options may include:

  • Advanced Instrumental and Vocal Teaching
  • Advanced Conducting
  • Advanced Orchestration
  • Arranging for Large Ensembles
  • Capstone Project
  • Colab Creative Project
  • Composing for Media
  • Creative Leadership
  • Fourth Plinth
  • Music and Dance
  • Music, Gender and Sexuality
  • Cultural Perspectives on Music (Musicology)
  • Opera and Musical Theatre
  • Jazz Perspective on Counterpoint and Harmony

Students who take both Instrumental and Vocal Teaching electives are eligible to take the externally offered L.T.C.L. (offered by Trinity College London) at no cost.

 

 

Programme Specification

Teaching and Learning

Hours

The programme comprises approximately 4800 learning hours, and this will include both contact time and self-directed learning.

Contact time is defined as learning delivered by a member of Trinity Laban teaching staff, a visiting lecturer, practitioner or artist. Contact and self-study time is itemised in module descriptions.

Rehearsal and performance contact time will vary according to the instrumental discipline.

How will I learn?

The programme aims to enable you to develop independent learning strategies for lifelong learning.

Learning takes place through a combination of formal tuition, experiential learning and personal study. Instrumental/vocal tuition is the central element of provision consisting of individual tuition, group tuition, rehearsals, workshops, seminars and masterclasses. Visiting artists, ensemble directors and lecturers will expose you to a variety of views and approaches current within the profession. Most tuition in academic study is delivered in small groups where practical experience is blended with theoretical knowledge to develop musicianship, informed performers and employability skills. Large lectures are also given in some components such as the History and Context of Music, The Artist as Educator, and The Artist as Entrepreneur.

Jazz is fundamentally a collaborative music-making process. As well as developing your individual musicianship through one-to-one lessons, you will collaborate with your fellow musicians through playing in a range of ensembles and combos. Our staff, drawn from London’s exhilarating jazz scene, play and perform with students, replicating the feel of the wider jazz community.

Supporting classes include improvisation, jazz harmony, rhythm, jazz history, arranging and composition, as well as coaching, rhythm and horn sections. We celebrate the diverse global origins of jazz with opportunities to study African, Brazilian and Cuban music. These classes are practical and cover both established and emerging jazz genres and innovations.

CoLab is an integral element of performance studies and is a ring-fenced period of the academic year where students work together to create and develop creative projects and where artistic risks and innovation are encouraged.

View a list of Jazz Teaching Staff

How will I be assessed?

Assessment methods mirror professional contexts as far as possible. In Professional Studies, assessments include a combination of solo, chamber/small ensemble, large ensemble performance, and technical work. These will be supplemented by written/oral assignments that require critical reflection on a range of contextual matters (such as the wider profession, audience, or the concept of the informed performer).

Other modules including The Artist as Citizen, The Artist as Educator, The Artist as Entrepreneur, History in Context, Applied Musicianship and Electives feature a blend of written and practical assessments (including, but not exclusive to: arrangement, written essays, written exams, verbal presentations, composition, improvisation, and performance.) Some elective assessments will focus on employability skills and knowledge.

Attendance is assessed for some performance activities and CoLab.

Alumni Destinations

Our success in supporting students to develop their creative voices is reflected in the professional accomplishments of our graduates, who include many of London’s finest emerging jazz musicians.

Moses Boyd graduated in 2016. He won the MOBO Best Jazz Act in 2015 and 2017, and releases music under his own label Exodus Records.

Nubya Garcia graduated in 2016. She is a member of Nérija septet and she recently won 2018 Breakthrough Act of the Year at the Jazz FM Awards. Read about her journey on the Evening Standard website, and The Guardian.

Elliot Galvin graduated in 2014. He performs with many different ensembles including the Elliot Galvin Trio and Dinosaur. He released a critically acclaimed debut album ‘Dreamland’ in 2014 and was awarded European Young Jazz Musician of the Year 2014.

Laura Jurd graduated in 2013. She was a BBC New Generation Artist for 2015–17 and founded the Chaos Collective. She was awarded a 2015 Parlimentary Jazz Award for Jazz Instumentalist of the Year. Her Mercury-nominated band Dinosaur received a rare 5-star review in The Guardian and have extensively toured Europe.

Emilia Mårtensson graduated in 2007. She has released three albums and recently won Vocalist of the Year at the 2016 Parliamentary Jazz awards.

London five-piece, Ezra Collective, featuring four Trinity Laban alumni and one current student, have released two EP’s and toured them across the UK and Europe. Their second EP won Best Jazz Album at Giles Peterson’s Worldwide Awards 2018 and they were named Jazz Act of the Year in the 2018 JazzFM Awards.

Read more about recent graduates Moses Boyd, Nubya Garcia and Sheila Maurice-Grey: The British jazz explosion: meet the musicians rewriting the rulebook (The Guardian, April 2018)

To view the impressive organisations that our alumni have worked with, visit Alumni Destinations.

For more information on the successes of Trinity Laban Jazz graduates and what they have to say about the course, visit Alumni Profiles.

Entry Requirements

  • Grade 8 standard in Principal Study
  • 3 GCSEs (including English Language) at Grade C or above
  • Two A level passes (of which one should normally be Music) or Equivalent qualifications and/or relevant prior experience may be considered

Entry to the programme is dependent upon selection at audition. The audition comprises a performance / composition audition and a 20 minute musicianship test designed to test applicants’ aural skills and ability to produce a written response on a musical topic.

Audition Information

English Language Requirements: 

  • IELTS (General or Academic Training) minimum 5.5 in all four areas; or B2 First (Cambridge English) minimum 160 in all four areas; or Trinity College London – Integrated Skills in English level II or above.
  • If you require a Student visa to study in the UK you may require a Secure English Language Test (SELT). More information can be found at gov.uk

Please note that it is not possible to defer your place for jazz.

Fees and Finance

Undergraduate Fees

It is not possible to confirm fees for future academic years, as fee changes are linked to inflation and changes in government policy. Fees may increase by up to 5% each year.

Accommodation and Living Costs

This information can be found on our Accommodationand Costs of Living pages.

Financial Support

Read about financial awards and external funding opportunities in the Fees and Finance section.

Key Facts

UCAS 310F
Location King Charles Court
Duration 4 years (full time)
Start Date September 2023
Study in London Tower Bridge 622x468

Study with us in London

Find out what makes London such an exceptional place to be a student.

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What our students say

Tom Wright, Jazz Drums

Alumni Profile: Moses Boyd

Jazz Drums, BMus (Hons) / 2016

Read More