Pedagogy

All Music Styles

CLASS & JAZZ aims to avoid dividing music with too many labels and into too many styles. Music is music! The foundation of the programme does not oppose classical music to jazz/rock/pop. From the very start we opt for a global approach that enables the students to explore all the musical styles they are interested in during their initial training.

Later on, students will usually make a choice according to their inclinations and taste, as different styles require different approaches. Classical musicians need to develop a versatile instrumental technique and a good understanding of the written, pre-arranged music score. The training consists mainly of reading and performing the classical repertoire. Jazz, rock and pop musicians need to possess a thorough knowledge of scales and chords, oriented towards a more personalised technique, and towards composition, arrangement and improvisation. The approach includes the creative use of music theory while playing jazz, rock, pop and world music standards.

But it is a mistake to think that classical musicians can neglect music theory, and that conversely, jazz musicians can ignore instrumental technique and sight-reading.

All our teachers provide both approaches.

Integrated Music Theory

At CLASS & JAZZ the music theory is not a compulsory and distinct lesson. It is taught alongside instrument tuition in a “comprehensive” package. As all aspects are taught by the same teacher with the same perspective, students find it easier to develop a good insight into the way all aspects link together:

• Instrumental technique: coordination of eye, hand and ear
• Music theory: notes, rhythm, scales and chords, analysis
• Ear training: sight-reading and singing, musical dictation, playing by ear
• Musicality: interpretation, musical culture, development of one’s own musical personality

If needed or required, individual lessons are also flexible enough to concentrate on certain more specific aspects such as sight-reading, composition, improvisation, arrangement, jazz harmony, classical harmony … (see also aspects mentioned above)

Thanks to this comprehensive tuition, students need travel only once for an instrument lesson AND a music theory lesson.

Preparation for Higher Music Studies

We offer also specific courses to students who are preparing for an entrance examination into a music conservatoire, both in classical and jazz style.

These lessons are aimed at students who have benefited from musical tuition in a music academy alongside general, technical or professional schooling, and who do not yet feel secure enough to take the big step into a conservatoire.

Further Training for Professionals

A lot of good active professional musicians have been trained too unilaterally, often towards only one musical style, and are therefore constrained in their further musical evolution. They haven’t been taught how to play from sheet music, or how to play without sheet music but by ear, how to improvise, how to make a thorough analysis of the score for a better mastering and interpretation of the music, how to let the expressivity transcend the technique. CLASS & JAZZ offers them the opportunity to expand their knowledge so as to allow them to explore new musical horizons.