Jazz Studies Minor

Requirements for the minor in jazz studies

The department offers a minor in jazz studies that is open to both music majors and non-majors who have had prior music performance experience and wish to study jazz. Non-music majors who wish to pursue the minor in jazz studies must audition. Contact the jazz program coordinator at 248-370-2805 or brown239@oakland.edu. Music majors who wish to pursue the minor in jazz studies should do so in consultation with the jazz coordinator and their applied music instructor.

The minor in jazz studies is designed to enhance the student’s ability to negotiate the theoretical, practical, cultural, and historical aspects of teaching and performing jazz as a musical art form. Students will study the practices of past jazz masters and develop methods in order to sustain their own jazz education in addition to the education of current and future students. The minor will focus on refining performance and improvisational skills through private instruction, techniques for rehearsing small and large jazz ensembles, researching historical perspectives, and creating functional arrangements and compositions for both classroom and personal use.