<p>Right now I am finishing my last year at high school, and I want to study a major on music. Now, my problem is that I don't play exactly jazz music, but something more like classic rock, and blues. Because of that im kinda confused about some universities. What is jazz guitar exactly?</p>
<p>I know of Berklee and The New School, them being famous and all, but when i looked for the majors i found "jazz guitar". Could anyone help me with this?, As I play mostly classic rock and blues, I find it hard to find to which universities i should apply and which majors take.</p>
<p>Hi Blackmore9x, if you search here for “contemporary guitar” you will see some links for other threads on this topic (or for threads I’ve posted under). </p>
<p>There are very few straight contemporary guitar programs if you want to major in guitar performance – as you have already discovered, most of them are jazz based. It does help to expand your search if you work on and become more competent in jazz (not just performance but music theory, knowledge of jazz etc.).</p>
<p>If you are sure you want to focus only on contemporary guitar you have basically two choices for degrees:<br>
- BM in performance, in which case you are pretty limited if you do not play jazz – primarily look for schools with popular music or studio/jazz combination studies. Some would be: Berklee, USC (new popular music concentration), University of Colorado at Denver. You do not have to major in “jazz guitar” to attend these colleges and study music. You can major in guitar performance.
- BA in music which really broadens your scope of search – many mainstream universities and colleges offer a BA in music with more flexible major criteria. In that case, you might want to start with a search of things like desired location, strength in the music faculty (particularly guitar, there may not be a lot), academic fit, etc.</p>
<p>The first group will definitely be audition-based, the second maybe, maybe not. You will want to really search and narrow down your possibilities this summer as you have to be ready to go to send in prescreen DVDs, schedule auditions, etc. in the fall.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Thank guitarist’s mom.</p>
<p>It’s not that im not interested on studying the jazz major, it’s just that I’ve been playing guitar for 3 years now, and well, not with any teacher, just by myself. I have some theory skills, but im not sure what requirements does the universities ask for. Besides that, I know nothing about jazz, in theory and practice.</p>
<p>My actual plan is to skip this year’s application as to prepare myself, and apply next year. Do you know some of the basic requirements to get into these universities?</p>
<p>Each school is different, you can find the audition requirements on their websites under the music department section.</p>
<p>Try to find some instruction (self teaching will only go so far), and try to find a way to learn some sightreading and theory. And try to find some other musicians to play with!</p>