M-JP-AW

Profile, extension and depth: Practical Theory Classes

3

6

24

One 60-minute lesson per week

24 hours. If there are fewer applications for this subject than indicated in the description, it will typically proceed with proportionally less contact time (and accordingly more individual attention per student), but never with fewer than 3 students.

60 hours

Admitted to second year of Jazz & Pop or Composition for Film and Theatre. This subject can only be followed on-campus.

See Competencies Matrix.

Developing songwriting skills.

Related to arranging, composing modules.

Do you aspire to be an Artist-Writer? Artist-Writers craft and perform their own songs. The aim is to find a spark of uniqueness; based on and added to a long heritage of songwriting. That means diving deep to finding your own voice. Even though it can feel as though everything has already been created; it hasn’t been created by you. This class is to help you uncover that particle that makes your work a distinct combination of influences, as only you can write it. Because the way you sing and play your song is as much part of its identity as the words and melody, in this class we’ll be focusing on you as a songwriter and performer.

Every group lesson will start with an short examination of a topic, often followed by a brief writing exercise. In large though we’ll be discussing your songs through feedback, both from me and your classmates. I find you learn as much from feedback on someone else’s song as you would if we were discussing your own. The topics will range from the likes of prosody -the ideal marriage between words and melody- and pay off lines to multiple entrances into songwriting. Every lesson ends with an assignment for the next class.

Group classes.

Your own material.

Preparing a presentation.

Assessment by the instructor at the end of each semester.

Students should have mastered the elements described under Contents.

The student has completed this module if being awarded a minimum grade of 5.5 at the end of the second semester.

Students are assessed at the end of both semesters. Assessment at the end of the autumn semester is formative and expressed in terms of satisfactory/unsatisfactory. It indicates a student's progress in this module. No ECs are awarded and there is no resit. Modules can only be absolved, and ECs awarded, after the end of the spring semester. The end-of-semester assessments comprise evaluations of students' performance during the lessons.

See the Education and Assessment Plan.