Bachelor Of Music

Jazz is a form of music that is at once highly structured and genuinely improvisatory, demanding both deep theoretical knowledge and instantaneous creative decision-making. It is a tradition with a history of about a century but roots that reach further back into the African American musical culture from which it emerged, and it has produced some of the most complex, emotionally powerful, and technically demanding music in the Western tradition. Studying jazz at conservatoire level means developing genuine mastery of the idiom, but it also means engaging with jazz as a living tradition that continues to evolve and to interact with other musical forms.

At the Royal Academy of Music, this four-year, full-time Bachelor of Music programme is taught at one of the world's leading conservatoires, and it reflects the institution's commitment to training musicians of the highest standard. You will develop advanced instrumental or vocal technique within the jazz idiom, deepen your command of harmony, improvisation, composition, and arranging, and engage with the history and theory of jazz in depth. Ensemble work is central to the programme: jazz is fundamentally a collaborative music, and performing regularly with other musicians at high levels of skill is the primary means by which fluency in the idiom is developed.

The RAM's London location gives students access to one of the most active jazz scenes in Europe.

The programme includes a year abroad, giving you the opportunity to study or perform in an international environment, which is particularly relevant for a musical form that is genuinely global.

Graduates from the RAM's jazz programme pursue careers as performing musicians, session players, composers and arrangers, recording artists, music educators, and workshop leaders. Many also work in related fields including music production, music management, and arts administration. Postgraduate study at the RAM or other leading institutions is an option for those wishing to develop their practice or pursue research and teaching careers in jazz.