I live in Puerto Rico, and am currently a music teacher and play various styles of music. I'm currently undecided whether to study towards education or jazz performance.

Not quite sure I understand your question, however, I offer the following.

What will a bachelors degree accomplish?
Entrance into another field if you ever need or want to change what you are doing.

A bachelors degree in education or jazz performance will open doors should you ever need to start opening other doors. Do you need the degree to perform jazz, depends on your talent, understanding of jazz theory and how that relates to performing in public. My answer deals with what will you do should you decide to do something else.

IMHO a bachelors degree in anything says you can think and perform at a supervisory or entrance level management position. So, makes since to obtain one, it's like insurance.

Hope that helped. Good luck.

I have a bachelor's degree (not in music) and I can't play jazz piano.

Tony

Hey Yadiel, I don't think you need a degree to learn how to play anything, but I do think you can use the musical education you already have to help you learn on your own! Have you ever played live with a big band or a small group? I think playing live with other people is the best way to learn. I don't know you so I'm presuming, but I'd guess if you're already a music teacher, then you've got the theoretical knowledge in your head and what you would need more of is practice improvising with OTHER PEOPLE in a group. There probably are open mic' nights at local clubs where you could sit in and improvise on standards, and school groups where you could do the same thing. Just learn a few tunes at a time that way. The way everybody starts is by getting charts of the old standards ("On Green Dolphin Street," "Cherokee," "Perdido," etc.) and soloing over the chord changes. People who already know music and can read and understand theory can pick up jazz charts and learn them without too much trouble. The real work after that is in trial and error, experimenting with what you can play off the cuff.

Also remember that there is another way to go at it besides just studying jazz as if it's an island: many jazz artists had classical influences and schooling, especially piano players, and so instead of just studying jazz artists, you can study their influences and re-create what they had to learn to make their music. Nicolas Slonimsky's Thesaurus of Scales is a good example of a "classical" resource that John Coltrane used to develop some of his different variations, and it works for every instrument. But there was a time when the harmonic vocabulary of Gershwin, Stravinsky, Debussy, and other 20th-century composers was overlapping quite a bit with early jazz. It influenced it and was influenced by it. If you already know the late Romantics and early 20th-century composers, you can use what you know as an alternate route into the harmonic language of jazz, because that's something a lot of early jazz players were doing. You can study what they studied instead of just studying them by themselves, which is probably what would happen in a strictly jazz program.

I try to tell everybody to have a specific goal in mind that requires a degree, when they're talking about more school, to know exactly what you want to do with it and be sure you need it. I've got to admit my bias against too much school; I tend to be preachy about it just because I've currently got student loan debt hanging over me, and it's a pain. Make sure you REALLY NEED that degree before you go further in debt.

The best way to learn to play jazz is to play jazz. A jazz program will enable you to play often and with better players. Then, when you are a good enough jazz player, students will seek you out for private lessons. The education degree is only useful if you intend to teach within an institution.

I agree with Bradley - But I would add that you also need to listen to a lot of jazz piano. I don't think the degree is going to impress anyone - You will ultimately have to demonstrate your skills in the jazz world.

Wynton Kelly, Erroll Garner, Herbie Hancock, Bill Evans, and McCoy Tyner would not have been permitted to work professionally without their BA degrees.

Wow, that was very helpful. I already play jazz, even though there isn't much places to play jazz here. Ross K and Bradly were really helpful, but rintincop's awnser has got me on the fence. If it was a requierment for all those great jazz pianist to study what makes me differnt than them?

A bachelor's degree may not have been a requirement, but I doubt any of them would have been as great as they were without it. I do not know any jazz musicians who feel they would have been better off without the knowledge and experience they got from their education. Just look at their websites, and see how many list where they studied. They would not do that if they felt it was not important.

Knowledge and experience come from many sources. A music school is just one option. Keeping in mind; a music school isn't going to make you a great musician. It's only one small step in the development of a musician.

I've known people with degrees in performance that were very mediocre performers (and visa-versa). Two years in music school isn’t going to be very beneficial unless there’s a lot of talent prior to going in (a waste of time and money).

Unless you have a lot of talent to begin with, I suggest finding a good piano teacher and dedicating all your time and effort in this direction. Music schools are very expensive – and often a waste of money.

The great musicians that were mentioned in this thread would have been great regardless of their music schooling endeavors. Some of these musicians were even great in their childhood.

Best, John

Let's not forget Thelonius Monk and Bud Powell, their careers would have been hindered if they didn't have BA degrees. They would have had far less opportunities without them.

with all due respect, what body or institution permits or does not permit one to work professionally in jazz music? forgive me if this was tongue in cheek but I didn't think Herbie ever graduated from college.

Hancock has a degree from Grinnell College. He would not have had the acceptance nor opportunities he did without it. To open all the doors and opportunities, especially today, one needs a BA.

Hancock began his studies as an engineering major at Grinnell College, but switched to music after two years. He left Grinnell one course short of graduation in 1961.

It was only later that Grinnell awarded Hancock an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree (1972). That degree was awarded after (because of) his success in the music industry.

I totally disagree that a BA is needed to open doors in the music industry. Talent, marketing, determination, and luck are needed to achieve such success.

Best, John

My two cents...

What you need to get work in jazz is to be a good jazz musician with marketable skills and talent. Bottom line is that working at it makes you better.

Will a BA make you a better jazz musician? The degree in itself is just a piece of paper. It is the work at your craft that makes you a better musician. Working toward a BA may give your a life a structure that forces you to do the work at you music that makes you better.

But, a life playing in clubs night after night working with seasoned pro's could also give your life the structure to do the needed work.

As to the value of the BA for working in music it depends on what you mean. If want to work in music as an accountant, an accounting degree is essential. If you want to be a lawyer, a law degree and passing the bar is a big, big deal. If you want to perform or record, they only care about whether you can make a performance or recording that sells. It sells if people like your music. It does not matter if it is good music. It just matters that they like it.

Have you bought a CD, or gone to a concert because you read on the CD cover or program that so and so holds a degree from Julliard?

I never have. But, oddly enough, after I buy the CD, I often read on the cover that they went there, anyway.

Here is a sad truth. Jazz is very obscure art form. What was once mass entertainment in mainstream popular culture is now appreciated by small community. It may well be that jazz as an art form is preserved for us mostly in the music departments of colleges and universities, much as the classical music of Beethoven, Bach and Brahms. How many symphony orchestras hire violinists without a university degree in violin?

I fear this is the future of jazz, as well.

Right on the mark, Mark!

Best, John

The initial premise was so ridiculous that I couldn't help answering in a ridiculous way. I am amazed that nobody called my bluff. Errol Garner, Wynton Kelly, Bud Powell, Monk, Ellington, McCoy Tyner, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Keith Jarrett, Brad Mehldau, none of them had degrees.

Jazz is still alive and well. It's more diverse than ever before, there are more players than ever before, and lots of new jazz compositions are being written and performed every day. In contrast, nobody has been writing in the style of Bach, Mozart or Beethoven for a long time.

bluff was called.

"Hancock began his studies as an engineering major at Grinnell College, but switched to music after two years. He left Grinnell one course short of graduation in 1961.

It was only later that Grinnell awarded Hancock an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree (1972). That degree was awarded after (because of) his success in the music industry"

Bluff was called twice, but then, maybe it really wasn't a bluff???