Violin

The Conservatoire offers Bachelors and Masters courses in jazz violin, within the jazz department. The Bachelors course consists of three years, while the Masters lasts two years.

The bachelors course focuses on helping students acquire and become proficient in different elements of the language of jazz:

• Rhythmic precision, stability of tempo and groove. To achieve this, students develop techniques of accents, ghost notes, bowing strokes, polyrhythms, alongside left hand techniques which reinforce the groove
• Working on their sound
• Being in tune across the whole fingerboard, speed, and using jazz 'vocabulary' from different eras and styles throughout the history of the genre 
• Learning how to use harmony in improvisations

In addition, students work to develop their improvisation skills in relation to the different styles of jazz they cover, by playing, listening, retranscribing solos or excerpts of solos, and learning numerous themes from jazz standards. These skills are also learned in close collaboration with the other courses taught within the Jazz department, notably: combo, harmony, rhythm, ear training.

Students can then build on this solid foundation during the Masters programme by:

• further improving their skills in all styles of jazz.
• developing their musical 'personality'. In their personal projects, students are encouraged to experiment with different types and sizes of group, from solo to quintet and larger, as well as maintaining a constant sense of artistic curiosity 
• increasingly developing links with the professional music world (concerts, recordings…). Students regularly take part in ambitious projects, thanks to the artistic partnerships of the Conservatoire royal de Bruxelles.