Why do we offer music theory as a separate course?
Our focus is on what we call practical music theory. The theory you learn is aimed at doing something with it in practice. Think of improvising, where a solid grasp of theory really gives you an edge, but also composing and arranging, where theoretical knowledge is essentially indispensable.
Practical music theory is offered as a dedicated course, but it’s also simply built into the instrumental lessons. We focus on applying theory, whatever your instrument or style.
Depending on your goal we can place the accent on general music theory or on jazz theory. Jazz theory is far more focused on improvisation, but there’s plenty of overlap. Jazz theory also pays attention to phenomena specific to the various streams in jazz history.