Guitar

Teaching Staff

Bachelor of Music

Regulations, degree plans and module catalogues

Main Idea

From the beginning of the course, artistic development on the guitar is closely linked to the question of how one's own learning works in the first place and how what has been learned can be conveyed in an artistically imaginative way. Art and pedagogy are closely correlated in the field of instrumental learning and are placed in a exchange. At the same time, the use of different forms of instruction (individual instruction, small group instruction, class instruction) creates a variety of instruction in the principal subjects, thereby the amount of artistic input increasing quantitatively (through more instructional time) and qualitatively (through a variety of artistic stimulation). Thus, artistic and pedagogical training components appear to be mutually reinforcing areas.

Innovative lesson design

  • In principal subjects lesson 1 (Classical Guitar), students are allowed to be flexible with their available major lesson time: For example, class times can be combined so that two students then have a double period available as partner lessons. It is also possible to study with two teachers in parallel (co-teaching). Thus, on the one hand, the class can develop into a learning community in which learning by observing others, mutual exchange and mutual support in artistic educational processes becomes the norm. On the other hand, students already get to know a flexible, methodically-didactically differentiated art of teaching first-hand during their principal instrumental training at the university, which is an important building block for future professional life.
  • This principle of combining small main subject teaching time units also makes it possible to set up the new subject "Learning Strategies / Practice Methods / Technique Training" as a group lesson.
  • The weekly class session is designed for students to share the wealth of guitar literature with each other through papers & artistic presentations in order to learn from each other's personal preferences and specialized knowledge. Special attention is given to sight-reading skills necessary for a comprehensive study of the literature. Furthermore, there is room in the class lesson for an exchange about the pieces currently being worked on with regard to interpretational and general artistic questions of performance. Last but not least, students will also make music together in the guitar ensemble during the class session. The necessary arrangements are created by the students themselves and they also alternately take over the leadership of the rehearsals.
  • There is a set time each week when students teach each other on the guitar. This subject, named "Interstudent Teaching Practice," is designed to promote artistic exchange among students and also to provide them with practical insights into learning and teaching processes with highly advanced students.
  • From the very beginning, recital evenings of the guitar class will be linked with concepts of unusual programming as well as concert pedagogical elements in order to become acquainted with imaginative new concert forms on their own.

Stylistic diversity

A pool of artistic teachers from outside the university who are experts in a particular guitaristic style (for example, flamenco, fingerstyle, jazz or metal guitar) can be visited by students in phases for lessons outside the university. Among other things, this artistic internship enables students to develop an individual artistic profile and also ensures a stylistic or genre-related diversity already during the course of study, which the guitar has to offer more than any other instrument.

Improvisation

One of the aims of guitar training is to integrate improvisation into the principal subject lessons, for example by setting tasks for improvisation with the compositional means of a composition currently being worked on (stylistic improvisation) or by introducing students to free playing with musical material.

Requirements in the entrance exam

Performance of at least three works from different stylistic periods. Sight-reading.

(Excerpt from the Statutes on Enrollment; see there also the General examination requirements und the Requirements of the further examination parts [ear training, music theory, piano]).

Master of Music

Regulations, degree plans and module catalogues

Principal subjects: Main subject lessons, chamber music, musicology/theory, elective module, Master's thesis

Requirements in the entrance exam

Performance of at least four works from different stylistic periods, including one work composed after 1950.

(Excerpt from the Statutes on Enrollment; see there also the General examination requirements.)

Concert exam

Requirements in the entrance exam

Performance of at least four works from different stylistic periods, including one work composed after 1950.

(Excerpt from the enrolment statutes; see also the general examination requirements).

Further notes on the entrance exams (Application, Deadlines, Formal Requirements)