The aim of this study is to explore to what extent and how different jazz programs on the college level include repertoire memorization in their curriculums. By repertoire memorization I mean the study and memorization of a certain amount of standard jazz repertoire, which include songs from the so-called great American songbook and tunes by jazz composers that are commonly played by jazz musicians around the world.  Whether the schools include repertoire memorization in their official curriculum or course descriptions or leave the subject to the discretion of the individual instructors is explored. Methods for teaching the subject, methods of assessing the students’ memorization, and views of different jazz department heads regarding the importance of the subject are also investigated.

A sociocultural perspective is adopted in the study to see if academia attempts to address or perhaps recreate some of the sociocultural contexts that jazz learning existed in before jazz was included in music conservatories and universities.

Eleven jazz programs and one jazz educator were asked to be a part of the study and of those, four schools responded. The data was collected in email correspondence with the four different department heads that were from the United States, Finland and Sweden (two schools).

The results showed that the programs in Finland and the United States placed great importance on the subject and use required repertoire lists that the students were tested on. One of the Swedish programs had suggested repertoire lists for students without formal testing and the other Swedish program left the subject up to the individual instructors although the subject did seem to be encouraged. One unexpected observation from the repertoire lists used from the schools in Finland and the United States was that there were a surprisingly large number of songs that were not in common to both lists.