Gregorian Chant Academy
  • captainredbeard
    Posts: 5
    So I want to learn more about Gregorian chant and the Gregorian chant academy caught my eye. He's taking new students till the 24th but it seems a bit pricey for an online course. Is the $700 price tag worth it? Has anyone gone through one of his older courses? If it teaches what he claims I'll probably end up taking the course. (My background training is in classical music, so music isn't totally foreign lol, if that helps)
  • Chant_Supremacist
    Posts: 43
    If you have a schola around locally I recommend learning the old-fashioned way, through a kind of in-person apprenticeship, rather than paying for an online course from a chant e-personality. Over the years I have attended a conference or two, but never felt the need take an online course. I think developing in this way pays dividends in terms of learning holistically, getting live feedback, and slowly feeling through your own approach and interpretation.

    Of course your mileage will vary depending on what's available to you locally. I can't speak to the pedagogical quality of any particular course, but as a possible cheaper alternative ($700 is really steep), Ecole Gregorienne offers an introductory course for ~150 USD. Bruno is a young disciple of Perez (not to say he isn't his own man): https://ecolegregorienne.podia.com/learn-gregorian-chant

    Both Bruno and the men at Floriani are good singers, doing good work, even if the capitalization and slick digital marketing ("become an 'early adopter' by giving us your contact info!") of chant e-courses bothers me personally. If you do take a course please post a review after.
  • Dixit_Dominus_44
    Posts: 195
    Why not simply visit a page such as https://www.ccwatershed.org/goupil/ and listen to the monks sing? They have it arranged there where the musical score scrolls by as you hear the notes being sung. This is how the monks used to learn; if it's good enough for them, it's good enough for us. (Just my two cents.)
  • captainredbeard
    Posts: 5
    I do belong to a schola, this was to be supplementary, to get some things that was never talked about since the schola only meets to prepare for whichever high Mass we have next.
    I try to look past most of the self promotion since it seems to be how things are right now on the internet. If I go with a course I'll make sure and write an exclusive review
    Thanked by 1Chant_Supremacist
  • captainredbeard
    Posts: 5
    I visited watershed before and somehow missed that page! It'll definitely help with preparing for high Mass. I might still do the course but I just might go through here first
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 2,367
    I recommend Laus in Ecclesia which is a correspondance course typically. Or you can go to Clear Creek to do it in the summer over a week (limited space), even if you don’t do the Solesmes method with the Liber Usualis.

    Otherwise, Jennifer Donelson-Nowicka and the CISM in California offer classes on Zoom as well as grad work by application in the summertime (a bachelor’s in any field is required however and cannot be waived).

    I also recommend the Colloquium for newer (and more experienced!) singers.

    I’ll put my cards on the table: I’m not a huge fan of these expensive courses although I’m in principle fine with Christopher Jaspers’s CV (there is sometimes a serious gap between the knowledge of the liturgical nuts and bolts, the moving pieces, and chant theory; this isn’t the case for him). And I get it, this is his day job…So the price tag aside, I guess if you go for it, please, tell us about it.
    Thanked by 1WGS
  • MarkB
    Posts: 1,089
    I purchased and went through Christopher Jasper's online Gregorian Chant Academy course in its first version. At that time the tuition was only $500. I'm grandfathered into the 2.0 version of his course at no extra charge, but I haven't checked it out yet since it was only announced as open to enrollment today.

    I thought the first version of his course was informative and thorough. As a correspondence course, it covered history, theory, skills, and technique comprehensively but without the benefit of being able to receive feedback about your own chanting.

    His first version of the course was rough around the edges in its video production quality, but I believe that is being fixed in this new version under his partnership with Floriani.

    If you want an in-depth and advanced course about Gregorian chant that you can take at your own pace conveniently at home, I think Jasper's course is one to recommend. Whether it's worth the tuition is not for me to answer for everyone.

    However, Jasper's course is not needed to learn basic skills about how to chant according to the Solesmes method. I'd say his course is for people who want an advanced tutorial about Gregorian chant, more for those who lead a schola and direct chant or for self-described chant nerds than for those who are merely schola members.

    I have also read Laus in Ecclesia, volumes 1 & 2. If you can learn well from a book, I think volume 1 along with the sample recordings are all that are needed to learn how to read and sing chant for most practical purposes.

    Jasper's Gregorian Chant Academy course is more advanced than most people would need. That might bear on the decision about whether it would be worth the tuition.

    Jasper has some tutorial videos available for free on his YouTube channel. Those are enough by themselves to learn the basics. Here is a link to his free basic tutorial playlist. For most people, I think this free series would suffice:

    https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0eu6_WptaE99jT1n1VnejcUOG_M9JZAz

    Those videos suffer from the rough production values that I mentioned had characterized the videos in his original academy course. The videos are adequate, not professional in production quality; there's nothing wrong with them, they're just not slick.

    In terms of ranked order for learning, here's what I'd recommend:

    1. Introductory overview: Jasper's free YouTube videos are sufficient and a good place to start for people with little or no prior knowledge of chant notation
    2. Intermediate level of knowledge and competence: Laus in Ecclesia volume 1
    3. Advanced knowledge and competence: Jasper's Gregorian Chant Academy

    Even though the tuition for Jasper's academy seems high, it's comparable to what you would pay to enroll in a weeklong chant intensive after you account for travel, lodging, registration, and food. The benefits of Jasper's online course are that you don't have to leave home, you proceed at your own pace, you have access to it in perpetuity, and you can review the material as often as you would like. The disadvantage is that the course itself doesn't afford you the opportunity to sing with others nor to have your chanting evaluated; you have to apply what you learn on your own and self-monitor your progress in skills development.
  • Dixit_Dominus_44
    Posts: 195
    I visited watershed before and somehow missed that page! It'll definitely help with preparing for high Mass. I might still do the course but I just might go through here first


    They also have the ordinary of the mass, but some of those appear to be by Choral Tracks (M. Curtis) and not just the monks of Solesmes: https://www.ccwatershed.org/kyriale/
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 2,367
    Also, the thing about slickness is that it can be too slick sometimes. I'm not really a fan of what podcasters and streamers do these days. (In matters of taste etc.)

    Anyway, at least Laus in Ecclesia vol. 2 is out in English for those who desire it. I need to acquire the second book…
  • captainredbeard
    Posts: 5
    Thanks for all the suggestions guys and thanks @MatthewRoth for the review. I was actually nervous it would be too simplistic since I want a deep dive. I might look more into the other stuff though. I've thought about the laus in ecclesia book before, having looked through most of clear creek abbeys website lol I'm probably gonna have to pull out the ol bank card now
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 2,367
    I think that Laus in Ecclesia’s strong point is that it centers on rhythm while obviously looking for melodic accuracy, before moving to modality…
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