Classical or Jazz

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Intervals or chords? Covers or Originals?

This is the fork in the road! Is it though?

When I studied music in college we had to choose between ’classical’ or ‘jazz’ guitar. I didn’t understand why a person is forced to choose between one style or another however having studied a little of both I can now see that there is a big enough difference in how the individual styles are studied.

The styles themselves are definitely completely different and although basic music theory applies to both in the same way the approach to learning/teaching/and analysis are a big part of each individual style.

Jazz is more about chords with a focus on ‘improvisation’ vs. Classical being more about harmonic and melodic analysis for the purpose of ‘faithfully reproducing’ a piece using the rules of the specific time period of a given piece.

In today’s terms that might be comparable to those who prefer to learn a song note for note versus those who prefer to interpret a song in their own way.