Clinics/Workshops
I have spent many years as a classroom teacher and also worked as a designer of jazz curricula (as Director of Academic Affairs at the New School for Jazz from 2004-2012). Since returning to Seattle in 2014 I have developed a series of clinics/workshops designed to help musicians, including music teachers, improve and broaden their skills. Each of the four workshops is designed for a 3-hour presentation, but can be adapted to shorter time frames, including the one-hour master class. The workshops, described below, are:
- Basic Improvisation: The Blues Scales
- Intermediate Improvisation: Minor is Major
- Audition Preparation
- Pedagogy
1. Basic Improvisation: The Blues Scales
This workshop is designed primarily for beginning to intermediate improvisers, though it has also proven to be valuable for more advanced players as well.
Most jazz improvising is based on songs that have considerable harmonic movement. Practically speaking, this means that the scale notes corresponding to the key signature are not always the best sounding notes for the improviser to use in creating improvised melodies. “Playing the changes,” an expression frequently heard when jazz musicians talk about improvisation, involves negotiating a song’s harmonic movement (a fundamentally dynamic approach) rather than staying in the same key/scale throughout the song (fundamentally static). The one-scale (static) approach is rarely productive since it inevitably involves inappropriate sounding notes, it quickly becomes repetitive, and it fails to reflect the song’s inherent harmonic dynamism.
The harmonic “language” that most composers use is, however, quite extensive and complex, even in common and relatively simple songs such as the blues. And, like any language, it takes quite a while (think months and years rather than days and weeks) to master. So what is a student improviser to do in the meantime?
The method I teach in this workshop involves learning two scales--the major and minor blues scales—in the key of the song, and learning how to get comfortable moving back and forth between the two. This gives students a relatively simple means for creating movement in their improvised solos. And as they learn to coordinate this movement with the harmonic movement of the song, they start, in a simplified way, to “play the changes,” leaving behind the unproductive static approach, but without having to master the entire complex harmonic system. The two-blues-scale approach, which has a solid basis in jazz practice, turns out to be all the source material that’s needed to create compelling improvised solos on blues songs and many other kinds of commonly played jazz tunes.
This workshop is a condensed version of a full method for learning basic jazz improvisation contained in my book The Blues Scales: Essential Tools for Jazz Improvisation, published by Sher Music. This book, which includes many transcriptions of jazz masters as well as step-by-step exercises, etudes, and a play-along CD featuring a professional New York jazz trio, has found a wide audience—over 15,000 copies sold. It has been adopted as an instructional text by high school and college improvisation teachers across America and around the world. So students who attend this workshop and then want to explore the concept further in a guided way will not be left behind.
Most jazz improvising is based on songs that have considerable harmonic movement. Practically speaking, this means that the scale notes corresponding to the key signature are not always the best sounding notes for the improviser to use in creating improvised melodies. “Playing the changes,” an expression frequently heard when jazz musicians talk about improvisation, involves negotiating a song’s harmonic movement (a fundamentally dynamic approach) rather than staying in the same key/scale throughout the song (fundamentally static). The one-scale (static) approach is rarely productive since it inevitably involves inappropriate sounding notes, it quickly becomes repetitive, and it fails to reflect the song’s inherent harmonic dynamism.
The harmonic “language” that most composers use is, however, quite extensive and complex, even in common and relatively simple songs such as the blues. And, like any language, it takes quite a while (think months and years rather than days and weeks) to master. So what is a student improviser to do in the meantime?
The method I teach in this workshop involves learning two scales--the major and minor blues scales—in the key of the song, and learning how to get comfortable moving back and forth between the two. This gives students a relatively simple means for creating movement in their improvised solos. And as they learn to coordinate this movement with the harmonic movement of the song, they start, in a simplified way, to “play the changes,” leaving behind the unproductive static approach, but without having to master the entire complex harmonic system. The two-blues-scale approach, which has a solid basis in jazz practice, turns out to be all the source material that’s needed to create compelling improvised solos on blues songs and many other kinds of commonly played jazz tunes.
This workshop is a condensed version of a full method for learning basic jazz improvisation contained in my book The Blues Scales: Essential Tools for Jazz Improvisation, published by Sher Music. This book, which includes many transcriptions of jazz masters as well as step-by-step exercises, etudes, and a play-along CD featuring a professional New York jazz trio, has found a wide audience—over 15,000 copies sold. It has been adopted as an instructional text by high school and college improvisation teachers across America and around the world. So students who attend this workshop and then want to explore the concept further in a guided way will not be left behind.
2. Intermediate Improvisation: Minor is Major!
This workshop is designed primarily for intermediate to advanced improvisers and presupposes some familiarity with basic music theory.
Below are two very common chord progressions, labeled A and B, over which jazz improvisers are expected to improvise:
Below are two very common chord progressions, labeled A and B, over which jazz improvisers are expected to improvise:
I have observed that many, perhaps most, improvisers are far more comfortable playing over progression A than over progression B. They understand the theory and chord/scale relationships in the major-key progression (A) much better than in the minor-key progression (B), and they have practiced the relevant major-key chords and scales far more than the relevant minor-key ones, especially the Harmonic Minor scales. But improvisers need to recognize that minor-key progressions are just as important, and occur nearly as frequently, as major-key ones. Becoming skillful with minor-key progressions is an issue of major concern for improvisers—minor is major! My workshop addresses this issue and focuses the participants’ attention on recognizing, analyzing, hearing, and practicing minor-key harmonic sequences, ultimately putting students on the path to full fluency in the minor modes.
This workshop is a condensed version of a full method for learning minor-key jazz improvisation contained in my book Minor Is Major!, published by Sher Music. In addition to clear, thorough explanations of the musical theory underlying minor-key chord progressions, the book includes many transcriptions of jazz masters as well as step-by-step exercises and etudes. So students who attend this workshop and then want to explore the concept further in a guided way will not be left behind.
This workshop is a condensed version of a full method for learning minor-key jazz improvisation contained in my book Minor Is Major!, published by Sher Music. In addition to clear, thorough explanations of the musical theory underlying minor-key chord progressions, the book includes many transcriptions of jazz masters as well as step-by-step exercises and etudes. So students who attend this workshop and then want to explore the concept further in a guided way will not be left behind.
3. Audition Preparation
Much is at stake in any music conservatory audition. The audition is by far the most significant factor in determining, first, whether an aspiring student will be invited to attend that school and, second, how much scholarship money s/he will be offered. A strong audition can put the student in position to attend the first-choice school, and can even make that choice affordable. Students want to be fully prepared for that audition, and this workshop is for anyone who is preparing for a music-school audition.
During my 12 years on the faculty at The New School for Jazz, one of the world’s most prestigious and competitive jazz conservatories, I sat on dozens of audition panels and evaluated the admissions auditions of hundreds of student applicants on all instruments (including voice). I was also a member of the school’s Scholarship Committee. So I have intimate and detailed knowledge of exactly how—on what basis—both the admissions and the scholarship decisions are made.
In my Audition Preparation Workshop, I share my understanding of the audition process with aspiring students. Using a combination of lecture, demonstration, and Q & A, I cover all aspects of the audition, including:
During my 12 years on the faculty at The New School for Jazz, one of the world’s most prestigious and competitive jazz conservatories, I sat on dozens of audition panels and evaluated the admissions auditions of hundreds of student applicants on all instruments (including voice). I was also a member of the school’s Scholarship Committee. So I have intimate and detailed knowledge of exactly how—on what basis—both the admissions and the scholarship decisions are made.
In my Audition Preparation Workshop, I share my understanding of the audition process with aspiring students. Using a combination of lecture, demonstration, and Q & A, I cover all aspects of the audition, including:
- Selecting and mastering audition repertoire
- Determining tempos
- Arranging and charting repertoire
- Preparing equipment
- Working with the accompanists
- Timing and pacing of the audition set
- Interacting with the audition panel
- Improvisation strategies
- Dealing with audition jitters
- Playing with expression as well as precision
4. Music Pedagogy
This workshop is for anyone who is considering teaching music and also anyone who already teaches music and wants to get better at it. It is not instrument-specific, nor is it style-specific. I will first describe the workshop, then explain its background.
The workshop is a greatly condensed version of my next book, which I expect to complete in 2016. My approach is to focus in a small number of memorable slogans or mottos that contain what I believe are the foundation blocks of good music pedagogy. I elaborate on each slogan so that the participants gain a sense of what it means in the context of music pedagogy and why it is a valuable precept. There is plenty of room given in the workshop for the participants to share their experiences as teachers and as students—I learn something about good teaching every time I convene one of these clinics.
Some of my slogans/mottos/aphorisms, with brief explanations:
These are just a few examples. I will stay in touch with workshop participants who want to go deeper into this subject, and once the book is finished and published it can be a basic continuing resource for anyone whose goal is to raise the level of their music pedagogy.
The background, how I arrived at being a teacher not only of music but of music pedagogy, is, I think, relevant. Somehow I decided early in my life that my “chosen profession” was teaching, and was driven to become an excellent teacher. This question—what makes a good teacher good? (along with its converse: what makes an ineffective teacher ineffective?)—fascinated me. I began observing my own teachers, especially the good ones, noting the effects they had on me and on my fellow students, and trying to understand how they achieved those effects. I read widely in the field of pedagogy. And I made my own teaching—English and Linguistics at the time—an experimental laboratory for understanding the art and science of pedagogy. I learned even more as I shifted from language and literature to music, where some of the principles I had developed still worked, but other concepts needed to be forged to deal with the particulars of music (such as performance in real time, precise coordination with other performers, mastery of a physical skill). I also spent a good deal of time observing different music teachers in action.
By the time I moved to NY in 2002 I had more than a decade of success teaching saxophone and improvisation, and believed I had arrived at some basic principles of music teaching that could be helpful for musicians who were somewhere on the teacher’s path. I turned these principles into a course, Music Pedagogy, and was hired by the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music to teach the course to interested jazz conservatory students. I taught the class with some real success from 2003 through 2014, and then again at Cornish College in 2015. And as I mentioned above, I am turning this course into a book, which I will complete in 2017.
The workshop is a greatly condensed version of my next book, which I expect to complete in 2016. My approach is to focus in a small number of memorable slogans or mottos that contain what I believe are the foundation blocks of good music pedagogy. I elaborate on each slogan so that the participants gain a sense of what it means in the context of music pedagogy and why it is a valuable precept. There is plenty of room given in the workshop for the participants to share their experiences as teachers and as students—I learn something about good teaching every time I convene one of these clinics.
Some of my slogans/mottos/aphorisms, with brief explanations:
- “A different set of chops.” Contrary to a widespread belief, being a terrific player in no way guarantees or even implies that you will be a good teacher. Teaching is an entirely different enterprise, with different goals and methods. A corollary:
- “You don’t have to be great at [X] to be great at teaching [X].” I, for example, am a mediocre sight-reader, but I am an excellent teacher of sight-reading. Carmine Caruso, who was the first-call brass teacher in New York for 40 years after World War II (and after whom an international trumpet competition is named), was a saxophone player who never played a brass instrument at anything resembling a professional level.
- “Mind the gap.” In most cases—probably at least 90%—there are basic and substantial differences between you, the teacher, and your student. So you cannot assume that whatever worked for you is going to work for this student. In fact if your approach with the student begins with “well, the way I learned it was . . .,” you’re most likely going in the wrong direction.
- “Getting worse to get better.” Much of music teaching, especially once the student is beyond the beginning level, involves stretching and expanding the student’s musical “comfort zone.” But when you, the teacher, show the student a better posture, or a better fingering, or a more efficient way of practicing, the student will usually struggle at first because the new way, which they haven’t yet mastered, doesn’t work as well as the old way, with which they had become comfortable. The student will have to go through getting worse in order to get better, and the teacher needs to become expert at managing this often frustrating process.
These are just a few examples. I will stay in touch with workshop participants who want to go deeper into this subject, and once the book is finished and published it can be a basic continuing resource for anyone whose goal is to raise the level of their music pedagogy.
The background, how I arrived at being a teacher not only of music but of music pedagogy, is, I think, relevant. Somehow I decided early in my life that my “chosen profession” was teaching, and was driven to become an excellent teacher. This question—what makes a good teacher good? (along with its converse: what makes an ineffective teacher ineffective?)—fascinated me. I began observing my own teachers, especially the good ones, noting the effects they had on me and on my fellow students, and trying to understand how they achieved those effects. I read widely in the field of pedagogy. And I made my own teaching—English and Linguistics at the time—an experimental laboratory for understanding the art and science of pedagogy. I learned even more as I shifted from language and literature to music, where some of the principles I had developed still worked, but other concepts needed to be forged to deal with the particulars of music (such as performance in real time, precise coordination with other performers, mastery of a physical skill). I also spent a good deal of time observing different music teachers in action.
By the time I moved to NY in 2002 I had more than a decade of success teaching saxophone and improvisation, and believed I had arrived at some basic principles of music teaching that could be helpful for musicians who were somewhere on the teacher’s path. I turned these principles into a course, Music Pedagogy, and was hired by the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music to teach the course to interested jazz conservatory students. I taught the class with some real success from 2003 through 2014, and then again at Cornish College in 2015. And as I mentioned above, I am turning this course into a book, which I will complete in 2017.