Dear Collegiate Member,

April is Jazz Appreciation Month, so let’s celebrate Jazz! Visit MENC’s Jazz Appreciation Month Site  for Jazz resources, tips, and lesson plans. Watch for the Jazz poster included in this April’s Teaching Music magazine. Visit Smithsonian's Jazz Appreciation Month Site, and MENC’s Jazz Article Archive.

As always, if you have comments, questions, or would like to share your chapter’s activities or recruitment strategies with us for publication in a future issue, e-mail Shauna Leavitt.

Developing A Jazz Program:
Simple Solutions To Boost Your Confidence

By Michael Chamberlin

Michael Chamberlin received a Bachelor of Music Education degree from Bowling Green State University and a Master of Music degree in Jazz Studies from the University of North Texas. He is currently a doctoral candidate in saxophone performance at the University of Maryland, College Park, and maintains a private saxophone studio.

In the field of music education your collegiate experience will be shaped by your choice of school, the friends you make, and even the instrument you play. As you go on to pursue a career in education you will learn, if you have not already, that teaching positions are not universal. You may find yourself having to deal with musical challenges that are above your ability level. If conducting a jazz ensemble is one of those challenges, or you feel that your knowledge of jazz could use some strengthening, here are a few ideas to help you get started.

Remember, the more preparation you do for any teaching situation the better chance you'll have for a positive experience. Jazz has gone through many dynamic changes over the past hundred years, making jazz education somewhat subjective. Yet, there are many proven ways to help students learn how to improvise and play jazz style correctly. Before attempting to explain something as multifaceted as improvisation there must be some degree of personal understanding involved on your end of the educational process. There will be times when you'll have to make decisions based on limited knowledge, so the first step then is to continue your own research on everything called “jazz.” Common phrases, words, names, styles, etc. will become more familiar during this pursuit, and when newly discovered knowledge can be put to use in a classroom setting, the results will be rewarding to you and your students.

Beginning The Process

Listening to jazz is by far the most important first step. There are far too many names to list in a short article, but the names you already know would be a good place to start. Search for “new” artists by instrument and if possible, look for musicians that play the same instrument as you. Hopefully you will learn something interesting about your instrument in the process, and in the end, you'll at the very least know the names of a few more jazz musicians. There are also many great jazz websites that may be useful in your search. Here are a few:

• www.allaboutjazz.com
• www.jazztimes.com
• www.jazzreview.com
• www.jazzcorner.com
• www.jazzhouse.org
• www.menc.org/s/jazz/

During this discovery phase, you'll find that every jazz musician has his or her own unique way to express emotions. The best players will grab and ultimately hold your attention. Improvisation is a musical form of storytelling. Background information about an improvised story can usually be found in the melody, the time feel, the tempo, the form, and the persons’ individual inspiration.

Find what catches your attention, then go out and listen some more. If you are a piano player and discover a pianist that you enjoy on an album you're listening to, try searching for music by the other musicians on the album. A lot of great jazz players make guest appearances on albums lead by other musicians. For example, maybe the saxophone player on that pianist’s album leads his/her own group. The only way to know is to search by name.

Building Your Jazz Knowledge I

This section is for a dedicated jazz fan who doesn't play jazz. Maybe you've found yourself in a situation where you're required to teach a music appreciation class and you're not sure how to approach jazz history and the styles associated with the genre. If that's the case, then some of the above ideas should help you get started. You will also need to do some of your own research on the subject to better grasp the topic. Mark Gridley’s Concise Guide To Jazz is a great classroom-oriented book that's sometimes used as a college textbook. I also would recommend Alyn Shipton’s New History of Jazz as another source for your research. Try not to think of learning about jazz as a problem; but rather, think of it as a learning process. Your increased knowledge of jazz history will help both you and your students get the most out of a classroom situation.

Building Your Jazz Knowledge II

If you're thinking about starting a jazz ensemble at your school, here are some different ideas to boost your confidence. If you already have a jazz ensemble, but want to talk about style and improvisation in a more cohesive way, this may help as well. Aside from the logistical difficulties of starting a new group, you can always prepare by brushing up on your jazz theory. Becoming fluent in harmony by way of chord/scale relationships and chord nomenclature is a fast way to prepare for questions about improvisation that will most definitely arise. Probably the best book concerning jazz harmony is Mark Levine’s The Jazz Theory Book. Packed with information, this book should be on your wish list.

If you have not done a lot of improvisation in the past, now is the time to pick up a play-along book and start playing. Jamey Aebersold has over 120 play-along volumes published to date. Another quick way to start improvising is just playing along with one of your favorite recordings. Don’t feel bad about playing over recorded solos, you may find yourself picking out musical ideas from an improvisation and playing them yourself. That would be the first step to transcribing an improvised solo.

Presenting Challenges To Your Students

Regardless of ability level, we as musicians enjoy being challenged from time to time. Playing along note for note with a recorded solo provides a unique experience that brings most musicians closer to the tradition of jazz. When someone experiences music on the level of direct imitation, he or she becomes as close as possible to that performer's creative thought process. If students play a few notes that match those of an improvised solo, they will have a more meaningful experience when they begin to improvise on their own.

The idea of sitting down to “just play” also extends to students regardless of ability level. In a general music classroom, students who clap along on beats two and four to a swinging jazz recording will most likely remember that experience because they're contributing to the rhythm in a very direct and personal way.

Making Leaders Out of Your Students: Larger Ensembles

The final concern for established programs and more experienced teachers is to place value on leadership within the ensemble and the idea of individual importance, especially in a big band setting. In a big band, there is one person on a part, and the group can only function at 100% if all members of the group are present, prepared, and ready to play. Rehearsing in sections offers leadership opportunities, and rhythm is probably the most important section to push in this regard. A lazy rhythm section that doesn't work well together will only bring the rest of the group down. The winds will almost always need to work out solo sections, and an isolated rehearsal will give the lower parts a chance to listen in and match the style and intonation of the lead player.

Just remember that any form of education takes time, hard work, and dedication from both the student and the teacher. Good luck with your educational pursuits, and keep listening, because you never know when something new might spark your own creativity.

© MENC: The National Association for Music Education.

 --Shauna Leavitt, April 2, 2009 © MENC: The National Association for Music Education.