[Dixielandjazz] Teaching Competency in Jazz

[Williams, Bob]

This is good stuff.  I've received many good comments on this subject.

I've found, too, that fundamentals are important.  When I'm teaching, I like
to have my students do the basic method books (Arban's, Rochut, Kopprasch,
etc.) and try to get them fired up about scales.  I try to stress that
without developing some facility on your instrument, you're not going to be
able to make the transition from what you're hearing in your noggin to the
piece of expensive plumbing hanging from your lips.

I like to use the movie "The Karate Kid" as a metaphor.  If you recall, when
the kid was starting his karate tutelage, Patrick Morita had him spent a day
painting a fence, another day waxing a car, stuff like that.  When the kid
finally complained, Morita showed him that he had, in fact, learned some
basic karate moves, and they had become reflexes.

By practicing scales and basic rudiments, the instrument becomes something
you can use reflexively - you can focus less on the mechanics and more on
what you're trying to put out there.  I read somewhere that Chick Corea was
a big proponent of practicing legit stuff - that it helped his jazz - for
this very reason.  

But he also dedicates all his recordings to L. Ron Hubbard, so he could be
full of crap. 


- Bob

-----Original Message-----
From: dixielandjazz-bounces at ml.islandnet.com
[mailto:dixielandjazz-bounces at ml.islandnet.com] On Behalf Of Stephen Barbone
Sent: Tuesday, February 03, 2004 11:04 AM
To: dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Teaching Competency in Jazz


> "Patrick Cooke" <patcooke at cox.net> wrote (polite snip)

in answer to Bob William query about teaching jazz.

> Every conventional music teacher I have ever encountered teaches music 
> with a sheet of written music in front of the student at all times. 
> One will never learn to improvise as long as he feels he needs a sheet 
> of written music to look at.  You won't learn to swim till you get rid 
> of the water wings.  Don't be the one guy in the group that has to 
> continue reading the same tunes he has been playing week in and week out
for months.
>           If one is to develop an ear at all, he/she has to start 
> thinking of music in terms of the sounds of intervals and 
> scales.......not how they look on paper, but how they sound.

Hear, Hear!!!!!.

And some will never be able to absorb improvisation by ear. Chances are they
will never be competent jazz musicians, even though they may become
excellent classical players. Ear development "Really Hearing" is a key
element in playing jazz. The Jamey Aebersold series of "Jazz Aids" contains
many books, records, and listening exercises that will assist in developing
a student's ears. Especially useful are the play along's that have various
chord patterns played at random. The exercise is to hear them and play along
with them, making those pattern changes, without reading. Kind of like when
musicians say to each other. Never heard this tune? "No sweat, the chords go
exactly where you expect them to go."

Perhaps budding teachers of jazz might take a course from, or speak to
Aebersold about it?

I forget who said it but someone did: "Jazz, is the most difficult of all
the art forms to teach." Or was it "impossible to teach"?

Cheers,
Steve (Jazz musicians hear differently) Barbone

PS. Am doing a gig with Tex Wyndham's Red Lions later this month. Trombonist
will be Frank Mesich (of Buck Creek) who has never played with this group.
We are playing a fair share of "obscure" tunes, some that he may not know.
BUT, fear not, Frank will have no trouble hearing where these tunes go,
chord wise, because they are logical progressions. Yes, Frank "has ears"
thank goodness, because the front line of the band doesn't read chord books,
or lead sheets, while performing.


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