[Dixielandjazz] Teaching Jazz improv to a new band memeber.

[Gluetje1 at aol.com]

Amen to your comment on spending "two hours a day learning the  ART" !  
About a year ago I was listening to a jazz professor at a  workshop.  He said 
he asked his college students in a credit course to take  home a list of 
nursery rhymes, play the melody in one key, then the next,  and the next, etc.  
He said almost none of them did the  assignment.
 
Ginny

 
 
In a message dated 7/6/2010 12:29:58 P.M. Central Daylight Time,  
kmurdick at jaguar1.usouthal.edu writes:

As  someone who is learning to both play the saxophone and play solos, I 
think  I may be able to comment on this situation.  If the guy is not  
willing to spend 2 hours a day learning the art, then he won't be able  
to do it.  It is not really worth it to bring  a non- soloing  lead horn 
into a small band. You can quickly teach a guitarist or a tuba  player to 
play trad jazz, but that's about it.

With sax, I first  learned how to improvise backup parts.  This instantly 
made me  valuble because I could also elaborate on the melody to form a 
basic  solo.  Very few (you might as well say none) adults are willing to  
spend this kind of time or have the theoretical knowledge to do what I  did.