I am undertaking a research project on the Jazz syllabus and want to get some feedback from teachers and students alike. I need to get going on this asap....any takers - I need a few volunteers who'd be willing to answer 4/5 questions?

Andrea Matthews-Stroud

I'm a pupil currently working for my Grade 5 jazz piano. Would be happy to help.

Of course - happy to help. I'm a saxophone teacher.

Like wise i'm a brass and woodwind teacher specialising in the new jazz syllabus.

I'd be happy to help. I teach jazz violin and would love to see the AB jazz syllabus extended to stringed instruments.

I'm happy to help too. I've been teaching the Jazz Piano syllabus since it came out and have had lots of pupils do the exams. I'm also doing the Jazz Clarinet myself (I don't teach clarinet though).

I am preparing for the grade 5 Jazz piano exam.

I'm going to book the june exam.

I'll answer some questions for you

Hi jo.clarinet,
How did you go about starting to teach jazz piano - I have got several of the ABRSM books and am thinking of taking grade 3 Jazz. Did you go on any workshops or are you jazz trained in some way. I would love to be able to offer jazz piano so some of my pupils - any tips would be much appreciated :Thanks Margaret

Hi Margaret!
No, I'm not jazz trained - I just went to one Jazz workshop when they were about to publish all the Jazz Piano stuff. I basically started with the Grade 1 piano material and have kept ahead of my pupils - I took all the exams up to Grade 5, so that I knew exactly what was expected and how the exams worked.
Several of my pupils have really surprised me with their inventiveness in the solos - much better than my own, I think!
I've just done Grade 3 Jazz Clarinet (this morning!!). Had a really good time! Oh yes, and the Jazz exams somehow seem much more FUN when you're actually in the room taking them than the classical ones do - I don't know why that should be, but I've found it to be the case every time!

Hi, Jo.clarinet Thanks for getting back to me so quickly. Well done on your clarinet jazz exam it sounded fun. I took Practical musicianship grade 8 and found that was very enjoyable - even the improvisation from a poem part! Can you clarify something for me.

In Grade 1 piano jazz Do you play the first part (head) as written then the Solo for 12 bars or do you repeat it with some amazing (!) inventive material? Presumably you then go back to the Head (as written again?) and then to the Coda. I'm a bit muddled about it. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Anything else you think |I should know ... Many thanks

I was just wondering - the advice when starting down the jazz path seems to be that you should try to play with others. Does everyone manage this? All this talk about jazz has sent me up the loft digging out old books - i'm inspired! However I am a bit concerned that I might not be able to play with other musicians. Is this going to be a problem?

Margaret - you play the Head as written (or you can make small changes if you wish, but best not do anything too drastic!), then you do the solo for however many bars you're told to in that particular piece, where you can 'strut your stuff'! After that you either do a DC or DS as instructed and do that section again, with some embellishments this time - or else the piece just carries on, and you need to embellish that.
There's more info on what sort of thing is expected on the inside covers of the books.

Hi Jo. clarinet
Thanks for your reply - I'll give it a go and let you know how I get on.

QUOTE (Ursie @ Mar 1 2004, 06:13 PM)

I was just wondering - the advice when starting down the jazz path seems to be that you should try to play with others.  Does everyone manage this?  All this talk about jazz has sent me up the loft digging out old books - i'm inspired!  However I am a bit concerned that I might not be able to play with other musicians.  Is this going to be a problem?  :unsure:

No advice anyone? I thought if I waited long enough someone might say something, but so far nothing

"I was just wondering - the advice when starting down the jazz path seems to be that you should try to play with others. Does everyone manage this? All this talk about jazz has sent me up the loft digging out old books - i'm inspired! However I am a bit concerned that I might not be able to play with other musicians. Is this going to be a problem? "

I thought I responded to this....

Anyway, here goes - a couple of suggestions.

1. Find your local jazz workshops - there must be some going on somewhere near you. If not, there are jazz weekend workshops you can go on, usually during holiday times. If you're in the UK, contact Jazz Services to find out where your nearest workshops will be. At these you'll get all the opportunity you need to play with other musicians, like keyboard players, bassists and drummers.

2. Buy jazz backing CD's and play along with those. Jamey Aebersold's are good - he's made literally hundreds. There are new ones coming out all the time - check your local music shop.

3. If you know anyone who plays bass, drums and piano why not form your own band! Or find a guitarist who can play some jazz and play duos together with the guitarist playing the chords and you playing the melodies and improvising.

Good luck!

Violinia

Thank you soooo much Violina – I was beginning to think that perhaps my question was daft and unworthy of any response I will definitely look into your suggestions and see how I can make them work for me. I suppose part of my reason is that I have a student who is only just learning to play piano but until recently I found it very hard to motivate them. Their note learning process has been very slow despite already playing other instruments and I just felt as though they were slipping through my fingers. However, out of interest I played to them Creepy Crawly from the grade 1 and some other more advanced Boogie/Honky Tonk pieces I know myself and I got a really enthusiastic response. Within 2 weeks Creepy Crawly was learned, having worked out notes for themselves as well! Now that I have their attention I would hate to lose it - so I need to get going myself (particularly improvising) and still find material suitable for a beginner.