The Classroom Guide To Jazz Improvisation

The Classroom Guide to Jazz Improvisation dispels the misconception that one must be a jazz expert to give students a solid foundation in jazz improvisation. Authors John McNeil and Ryan Nielsen argue that all individuals possess an innate ability to improvise and that, given sufficient exposure and repetition, anyone can improvise in music as successfully as they improvise in life. Drawing on their shared 54 years of teaching experience and extensive work as professional jazz musicians, McNeil and Nielsen offer classroom-tested lesson plans for music educators of all backgrounds, removing the guesswork and mystique along the way.

" ... Written to organize, codify, and demonstrate useful information which has proven to be helpful in learning to play improvised solos in the jazz idiom ... [for] the prepared player with some experience, who is looking for a deeper and more complete understanding of chord progressions and tune structures ... intended to provide information and insight to the serious player for the purpose of helping him of her develop more consistency in accomplishing the ability to play interesting, convincing jazz solos."--Preface

(Jazz Book). Helps musicians know what to do with specific chords in specific contexts. Lays out clear and objective guidelines on how to turn scales and chords into real music. Perfect for a college or high school improvisation class!

This book offers compelling new perspectives on the revolutionary potential of improvisation pedagogy. Bringing together contributions from leading musicians, scholars, and teachers from around the world, the volume articulates how improvisation can breathe new life into old curricula; how it can help teachers and students to communicate more effectively; how it can break down damaging ideological boundaries between classrooms and communities; and how it can help students become more thoughtful, engaged, and activist global citizens. In the last two decades, a growing number of music educators, music education researchers, musicologists, cultural theorists, creative practitioners, and ethnomusicologists have suggested that a greater emphasis on improvisation in music performance, history, and theory classes offers enormous potential for pedagogical enrichment. This book will help educators realize that potential by exploring improvisation along a variety of trajectories. Essays offer readers both theoretical explorations of improvisation and music education from a wide array of vantage points, and practical explanations of how the theory can be implemented in real situations in communities and classrooms. It will therefore be of interest to teachers and students in numerous modes of pedagogy and fields of study, as well as students and faculty in the academic fields of music education, jazz studies, ethnomusicology, musicology, cultural studies, and popular culture studies.

MENC: The National Association for Music Education

(Meredith Music Resource). If grading music students in any creative course for credit is a challenge, how much more difficult is it to grade something as personal and nebulous as jazz improvisation? Should students be evaluated on their creativity in soloing or simply on technical skills such as chords and scales? What are the objectives in an improv course, and how can they be graded? The instructors whose responses are presented in this book represent over 700 years of combined experience teaching jazz improvisation over 400 of those years for credit.

A step by step jazz improvisation book for all levels and instruments by Steve Treseler. This book provides a method for musicians to play more creatively while clearly explaining jazz harmony, jazz theory, time feel and philosophy. This text can be used in classrooms, private lessons or by individuals.