Fifty years ago, learning jazz was based on apprenticeship on the bandstand, preceded by lessons with a classical teacher and a lot of hanging at the clubs. Possibly the latter was substituted by the new Long Play stereo records. Since then, jazz has become an institutionalized art form with prescribed course material. The books have often received a position as one-stop solutions; some deservingly, others far more questionably. Where classical music education found its uniformly accepted teaching methods centuries ago, jazz is still searching for its true scholars. Thus far, jazz pedagogy is largely based on following performers' ideas, and in a way this may be what the jazz tradition asks for, especially if the performers in question are good ones. However, colleges are now offering a theoretical base for learning jazz and it is reasonable to believe jazz schools are here to stay forever.
The question is not whether schools are a part of jazz culture, but what material is taught at the schools, and how to prevent an aesthetic where classical thinking takes over the entire art form. Schools such as Berklee College of Music promote a free-wheeling popular music “lifestyle experience" of learning. A music industry microcosm it may be, but it does not guarantee a comprehensive jazz education for each student. Jazz programs at European conservatories are often relying on recent jazz trends, and adding local folk music culture into the gem. A much discussed topic of whether that is jazz is not a concern, but whether the result is a qualitative canon by itself. A conservatory-based compound art form may not emerge into a tradition very quickly. Then there are the many jazz programs across North America. Some do indeed offer a truthful insight into jazz as American music, and their approach is correct in terms of conveying the aspects of tradition and repertoire. The only problem may be a lack of comprehensive theoretical information, which is too often limited to impractical and incomplete knowledge.
Core Music Bundle - a new seven-in-one package released by Blue Music Group for a mere twelve and a half dollars - offers comprehensive references to the most important musical topics: instrumentation, harmony, improvisation and analysis. Combined with excellent prefaces to each topic, the material comprises all that a learning musician ever needs: A minimal amount of “talk" and a maximum amount of information and unabridged references. This package could indeed be used in a multiyear program as a main guide. The examples are few but thorough, and each subject presented in a graphic, rather than text-oriented manner. Where many books need translation, this package offers a direct, universal access, save for the prefaces, which can be google-translated for no charge.
This package proves it is possible to learn by listening and applying the facts as presented by Core Music Bundle. As ample complements, Blue Music Group offers high quality recordings with legends such as Carmen McRae, Ray Brown, Erroll Garner, Count Basie, Sonny Rollins and many others. This combination may present a much anticipated solution to the aforementioned issues in jazz education, which urgently needs to restore its tradition of apprenticeship on the bandstand, without abolishing any of the theoretical dimensions. Needless to say, Core Music Bundle is strongly recommended to students of all jazz and popular music styles.
The question is not whether schools are a part of jazz culture, but what material is taught at the schools, and how to prevent an aesthetic where classical thinking takes over the entire art form. Schools such as Berklee College of Music promote a free-wheeling popular music “lifestyle experience" of learning. A music industry microcosm it may be, but it does not guarantee a comprehensive jazz education for each student. Jazz programs at European conservatories are often relying on recent jazz trends, and adding local folk music culture into the gem. A much discussed topic of whether that is jazz is not a concern, but whether the result is a qualitative canon by itself. A conservatory-based compound art form may not emerge into a tradition very quickly. Then there are the many jazz programs across North America. Some do indeed offer a truthful insight into jazz as American music, and their approach is correct in terms of conveying the aspects of tradition and repertoire. The only problem may be a lack of comprehensive theoretical information, which is too often limited to impractical and incomplete knowledge.
Core Music Bundle - a new seven-in-one package released by Blue Music Group for a mere twelve and a half dollars - offers comprehensive references to the most important musical topics: instrumentation, harmony, improvisation and analysis. Combined with excellent prefaces to each topic, the material comprises all that a learning musician ever needs: A minimal amount of “talk" and a maximum amount of information and unabridged references. This package could indeed be used in a multiyear program as a main guide. The examples are few but thorough, and each subject presented in a graphic, rather than text-oriented manner. Where many books need translation, this package offers a direct, universal access, save for the prefaces, which can be google-translated for no charge.
This package proves it is possible to learn by listening and applying the facts as presented by Core Music Bundle. As ample complements, Blue Music Group offers high quality recordings with legends such as Carmen McRae, Ray Brown, Erroll Garner, Count Basie, Sonny Rollins and many others. This combination may present a much anticipated solution to the aforementioned issues in jazz education, which urgently needs to restore its tradition of apprenticeship on the bandstand, without abolishing any of the theoretical dimensions. Needless to say, Core Music Bundle is strongly recommended to students of all jazz and popular music styles.
