Jazz Education

Why is jazz taking a back seat to band in school?

As I frequently do, I was searching yesterday for high school jazz band directors with whom I can share some of the jazz educational resources I produce. In my search, I stumbled across something disturbing. On the about page for the North Carolina chapter of the American School Band Directors Association was their mission statement …

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A conversation about jazz with an Artificial Intelligence

As artificial intelligence is creeping into so many applications these days, I thought I’d share what it “thinks” about jazz and improvisation. To do that, I had a conversation with a site called AIChat. In its own words, the site allows users to interact with AI language models in real-time. In other words, you ask …

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Quick and easy jazz improvisation?

A marketing email hit my inbox last Thursday. It was promising the benefits of their special way of  memorizing and practicing licks, that once cobbled together would make ‘improvising’ quick and easy. A whole system for playing instant jazz much like instant mashed potatoes. “Just add hot water. Your family will never taste the difference.” …

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Another story from the new book by Richie Beirach and me

Richie and I have been writing a book on jazz education called Teaching and Learning Jazz: From tradition to technology – A frank appraisal of jazz education. Part one of the book is a collection of stories by Richie of musical life lessons he learned from his masters Chet Baker, Stan Getz, George Coleman, and …

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This is just a fake book example for the type of website I can build for you. Just trying to use a little humor here!