The digital possibilities for learning jazz
I uploaded my 45th TikTok lesson on jazz this past weekend and starting to see some momentum in engagement. Young and old alike seem to be viewing, ‘liking’, and commenting on these 3-minute lessons – some collecting over 10,000 views within a few days.
My TikTok experiment in jazz
About a month ago, I started experimenting with the social media platform TikTok. After all, it has over 1 billion users with 200 million downloads in the US alone. And by social media standards, it’s still within its infancy.
About the movie Whiplash and jazz education
A couple weeks ago I sent Richie Beirach a YouTube clip from the movie Whiplash as a bit of levity. It was the scene where the teacher in the film Fletcher berates that poor trombone player for being out of tune. Spoiler alert:
Demonstrating the tangible elements of good jazz time
On Monday’s post I asked readers the question, what is your feel for time? I wanted to raise the idea of being aware of one’s personal feel for time and of the importance of good time in jazz improvisation.
About a metronome
I originally meant to write this as a reply to a comment Richie Beirach wrote on my blog. But as I started writing, I realized that this could be the springboard for something much more important.
How I create my video lessons
Someone asked me recently about the technology I use to create my video lessons. He was reacting to the recent lesson from my online course Improvisation Savvy that I shared publicly. https://vimeo.com/500169114/7ec7c98cf4 As I wrote in my response, which I’ll post below, I have always believed in putting forth the highest possible quality in everything […]
Feedback on the Jazz Master Summit composition challenge
I’ve received a few emails since announcing the winner of the Billy Strayhorn composition challenge asking about the selection criteria and why personalized feedback wasn’t provided.
