Beginning Jazz Curriculum and Instruction
File(s)
Date
2013-08Author
Emerson, Daniel C.
Publisher
University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, College of Fine Arts and Communication
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Jazz education is an integral part of the music curriculum as a whole. Jazz ensemble
provides opportunities for students to explore creativity (Wisconsin Model Academic
Standards for Music A, B, C, and D) in diverse musical styles. It is its own distinct
art form and should be included as a course or extra-curricular course for this reason.
Jazz music reflects the time period in which it was written and performed, allowing
instructors to easily include lessons on jazz history and American history (Wisconsin
Standards H and I). Additionally, the almost universal availability of recordings of
jazz works that include the composer performing allows both students and teacher to
hear the composer’s original intent. Listening, analyzing, and imitating are key
components in jazz performance and are transferrable skills to other areas of music
(Wisconsin Standards F and G). The amount of quality literature, history, and
resources available make jazz ensemble a logical part of any quality music program.
Teaching a jazz ensemble is often an expectation of instrumental music educators in
public and private school band programs either as a curricular course or as an extracurricular
activity. However, many times this is simply an afterthought of the people
hiring for the positions as well as for the educators expected to teach the subject.
Also, many music educators are simply not trained in this field. In addition to not
being trained in jazz pedagogy, many instrumental music educators have not had
experience performing in jazz ensembles if they don’t play one of the traditional big
band instruments. Jazz pedagogy, jazz improvisation, and jazz history are not
requirements for most students obtaining an instrumental music degree. While many
students might have taken a jazz history course, or participated in a jazz ensemble, or
combo in college, many students like myself did not. Only once I began my teaching
career did I realize how truly unprepared I was to teach a jazz ensemble.
Under the direction of non-jazz educators, middle school jazz ensembles have a
tendency to perform more rock and pop tunes than standard jazz literature. This can
happen when teachers think students would be more interested in playing pop tunes,
or when the teachers find it too daunting to teach improvisation, quality jazz literature,
jazz theory, history, and its relation to other art forms. This project was created to be
a quick, easy, effective resource for elementary, middle school, and junior high jazz
directors.
Another common failing of this modified version of a jazz band is that soloists are
provided with a written out “suggested” part, which unfortunately removes the most
important element of jazz music: improvisation in rehearsal and performance. When
students are not taught how to improvise using appropriate rhythms, articulations, and
pitches there is limited room for creativity or self-expression in rehearsal. Jazz
groups based largely around tunes without improvisation do not set the students up to
become life-long learners or consumers of jazz music.
There are a few texts on teaching jazz available as resources. Teaching Music
Through Performance in Jazz by Richard Miles and Ronald Carter is the latest quality
text published to help the jazz educator including: suggestions for teaching a multicultural
approach to jazz education, rehearsal techniques, rhythm section, and
promoting a high school jazz ensemble. This text also contains teacher guides to over
65 jazz charts in three categories: developing, intermediate, and advanced. The
developing section includes charts at grade 2 and higher. While this text provides a
vast amount of knowledge, many of the sections very quickly move beyond what a
middle school director could use in rehearsal. The teacher guides are excellent if you
have a band capable of playing the charts listed at that difficulty level, but they don’t
do much for middle school ensembles playing from a grade ½ through 2.
There have been many jazz method books released in the last decade. Essential
Elements Jazz by Michael Sweeney is a method book designed for group and
individual beginning jazz instruction. The vocalization syllables used by Michael
Sweeney in Essential Elements Jazz are user friendly, and stylistically appropriate.
This method book also provides additional pages specifically for rhythm section
techniques on individual instruments. For very beginning ensembles, Essential
Elements Jazz provides challenges very early in the book for piano (2 hand chords),
bass (walking bass lines), and extended ranges on brass instruments. There are
multiple method books, and vocalization techniques available; directors can review
them to find the method that will work best for their program. Even with all the
progress made in jazz method books, most texts are still more suitable for older
students, and are too advanced for middle school jazz ensembles. The following
curriculum, syllabus, lesson plans, and appendices have been compiled as a reference
for the middle school / junior high band director to be successful in teaching the
language of jazz and improvisation.