The students in our JazzLab are so good, so fun to work with, and learning so much! Yesterday was a unique situation with two key players (bass and piano) out for different reasons. But everyone showed up and did a great job of improvising not just in terms of improvising over chord changes but as instrumentalists and musicians in a group with a need to make some on the spot changes to arrangements and such!
We’ve been working hard on the art of improvisation and ensemble playing in the jazz tradition, and everyone regardless of confidence level can participate in chord tone work, playing the chord tones in time over the chord changes and the form, and the same thing with chord scales, and, this summer we’re also going to work improvisation off of the melody as well, which everyone should be able to do, and we’re going to introduce background lines in a much bigger way. It’s going to be great! Want to play jazz? Come join us!
