Once upon a time it was only by giving up everything to go to college that you could be sure of sustained development in your playing. This is still a great thing to do (if you can afford the time and £9,000 plus per year tuition fees), and we successfully prepare players for college auditions every year. But we know that for many of you, players of all standards from beginner to professional level, this route is impossible, and you are stuck with a frustrating, piecemeal programme of your own invention - backing tracks, lessons here and there with a local player, aimless jam sesssions and hodge-podge recreational summer schools where expectations are sometimes low.
Now there is an alternative - Jazz School UK! All our teaching is of conservatoire quality (and backed by long and varied playing experience). Our focus is on the practical requirements and specific skills of jazz playing, and for this reason we guarantee that when learning with us you will always come away with some insight into your own playing, and, most importantly, with goals to achieve and things to practise. And here's our promise. If you're serious about your playing, we're serious about your learning, whether you're a jazz beginner or a seasoned gigster.
repertoire
Learning at Jazz School UK is centred around the internalisation and understanding of jazz repertoire. (Why?) Because the language of jazz improvisation consists mainly of the melodies and rhythms of its repertoire. That's why good jazz musicians, as a matter of course, learn repertoire by heart. In fact, if you asked good jazz musicians through history what they practise, they have usually said 'mostly we just learn tunes'!)
To this end we have put together some great collections of tunes for our different groups, pulled from all corners of jazz history, chosen not only for the specific improvising challenges they throw up, but also because they are now part of the jazz lexicon.
jazz skills
Through a lifetime of playing, studying and teaching we have worked out a specific set of skills (and related conceptual areas) needed for jazz small group playing, and we are determined to pass them on to you!
As we go through the season with the various groups, we'll be learning the tunes, and using them to explore the fundamental principles of the music - the rhythmic foundations both of swing and latin pulse, how to play both on and through chords (two different things!), how best to use all the scales and modes in different situations, how to lock in with the rhythm section, how to practise, how to create dialogue, shape and atmosphere in solos, and most importantly, how to play with feeling - how to make your your sound your own, and, and how to make it sing with the feeling of jazz. We are passionate about the music and believe this 'feeling' to be part of a magic sound connection with the world that lies deep at the heart of our humanity.
playing levels
We stream our groups (to ensure maximum player compatability and progress) across these playing levels:
LEVEL 1 (beginner/improver)
LEVEL 2 (improver/intermediate)
LEVEL 3 (intermediate/intermediate +)
LEVEL 4 (intermediate +/advanced)
Here is a guide to some specific jazz skills for each of our levels. I emphasise that these are (very useful) reference points for us all (students and teachers) rather than exact syllabuses for each group - we find that compatible players often do not share the same areas of expertise, or indeed unknowing...
