|
I have been teaching full-time at the Qld Conservatorium (Brisbane) since 1999 when I migrated from Canada to Oz. My areas of specialization are jazz aural skills and composition. Following in my predecessor Jonathan Dimond’s footsteps, I use a modified version of Third Stream ear Training in my courses, a method developed at the New England Conservatory by the phenomenal pianist and composer Ran Blake. The core of the programme is memorisation of melodies from a variety of sources, with a view to internalizing both the structural, harmonic and melodic elements of a tune, and stylistic details such as articulation, tone, timbre, phrasing and so on. My composition class looks at the big picture fundamentals of good writing: balance, unity, contrast, momentum and rest, tension and release, melody writing etc, using examples from the American songbook, and contemporary American and Australian jazz. Of course I also teach piano, where I spend a fair amount of time on technical and holistic issues: relaxed awareness, alignment, breathing, hand position, how to sit on the bench and so on. I think there is an unfortunate tendency in the jazz world for students to think that jazz only requires a certain amount of technique, and that you can get away without some old-fashioned skills such as reading and writing music. Nothing could be farther from the truth. No musician at the top of the profession has allowed technical problems to get in the way of their art; and as the industry gets more and more competitive, the musician who has been thoroughly schooled - whether formally or informally- has the edge. I also strongly feel that jazz is inherently a co-operative, non-competitive music, the cutting contests of the past notwithstanding. “Jazz” is such a broad church now that there is room for infinite sub-genres and hybrids, and players at all sorts of levels. Striving for personal excellence shouldn’t require putting the other guy down, and I have tried to cultivate an atmosphere in the jazz area at the Qld Con where students have room to grow and to make mistakes, to try things out and ask questions without fear of having the rug pulled out from under them.
|
