From the Club to the Classroom: Jazz Education Through the Ages

The Relationship between Teaching and Jazz

Michael Humphreys and Terry Hyland’s Theory, Practice and Performance in Teaching: professionalism, intuition, and Jazz focus on the complexity that comes with teaching Jazz. They believe since there is no way to measure the success of education, it is hard to tell if it actually as successful as people are lead to believe. This idea has lead to a sort of crisis in the idea of professionalism in schools. To counteract this so-called “crisis”, strategies to re-professionalize is to be reflective, practice new techniques, and document the findings. Another way the felt to counteract the lack of professionalism is to stress practicality in the art form rather than spit theories at their pupils. “Jazz it up a little bit” usually references improvising in a sticky situation; Humphreys and Hyland like to think the art of Jazz is closely connected to teaching skills. They believe both have to react in the heat of the moment without thinking sometimes. Teachers need to have a toolbox of strategies to call upon at any time in order to effectively communicate, and Jazz musicians do the same while they perform. They state, “teacher no less than the jazz player - a key link in the web of connection between music (subject), performer (teacher) and audience (class)” (Humphreys & Hyland 8). They hammer home their point by mentioning the best professors are those that are well prepared and great improvisers. In their opinion, the structure of the educational system with dissemination style teaching is getting away from the Jazz art form. Their solution would be to have more jam sessions in and outside of the classroom.

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