This method aims to help balance chord-scale driven improvisation pedagogy, by focusing on melody over harmony. Working first from a single tonic drone, students strengthen their relationship with each of the twelve chromatic pitches through experimentation, imitation, and reflection. Key melodic concepts, including tension and release, call and response, sequencing, and gesture take precedence over harmonic complexity.

If you’re reading this, you probably want to become a better sight reader. Hopefully, these etudes can help you work toward achieving that goal. There are twelve etudes in this set, one for each of the twelve major tonal centers. If you are not as familiar reading in Gb as you are in F, then working on these etudes in numerical order might feel like a progressive challenge. Each etude is built from nine 12-bar choruses of the blues, labeled with rehearsal letters. They are intended to provide a steady increase in difficulty from Chorus A and B to Chorus H and I.

Beginning with the Boswell Sisters in the mid-1920s through to the present day, this lecture traces the history of group vocal jazz by examining thirteen influential ensembles whose approach to performing and arranging shaped modern vocal jazz ensemble practice.

My chief objective as an educator is to provide students with the skills and knowledge that enable versatility and will empower them to engage in diverse musical work. I often emphasize student reflection, with a focus on evaluating process over product. I believe that my success as a teacher depends on my ability to establish trust with students, and trust begins with honesty. Through my own passion and curiosity, I seek to inspire the same dispositions in my students.

Aural Skills
Vocal Skills
Keyboard Skills
Improvisation Skills
Songwriting Skills
Production Skills
Entrepreneurial Skills

I believe I have an opportunity as an educator to foster a more diverse and inclusive society. The Western art tradition has been historically disseminated through ethnocentric colonial coercion, and maintained in the United States through the express exclusion of musical traditions of the African diaspora, as well as those traditions associated with communities of lower socioeconomic standing. Until we are willing to make room for a more inclusive vision of what it means to study music, we will continue to fall short in our pursuit of a more inclusive society.

This workshop addresses everything you need to know to begin your journey in vocal jazz education. With practical guidance for choral/vocal educators with little to no prior experience in jazz, we’ll cover the basics of ensemble vocal jazz, especially as it departs from traditional choral idioms, including repertoire selection, improv, theory, and accompanying skills, and amplification. We’ll also discuss preparation of NYSSMA vocal jazz solos, from how to approach the first and second chorus of the tune to the blues improv and sight-reading components.

Five 8-bar melodies that meet the manual criteria for NYSSMA Level VI Vocal Jazz.

We all know the importance of listening when learning jazz, but selecting the right model recordings for our students can sometimes be a daunting task. Moreover, many students need more guidance to know what we want them to hear from the artists and albums we assign. In this brief guide, I offer my principles of targeted listening, sample goals with suggested approaches, and practical playlists perfect for every pedagogical purpose.