Bradley Sowash, an excellent jazz musician and educator, was one of the composers that corresponded with me this summer about teaching composition to kids. Bradley shared with me that he thought specific assignments with specific parameters were helpful in working with students. One of the suggestions he gave was to have students learn through analysis of another composers’ works. Here was one of his very practical ideas:
Take the Bach G minuet from the A.M. Notebook, have the student fill in the chords and then ask them construct a non-baroque sounding piece that uses the same chords, phrase lengths, cadence points, etc. It drives home the fact that there are still an infinite number of pieces to be written using basic diatonic chords and that Bach was using the same materials as the rest of us.
In this month’s Clavier Companion, Bradley has written an excellent article in the jazz and pop section on teaching students to play by ear. I especially appreciate that he dispells common myths about playing by ear, one of them being that “playing by ear is an innate gift.” Bradley shares that in his 30 year career, having been exposed to hundreds of jazz musicians, only a handful of those began with “anything other than average musical talent.” Read his entire article in the November/December 2009 Clavier Companion for more about how to help students learn to play by ear.
