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Jazz Improvisation: a Recommended Sequential Format of Instruction

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31 ^ • S/8/J fiO, .2. ^ & S JAZZ IMPROVISATION: A RECOMMENDED SEQUENTIAL FORMAT OF INSTRUCTION DISSERTATION Presented to the Graduate Council of the North Texas State University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy By Robert A. Zwick, B.M.E., M.M.E, Denton, Texas May, 1987 Zwick, Robert A., Jazz Improvisation: A Recommended Format of Instruction• Doctor of Philosophy (Higher Education), February, 1987, 483 pp., 26 tables, bibliography, 167 titles. The problem with which this study is concerned is that of developing a recommended sequential format for jazz improvisation instruction. The method of content analysis is used. Seventeen subject matter categories (instructional areas) are established upon which the data is analyzed. Coding instructions are constructed with adjustments for additional emphasis placed on the instructional areas by the respective authors. By selecting instructional areas recorded above the median per cent of emphasis, and co-ordinating these areas with the mean sequential introduction of each instructional area, a recommended format of instruction is developed. This study has four purposes. The first is to analyze and compare existing instructional areas that are emphasized in the selected text materials. The second is to analyze and compare the major teaching strategies proposed by the selected authors. The third is to draw conclusions from the comparisons of the selected text materials. The fourth is to recommend from these conclusions a sequential format for the teaching of jazz improvisation. The recording unit which determines the per cent of emphasis and introductory sequence of each instructional area is the number of pages devoted to the respective area. Adjustments are made to determine as accurately as possible the additional emphasis each author places on the individual areas, resulting in a weighted per cent of emphasis. The coding is done by the principal investigator. The median per cent of emphasis of instructional areas is found to be eleven per cent. All instructional areas except two are recorded above this per cent, and are included in the recommended format of instruction. The sequential format of instruction recommends an organized sequential format of instructional areas that best accommodates a study of jazz improvisation, and demonstrates the combination and coordination of the per cent of emphasis and per cent of introduction for the instructional areas, providing the art of jazz improvisation with a comprehensive format of instruction. TABLE OF CONTENTS page LIST OF TABLES v Chapter I. INTRODUCTION 1 Statement of the Problem Purposes of the Study Research Questions Significance of the Study Methodology Limitations Basic Assumptions Definition of Key Terms Summary of Design II. REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE 24 Jazz, The Beginning Jazz in American Music Education Jazz Style Jazz Music Jazz Definitions Improvisation III. METHODS AND PROCEDURES 56 Overview of the Content Analysis Methodology Research Design IV. ANALYSIS OF DATA 75 Aebersold, Jamey A New Approach to Jazz Improvisation ... 77 Baker, David Jazz Improvisation: A Comprehensive Method of Study For All Players 102 Benward, Bruce and Joan Wildman Jazz Improvisation in Theory and Practice 137 Carubia, Mike The Sound of Improvisation 156 111 Coker, Jerry Improvising Jazz 170 Grove, Dick The Encyclopedia of Basic Harmony and Theory Applied to Improvisation on All Instruments 190 Haerle, Dan Jazz Improvisation for Keyboard Players 221 Kynaston, Trent P. and Robert J. Ricci Jazz Improvisation 254 LaPorta, John Tonal Organization of Improvisational Technigues 274 Mehegan, John Jazz Improvisation 297 Morris, Earl R. Fundamentals of Improvisation 331 Ricker, Ramon New Concepts in Linear Improvisation ... 371 Russell, George The Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization for Improvisation 389 CHAPTER SUMMARY 405 V. SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS, RECOMMENDATIONS, DISCUSSION, AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH 409 APPENDIX A: GLOSSARY OF TERMS 427 APPENDIX B: DATA TABLES 441 BIBLIOGRAPHY 468 IV LIST OF TABLES Table Page I. Emphasis 0 Instructional Areas - Aebersold ... 442 II. Sequence 0 Instructional Areas - Aebersold ... 443 III. Emphasis 0 Instructional Areas - Baker IV. Sequence 0 Instructional Areas - Baker V. Emphasis 0 Instructional Areas - Benward ,. 446 VI. Sequence 0 Instructional Areas - Benward VII. Emphasis 0 Instructional Areas - Carubia ,. 448 VIII. Sequence 0 Instructional Areas - Carubia ,. 449 IX. Emphasis 0 Instructional Areas - Coker X. Sequence 0 Instructional Areas - Coker . 451 XI. Emphasis 0 Instructional Areas - Grove . 452 XII. Sequence 0 Instructional Areas - Grove XIII. Emphasis 0 Instructional Areas - Haerle XIV. Sequence 0 Instructional Areas - Haerle . 455 XV. Emphasis 0 Instructional Areas - Kynaston ... 456 XVI. Sequence 0 Instructional Areas - Kynaston ... 457 XVII. Emphasis 0 Instructional Areas - LaPorta . 458 XVIII. Sequence 0 Instructional Areas - LaPorta XIX. Emphasis 0 Instructional Areas - Mehegan . 460 XX. Sequence 0 Instructional Areas - Mehegan XXI. Emphasis 0 Instructional Areas - Morris . 462 XXII. Sequence 0 Instructional Areas Morris . 463 v XXIII. Emphasis of Instructional Areas - Ricker XXIV. Sequence of Instructional Areas - Ricker XXV. Emphasis of Instructional Areas - Russell ... .. 466 XXVI. Sequence of Instructional Areas - Russell ... vi CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Music is an art that is unique in its power to project the vitality of life itself through images that cannot be expressed in words. A highly proficient command of a language is necessary to achieve true clarity of expression. A person's capacity for creative self- expression and spontaneous conversational interaction indicate a proficiency in the use of a verbal language. In music, the most exactly equivalent skill is that of improvisation (15, p. 36). For the music educator concerned about the total concept of jazz music education, jazz improvisation is both a priority and a major problem. From the very beginning, jazz improvisation was created and developed as an uniquely American art form, and logically belongs in American music education (35, p. 12). Furthermore, in 1967 the Tanglewood Symposium reported that "music of all periods, styles, forms and cultures belongs in the curriculum" (46, p. 51). The National Association of Jazz Educators (NAJE) was organized in 1968, and advocated the inclusion of "youth music" in schools. A 1975 NAJE questionnaire distributed to 161 selected music educators in thirty-one states showed that ninety per cent of the performance-related teachers taught improvisation (30, p. 52). The NAJE continues to promote the acceptance of jazz education. One of its seven specific aims and purposes is "to foster and encourage the development and adoption of curricula that will explore contemporary composition, arranging, and improvisation" (20, p. 45). Because of the value of research, the amount of literature available, the popularity present in all levels of proficiency, and the cultural importance given by academia, "jazz education can no longer be considered an innovation; it requires and merits evaluation" (35, p. 12). An organized approach to solidify the value and importance of jazz education reached a climax at the Music Educators National Convention's (MENC) first "Jazz Night," held at Seattle in 1968. The speaker was composer Meredith Willson, and his message was, "the old lady has indeed become respectable" (42, p. 1). If introduced in the earliest stages of education, improvisation, like the verbal language skills, will become a natural and fully functioning part of a person's creative skills. It should be taught through an approach that would result in a unified and more complete understanding of music as a language, integrating ear training, sight-reading, instrumental and vocal techniques, and theory (15, p. 41). The development of proficiency in a music "language" involves the same general process as its verbal counterpart. Over a long period of time, exposure to a particular type of music results in the recognition of common melodic and rhythmic prototypes that characterize the style. Beginning with simple rote imitation of the teacher and mastery of elementary principles of notation and music reading, "the process and discipline of improvisation provide the sole access to the advanced stages of musical development, in which musical conversation within a group and spontaneous expression of musical ideas as a soloist become possible" (15, p. 37). The study of improvisation can be related to any musical style. Within the broad categories of jazz, Western classical music, Indian music, African music, and other musics from throughout the world, the numerous stylistic varieties of improvisation are analogous to the various verbal languages and dialects found in each particular culture. Reading these different styles of music is an important and necessary stage of development, but if it does not lead to a capacity for spontaneous musical expression, it is of little ultimate creative value (15, p. 37). The misconception that improvisation is generally considered as a technique associated solely with organ performance in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and in contemporary jazz rock music, along with the idea that the ability to improvise is innate and predicated on the ability to skillfully perform on a musical instrument, has made improvisation less popular. This circumstance has opened the subject for much research, construction of curriculum
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