Ever wanted to unravel the mysteries of improvisation and deepen your understanding of how music works? How To Play Jazz is a course designed to develop your theoretical understanding of melody, harmony and rhythm through a practical exploration of jazz and swing. By the end of the course you will:
- Have expanded your repertoire to include essential jazz standards
- Be able to explain how each jazz standard works harmonically
- Be able to confidently solo
- Be able to accompany other soloist
- Have performed with a professional rhythm section
- Have a fully chromatic instrument
- Be familiar with scales, chords and arpeggios
- Have a basic grasp of music notation (it doesn’t matter if you don’t regularly use it, your ears are the most important requirement).
Although How to Play Jazz is an inclusive course for players of all styles and instruments there are some requirements to consider. Players should:
A multi-instrumentalist jazz and folk player, Pete Thomas has been embracing the eclectic for many years. He has studied jazz at Goldsmiths and Klezmer at SOAS, plays gypsy accordion for Tatcho Drom, old time double bass for Cut-a-Shine, Aaron Jonah and the Nightcaps and is to be found playing jazz piano and squeezebox in Chats Palace’s very own house band, the Flat Foot Floogies, each Thursday. A trained teacher, Pete holds a PG Diploma in Music Education and a PGCE Music from the Institute of Education, University of London. He also loves to sing.