Leading a Jazz Workshop

[Rosco]

So here’s the deal…

There is a jazz workshop that I go along to on Saturday mornings. It’s been running for about ten years and is open to anyone with an instrument who wants to turn up and blow. This means that it attracts all kinds of people, from very good musicians to people who can barely play. This has good points and bad; on the plus side the good players help the less good to improve, the bad side is that the sessions are sometimes held back by the weaker members. The sessions are informal and loose, occasionally bordering on the chaotic. But it’s good fun and on a good day it can sound like something approaching a jazz group. Plus we occasionally have guest tutors such as Peter King and Alan Barnes (two of the best jazz musicians this country has).

I’ve been going sporadically for about five years (it really helped when I was getting my stuff together, especially reading which I admit I still struggle with ) and since the beginning of the year I’ve been there most weeks. I go along mostly to support the thing. Without a core group of regular attendees the whole thing would fizzle out, which has almost happened a couple of times.

The last few months have been a little rocky; the regular tutor quit at the end of last year and the replacement guy didn’t really gel (attendance noticeably dropped because of it) so for the last couple of months members of the workshop have led the session for odd weeks here and there. It’s been getting by but the lack of a regular leader and the absence of any kind of overall long-term plan has made it feel a little directionless.

The guy who runs it has asked me if I’m interested in (at least co-) leading the workshop. I have to admit I’m interested but I have never done anything like this before; I’ve never taught and (apart from the informal sessions at the workshop) have never even taken a music lesson. If I’m gonna do it, I’d like it to be a little different to what has gone before; maybe a little more structured (without it becoming some kind of formal music theory class). I have a couple of ideas that might work; from doing weeks on certain styles (bop, modal, cool, Latin, etc), particular composers, or concentrating on one aspect of improvisation (rhythm, harmony, developing ideas in a solo, etc). We’ve also discussed other ideas such as getting the workshop website up and running to include pages on recent workshop topics, links to useful sites and news on local events. Again, this is something I have time to do but absolutely no expertise in.

It could be a really good opportunity all round. I just don’t want to screw it up…

So, musicians: any thoughts/ suggestions?

What did you find helpful when you were getting your stuff together?

What inspired you?

What discouraged you?

What was the best advice you were given?

If you went to workshops/ courses what were your best experiences?

What were the worst?

Am I nuts for even thinking about taking this on?!

[Michael Fitzgerald]

Oh boy.

I've dealt with situations like this for 20-some years. There are a lot of pitfalls and obviously you've already fallen in some. It can be unbelievably frustrating. The thing that has been most depressing is when I'm giving more than anyone else in the program. I'm making sacrifices to be there and to have that consistency, but others don't value it as much. I've dealt with this in terms of private lessons, elementary, middle school, high school ensembles, auditioned region and state groups, community programs, etc.

My preference is for structure, which means grouping by ability, maintaining instrumentation, planning out specific goals to meet and then doing it all.

Mixing strong and weak is a recipe for disaster in my experience, *unless* the strong are *not* looking to learn but instead are willing to teach - and can be unselfish. Some of the worst experiences I've had are where I get a reasonable mix of medium to advanced players and then after a few weeks we're joined by a beginner. Look, I can teach any level, but doing it all at the same time just won't work. Someone is going to be bored and someone is going to be lost.

If you have the participants and the facilities to split up into ability groups, that's fantastic. If you can assign one advanced player to "coach" - either from within the ensemble or as an outsider, that's great. How many people participate and what is the breakdown in terms of instrumentation and in terms of abilities?

I think the administrative stuff (website, etc.) is less important at this point than the actual rehearsing/teaching. I've done those things and it's been beneficial, but if you don't have a foundation, it's a waste of time.

For my way of thinking, there needs to be a curriculum - what do the students need to learn - and then what are the activities and resources that are going to be used to achieve that goal?

So, apparently there is "the guy who runs it" - what is his job and what is he doing (apart from trying to rope you into doing more)?

Mike

[Rosco]

Thanks for posting, Mike. I should stress that this group is entirely an informal, co-operative, fun thing.

I share your preference for structure which is, as I said, something that has been lacking at the workshops of late, due to circumstances being what they are. That said the structure needs to be reasonably flexible. Maintaining a regular personnel is just about impossible. There’s a reasonably strong core of regulars numbering somewhere between a dozen to 20 people. There’s an abundance of saxophonists (tenor players are two a penny!) and a dearth of bassists (most weeks one of our guitarists ends up playing bass, which is obviously less than satisfactory). Most weeks we can count on 4-6 tenors (two, including myself, doubling soprano- I sometimes take the bass clarinet and/ or flute), 2-3 altos, 2-3 trumpets, 1-3 guitarists, 1-2 keyboards, 1 clarinettist, sometimes baritone. It has been known for the occasional trombone or violin to turn up; even a vibist one week (I wasn’t there for that although apparently the guy didn’t play a single note!). Ages range from a 16 year old trumpeter to guys who are using their retirement years to learn an instrument. Most of the group is in their 30s & 40s.

The ‘guy who runs it’ is the drummer, who was there at the workshop’s inception and who (by default) has ended up doing the admin., collecting funds, paying for rehearsal space, arranging guest tutors, etc. He has neither the time nor the inclination to lead the sessions on a week to week basis and he has reached the conclusion that someone needs to think things out and put some kind of long term plan into place. I’m happy to have been asked and I have the time to devote to it, if I can figure out where to start. I’m not exactly getting ‘roped in’; I would be getting paid for my trouble, so my reasons for wanting to get more involved aren’t entirely altruistic….

But yes, you’ve nailed my prime concern: the mixing of weak and strong. A couple of the guys who go are great; with a little application they could be out there gigging. A couple of others are good solid players, not great but fairly knowledgeable. Most of the players are what I would call ‘intermediate’; they can read, they know basic theory and occasionally they’ll do something real good, but not consistently. A few guys have been going along for years and still seem reasonably clueless. You can’t fault them for enthusiasm so maybe it’s more a case of not being shown the right way to approach things. I doubt that a couple of them could spot a ii-V-I let alone know what to do about it. Of course it may just be that they’re happy just getting out of the house and playing an instrument for a few hours a week and don’t have any ambitions beyond that. Yes, agreed, the website is less important, but it can be used as a tool, particularly to recap on work done at previous sessions for people who can’t attend on a strictly regular basis. But of course that’s only any use if there’s an overall plan being followed.

Splitting the group by ability and taking them separately isn’t too practical as we have limited time and space so that’s a difficulty. There are a handful of players who are good enough and knowledgeable enough to act as ‘coaches’. Something that has been tried before, and I would like to do more of, is the occasional session where we split the workshop up into smaller groups (each led by one of the better players) who then have to work up an ad-hoc arrangement of a tune and perform it as a quintet- septet. They can choose a piece that fits their ability and style and they are more responsible for the overall performance than in a loose jam with 20 musicians all waiting to take their turn.

So yes, I agree some manner of curriculum needs to be in place. It’s just a case of working out what shape that needs to take. The workshop meets tomorrow, so the drummer and myself will have to put our heads together. I’m all for asking the group what they want and expect from the workshops. It’s a co-op after all.