Liverpool hosts a rich trove of adult musicians seeking to attain skills in jazz and improvisation. While only a few of them aspire to perform in public or become professional they devote themselves religiously to private lessons as well as attending classes, workshops etc.
An example of this is the weekly Penny Lane Jazz Workshop that I lead, held at the Elm Hall Methodist Church in Liverpool (L18 1LF) on Thursdays between 7-9PM.
The sessions can involve anywhere from 10-20 people, comprising mostly of saxophonists, guitarists, pianists, and a bassist and drummer. We readily welcome more brass players and vocalists as well. For that matter, any and all instruments are welcome.
Having taught improvisation at Brunel University for twenty years as well as a few years at City College of New York before that, I feel reasonably well qualified to tackle what is a difficult discipline to “teach,” similar to other creative pursuits (writing, visual art, acting, etc.) Our role is more to facilitate and guide the student towards finding their creative voice from within themselves otherwise known as “Teaching without instruction.”
The distinguished novelist, Fay Weldon, who was a colleague of mine at Brunel for many years said the about teaching writing. “I don’t so much teach writing but attempt to encourage them to get so many ideas exploding in their head that they have no choice to but to explore them”.
The one area that might be an exception to the above approach is to emphasise that the student must master their instrument. This of course, is applicable to any style of music whether improvisation is used or not. There remains a widely held myth that improvisation is solely based on “playing what you feel” while making one’s foray into a creative space expressing what’s “in their heart”. Well…here’s the problem. If one possesses few technical skills and cannot maintain a reasonable tone and tuning on their instrument or voice, their attempts to create will be severely compromised. It’s like expecting someone with a brilliant mind to give a talk with no oratory skills, or write an article with sub-par writing abilities laden with misspellings, poor syntax, jumbled overlong and misleading sentences. Communication is about half of the process.
Finally, it has been said by Derek Bailey (1930-2005) the legendary British guitarist, composer, and teacher that “Improvisation is the most widely practiced, yet least understood musical activity worldwide.” Wow. So where does this leave us?
No matter! Get practising and creating, and if you are based in the Liverpool area come along and give the Penny Lane Jazz Workshop a whirl.
For more information, email me at Frank@frankgriffith.co.uk or call me on 07976 313224