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I've just read David Prever's excellent blog on Jazz FM's site where he refers to a blog entitled ‘Can Jazz be Saved’ written by Terry Teachout, about a decline in jazz in the USA.

My thoughts on the future of jazz, in the UK, are that maybe the 'jazz' word has become a problem, not for current jazz musicians and audiences but for those who don't know what jazz is. A bit like the 'folk' word in UK roots music. This has nothing to do with the quality of the some of the excellent music that the label, jazz, encapsulates but - to put it into marketing terms: the jazz 'brand' image has an image problem! If a successful multinational company owned the name 'jazz' I'm sure it would be pulling its hair out by now and changing it, rather as happened with the Skoda brand, for example.

We use labels as a short-hand way of describing something. The label, chair, means something that you can sit on. And while there are lots of kinds of chairs, the basic concept remains constant enough for us not to have to describe a particular chair every time we want to refer to one!

But the breadth of music that the word 'jazz' can now be used to describe, which has grown and grown for almost 100 years, is now so broad as to require further explanation in almost every situation. Because of this the public gets confused: "If I go to a jazz gig, what will I get?" And because it's so variable I believe that many decide not to risk it, especially if, like me, they've been disappointed by one or two jazz gigs where the music seemed so incommunicative and formulaic. And because of that experience, they may then miss out on the vast range of jazz performances that are truly engaging, enlightening and entertaining.

But there's also another problem: the jazz community must decide whether it wants to be primarily in 'preservation mode' or in 'development mode'. Of course both are inextricably linked and are on the same timeline but it's a matter of direction. Preservation mode looks backward; development mode looks towards the future - the journey that jazz music and musicians are on, now.

Following the success of the acclaimed Yamaha Jazz Experience teacher improvising workshops in March and April 2009, we are excited to announce the launch of the second phase of Jazz Experience: a national UK-wide jazz ensemble improvising competition for musicians aged 11-18.

Yamaha prizes and gigs at Ronnie Scott's and the 606 jazz clubs will be awarded for the 3 winning ensembles at the finalists' event at Cheltenham Jazz Festival on 1 May 2010. Judges will include Liane Carroll, Peter Ind, Julian Joseph, Helen Mayhew, Richard Michael and Andrea Vicari.

Each ensemble should prepare a blues and a piece of their own choosing, featuring real improvising. The judges are looking for good musicianship, creativity, communication and rapport. So why not have a go? If you are in the 11-18 age group, based in the UK, your school, college or other organisation can enter any jazz ensembles that it coaches. You can read the Jazz Experience competition 2009-2010 details for yourself and send the link to your teacher, music leader or the person who coaches your ensemble.

If you are a music leader, teacher or someone who coaches or who is about to start a jazz ensemble, this competition is made for you! Entries must come from you, as the person who coaches the ensemble, and you may be from a school, college, arts or community centre, music club, music service, local or regional youth jazz orchestra, etc. Read all about the Jazz Experience competition 2009-2010 details and get working with your ensemble. We look forward to seeing and hearing you play!

South Shields, 30 April 2009

The penultimate Jazz Experience workshop saw Richard Michael and Tim Garland working together to provide another greatworkshop, this time hosted by Ernie Young at the South Tyneside Music Service's home in South Shields.

The morning began with a small number of teachers taking part but as other ensemble activities elsewhere in the building finished, during the morning the numbers increased nicely and included a great horn section, pictured here! 

Both Richard & Tim gave some excellent sessions to help the assembled educators sharpen their improvising. The pair also demonstrated expertly various ways that interesting harmonisations could transform even a simple nursery song!

Tim's global acclaim - through his work with Acoustic Triangle, Lighthouse Trio, Bill Bruford and Chick Corea - meant that Jazz Experience came with high expectations and weren't disappointed!

Richard's fluid, creative but approachable approach to improvising, along with his broad musical knowledge and passion borne of his 35-year love affair with jazz and improvising, meant that all participants went away with lots to think about, to try out for themselves and a whole host of ensemble coaching ideas that they could apply straight away when they got back into school.

On 17 & 18 April, Andrea Vicari and Neil Cowley led two wonderful Jazz Experience workshops as part of Yamaha's 7-venue tour providing CPD for teachers and music leaders who are new to jazz and improvising.

Manchester, 17 April 2009 

The first was hosted by Manchester's prestigious Chetham's School of Music, which stepped in to provide a wonderful venue in their Baronial Hall when we were struggling to find a suitable venue.

Andrea had led our first in this workshop series (Portsmouth) back in March alongside Tim Garland. Class and peripatetic teachers from Manchester and way beyond (one had traveled from Northamptonshire!) enjoyed a day of some great 'ways in' to jazz impro and the pianists among them got some high-level input and help from the fantastic Neil Cowley. (One group is pictured here.)

The day at Chetham's included work on simple impro ideas and culminated in a group impro on the blues as well as on Cannonball Adderley's funky 'Walk Tall' and a host of other jazz standards, all of which provided great material for good players who are new to improvising.

Leeds, 18 April 2009

The second day took place at Leeds College of Music (LCM) where the class and instrumental teachers, mainly from the Leeds ArtForms music service - who did a great job in organising the day - were also joined by the four teachers from the Yamaha Music School in Doncaster. Once again Andrea and Neil did a wonderful job and we even captured a piano duet between the pair on video, which you can see on the Jazz Experience page. It turned out that none of the participants was either a bass player or drummer, so we were delighted to be joined by two 1st-year jazz degree students from LCM, on bass and drums, who provided such a solid rhythm section that it made it very easy for all the participants! Andrea can be seen far right directing the performance and Neil, far left, helping one of the piano players.

Saturday 4th April saw another in the series of 1-day Jazz Experience workshops, hosted by Birmingham Music Service in the Birmingham Conservatoire's Adrian Boult Hall. Leading the workshop, Julian Joseph and Richard Michael gave teachers from Birmingham and surrounding areas lots of ideas for developing their own jazz improvising, as well as some exciting ways to engage young people, when they take the Jazz Experience legacy back into their schools and form their own improvisation ensembles.

Richard Michael led some superb rhythm warm-ups, which involved everyone in stamping, clapping and whooping - all in the name of creating a great jazz groove that was to lay the foundations for the improvising that was to come later in the day.

Richard's mantra of 'mistakes are cool' put everyone at their ease and we had some excellent impros from the various sessions we ran.

A highlight for many was when Richard - himself a very experienced and able jazz pianist - joined Julian at the Yamaha digital piano for a couple of impromptu duets. Richard's teaching is inspiring. There's no other word for it! Combine it with the power, sensitivity and craft of Julian's piano playing and you have a winning formula. Ask anyone who came to the workshop!

As an experienced keyboard/piano player but a relative newcomer to jazz piano playing I decided last year to start the journey to get my jazz piano playing working. Following a week at a jazz summer school in 2008 I've kept up my practice during most evenings but have not yet found a regular practice routine that I feel is really moving me on.

That is, until I started to work on the listening activities that almost every jazz musician will tell you are the key. But what do they mean by 'listening'? And what should one do, having listened? Well, the idea is to listen repeatedly to a piece of music you'd like to learn, so you get to know not just the notes but every nuance of the performance. 

So, having heard the late Will Michael's amazing piano solo, 'Elegy', which jazz star, Julian Joseph, played as a tribute to Will at his Ronnie Scott's gig in November 2008, I set out to learn it. Jazz musicians speak about transcription but they don't necessarily mean writing something down. There's nothing wrong with writing down the music that you've worked out but the notation doesn't contain enough of the original performance to allow you just to read it. So sketch it out if you need to but treat the notation just as a guide, not as 'the music'!

With 'Elegy' I started by working out some of the harmony and melody - just a short section initially, over a period of 2-3 weeks, whenever I got a moment to listen on my iPod. When I felt I'd got it, I played along at the piano to check. As time went on, constantly referring back to Will's wonderful performance, I was able to add additional sections of the piece and more and more of Will's performance detail - expression, ornaments, phrasing, chord voicings, tempo fluctuations, his expressive use of rubato, etc. I soon found that even my performance had begun to come alive!

After a while I did get to the stage where I felt the need to write something down to guide me but I am clear that working it out first by ear is the key; sometimes it may be tempting to write it down straight away but I must resist for as long as possible! When I did finally need to capture on paper what I had done so far, even then I only sketched it out, using the manuscript pad and pencil I now keep permanently by the piano.

I've now got to the point where I can give a reasonably convincing performance of this and at last week's Jazz Experience workshop, played part of it to Will's brother, Richard, who was leading the workshop. He was very moved and suggested that I tell people about the transcribing process I had gone through, so here I am!

This whole so-called 'transcribing' process really is the best way to learn the language. Listening and copying is the way we all learn to speak, so of course it works! My plan now is to tackle some sections of piano improvisations by some of my heroes - maybe from McCoy Tyner's 'Walk Spirit, Talk Spirit' or Herbie Hancock's 'Cantaloupe Island' to begin with. Thanks, Will, for showing me the way!

We had a fantastic workshop last Saturday, 21st March, kindly hosted by Access To Music (ATM) at their Hackney premises, the British Academy of New Music (BANM). The day was led by international jazz piano star, Julian Joseph, and the inspirational jazz educator and musician, Richard Michael.

More than 20 teachers attended, including some of ATM's own teaching staff, and were joined by class and instrumental teachers from as far afield as Hampshire and Bucks! In his 35 years or so of teaching jazz, Richard's philosophy has always been to keep it simple. Considering that jazz improvisation is psychologically challenging for good musicians who come to jazz later in their musical careers, this approach was very welcome!

With some great piano accompaniments from Julian, Richard led an energetic physical workout at the beginning of the day, with shouts, stamps, claps and body movements, all designed to get us really feeling the rhythm which, as he says, is central to playing with a true jazz feel. Everyone felt energised after this and it really helped us all get into the swing of the vocal improvisations that followed.

Later in the day the workshop focussed on the business of leading improvisations with 11-19s and some brave volunteers, who ventured to try the approach Richard had modelled, were surprised at how well they had done in such a short time!

Richard Michael and Julian Joseph will run further workshops in this series. Others will be led by Andrea Vicari and Neil Cowley. Teachers relatively or completely new to jazz impro may join any of the remaining workshops, free, by booking with Angela Whittington.

Yesterday I spent a wonderful afternoon at Chappell's music shop in Wardour Street, London, with Yamaha jazz artists Julian Joseph and Tim Garland. If you're just getting into jazz but haven't yet heard these guys, you really should! The occasion was to record a short video clip with each of them on two subjects:
1) what first got them into jazz
2) what improvisation practice advice they would give to music teachers who can already play their instruments well but who are taking their first steps in improvising.

The insight of these two amazing musicians is stunning! We kept the camera rolling afterwards while they chatted about a range of jazz-related topics that are essential viewing for anyone who wants to improve their improvising. We will post a link to highlights from the video here in a few days but teachers should enrol on one of the Jazz Experience workshops to get the full picture and begin the journey to really get your improvising working well. Once on that journey you'll have access to some great new ways to inspire young people musically and to help them unleash their own personal and musical creativity, in whatever genre they wish to apply it. 

To join the project, download the application form and return it to Bill Martin at the email address on the form. 

If you are a head of music service in one of the above regions (shown in red) and would like to take part in this free national project, please contact me, Bill C Martin at bill.martin@gmx.yamaha.com. Further information is available from the home page of this site or you can phone me on 07970 196013.

My week at the Jazzwise Summer School seems eons ago, now. But I've made good use of the copious notes I made during some of the sessions and have developed a robust practice routine for my jazz piano playing which seems to be producing results.

I can usually manage an hour-or-so's practice probably 3 evenings during the week and a bit longer at the weekends. In that time I have been focusing on working on really getting inside individual scales for 'What Is This Thing Called Love?' and transcribing a couple of solo piano impro pieces. If there's time I go back to work started a couple of months ago on 'My Foolish Heart'.

I'm really enjoying the process as my fluency at impro increases day by day.

The summer school taught me that ensemble playing and jamming with other musicians is a great way to progress quickly. And yet those opportunities aren't currently available to me. It would be great to find some 'minus-one' type jazz piano practice materials - say with just bass and drums or maybe with a lead instrument too. That would allow me to practise the ensemble pianist's comping role as well as some soloing. But to my surprise I've been unable to find any audio or MIDI file backing tracks that will do the job. Of course there are lots of jazz playalongs available but most of them still ask you to pan the stereo mix hard left or hard right (to remove the piano form the mix). Problem is that I haven't seen a home stereo system with pan settings on it for years. Certainly my mp3 player doesn't allow it.

The only thing would be to edit the audio playalong on my PC/Mac to pan the mix to remove the piano. That would probably be highly illegal and in any case is not how I'd prefer to spend my precious practice time. So I've decided to go along to my local Saturday morning jazz jam session (the nearest one to me is in Sheffield, though there are many such events dotted around the country). 

Despite this small obstacle I'm really enjoying the process of discovery and of getting my piano playing working again. It's prompted me to replace my old digital piano with a new Yamaha YUS3 Silent - allowing me the delight of playing a gorgeous and tonally rich acoustic piano again but still with the ability to practise silently on headphones, in order to maintain family peace!

This is the final blog about my time spent as a piano student on the Jazzwise Summer School 27 July - 1 August 2008.

So we've reached the final day and the daily schedule (Theory Class - Jamey's Musicianship Class - Combo - Masterclass - Combo) was revised slightly to allow for a 10-minute performance slot for all 15 or so combos, from 1:30pm. I'm sure I wasn't alone in that my attention today was mostly on mental preparation for the performance. So my questions during the theory and masterclass sessions were geared to getting advice/ideas that would help me with our combo's performance of Duke Ellington/Juan Tizol's 'Caravan' (that's us above). We'd agreed on an arrangement for the intro and 'head', an order for the soloing and a treatment for the ending.

For this piece, I'd learnt that the opening C7b9 chord (sustained for much of the A section) can be found in an F harmonic minor scale (starting on the 5th): C Db E F G Ab Bb. So I'd explored a range of harmonic and melodic shapes which I'd hopefully deploy in some way when comping and when it was my turn to solo. From my days as a pro keyboard player, the old pre-gig nerves returned, like an inevitable though unwanted visit to the dentist's. Fortunately my old pre-gig de-stressing routine also kicked in automatically, with some deep breathing to control my heart rate, which helped me keep my thinking clear and muscles relaxed and in control.

1:30 came and as the first combo bravely kicked off I reflected on how well everyone had done. Without exception, and from whatever instrumental skill level we'd each begun the week, everyone had progressed audibly. Jamey Aebersold's superb curriculum had been a central part of this - and I recommend his playalong books, available from Jazzwise, without exception. We'd all learnt how to develop a creative facility with these scales, way beyond just playing them ascending and descending. We'd learnt how to shape a solo so it tells a story; we'd learnt how to restrict material initially and focus in on thematic development - themes taken from within our own soloing or borrowed from the previous soloist - a kind of musical Chinese whispers.

As it turned out the piano was to be the first solo, straight after the whole combo had played the head. The count-in came and then the drum intro filled the void. Before we knew it the rhythm section was laying down the groove and the famous middle-eastern flavoured melody began. The objective for a jazz musician is to become so familiar with the scalic and harmonic material that using them during a solo is almost a subconscious activity, with well rehearsed fingerings and shapes that may therefore seem to come from elsewhere. Well, like most of us on this course, my subconscious was not yet pulling its weight, still leaving my brain to the donkey work! However, my solo came and I remained in reasonable control, beginning with a phrase based around that wonderfully characteristic augmented interval (Db - E), before building the energy a little. As the B section kicked in, with its extended periods on dom7 chords I remembered some of the exotic alterations I'd learnt and practised this week. So out came my F7#11 chord (from the Lydian dominant scale) - basically the LH can just play A(3rd) and Eb(7th) while the RH plays a G major triad with G (being the 9th), B(#11) and D(13). My soloing was then based mostly around RH arpeggios on the RH chord shape with some occasional passing tones or chromatic notes to help create my musical narrative.

Our frontline players all did superbly but the sense of relief when the applause finally came was palpable!

What a week! My milestones this week:

• Looking forward to being able to improve the jazz side of my piano playing (Sunday)
• Grappling with the de-skilling nature for an accomplished musician, when working outside one's musical comfort zone (Monday)
• Feelings of frustration at not being able to play immediately what I wanted to play (Monday but decreasing)
• Extending my knowledge about harmony and melody in jazz (every day)
• Having some great guidance on how to develop my jazz playing further (every day)
• Dealing with the nerves before our final combo performance in which we were all required to take a solo (Friday)
• Confirming that these psychological obstacles and how we overcome them are as much a part of the learning as the jazz itself
• Being reminded that music teaches us skills that truly enhance our lives and - if we work hard - it can enhance the lives of others too!

Yamaha, as a major partner with Jazzwise, had provided some early booking bursaries and concessions as well as some much appreciated Yamaha pianos for use during the course. We do this because we think it is important to help people of all ages learn more about the music that inspires them. Inspiration was in abundance this week and I would personally like to thank Charles Alexander and his staff at Jazzwise, along with the superb faculty of world-class jazz educators from the US and UK. Finally a big thank-you to Jamey Aebersold for his vision in creating some pathways that enable anyone to take their first steps in jazz, at whatever point and age they choose to begin them.

For this participant, it's revived my (lapsed) love of playing the piano and I've found a new musical avenue to explore that I'm sure will give me a lifetime of challenge and reward. For instrumental and class teachers who feel that they have hit a glass ceiling with their own skills in jazz - especially now the new KS3 Music guidance requires style- and instrument-specific skills - I can't recommend this course strongly enough. You'll make some new friends, be totally challenged on a deep personal and musical level and emerge with some new skills and ways to develop them further which will transform your musicianship and teaching. It will also remind you (in case you needed it) why you got into music in the first place. Go on, you deserve it!

For me this was a breakthrough day for my own playing. Denys Baptiste's skilled direction of our Combo session this week brought us to a point where the rhythm section (including piano) was finally beginning to really gel and members of the combo beginning to listen to each other a much more. The front line - our 4 saxes and trombone players - are all very good players in their teens and Denys helped them interact a lot more during the performance, listening more closely to each other's solos and passing melodic fragments from one solo to the next.

My personal brick wall at the start of the course has been 2-handed comping and even this began to come together today. The course maestro, Jamey Aebersold dropped into our rehearsal a couple of times and gave me some superb guidance on both soloing and comping - thanks Jamey! As well as the tunes where the chords come thick and fast - particularly challenging for a fledgeling jazz pianist sightreading the chords in the unfamiliar tunes and having to choose good chord voicings and suitable scales for impro on the spot! - Denys had us play a modal piece with extended periods over each chord. The horns found this particularly challenging as a musical result happens only when you do more than just find notes that fit. Denys was very helpful in getting them to think about shaping a solo and not giving away all their ideas in every repeat. Modal jazz seems to demand perhaps a more meditative approach, where restrictions can reap rather special dividends. This is something I can now take away and develop further.

My study of McCoy Tyner's playing over the past couple of years, really helped me in the modal piece. I found some of the voicings with much less brain work and I was for the first time able to concentrate on building what I think was my most interesting solo so far this week. (Note to self: practise doing this with tunes with a faster harmonic rate too!)

I loved Dan Haerle's piano masterclass today. Dan really focussed on 2-handed piano voicings that use a complete major or minor triad in the right hand. Fore example, an A13b9 chord had us using root and 7 in the LH (A and G) while the RH played an F#maj triad over the top (provinding the 3, 13 and b9) - a fabulously exotic sound, which his excellent book 'Jazz Piano Voicing Skills' is now in my growing pile of great publications to take home and work on. (Additional note to self: leave the credit card at home next time!)

The day culminated in a concert by our tutors (some shown here, course leader Jamey Aebersold centre, on sax) - stunning and inspirational players all! It showed us how some of the best US and UK jazz performers can paint a wonderful melodic, harmonic, rhythmic and textural picture, drawing of course on their immense experience, technique and profound musicianship. They provided a great musical model for all of us on the course, which I'm sure we'll have in mind when we give our more modest final combo performances during tomorrow's final concert.

Today is characterised by moments of real enlightenment along with a growing realisation of the enormity of the journey I'm embarking on: to become a competent jazz pianist. As a reasonable pianist already (when playing in almost any other style) the challenge is that when I play jazz I'm still having to think too much when comping or improvising, making me often sound (and feel) like a rather poor player.

Of course there just isn't enough time during a performance to be thinking about scales or chord voicings. Pat Harbison's Theory session today was once again illuminating. He explained that all the thinking about scales, fingering and melodic patterns, and chord voicings needs to be part of the preparation before a performance. The big question for many of us remains: how to organise a practice session in order to get the greatest benefit and development.

Yesterday Pat recommended that we focus on a single scale for half an hour and showed us how he would practise simple patterns, starting with the entire scale in a single key. When he played the various 2, 3, 4, up to 7-note patterns, starting on successive degrees of the chosen scale he played "at a speed that made him feel relaxed and in control, with only rare mistakes occuring". When he played he started with no metronome, playing in quite free time for each breath's length. It was expressive, beautifully phrased, almost narrative and meditative.

In our combo session we are working on the song, 'Caravan' which begins with a C7b9 chord, against which I will be using the 5th mode of F harmonic minor to create my impro and chord voicings for this chord: C Db E F G Ab Bb. In a short practice session I tried Pat's approach and found I was able to internalise some of the terrain around this scale in this key quite rapidly. I can't wait to get home and put this into further practice.

Denys Baptiste, who leads our combo class, emphasises the importance of jamming with other musicians as the best way to put any theory into practice. In our combo sessions I'm still far from satisfied with my piano playing, though I can now comp in a useful, rhythmic way to support solos. I can already hear changes in scale types being used by the soloist which I can respond to in my own chord choices. Also our rhythm section is beginning to work together really nicely as we each begin to listen more carefully and are starting to sound like a band, rather than a collection of individuals.

Another really excellent Pat Harbison theory session began today's activities. Pat is a fantastic US trumpet player and gifted and experienced tutor who continued from yesterday's focus on getting to grips with the scale patterns for an 8-bar chord sequence, with some particular scale/chord choices being selected for 'What Is This Thing Called Love?':

| Gm7b5 | C7alt | Fm (melodic)| Fm || Dm7b5 | G7 alt | Cmaj7 | Cmaj7 ||

This time Pat added more notes to the scales we'd started on yesterday. We listened to his playing, copied on our instruments then sang. The first time round we did it ascending but we all noticed how it somehow seemed much harder to play the descending scales! (Note to self: practise all scales descending then ascending - not as easy as it sounds!)

Pat is a great raconteur and told us how his own teacher had once got him to record himself singing his impro over a backing track. He had his trumpet in his hands while doing this, fingering the valves as he sang and told us that he had obviously begun playing at some point in the exercise but got so involved in the process that he didn't notice when this actually happened! His next step was to record his own soloing during a gig, transcribe it then edit the transcription to produce the solo he wished he'd played! Transcription of great jazz performers' playing is a crucial activity for would-be jazzers and this was a neat twist on that approach.

As one among many participants who are relatively new to jazz performance but who've studied academically, we learnt that 98% of improvement in jazz skills happens through extensive listening and focussed practice habits that allow one to dig down deeply to really grasp a concept so it can become second nature.

The combo sessions with Denys Baptiste today went better than my dubious efforts of yesterday. I even had a few moments where I think I played well. The comping was better than yesterday, though I want to work on further as it is the main activity for a pianist in a jazz combo. Terry Seabrook led our piano masterclass today. Key learning points for me were again on 2-handed comping where we learned how to create complete triads in the right hand (known as upper structures). Eg, when playing a C7 chord, using a diminished/whole tone (or altered) scale - C Db D# E Gb G# Bb) the LH plays the 3rd and 7th while the right hand can choose notes from an Ab or Gb triad (all of which are found in the scale). It creates a wonderfully exotic harmony quite simply! I want to try this out also with Lydian dominant scales (maj scale with #4 and b7) and diminished scales (8-note scales with alternate half-whole tones which harmonise a 7b9 chord).

Today's second combo session had us select our combo piece of the final performance on Friday: Caravan. I have some work to do on some of the voicings of 7b9 and half diminished chords, so I don't have to think so hard about the notes when I play.

Had some great conversations with several other participants today - particularly on how we can encourage teachers to attend summer courses of this quality to have fun developing their own skills and confidence in jazz (as I'm trying to do), which will inform many aspects of their music teaching.

(A fun supervised jam session to end the first day.)

We all arrived back this morning curious to know which groups we'd been put into for jazz theory, combo and masterclasses. I discovered that I'd been put into the advanced theory group where Pat Harbison began his superb 90-minute session with a look at the tension between 2 approaches to impro: one that generalises about key and therefore the scale to be used for impro over a number of consecutive bars; the other looking at each chord as describing the 'key of the moment'. .

To date I'd focussed so much on trying to learn the scale types to go with each chord type (though fluency remains a mostly elusive goal) that I'd almost forgotten to explore the creative possibilities of chord-tone impro. Pat led some inspiring chord-tone exercises, where he'd play, eg, just 1 and 3 from each chord in the sequence. We'd have to play it ourselves on the repeat, then sing it accurately on the 3rd pass. He did the same with 1, 3 and 5, then 1,3 5 and 7. The great thing was that the restricted pitches allowed us to become confident and play with greater conviction, as well consolidating an approach which is a great unifying harmonic device in impro. He gave us the idea of focussed practice sessions, where we'd try to really master, say, 12 songs in a year and maybe spend 30 minutes really exploring the melodic and harmonic possibilities from a single scale, in just one key!

The combo class was less joyous initially for me. Again I'd been put into a more accomplished class, led by the superb Denys Baptise but, as the pianist in the group, most of my focus was on comping. I can manage the left-hand comping that I've worked on to support my right-hand soloing but this activity really required 2-handed comping which is a weakness for me. My first attempts were fairly dire, leaving me feeling slightly out of my depth and rehearsing my lack of confidence as a jazz pianist.

Thankfully for me Phil deGreg's piano masterclass after lunch put me on the spot and he helped us precisely on the 2-handed comping that I needed. So, armed with some new strategies I went to the second combo class of the day and already felt more in control with some things I can easily mprove further at home. This allowed me to begin to enjoy the combo session, especially as we covered a couple of tunes I knew quite well.

Jamey Aebersold had warned us that the first combo session would be emotionally and possibly technically challenging for us. I certainly didn't disappoint him in that but already feel I've moved a few tiny steps forward.

So I'm finally here at Richmond's Adult Education Centre for the 2008 Jazzwise Summer School, led by legendary US jazz teacher Jamey Aebersold and his team of top-notch US & UK jazz tutors. Though I'm a pianist and former session keyboard player with some skill and experience in rock and blues impro, to my shame I'd never managed to get my jazz piano playing above a disappointingly rudimentary level. I've come here to remedy the lack of jazz in my skillset once and for all, having found time to practise scales and chord voicings over the last 3 months in snatched practice moments outside normal working hours. I know I've already made some progress in the past few months and I hope this week will help me clarify how I can make further progress.

By midday a queue of nearly 130 people snaked through the main hall, the day's 30 degrees adding to the gently simmering sense of anticipation that I, for one, certainly felt as we waited to register, complete a simple scale and chord theory test before being sent for a preliminary assessment, in order to be put in a group best suited to my level of playing.

While in the queue the extensive Jazzwise bookshop tempted us with jazz self-help offerings. Aebersold's prolific output was in evidence, alongside various jazz 'real' books and playalongs; tutor books and books on jazz harmony. As with the self-help boom in business and personal development one is tempted to believe that simply by reading and playing through enough of these publications the mysteries of jazz impro will be magically unlocked. As a confirmed self-help junkie I got my fix, just in case!

But Aebersold himself stresses that listening to lots of jazz (both recorded and live) is vital, along with carefully focussed, structured practice. The particular things I'm hoping to get from this summer school include improved fluency in impro; a stronger sense of communication; two-handed comping; and a clear practice routine that will help me achieve the greatest improvement for the precious little practice time I, along with most of the nations music teachers, usually have. I'll let you know how I get on!

The Jazzwise Summer School, supported by Yamaha, begins next Sunday, 27th July. I am attending as a piano student to write up my experience for YES magazine (and hopefully improve my jazz piano playing too!). I will be blogging about it every day here so why not check in from Sunday evening and see how it's going?

Jazz is an important element of a balanced curriculum at KS3 and above, but many teachers feel they have only a basic jazz skill level themselves. With the right approach and a good practice routine, considerable progress is possible. I hope other teachers are inspired and may want to attend some jazz workshops or summer schools for themselves. 

Last night I went to the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall to see one of my jazz piano heroes, McCoy Tyner, and his quartet in concert. Following the September 2007 release of his album, 'Quartet', the concert showed Tyner as the master of modal jazz, with some superb numbers from 'Quartet', like 'Walk Spirit, Talk Spirit' and 'Mellow Minor'.

For teachers wanting to enthuse their students in jazz - especially at secondary level - material like this very approachable and highly recommended. It is not difficult to transcribe the 'head' and the chord changes don't come too rapidly so beginners can really concentrate on structuring and building their solos, rather than worrying overmuch about integrating lots of different scale types.

For more information about McCoy Tyner and his 'Quartet' album, go to www.mccoytyner.com or to his MySpace site.

With the revisions to music in the National Curriculum at KS3 in England & Wales - which kick in in September 2008 - there is increased emphasis on demonstrable skills as an outcome. Improvisation continues to be any area that teachers request help with and which also gets a special mention in the new curriculum document.

Yamaha is now developing ideas for some wide-ranging activities specifically for secondary level. One possible project would be based around the idea of a jazz piano trio or a rhythm section. Students (from around grade 4 standard and higher) and teachers would be able to attend workshops to kick-start work in this exciting but challenging area, with a national event to follow.

If this is something that would interest you as a project in your school, please tell us here and explain what you would like to get from it, both for your personal development and for your pupils and state which age groups you think would benefit most from it.