A0923 - (TSCR) Jazz Improvisation Skills (experienced beginners)

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Start Date: 23/09/2026      End Date: 25/11/2026        Start Time: 19:00      End Time: 20:30        Hours per Week: 1.50      No of Weeks: 9
Fees:      £90.00 (tuition)     £172.00 (overseas)     £28.00 (concessionary)
Tutor: Claude Alexander        No of Places: 3
Shadwell Centre

Course Overview

Course Overview
This course is open to all instrumentalists and singers who have at least some basic fluency with their instrument, or for singers, their voice. This means that they can at least: a) play/sing a few tunes/pieces from memory, b) play by reading simple music for their instrument (but singers do not have to be able to ‘sight-sing’), and c) play/sing at least one type of scale in at least a few keys. Drummers must at least be able to play the swing jazz cymbal beat with sticks in 4/4 and 3/4 at various moderate tempos (speeds).
The course’s overarching practical skill and theory knowledge topics include how to recognise and utilise jazz’s common four-note chord symbols and western music’s common tonal and atonal scales, how to play well-known mainstream jazz tunes and improvise within their harmonic structure with confidence, and for rhythm section instrumentalists (drum kit, bass, guitar and piano), how to ‘comp’, i.e. accompany others within jazz’s principal time signatures (4/4 and 3/4) and grooves (swing and Latin), and for singers, how to clearly articulate lyrics, and for those singers who wish to improvise with confidence similar to their instrumentalist colleagues, the skills to do so.
Other practical topics and exercises address how to memorise common jazz tunes (including the harmonic structure) for confident ‘by ear’ improvising/soloing, developing fluency with the common structures of western music (i.e. their employment in practising and application to improvising), improving rhythmic and aural awareness (‘ear training’); and for drummers: playing improvised ‘fills’ and longer solos that relate to a tune. Other topics include general musicianship, technical vocabulary and concepts related to universal elements of music and its common notation, and developing familiarity with jazz’s historical eras, ‘styles’ and sub-genres. Learners will perform individually and with others in every lesson, including (optionally) in an end of term concert.

What will you learn and be able to do?

What will you learn and be able to do?
* Recognise, play/sing and utilize the components of jazz’s tetrad chord symbols, and chord instrumentalists, also their ‘block chord’ versions; drummers, in both 4/4 and 3/4, play brief snare drum patterns in tandem with playing the swing beat with sticks and brushes.
* Utilise simple tutor-provided musical routines to build practical fluency with music’s elemental materials – for everyone: common rhythms and metres that reinforce or contrast with the time signature; for voice and pitched instruments: scales and chords (triads and tetrads); for drummers: common drum rudiments and pattern placement.
* Play/Sing and sustain a steady, on-going, improvised accompaniment to bandmates playing live or to recorded jazz.
* Play/Sing improvised solos in compact phrases that reflect and express the composed melody (drummers too!) and/or harmonic structure of classic jazz tunes.
* Explore, recognise and describe characteristic features of the musical genres of the historical jazz eras and some of their notable performers.
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Entry requirements

Entry requirements
Firstly, the instrumental/vocal skills described in the first paragraph above, and of course daily access to your chosen instrument. However, you also must have sufficient time to practise most, if not all, days between lessons, so as to make progress, i.e. at least 45 minutes on most (if not all) days spanning the duration of the course.
Prosp User 8

Equipment required

Equipment required
Aside from having daily access to your instrument (with which to practise)…
1) A metronome device or phone app for practising (to aid keeping a steady musical pulse) – although you will not need to bring this to lessons.
2) A narrow (25mm) A4 ring-binder of two or ideally four rings (to hold music and other handouts) with a few section dividers, but please, no plastic envelops!
3) Drummers: sticks, e.g. Vic Firth 8D or 7A, and brushes, e.g. Vic Firth ‘Jazz Brushes’.
4) Guitarists: an acoustic or amplifiable guitar, but you do not need to bring an amp.
Prosp User 9

How will you know you are making progress?

How will you know you are making progress?
Throughout the course, you will be playing individually and with others to learn, improve and rehearse, for which the tutor will frequently provide verbal advice and feedback. The tutor will also present progressively challenging learning materials, though they will not go beyond any learner’s capacity to achieve and perform, at least at a slow speed. Additionally, your ILP also provides a method for tracking your progress (see the previous box). The rate and degree of anyone’s progress is determined largely by the regularity, duration, efficiency and content of their practising, as well as their degree of effort. It is only partially the result of inborn talent, which anyway, cannot be changed, let alone improved.
Prosp User 12
Whilst there are no formal exams, personal and universal advice and feedback from the tutor will
occur regularly in every lesson. Learners also will be instructed occasionally to evaluate themselves or their ‘group’ or other individuals, in which case they will be guided in how to do this effectively and sensitively. In addition, at the start, middle and end of the course, in relation to its ‘minimum learning outcomes’ (see the first page), learners will mark self-assessments in their Individual Learning Plan (ILP). They also will be encouraged to add up to two personal goals to those already defined for the course against which they will also self-assess. At the end of the course, the tutor will provide personal written feedback, while learners will have the opportunity to give written feedback about the tutor, the course and their learning experience, and to complete a learner feedback survey.
Prosp User 11

Progress opportunities - your next steps

Progress opportunities - your next steps
There is an Improvers version of this course. However, this course can be usefully repeated to embed skills deeper, and most skill levels can be addressed.
Prosp User 10

Other info

Other info
Since the number of people who can enrol on this (and any) course is limited and since this course involves an ensemble of different musical instruments (and possibly singers), a policy aimed at setting enrolment limits, to create a useful balance of instruments and singers, must be applied. The policy is as follows:
a) Players of drum kit, bass, guitar and piano – “the rhythm section” – are limited to a maximum of two for each instrument type;
b) Singers are limited to a maximum of three;
c) Players of wind instruments, e.g. trumpet, sax, flute and clarinet, etc., are limited to a maximum of two of the same type of ‘category’ for each instrument type, i.e. since alto and tenor are different categories of the saxophone, two of each are permitted, but two tenor saxophones would be the limit.
To successfully complete this course and to enjoy and stay abreast of its curriculum, learners should ensure that they…
1) Have sufficient available time to be able to practise for at least 45 minutes for most (if not all) days spanning the duration of the course. You must also endeavour to attend all nine lessons or to miss not more than one.

2) Have decided which instrument (or voice) they will be their main focus over the duration of the course. This is relevant to people who play more than one instrument (or instrument(s) and voice).
3) Have a method and the related equipment for taking notes, particularly in relation to any information that the tutor has not provided in a handout.
At the start of the course, the tutor will provide an ISL email address through which they can be contacted to provide help with your learning, ‘homework’ or for any course related reason. If you need for any reason to have a conversation with the tutor outside of lesson time, send an email with convenient times to call you, which they will do as soon as possible, although without revealing their phone number.
If you will be late or absent from any lesson, please inform the tutor asap.
Prosp User 13

Extra Support

Extra Support
If you have declared a learning difficulty, disability or support need whilst enrolling and you require support/assistance in class or to complete your course, please discuss your needs with your tutor at the first lesson.

If you intend to take an examination and feel you have an additional learning need or special requirements, you must declare them to your tutor within the first 2 weeks of your course.

If you are studying in an online group, then you can arrange a one-to-one online discussion with your tutor, after the session, or by email.

Where we aim to make reasonable adjustments to support our learners, please note we are unable to provide any type of in class or in person support if your course takes place online.
Prosp User 14