Guest Editorial: The Language of Jazz - Teaching Jazz as a Language

The author suggests that the blues scale is a useful tool for teaching students how to improvise. He reports that when teaching in a group setting, he employs a "Call and Response" format. Adding one note at a time keeps students from being overwhelmed or intimidated. Once a basic understanding of the blues scale is established, Nolan moves on to the bebop scale, which is the basic tool used by advanced improvisers to smooth out lines and land on chord tones on the strong beats. Instructors should reinforce the idea that these tools are only a means to an end, and not the end in themselves.