I want to present people with jazz theory, not
as a really scary intellectual college level
endeavor, but rather as this is like a core fundamental
way for you to start enjoying the music better.
Most approaches to theory out there assume an
immense amount of knowledge. This is jazz starts
from the ground up. Let me. open your mind or
blow your mind and we're going to start understanding
jazz from just the foundational elements. I think
that there's a place for This Is Jazz to be for
students. Kids, young adults that want to learn
jazz, that want to understand jazz on a deeper
level. This Is Jazz can be for teachers that
recognize jazz as a special, unique style of
music that inspires students. Welcome to another
episode of The Piano Pod, everyone. This season
is all about creativity and connection, exploring
how artists across the piano world are reshaping
what it means to create and connect in today's
ever -evolving musical landscape. Today's guest
perfectly embodies that mission. Quentin Walston,
an active pianist, educator, and entrepreneur
who is redefining how jazz can be taught, learned,
and loved by people of all backgrounds. As the
founder of This Is Jazz and author of How to
Teach Jazz and Improvisation, Quentin has built
a platform that empowers teachers nationwide
to bring jazz and improvisation into their classrooms
with confidence and creativity. Recognized as
a Virginia Commission for the Arts Teaching Artist
and a Maryland State Art Council Tourist Artist,
he performs as a solo pianist, and with his jazz
trio blending memorable melodies, striking rhythms,
and adventurous improvisations. His album Retro
Future draws inspiration from legends like Thelonio
Monk and Jason Moran while establishing his own
voice as a modern jazz artist and educator. Quinton's
YouTube channel, This Is Jazz Official, and his
online community have become hubs for educators
and students alike, offering practical jazz tips,
musical history, and accessible resources that
make jazz fun, inspiring, and achievable for
all ages. Before we begin, a heartfelt thank
you to you, our listeners, and community. Every
time you subscribe, rate, or share this show.
You help us continue to build this space for
creativity, dialogue, and inspiration. Here's
Season 6, Episode 5 of the PianoPod with pianist,
educator, and entrepreneur Quentin Walston. This
is just making improvisation accessible for everyone.
Please enjoy the show. You are listening to The
Piano Pod, where we talk to the brightest minds
in the industry about how they are bringing the
piano into the future and thriving in a complex,
ever -evolving world. Quinton, welcome to The
Piano Pod. Thank you so much for being here today.
Thank you for having me. My pleasure. And you
are not only an accomplished performing artist.
jazz pianist to be exact but also an entrepreneurial
force in jazz education and through this is jazz
that is the your educational brand and also your
book. I actually purchased the PDF version, How
to Teach Jazz Improvisation. We're going to talk
really in depth about this book. You've created
tools and resources that equip music teachers
of all backgrounds to bring jazz and improvisation
into their classrooms and lessons. And I'm excited
to explore both your artistic journey and the
business you've built to inspire and empower
others. As we begin, I'd like to start with this
question. If you had to describe your mission
or passion in just a few words or sentences,
how would you describe it? Well, one, thank you
for having me. It's an honor to be on this podcast.
I really, really appreciate it. And my mission,
especially as far as jazz education goes, is
I believe that all teachers can teach jazz. So
everything I do, whether it's in -person training
sessions, books, courses, my social media presence,
it's to help equip teachers and really get over
that. intimidation that is often associated with
jazz or improvisation so that's uh yeah i guess
that's more than a couple words but no that's
great perfect thank you and you are the founder
of this is jazz and the uh so at the heart of
your work what is your mission in jazz education
to be exact and outreach how are you reaching
out to i guess people through a jazz education
Yeah, primarily now I do. I'm mostly trying to
connect with other teachers, helping teachers
specifically. uh be better equipped to teach
jazz and improvisation and not just piano teachers
but also public school teachers whether that's
middle school band or high school band other
other areas as well the college level and thereby
that also reaches a lot of students i've found
that there is a lot of material out there that's
gained towards students like you can go on youtube
and look up really really fascinating videos
about how to be a jazz player, but not much is
there to equip teachers. So I sometimes feel
that teachers get locked into, well, I'm a classical
teacher. I can't do jazz or I'm this and I can't
do that. So I really want to kind of extend out
to teachers and help them in any way I can. Yeah,
that's great. you know watched your some of the
video clips on youtube you have a big channel
youtube channel and also instagram as well it's
uh of course it's educational but i think what's
great about is it pretty comprehensive you're
not just talking about technique or chords but
also there's a historical elements to it and
which is super helpful for anybody to understand
jazz music and then even like there are so many
different styles of jazz music depending on the
you know era for example right so you're really
describing it so well but i want to start actually
with a book how to teach jazz and improvisation
i bought a pdf but I think instead of giving
my audience my impression, I think it's nice
that you tell us what exactly this book is about.
Awesome. Well, thank you for getting the PDF
right. It's online. It's also available in print.
And the book seeks to fill this gap. There are
jazz books out there that have fully composed
or through composed jazz pieces, especially if
we're looking at beginner. material and and i
love those pieces when i was in middle school
high school i was learning those pieces as well
but there's not very much or you could even say
really nothing out there for beginner improvisation
a lot of the improvisation materials out there
already assume you have a high level of theory
understanding or a high level of proficiency
so this book fills that gap and it's a two -part
book so half of the book is repertoire that you
would do in your lessons or your classes and
it's a duet format so the teacher they're playing
a pre -written jazz chord progression event they
don't have to worry about improvising themselves
it lays down that stylistic foundation and then
the students have just a small collection of
notes to improvise with And what makes this a
little bit different than some of the other pedagogical
resources is it doesn't start with a full scale,
because often I found in my own teaching experience,
when you give a student a full scale, all of
their improvisation is scaler. So the really
underlying pedagogy is making sure that you're
improvising and creating things that you can
actually hear in your mind's ear, like you're
really inventing a melody. I think piano, it's
really easy just to play things based on the
finger shapes or just what it looks like. And
you can just get by with not truly instilling
and really not knowing what sound it is you're
trying to make. So the book presents. students
with notes that always work on that teacher chord
progression. No matter what note they play, what
rhythm, what order, if they're playing from those
notes, it's going to sound good. So it builds
confidence. It gets rid of students' anxiety
about maybe playing a quote -unquote wrong note.
And then it builds from there. It gives them
more options. It gives them other considerations.
Hey, why don't we take rhythm into the equation?
And the book has seven different compositions
that all follow that pedagogy. So there's like
a minor vamp. There's a bluesy one. There's a
Latin jazz. There's a bebop one. There's a waltz
and so on and so forth. So it introduces kids
to real jazz styles that anyone can play. I've
done these songs with eight -year -olds and I've
done them with retirees, adult students. So that's
the... in lesson portion and then the first half
of the book is all about filling knowledge gaps
so it's kind of the the teacher's resource if
they want to know more about jazz harmony all
those extensions or if they have a student that's
taking high school jazz band tips for those it
has improv games it really seeks to be a comprehensive
resource that's easy to understand and easy to
digest from a teacher that doesn't have a jazz
background Yeah, I love teaching improvisation
when I teach, you know, although my background
is classical music, people think that I teach
just a very strict classical music. But actually,
I especially adult students, I have I live in
Brooklyn, have so many adult students now for
some reason. And then, you know, they. feel like
once they sit at the piano, they can just play
whatever they want, but it doesn't work that
way. So improvisation is one of the ways. But
even then, jazz is a different language to me,
and I took lessons. So I'm very curious, where
should we start? Let's say you're talking to
a teacher. Where is a good place to start in
terms of teaching jazz style? I think it is melodically.
And really getting to the base of playing what's
in your mind's ear. I think piano, because it
can be such a rich harmonic instrument, sometimes
teachers feel that they have to go straight into
all of the elaborate jazz harmony and jazz chords
and jazz accompaniment. And all of those are
great, but so much of the jazz language is a
melodic language. And you can say so much through
the melody. So I like focusing on first the melody,
even with a beginner piano student, like let's
just improvise with your right hand. Your left
hand will come, but let's get that right hand
going. And then the other thing is probably one
of the more difficult things for teachers that
aren't familiar with jazz is the articulation
and the phrasing. Jazz has... a lot that can't
be captured by notation perfectly. So the book
talks about some of those rules of articulation,
swing feel, accents and things like that. But
I think a beginner teacher into jazz should focus
on being able to improvise what's in their mind's
ear. It can just be, I mean, you can do it with
two notes. It doesn't have to be complicated,
but can you execute the concept that's in your
head? And then, yeah, and then really getting
the phrasing. So, yeah, that's where I would
start. Wow. And what inspired you to, first of
all? write this book um yeah like is it a years
of experience or maybe decades of experience
as a educator and what you saw in firsthand oh
my gosh this is what something is missing or
is there some one particular or few particular
events that oh my gosh i need to write this that's
a great question i remember so much of the writing
process but i think what The initial germ of
the idea, I think, was a little more subtle because
the first song in the book called Hit It, I've
been doing for years in lessons. Just when I
want to do an improvisation activity, I'll just
play this chord vamp and I'll give my students
four notes. And it's just a way to get any age
kid playing or adult, any age student, any level,
creating something. So it's a great just, you
can do it in the last two minutes of a lesson.
Hey, why don't we try this out? And that was
the idea that I ran with. But I do remember there
was a time where I was like, man, there is nothing
out there. There's this hole in the pedagogy.
And I had a student that loves jazz. So part
of it was like, well, maybe I'll write some of
this for him or he can kind of be my trial student.
So I think there's a few things that led to it.
But it was essentially a last. A little over
a year ago is when I really started the composing
process for it. You said, so missing something.
So missing part was the melodic writing? I think
for me, what was missing is just beginner improvisation.
I guess to name names, I love Martha Mears' Jazz
Rags and Blues. I'm very familiar with those.
Yeah. So I played them when I was 13 years old
and all that. I love them. I think they do a
great job. I think they're really succinctly
written. But those don't have any improvisation,
nor do a lot of songs at that level. When you
get to Jamie Abersole, who is... kind of for
decades has been the core jazz beginner improv
material. He's one of the first people that did
play along recordings. Those are amazing too,
but those start pretty high. Like a beginner
song in the Abrasol series would be like Take
the A -Train. And yes, to an experienced jazz
player, Take the A -Train is a beginner song.
But to play Take the A -Train, you have to be
able to feel a 32 -bar form. That's A -A -B -A.
You need to know six or seven different chords.
You need to know the modes that go with those
chords. And that's just too much to introduce
to a nine -year -old. Or even a 30 -year -old
that wants to try jazz out for the first time.
So that was that gap that was missing. And I
really wanted to fill that gap and felt that
with my background as both a performer and a
composer and an educator specifically in the
jazz area, I could fill that gap. I have the
PDF right in front of me. I am happy to share
the screen, but I know this is your book, so
you tell me. You can share the screen. Can I
share this? Yeah. All right. Here we go. So I
have your book. This is your front page. I'm
just going to go all the way back to the front
page. How to teach jazz improvisation. I love
this front page. Very nice design. Is there a
specific page number you want to go to? Yeah,
well, why don't we jump to 35? And that's going
to be a sample of the repertoire that people
can see. There we go. So hit it. So there's the
teacher part. So it's pretty sight readable.
It's not meant to burden the teacher at all.
And the teacher would just play that vamp. on
repeat and just so you're listening here it's
kind of that classic um like hit the road jack
a classic minor tetrachord sound And then if
you go to the next page, you'll see what the
student has. So it just starts with four notes.
They can play anything of those top four notes,
any order, any rhythm, and it's always going
to work well with the harmony. So any rhythm,
any order, they're getting to that idea of constructing
melodies. And then you see once they feel comfortable
with that, we add new notes. The third line down
is conceiving of things in rhythms. One of the
biggest things with teaching improvisation is
guiding students to things that they wouldn't
come up with on their own. A lot of times students
don't realize it, but they fall into habits.
Like they might always start with an ascending
line. Or they might always start with a half
note, things like that. So the book really tries
to suggest new ways of soloing, but always within
the realm of you're not playing wrong notes.
You don't have to be scared that you're playing
something that sounds bad. So this first one,
let's say we pick or the third one, you can do
a whole solo with. So the idea being that they're
building new layers of creativity. Yeah. But
it's great because you're giving us this four
notes to begin with. Yeah. And then, you know,
if I were teaching, I'm going to teach this today.
I have a student coming in. She is like only
eight years old. And so, you know, I would have
her pick. Let's say today, let's start with A.
Then maybe next day, next week, let's start with
E flat. Yeah. Yeah. Something like that. Start
your line with E flat. Yeah, like those little
things get them creating new melodies. Yeah,
absolutely. This is great because then it's not
overwhelming. It's not. And you don't have to
have a degree in jazz studies or something like
that to be able to do it. It's really designed
to get any teacher, any student playing. Thank
you. Because like you said, I was more thinking
of chord progressions. Like, oh my gosh, I have
to learn all these chords. And then to me, I
took a few months of jazz lessons during COVID
and it was, I failed because I didn't have time
to practice. And also I was so overwhelmed with
the amount of extensions that you had to sort
of memorize. Oh, that's hard. I don't think music
that way. You know what I mean? I'm a trained
classical music and I do, I am able to do harmonization
easily. I'm able to do transposition easily.
I do a classical style, but you know, improvisation,
you know, but then when it comes to extension
and then, Oh, flat five, my mind doesn't work
that way. You know, it's interesting because
that's the way that I was taught and I've talked
to other jazz pianists and that's the way they
were taught. So it's like this, this kind of
recurring thing of like, okay, you're going to
be a jazz pianist. Well, What you mostly do as
a company. So now you have to memorize this exhausting
list of chords and chord progressions. And that
is necessary if you want to master jazz piano.
Like if you want to master harmony, you need
to know every chord type in multiple inversions,
in different orchestrations, two hand, one hand.
Like you do need that. But that way of starting.
I think that it detracts people. And I learned
that experience the hard way myself. When I was
right out of school, I had someone through my
church that wanted to take jazz lessons. She
said, I want to do something jazzy. And I did
the very first thing that you kind of mentioned.
I was like, all right, let's work on some dominant
ninth chords. And I think she lasted two lessons.
And I'm like, what did I go wrong? Those are
big words for a beginner. Yeah. Now let's bring
your book back on screen. I want everyone to
see more of what it offers. So if you scroll
back towards the beginning of the book, that's
where a lot of those other resources are. So
if you do want to learn jazz harmony, I do have
a page in there all about different jazz chords.
Or if you do want to... Oh, yeah, right here,
2 -5 -1. Yeah, so that's a little bit of the
theory behind the 2 -5 -1 and why it's such a
ubiquitous chord progression. If you want to
learn how to do walking bass lines in your left
hand, or even if you're a bass player, there's
things in there. This is the bass line? Yes,
yep. You know, Quentin, I'm sorry to interrupt,
but bass line is also difficult. It is. It is.
It's something that you hear it as jazz musician
and then it's not easy. It doesn't come naturally.
No, no. There are definitely things in there.
There are rules. There's freedom, but there's
still rules to it. And to do it convincingly.
It's good to know what those typical rules are.
So yeah, the books laid out to be, I mean, I
think each concept is one, maybe two pages. So
it's just a succinct way of saying this is what
it is. This isn't super theory dense, heavy jargony
stuff. It's meant for all instruments, too. That's
why you saw that page about jazz guitar chords.
They're your piano chords. So if somebody wants
the top row is simple, what we call shell voicings,
you only have the root in the third or the seventh.
So that kind of walks through the chords that
would apply for it. So this is great. Yeah. If
you have a student that that's eager to really.
run the full race of mastering harmony. But as
you saw from the other section, that doesn't
have to be the only thing you use the book for.
You can use it for your eight -year -old student,
so to speak. Oh, yeah, yeah, I can see that.
Yes, perfect. But, you know, as a teacher, I
can read this thing, right? Like a little bit
more, let's say, filled with jargon and everything.
when it comes to teaching eight -year -olds for
example today i don't have to go through all
that exactly i can just go straight to page 35
that we first took a look at and start improvising
without explaining just use these four notes
that's right i will do the accompaniment part
just no just do it that's the sort of thing yeah
yeah when i i've talked to teachers before when
i I'm giving them information about the book.
I'll say like, you can start this in your first
lesson and then grow with this book for years.
You can use it right away and then it can be
on your bookshelf, in your lesson, on your piano
as you continue to grow in jazz. It's also got
recommended recordings in there because a lot
of jazz is learned through listening. So I break
down recordings not only by subgenre, but also
by instrument. So if you're like a high school
band teacher and you want your trombone players
to get inspired, you can show them some albums
by trombone players and stuff like that. Oh,
wow. That's cool. That's great. Yeah. Nice to
be able to connect what you're doing with the
actual playing actual pieces. Now you mentioned
about part two. Right, right. So the first half
of the book is where you are right now, or the
information aspect, filling in those information
gaps. What is jazz harmony? What are these kind
of things? The second part is the songs. Yes,
right here is the part two. And then let's say
second piece is the Summer Storm Blues. So talking
about blues. maybe more of a boogie boogie feel
that kind of old school boogie sound. Um, it
introduces kids to the 12 bar blues. There's
an uptempo bebop one there. Oh yes. Dizzy Bob,
uh, named after Dizzy Gillespie. Um, I also recorded
sample solos of every tune where, um, I'm improvising
with the parameters so students can hear it.
And then also I recorded all the teacher parts
as play alongs that are on Spotify and YouTube
and all the streaming platforms. So it can be
helpful, one, if a teacher doesn't want to play
it in their lesson, or if you have like a band
teacher that isn't really savvy with piano, they
can just put on the recording. And then also
students can practice at home. that's cool very
practical yeah yeah that's very important because
you first lesson you come and you really want
to be able to play something instead of just
listening to theory you know yeah yeah very nice
yes i'm going to definitely use this now i understand
that uh do you want to continue sharing i'm happy
to i have to move on i think that that covers
that covers the book it's uh it's on this is
jazz .com and it's uh it's on amazon as well
so okay this is jazz oh this is jazz .com i thought
it was the quentinwalson .com that's also that's
also that that uh website was my is like my artist
website where i post my concerts and stuff this
is jazz .com is specifically the the publisher,
the course website, all of the stuff about teacher
education. And then I also posted it on my artist
website since I'm a performer as well. So you
can find it on both. Wonderful. Now, I also noticed
that there's a course that you teach, but it's
actually, it's a pre -recorded on demand. You
can purchase. Yes. I have courses on. jazz pedagogy.
It's essentially expounding on the book. So going
into more depth gives you that kind of benefit
of somebody explaining it and playing examples
and things like that. So that course is tied
in with the book. And then I also have courses
on jazz theory. I think that jazz theory to some
people seems incredibly daunting and overwhelming.
And a lot of jazz theory starts really high level.
So what might be considered an intro to jazz
theory course is actually like a college level
jazz theory course. So the series I have is called
Jazz Unlocked. So it basically kind of helps
you enjoy jazz more. I know that sounds crazy,
but I think that... understanding the way the
music is structured helps us appreciate it even
more. It's kind of like if you, for me, I love
painting and architecture and like knowing the
craftsmanship behind it helps me enjoy it more.
So my big kind of eureka moment when I was in
high school jazz band is we were listening to
this. crazy fast version of Love for Sale by
the Buddy Rich Big Band. And there's this tenor
saxophone solo, and it's just this torrent of
notes. And it's like way over my head. I don't
understand how he knows what notes to play, how
he knows how long to play, and then how the band
knows when to come back in. Like, how does this
solo happen for so long? And then everybody immediately
knows. And my teacher explained that, well, He's
improvising on a predetermined chord progression.
The chord progression's already set. It's locked
into time. So he's playing notes that work well
with those chords. And then since it's a predetermined
length, the whole band can just follow along
with the chord progression. So everybody knows
where everyone is all at once. And just that
insight made jazz so much cooler for me and so
much more fascinating because I could follow
along and it's like I now understand. kind of
how the magician did the trick kind of thing.
So the theory courses seek to do that to people,
to kind of give them this cool understanding
of jazz. This is why the chords sound like this.
This is why solos work like that. So yeah, so
those are the courses they're available to. And
then also I have one on piano history because
I'm a history dork. I did one on jazz piano history.
Wow. Yeah, but I can tell. I mean, I'm not calling
you a dork. I didn't say that. But I can tell
that you are history buff. Like when I see all
the clips and you have like. 100 like 225 000
followers on something something like that on
instagram and then 3 800 subscribers on youtube
i mean you can tell because it's so engaging
very educational and then especially the part
where you talk about you know very renowned historic
jazz pianists jazz musicians and you're just
giving the audience the context not just yeah
right i love doing i love doing that just point
blank and even before i i got into the book and
teaching teachers that was something i was already
doing um just kind of making jazz more accessible
to everyone and that's something i do as a performer
as well like in my concerts i love getting the
backstory behind the composers or how the song
works i think people connect with the music more
especially since uh I'm an instrumental performer.
I don't sing. I don't work with vocalists typically.
So I found that sometimes audiences that aren't
musicians themselves or aren't very musically
savvy, it can be helpful for them to have kind
of those guideposts, those little nuggets of
information, whether it's biographical or analytical.
It just helps them connect and enjoy the music
a little bit more. You also give, you've been
giving like, you know, workshops and training
sessions in schools. That's amazing. So basically
going to schools and then teach band, right?
Yeah. Yeah. That's been really fun. I've been,
I've done different residencies at everything
from elementary schools where I'll take over
their elementary classes for a whole week. So
I get, I get like. All of the kindergartners
and they have percussion and we're trading fours
and doing like different jazz exercises. I was
at a school in D .C. where I had everyone had
the xylophones and I took out all of the bars
except for notes so they could play the opening
phrase to a don't mean a thing if it ain't got
that swing. Yeah, it was cool. It's like a bunch
of a bunch of. DC students were playing some
Duke Ellington and it was a lot of fun. So I
love getting to do that. I'm doing some stuff
at the collegiate level this fall. And then I
do teacher trainings as well. So that'll be like
going into a music academy or a public school
and just helping teachers. So just trying to
do everything I can to help spread jazz and get
people to enjoy it and play it. Wow. Obviously,
you are a jazz pianist. You have this amazing
solo career, too. That's the reason you want
to really spread the gospel of jazz, I guess.
But why jazz? Why do you want to really use this
tool, music, to educate from young students to
adults with jazz? Why jazz? I think jazz has
such a freedom of expression. And it's not that
I think they're not just that I should say, I
think there are so many amazing things that,
that all coalesce in the musical style of jazz.
So for people that want to be very expressive,
you have the avenues of improvisation that jazz
offers for people that are very analytical. You
have all the exciting music theory that jazz
offers, whether it's the history, I think, or
even if people just. resonate with it and they
like the beat and the drive jazz has such an
exciting feeling to it, that rhythmic pulse.
So I think just the, from a musical standpoint,
it kind of satisfies all of those inklings that,
that one might experience. And then also, I mean,
I love the idea of preservation. I think it's
a very special type of cultural art form that
is worthy of preserving. And when I speak to
that, I'm also speaking to the swing style of
jazz, which jazz is not limited to swing anymore.
It hasn't been for some time, but I do think
that the swing style of jazz should be preserved.
But yeah, I think it's accessible to all. i think
kids can enjoy jazz adults can enjoy jazz and
i think it satisfies all those musical musical
aspects yeah wow and also empowering too you
know being able to create their own music yeah
yeah absolutely yeah absolutely now um it's it's
uh so admiring that you are able to teach group
of young people to play a musical instrument
because I'm more a one -on -one person, a classical
musician. So how do you engage them? Because,
you know, shorter attention span, you hear this
a lot. But how do you excite them about learning
music? That is a good question. I don't know
if I've kind of self -analyzed. In that regard,
I tried to. Let's see, I'm trying to think through
like what I've done in classes before. I think
doing hands on stuff is really exciting. I think
allowing kids to create can be exciting. But
have I had I definitely had like behavioral issues.
I think certain age groups, they get distracted
and sidetracked and. And yeah, I think any teacher
has that difficulty. And that's one of the reasons
I have so much respect for public school or even
private school classroom teachers, because I
can do it in a week, but I couldn't do it long
term. It is so draining and it's such a unique
style. So I have so much respect for that. But
yeah, I try to engage the students kind of. set
the set the bar high where where they can rise
to the occasion um and and yeah do things that
i think would be exciting for them one of the
activities that i'll do um i'll say like everyone's
a composer is i'll i'll give everyone like xylophones
or something uh and and take out the bars that
that wouldn't be tonally enjoyable so i'll usually
give them like a pentatonic scale or even fewer
notes than that and we'll go on the board and
we'll write down certain moods like so it might
be like energetic sad happy and then i'll have
them write down or shout out musical characteristics
that are attributed to that mood so if it's sad
i'll be like is that slow or fast and they'll
write slow is that major or minor and they'll
put minor is that like uh loud or quiet and we'll
do that and then We'll all improvise together.
It sounds totally chaotic, by the way. It doesn't
sound refined at all. But they feel like that
they got to create music that didn't exist 20
minutes before that. So and we'll kind of plug
along where they get to create a story or create
a musical piece. So when I do work with students,
I really try to come up with stuff that is really
engaging and challenging all at the same time.
Wow. Bravo to you. Obviously, you've been quite
very successful. Now, so let's dive into more
business side of your being. And let's talk about
social media and YouTube. Why not? It's really
love and hate, right? But you are actually doing
amazing. It's a lot of work. It is a lot of work.
It is frustrating, though. I mean, yeah, it's
a lot of work. I've done most of my stuff on
Instagram. I'm in the process of pivoting to
YouTube. I think one of the hardest things about
it is being beholden to the algorithm. There's
so much stuff that you would like to see. There
are things that you, whether it's from a strategy
point of view or from like a belief in your content
or anything like that, where you put it up and
the algorithm decides who it's going to show
to. So that's really challenging. I think one
of the things that's also challenging is that
just because you have a certain amount of followers,
that doesn't mean your followers get to see what
you put out. And I think that is one of the most
frustrating things about Instagram for me, not
to just turn this into an Instagram bashing thing.
But you mentioned I have a high follower count
on Instagram, but Instagram won't show all of
my followers my content. So it's disappointing
because you're like, man, I'm really excited
about this or I'll put a lot of love and labor
into something. And you hope that it resonates
with that audience. And then to find out that
the audience didn't see it. because of something
that's out of your control can be really discouraging.
So I think recently I've been a little bit more
discouraged by social media than encouraged,
but I think the ultimate thing is to persevere.
Like that was one of the things that really got
me boosted on social media to begin with was
just consistent posting and a consistent presence.
Also your platform, this is jazz. Tell us more.
I know there's a book that you can purchase.
Do you also do blogs? And I know you have a podcast
too, right? I've interviewed people that I will
highlight or feature on This Is Jazz. So thisisjazz
.com is the brand. It's something that I want
to see grow and help. All teachers and even people
that are self -taught musicians and music fans
and things like that. So part of that has included,
of course, the products, the books and the courses
and stuff. But we want to offer free resources
and things that have value, things that people
enjoy. So I have blog stuff up there, articles.
Some of them are. music theater related. Some
of them are music industry related. Like I did
one that was, how can you make money as a jazz
musician? Because, you know, you come out of
music school and you've got a very fancy jazz
degree, but how are you going to pay the rent?
So yeah, just trying to help people. And I think
that one, it was just the whole blog was just
like, here's 20 things that I've done personally
as a jazz musician that that'll, that'll. make
you money. And then the interviews has been incredible
too, because I've had the chance to connect with
some incredible musicians like Aaron Parks, Ari
Honig, Pat Bianchi, just these amazing, like
top tier jazz artists and just getting to sit
down with them for an hour and talk music has
been so cool. I recently did one with Dom Flemons,
who is a a banjo player and a master of African
-American folk music, like roots music. So just
talking about what are the parallels to like
blues music and jug band music of the 1920s and
jazz. So it, I mean, it serves my greater audience.
And then it also is like, it's personally really
satisfying just to get to talk with these people.
But yeah. Oh. I totally understand. That's the
reason of the piano part too. It's like, yes,
I want to serve my audience, but my audience
is actually me. I'm thinking about myself. If
I interview this person, then I get to learn.
And then if I interview you, I get to learn more
about jazz and how to teach jazz. So this has
been really a wonderful conversation. Yeah, thank
you. Hmm. What advice would you give for those
that you mentioned about, you know, graduating
from this fancy degree, but the thing is once
you get that degree, it's like, now what do I
do? Right. So, and then you built this empire
of this is jazz. So, but where do you, do you
start, you know, you can't just think about this
big thing, but you have to start one step at
a time, you know? Yeah. I think people should,
well, one understand that they have to do multiple
things. Like you have to do multiple streams
of income. So that, that can be teach. Like I
still teach private piano lessons. I love teaching
private piano lessons. Like I get to connect
with students and I get to be really close with
families. But yeah, so like it can be teaching,
it can be gigging just within the realm of gigging.
There are, there are so many avenues. for gigs
if you live in a major city i would try to do
corporate gigs get on the roster of as many agencies
as you can where i mean i do those where there's
a law firm that's having a yearly celebration
and you're the background artist or like um if
you live in an area that has a bunch of wineries
and breweries like you've got to learn how to
be a performer and a lot of that is through background
music gigs like You have to master your art of
doing it in front of people. You have to master
your business acumen. You have to master your
communication skills, all of that. So background
gigs is where it usually starts. I know we all
want to play at Blue's Alley or Village Vanguard
or any of that, but you got to do your background
gigs. And then I think a big thing too that would
be a pitfall to avoid. for beginner jazz artists,
and it could be beginner artists in general,
is that the music industry is not what you thought
it was in regards to like traditional success
stories. And especially, I mean, I was in college
over 10 years ago when Spotify was kind of just.
picking up steam and stuff like that. But like
the whole concept of I'm going to get signed
to a record label and then I'm going to be rich
or these kinds of things, or I, well, if I just
get an agent, then I'll be set. Or if I just
get a manager, these kinds of really traditional
sounding paths to success in the music career,
I have found have been more of a time sink in
an effort sink. than actually pay out dividends
that are actually worth it. So I think if students
understand that, or not students, but young artists
and young entrepreneurs understand that they
shouldn't put their hopes in a traditional model
and should instead work on other models, that
would be helpful. And I guess the last thing
I would say, well, I guess there's a few things.
don't hope that Spotify is going to pay your
bills and don't hope that YouTube is going to
pay your bills. Like I think people also will
get these kinds of false misconceptions that
if they just nail that Spotify editorial playlist,
then they're going to be raking in money. Don't,
don't bet on that. So yeah, it's a lot of hard
work. It's diversifying what you do as a professional
musician and it's not giving up. It's just. persevering
and doing it and doing it and doing it and doing
it. Yeah, that's true. That's true. So let's
talk about your album, Retro Future. Yeah. That
blends inspiration from Philonious Monk to Jason
Moran. Yeah. Jason Moran. He's an incredible
pianist. Yeah. So the album Retro Future we did
out last year, it was with my trio, piano, bass,
and drum set. And it's, It has swing in the jazz
world. We refer to that as straight ahead, straight
ahead jazz. And for me, I've always been so inspired
and my attention is always so captured by pianists
that. kind of play with the boundaries, like
are really kind of pushing. So like Flonius Monk
to me is a great example of that. He swings,
he uses traditional chord progressions, but he
has a certain percussiveness to his playing.
He's not afraid to experiment with dissonance.
The same thing goes with like a lot of Duke Ellington's
trio recordings. He didn't make many, but of
them, They're like, wow, this is coming from
that super popular big band artist. Like this
is pretty out there. So I really like that balance
of traditional and pushing the boundaries. And
a modern artist like that would be Jason Moran.
You can hear he's inspired by people like Fats
Waller, but then can play some stuff that is
just, it's kind of atonal, but it's also really,
really fascinating. um that's where the the name
retro future comes from i wanted to look back
to the traditions of jazz but also have my own
modern take to it and it has i think i can't
remember how many tracks eight or nine tracks
or something and many of them are originals and
they all kind of will play around with that so
the first one um I'm beating my own track names
right now. But anyway, they'll do that. They
kind of play around with that dissonance while
swinging. And it was just so much fun. It was
an idea that had been in my head for a while,
like a sonic idea, like a sound that had been
in my head for a while. And it was really cool
to hear that realized and made tangible. They
are all original, as in your original one. Pieces?
Yes. Yeah. Original compositions. I believe the
only covers we did was Take Five. Right. Yes.
I heard that. Yeah. That's your solo, don't you?
No? Yeah. Take Five was solo piano. Tracks on
there that are solo piano. Yeah. I mean, Take
Five, I think it's great. Sometimes I think a
little, for a little while. it was kind of relegated
to like being too popular kind of like like a
band playing freebird or something like oh don't
do that that's been over overdone but it's like
you know it's a cool tune and people love it
like my first reel that that went viral on instagram
was me breaking down the theory of take five
and it's like that song resonates with people
like just because something's popular doesn't
mean it's it's like uncool so anyway That's a
different thing. But yeah, so we did Retro Future.
We printed it on vinyl, which was a goal of mine
since I was in high school. It was fun. Wow.
And so now this Retro Future is available on
streaming services like Spotify, iTunes. Yep,
it's on all the streaming services. And that
one's on QuentinWalson .com because that one's
my artist website. I try to... keep them a little
bit separate. This is jazz. I don't want to just
have it up there just to sell my own music. I'd
love This Is Jazz to grow to have other teachers
involved and other books and other things. So
I want it to be something kind of bigger than
myself. But yeah, QuentinWilson .com has got
my records and stuff like that. How was jazz
being introduced to you? Did you... start out
as a regular like a piano lessons like you know
learn middle c and all the stuff and you know
major minor chords and yeah yeah so when i was
i think 12 yeah i think when i was 12 my mom
bought this 1898 giant upright piano beautiful
mahogany cabinet off of ebay and my dad like
put it in the back of the pickup truck and drove
it and we backed up to the house and pushed the
piano in. And I was like a moth through a flame.
I was just all over it. And it had to get fixed
up. So while they were getting it fixed up, I
got one of those tiny little like 50 key Yamaha,
no weighted keys pianos. And I was tinkering
on that in my room. And so I was teaching myself
for about a year. And I was figuring it out and
I was really, really enjoying it. And my parents
saw that, okay, this isn't just like a passing
fad. He's genuinely interested in it. So they
got me piano lessons. They got me traditional
style piano lessons. I had a great teacher that
was open to jazz, but she didn't have a strong
jazz background. So that's where the whole Martha
Muir stuff came in. Like she did her best to
find resources. that would match my my enjoyment
of jazz i also was really interested in ragtime
and boogie woogie probably at the time for the
majority of my middle school and high school
years i would have told you that i preferred
ragtime and boogie woogie and i think that was
more of just not being exposed to jazz proper
like i did not being uh super familiar with who
oscar peterson was or bill evan was or mary lou
williams or anything like that um and then the
really interesting kind of side story that's
so necessary to telling my my jazz story is that
i was in a bluegrass band when i was in uh cool
cool yeah so i i love bluegrass yeah i grew up
in virginia and there is a big bluegrass presence
there and the thing with bluegrass is it also
has a lot of improvisation and there's a lot
of similar structures you're improvising over
the set chord progression in a performance it'll
alternate between improvised solos and verses
so you'll sing the verse then there's a guitar
solo sing the verse then a fiddle solo sing the
verse than a mandolin solo um So I was doing
that in parallel to my piano lessons. And it
wasn't until I think junior year of high school
that they finally overlapped. And I realized
I could take my love of improvisation that's
in this genre and blend it with my love of piano
that's over here. And once they met, that's where
I really started pursuing jazz. But by that time
I was a junior in high school. I told my teacher
like within, I didn't have very much time. I
was like, hey, I think I want to go to college
for jazz. She was like, okay, then we've got
to get you ready for an audition in a few months.
Wow. But once you get caught by the bug, you're
on your way, right? Yeah. But that, I don't know,
that inspiration is we're trying to cultivate
to students, no? Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Because,
I mean, you don't. It's tough with trying to
cultivate inspiration because a student doesn't
know what they're going to love as soon as they
know what they're going to be passionate about.
Like, I mean, this is my son is four. And I remember
I was doing some work and I put a Beethoven record
on to do some work and I turned around and he's
just transfixed. He's just amazed at Beethoven.
And it's like, he didn't know that he was going
to. be it in love with Beethoven and students
might not know that they're going to love whatever
music they love. So, yeah, we as teachers try
to expose our students to various things, hoping
that something grabs hold of them. Yeah. Now,
I want to talk about improvisation, the importance
of. So, you know, that you mentioned about, oh,
bluegrass being so similar to the jazz structure
where there's this part and then the. improvisation
part and then the band comes back. It used to
be like this in Baroque music. Right? Yes. We
need that improv back into classical music too.
That trend is happening in a teaching level.
A lot more teachers are now being really taught
and encouraged to teach. students to improvise.
So I think it's important to ask you this question.
How do you think music teachers, how important
is this to teach young people improvisation?
I think it's incredible. And I love that you
touched on, I think it's incredibly important.
And I love that you touched on Baroque improvisation.
I remember learning in college about Basso Continuo
and like, wait a second, this is, this is. or
jazz is like history repeating itself because
that came first, of course. But yeah, I mean,
you get the baseline and the intervals above
and then you constructing all these things and,
and yeah, so that's incredible. And it's very
similar to the way a jazz lead sheet is arranged
today. And I do think that there is a growing
sense of the importance. importance of improvisation.
And I think that's also coupled with, or I think
that the necessary predicate for that is people
realizing what has been lost by not having improvisation.
Because when we talk about the great composers,
commonly Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven, we all
know that they were incredible improvisers. All
three of them. I mean, there's this, I mean,
Bach was, We know that he could improvise on
a fugue level, which blows my mind to improvise
four separate voices. And then we know Mozart,
of course, improvising. And then Beethoven, there's
that story of him turning someone's theme upside
down. I don't know if that's true or not, but
we know that they were incredible improvisers.
So I think we're aware that something is missing
from the core pedagogy. So it's a really exciting
time for, I think. jazz to be one of the more
accessible ways for that to make its way back.
I don't think jazz is the only way to bring improvisation
back. I think there's a lot of ways to improvise.
I think one of the benefits with jazz improvisation
is that it has that kind of language that goes
with it. Like if you're going to learn jazz,
you kind of have an idea or ready -made examples
of master improvisers so you can say okay that's
what i want to achieve um i personally haven't
looked deep enough into 20th century classical
improvisation or 21st century classical improvisation
um so i'm not sure exactly what the language
is for that style of improvisation but i can't
say it's it's incredibly important it it has
kids experiencing creativity in a different way.
I think it uses different parts of the brain.
It helps budding composers getting that idea
of creating something in real time. It's a way
to process emotions. I know before I ever put
pen to paper as a composer, just sitting down
at the piano and just making stuff up as a 13
or a 14 year old. So I think there's something
that's deeply important about it. regardless
of how it comes out yeah and then you know we
always say music is like is language so you know
when we speak our native language how we started
learning the language is by speaking listening
and speaking so listening is there but speaking
is not there in music education was not there
for a while you know so I think in that sense
improvisation and composing learning to compose
is equally important yeah as important as reading
yeah yeah absolutely yeah and then and then trying
to equip teachers to do that because then we
can recognize the need of of it and then how
do we get from point a to point b so um but yeah
i'm so happy that it's that it's starting to
really start to to build up steam i mean i've
even seen it in some method books like some really
traditional method books and their theory you'll
do your theory homework and it'll say like finish
these melodies or improvise with these notes
and it's just baby steps but at least it's it's
making a conscious effort to bring improvisation
and creativity back into just standard musical
study. So what's next for you? Is there any exciting
project coming up in terms of like a solo work
or trio, maybe both? And also I want to know
the next step for this jazz. Yes. So a few answers,
I guess for my. Trio stuff for my artistic stuff.
I am, I've got probably close to another album's
worth of originals. And I'd love to record them.
I think I want to play them more like in the
concert setting, just really, really feel them
out. I love my band. I have Daniel Kelly on drums
and Jacob Pembleton on bass. They're both in
my area around the DC Virginia area. And, It's
incredible to be able to write something that
kind of lives in your head and then they take
it and take it to places that you couldn't imagine.
And so it's an incredible band. So I'm not exactly
sure when we'll record those. I often feel like
I don't have enough time in the day to do things.
But yeah, so that's something that's probably
on the greater horizon. For This Is Jazz, I'm
planning on a new book. um for students so not
necessarily geared specifically toward teachers
but a repertoire book will likely be coming out
uh late winter or early spring of next year um
i'll probably be premiering it at the mtna conference
that's where i premiered um how to teach jazz
improvisation this year okay fantastic so what's
so different about from the this is uh i mean
how to improvise book that you yeah i don't want
to give it all away but uh but it'll uh i can
i can say that it will be jazz repertoire for
for students so i think that that's that's as
far as i'll go i i think teachers will find it
uh novel in a good way not not gimmicky i think
they'll find it novel something that similar
to how to teach jazz improvisation fills a gap
that currently isn't there in the resources that
are available. And I've been testing these compositions
out with my students and they really enjoy them.
One of the things that I'm really trying to do
is make sure that even if they're intermediate
or lower level compositions, that they use actual
techniques and melodies that you would expect
to hear on a jazz recording. I think sometimes
jazz repertoire, jazz method book repertoire
has almost become its own genre. Again, this
isn't to throw any composers under the bus. sometimes
it verges on parody of jazz. I don't think they're
trying to parody, but sometimes things can sound
a little corny, a little campy. So I really want
to make sure that any composition that I put
out there sounds like you could hear it off of
Miles Davis' record from the 50s, something like
that. So anyway, I probably have given away too
much. I think teachers will love it. I'll stop
there. Oh, I can't wait. I can't wait. We're
toward the end of our conversation. What would
be one takeaway from our conversation today?
I'm sorry, I'm not a jazz pianist. You might
want to talk more about this jazz pianist and
that, but we basically touched upon basic information
about jazz today. What would be one takeaway?
What's this one that my my audience to understand
i think don't be don't be scared of jazz like
anyone can play jazz anyone can improvise there
there's there's that fear of what if i play something
wrong or i don't know how to do this i'm not
a master therefore i've never been trained in
it you can't like it is totally doable um yeah
don't be don't be afraid of jazz it's so much
fun to play Yeah, I think that would be the biggest
takeaway that any teacher can teach jazz and
your students can play jazz. And the best way
is to go to thisisjazz .com and purchase your
book. Yeah, thisisjazz .com. You can get my book.
We have, I think it's Code Improv. for it's either
five dollars off for free shipping um and yeah
it's spiral bound so it stays open on the music
stand it's also available there as an ebook and
it's on amazon too if people uh prefer amazon
i always prefer this is jazz .com but if if you
want it's on amazon it's uh digital on music
notes and uh and if you have piano marvel um
that's that interactive We're also on Piano Marvel,
just the compositions, though, not the information
stuff. So if you want to do the play alongs there.
But yeah, that's probably more than enough. Short
answer, just go to thisisjazz .com. Great. So
what's the best way for my audience to... get
in touch with you that would be Instagram account
or yeah Instagram is it's my name Quentin Walston
Q -U -E -N -T -I -N you can also reach out directly
at this is jazz I think it's contact at this
is jazz you're not going to go to a spam folder.
I'll, I'll, I'll read your stuff personally and
I'll, I'll, I'll be happy to answer any questions.
And yeah, I'm not, I just want to help teachers.
So if you have, if you have questions, you're
like, Hey, this chord doesn't make sense. Or
just, just let me know. I'm happy to, I'm happy
to help. I'm available. Great. And then you,
your YouTube channel is at, this is jazz, no?
This is jazz. I think it's, this is jazz official.
Official. Yes. This is jazz official. Yeah. uh
this is jazz official yes somebody this is jazz
oh you need to fight them for it no okay well
it's official so your yours is more official
all right thank you so much for this conversation
is is there anything else i mean we are going
to go to the rapid fire questions but Anything
else that you need to cover? I don't think so.
I enjoyed this so much. Thank you for having
me. This has been incredible. Oh, thank you so
much. So before I let you go, we have one more
thing to do. The Pianopods rapid fire questions.
Now we take this segment very seriously. You've
shared your stories and expertise today, but
these. Questions carefully curated by our team
will give our listeners a glimpse into who you
truly are. So let's do this. Let's do it. So
answer each question as short as possible. No
explanation is necessary. Level one. What is
your comfort food? Sweets. In anything particular?
Probably chocolate. Probably chocolate. All right.
How do you like your coffee in the morning? Black,
no cream, no sugar. All right. Cats or dogs?
Dogs, but I have one of each. Oh, poor cat. Sunrise
or sunset? Probably sunset, though I am an early
riser. Okay. Summer or winter? Summer. Okay.
now level two okay what skill have you always
wanted to learn but haven't had a chance to oh
skill i've always wanted to learn haven't had
a chance to i can't dance and my wife can so
i bet she would love it and i know she told me
she would love it if i could dance so that that's
probably that would be okay sounds good what
is your favorite word oh what is your word or
words to live by Words to live by. I'm Christian,
so I'm going to have to go with that. I'm going
to love the Lord your God with all your heart,
soul, and mind and strength. All right. Sounds
good. What is the most important quality you
look for in other people? Oh, man. Kindness.
Name a composer or jazz pianist you wish more
people knew about. More people knew about? Probably
Lenny Tristano. Oh, I don't know. Lenny Tristano.
Okay. I need to look this person up. Okay. Now,
level three. Two more questions to go. All right.
Name one piece or one song in your current playlist.
It doesn't matter what genre it is. Oh, just
one piece or one song. I was listening to Brad
Meldow play Think of One, which is a Thelonious
Monk. I'm working on Monk and I wanted to hear
how he interpreted that piece. Okay. I'll check
it out. Now fill in the blank. Usually it's music
is blank, but for you, it's jazz is blank. Creative.
Oh, yeah. Great. Great answer. Quentin, thank
you so much for joining us today, for sharing
your story and with some expertise. I really
enjoyed it. And thank you so much for being such,
for your openness and generosity. So to our audience,
if you'd like to explore more of Quentin's work,
visit his website at QuentinWalston .com and
follow his YouTube channel at This Is Jazz Official.
full practical jazz tips and educational materials
and performance clips as well. And behind the
scenes insights into his projects. You can also
connect with him on Instagram, Quentin Walston.
And you can find all the links in the show notes.
And of course, a huge thank you to all of you,
our faithful fans and listeners for tuning in.
If you enjoyed today's episode, please give it
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It's one of the best ways to help our community
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Pod on Substack, TikTok, and LinkedIn. I'll see
you in the next episode of The Piano Pod. Thank
you so much, Quentin. Thank you. I appreciate
it. Thank you so much. Yay.