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. For the fifth episode of
season six, I invited Quentin Walston, jazz pianist,
recording artist, educator, and founder of This
Is Jazz, whose mission is to make jazz education
accessible to everyone. In our conversation,
you'll hear how Quentin bridges performance,
pedagogy, and entrepreneurship through his acclaimed
book, How to Teach Jazz and Improvisation, and
his growing online platform that's empowering
teachers and students around the world. 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. 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. Don't be scared of jazz. Anyone can
play jazz. Anyone can improvise. This fun and
inspiring episode premieres tomorrow, Tuesday,
November 11th at 8 p .m. Eastern Time on our
YouTube channel. The audio version will also
be available wherever you listen to podcasts.