Jazz Improvisation Course At Berklee College of Music
Learning how to be a great jazz improviser seems like an intangible goal. There are no simple answers; it takes a serious amount of effort, knowledge, and dedication. Becoming successful at it comes from a combination of intuition, imagination, chord and harmony understanding, and great ears. Of course, it helps tremendously to study with one of the most renowned improvisers in the jazz world. With that in mind, I enrolled at Berklee College of Music to take a jazz improvisation course with jazz master Mr. Gary Burton.
The purpose of this course is to introduce concepts of modern improvisation and how to go about mastering the different musical and mental skills involved. Professor Burton codifies a sought-after approach to improvisation that has been at the core of Berklee College of Music’s curriculum for decades.
By the end of the course, I learned about theme development and establishing continuity of melodic phrases and ideas to build musical story lines as a basis for improvisations. We focused on what to practice and how to practice the various aspects of improvising. We also dedicated time to understanding how to spontaneously communicate with listeners through musical creations. The most valuable lesson I walked away with was the harmonic processes that contribute to the instinctive skills that improvisers put to use when taking a solo.