Effective Jazz Pedagogy: A Perspective on Jazz Ensemble Rehearsal Techniques

The inclusion of jazz ensembles within extra-curricular instrumental music programs in secondary schools in Australia has grown exponentially in the past two decades. Despite this growth, there is a deficiency of specialist teacher training in jazz education and pedagogy in Australian tertiary institution instrumental music courses. This lack of specialist training in jazz pedagogy has left many music educators, especially early career instrumental music teachers, underprepared and underequipped to teach jazz programs successfully in their junior and secondary school settings. This article aims to synthesise and contextualise some of the key literature in jazz pedagogy and jazz ensemble rehearsal techniques for early career teachers, or those with little or no background in jazz. The topics discussed in this article include roles of instrumentation, rehearsal and performance set-ups, rehearsal techniques, the role of the jazz director, directed student listening, jazz style, language and articulation, improvisation, and repertoire. The aim is to equip instrumental music teachers with an introductory knowledge, reference to further literature, and practical examples to maximise the proficiency and potential of their jazz ensembles in junior and secondary school music programs.