Teaching Jazz Standard Writing in a College-Level Songwriting Class Setting

Songwriting has become an essential skill for future musicians. It is inevitable for musicians to write a wide variety of songs according to the ongoing changes of market trends and various commercial purposes. Since there is an increasing need for songwriting classes in academia, it would be beneficial for future college educators to create teaching methods when preparing for the courses. This article provides step-by-step methods for instructors to guide students to write jazz standards. The methods include designing harmonic progressions, composing melodies, organizing the formal structure, and writing lyrics. In the future, I hope to help foster younger generations of jazz classics.

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Published in Jazz Education in Research and Practice Vol.4 No.1

Elaborating the 12-Bar Blues Form in Stride Piano Improvisation

Stride is an early solo jazz piano style that was popular during the 1930s. It was influenced by ragtime music pioneered by Scott Joplin. This performance practice creates performing challenges by combining jazz improvisation and virtuosic piano techniques. This article provides approaches to learning to improvise stride blues in various aspects, from elaborating the four-bar tonic key to the entire blues form. The examples of different stride blues changes and harmonic elaborations offer a better understanding on the history of 12-bar blues and more possibilities for young players to experiment with their creativity in improvisations.

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Published in Jazz Education in Research and Practice Vol.4 No.1

Designing Interactive Teaching Materials
for College-Level Jazz History Courses:
Primary and Secondary Resources
as Main Aids

A solid understanding of the history of jazz is crucial for young students preparing for their careers as professional jazz musicians. It is also important for them to know how jazz influenced recent pop/commercial music and what made jazz so unique in different eras. The increasing availability of textbooks on the history of jazz has widely contributed to the need for courses on the subject and included a massive amount of information, but is there any other way to engage students in learning and listening in class without textbooks? Could there be innovative ideas beyond traditional lectures to keep the class fun and vibrant? This article focuses on teaching jazz history in an interactive way by providing templates of assignments, slides, and handouts based on presentations of primary and secondary resources. With primary resources—such as recordings, photographs, and transcribed interviews—and secondary resources (album reviews, for example), students will be able to comprehend and examine historical facts critically.

Published in Jazz Education in Research and Practice Vol.6 No.1 in Jan 2025.

A Step-By-Step Physical Approach
to Simultaneous Jazz Piano
Comping/Soloing

The ability to comp and solo simultaneously is essential for every jazz pianist. This skill is considered the standardized performance practice in jazz improvisation that came from the style of piano masters such as Red Garland. Although this performing technique is commonly heard and widely taught, it can be challenging for beginners when they get used to the sounds of rootless voicings and coordinate between two hands playing different rhythms. Since jazz music resulted from the grooves and rhythms of African American music cultures, it is crucial for educators to teach students this technique by explaining how fingers interact with the keys. This article provides step-by-step approaches to learning simultaneous comping/soloing from rootless voicings to two-hand coordination at different levels. The examples of rootless voicings and exercises using the 12-bar blues form offer young players a more precise idea of the physical movements of piano playing.​
 

Published in Jazz Education in Research and Practice Vol.6 No.1 in Jan 2025.

Three Strikes As Well: Asian, Women and Jazz

In 1951’s Downbeat Magazine, Leonard Feather identified the primary issue facing British jazz pianist Marian McPartland’s work as a musician, none of which had to do with her ability to perform: McPartland has “three hopeless strikes against her: English, white, and a woman” (Feather, 1951). Yet, “three strikes” does not solely apply to McPartland. Women jazz musicians outside the United States face more significant opposition due to gender and race. 
Current jazz scholarship has long recognized the continuous discussion of jazz and gender in historical, cultural, societal, and advocacy aspects; however, the presence of AAPI women jazz musicians is rarely given much attention in research. Furthermore, the history of jazz has been centered on white, black, and occasionally Latinx musicians, which results in the limited availability of literature discussing jazz movements by AAPI musicians. In short, there is a need for a better understanding of how AAPI women jazz musicians see their roles in today’s jazz world. 
This paper presents how Asian-American Pacific Islander (AAPI) women jazz musicians view the “three strikes” and their cultural, gendered, and musical impact on careers. The study is divided into two parts. The first part provides literature reviews of articles by Feather, Monica Herzig, Kevin Fellezs, and Yoko Suzuki on how they defined “three strikes” in the context of music. The second part consists of my analysis of semi-structured interviews with eleven AAPI women jazz musicians of different nationalities, instruments, and generations. The two parts will lead to the outcome of the research, which expects to examine how AAPI women jazz musicians perceive the definition of “three strikes” based on their cultural backgrounds, gender roles, and music experiences, to advocate for their presence in future jazz and gender studies, and better to contribute scholarship on jazz movements by AAPI musicians.

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Will be published in the special issue of jazz and gender, Journal of Jazz Studies, in Spring 2025.

A New Definition of Jazz Pedagogy Resource Books 

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