Saul Richardson. 2018. Here are some thoughts on some factors that seem likely to drive girls and women away from jazz education, performance, and consumption. Some of these probably effect many boys and men in the same way. These are not the only factors at work, but these one are easily fixed. I also explain […]
We are excited to announce that Ben Samuels will be teaching clarinet and saxophone at JWA in St Leonards. A marvelous teacher, Ben can help kids and adults alike to become great at classical and/or jazz. He has a B.Mus in classical clarinet from Sydney Conservatorium and in jazz saxophone from Monash University. He is a […]
At the end of last year seven of our students auditioned for various university music courses. Most applied for jazz performance, but some were interested in contemporary and improvised music. And they all got in to top courses. Most of them had offers from multiple universities. The universities they accepted offers from included: Sydney Conservatorium […]
Enrol now for lessons in 2018 We have an insanely great drum teacher at JWA, available for drum lessons on the lower north shore and definitely good enough to warrant coming from anywhere in Sydney. Jamie Cameron has vacancies for students in 2017 at our St Leonards studio. He is best known for his jazz […]
We are excited to announce that New York Australian expat and acclaimed jazz piano virtuoso and vocalist Matt Baker will be teaching at Summer Jazz Camp 2018. No stranger to Jazz Camp, Matt Baker was a popular regular on the teaching faculty before moving to live in New York. He has since enjoyed a stellar […]
From term 3 of this year (2017) we’ll be running a new combo for school-aged beginners. At the moment the day and time are TBC – that will depend on what suits a quorum of members. All the musicians in the current ‘beginner’ groups aren’t beginners any more, so we need a new combo for […]
From time to time we meet young musicians who are about to finish high school and aspire to study at one of the reputable tertiary jazz schools but are taken aback and disappointed when they don’t get past the audition. Why not? After all, they were one of the best musicians at their school, even […]
Sometimes well-meaning teachers will tell you that “the most important thing is that you just have fun”. Of course you should enjoy playing jazz, but learning how to do it, and getting good at it, will sometimes involve hard work that, well, may not seem fun at the time. Famous jazz players aren’t famous because […]
By Saul Richardson, University of Sydney. May 2016. Learning jazz and playing jazz at school is usually great fun and rewarding. But it can also be confusing and, for some students, disheartening. At first everything is fun, and everyone participates together on equal terms, loving the joy of just making music together. Over time, however, […]
By Saul Richardson. You are not meant to play most Fake Book/Real Book tunes exactly as written. One of the most widely-used resources among jazz students are so-called “Real Books”. Real Book is more-or-less a pun on “Fake Book”, a collection of rough lead sheets for jazz or popular songs. The Real Book first appeared […]
