We wish you a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and very best wishes for 2026! If you’ve been part of JWA this year – thank you! Thanks for supporting our unique musical community and congratulations for being one of the special ones who take the plunge and learn an instrument, learn how to play jazz, or support your child or kids to play music.
“Music boosts academic achievement”
We hear a lot about how great music is for boosting academic achievement or whatever. That’s nice and maybe, one day, there will be a high-quality and substantial study to really show this (a 2009 study found that walking on a treadmill boosted children’s academic achievement1, so…). There probably is a link between music and academic achievement, but fundamentally music is an important cultural practice. It’s part of being human. A world without it that’s just all about making money and maximising prestige through high maths exam marks would be a cold, dull, and unpleasant one. Music is valuable for its own sake, and congratulations to you for understanding that.
Jazz teaches invaluable skills
Jazz, of course, brings other benefits beyond just making music: teamwork, leadership, independent and flexible thinking, creativity, empathy, listening, self-confidence, and more. Because jazz is a process, a type of approach to creating music (rather than simply learning to reproduce existing compositions verbatim), jazz students are trained to understand, to make, and to hear music as creators. And they learn how to do this in real time, under pressure, and with diverse people and settings. Learning the skills, techniques, and ways of jazz is liberating and exhilarating. Jazz is empowering.
You should try jazz this year
If you’ve been thinking of trying jazz for yourself or your child, why not go ahead? Make it your new year’s resolution. At Jazz Workshop Australia, jazz education offers a viable alternative to traditional rote-learning and exam-based methods. It’s focused, rigorous, structured, and effective. It’s also fun, creative, and inspiring. Come and start your jazz journey this year by enrolling in jazz combo (band with impro training) or lessons for Term 1.
1 Hillman, C., Pontifex, M., Raine, L., Castelli, D., Hall, E., & Kramer, A. (2009). The effect of acute treadmill walking on cognitive control and academic achievement in preadolescent children. Neuroscience, 159(3), 1044–1054. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroscience.2009.01.057
