Jazz arrived in mainland China as early as the 1920s. It has since been a popular music genre among the middle and upper classes. Similar to that in the West, jazz education in China has been increasingly formalized, with a growing number of universities and academies offering jazz degree programs or courses. Despite a few studies on jazz and its…

Throughout this article we argue that collectivity and soul inform the work of the expert teachers who we refer to as Jazz Pedagogues. Jazz's complicated history, like teaching, calls for a consideration of the painful, the messy, the beautiful, and the healing. We, a team of university researchers and classroom teachers, examine the ways jazz can…

The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of a singing-aural imitation treatment on collegiate instrumentalists' jazz performance achievement and self-efficacy to play and teach jazz and improvisation. A secondary purpose was to investigate to what extent various background variables might relate to jazz improvisation…

The purpose of this study was to create and validate a measure for jazz theory knowledge assessment. The Jazz Theory Measure (JTM) was created by exploring publications on jazz improvisation instruction and research studies that utilized jazz theory as a significant aspect of the study (i.e., dependent variable, independent variable, data…

In 1966, David Baker, a Black man and esteemed jazz musician and composer, created and developed the Jazz Studies program at Indiana University (IU). The purpose of this study was to investigate how David Baker came to join the faculty and created the Jazz Studies program at IU through an examination of the school's course offerings and historical…

The purpose of this study was to examine relationships between high school jazz band directors' efficacious sources, self-efficacy for teaching strategies, and pedagogical behaviors. Participants (N = 264) completed the Jazz Band Director Self-Efficacy for Teaching Strategies Scale and responded to items about their formal and informal learning…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of a beginning jazz improvisation learning environment for middle school instrumentalists, including whether one of two instructional sequences of harmonic form improvisation tasks better supported four outcomes: achievement, self-assessment, self-efficacy, and motivation. Over 12…

Looking for something for students to enjoy in the jazz category? The life of Ella Fitzgerald and her music are an inspiration to all. Everyone loved her incredible voice, amazing range, and ability to imitate any instrument. Ella sang in numerous musical styles, from Broadway show tunes to popular songs to jazz. Her abilities earned her the…

Although there is a consensus that it is important to teach jazz and the skill of improvisation inherent within it, many feel unprepared to do so. This article presents a simple way for beginners to improvise through the blues scale and harmonic progression at any present skill level in kindergarten through high school general music coursework.…

Collaborative composition is an established method within music education, but it is a relatively rare phenomenon between composers of large-scale musical works. This research explores collaborative composition in a professional context and highlights the potential and value of its inclusion in specialist composition training at a tertiary level.…

Evidence-based practice in education is the implementation of research-supported teaching tools to enhance students' learning. Retrieval practice is among the top performing learning techniques in scientific literature, with decades of research supporting its incorporation in educational contexts. Testing enhances posterior performance of the…

Based on Regier's article, concert and marching band pedagogical strategies might not transfer to the jazz setting. Participating in jazz pedagogical workshops or graduate courses may develop director jazz pedagogy self-efficacy when possible. This "Extending the Discussion" article provides alternative suggestions for band directors to…

This article focuses on the development of a theoretical framework for jazz dance in which researchers hypothesized how motif notation concepts from Laban Movement Analysis (LMA) and Language of Dance® (LOD) could be used to help learners understand how the roots and branches of jazz dance styles are related. We began by investigating the…

The aim of this study was to explore music performance anxiety (MPA) and trait anxiety as experienced by jazz music students at the post-secondary level. MPA has been conceptualised as a painful apprehension of music performance manifesting through affective, somatic, cognitive and behavioural symptoms. Although MPA has been studied extensively…

Jazz has been a familiar element of secondary music curricula in the United States since the late 1960s (Worthy 2013). Yet, as broader social dialogue addresses equity and justice concerning gender and sexuality, secondary instrumental jazz education remains underrepresented in those discussions. Pressures to conform to heteronormative notions and…