The Classroom Guide to Jazz Improvisation

You don’t have to be a jazz expert to give your students a great introduction to improvisation.

The Classroom Guide to Jazz Improvisation provides what music educators have sought for decades: an easy, step-by-step guide to teaching jazz improvisation in the music classroom. Offering classroom-tested lesson plans, authors John McNeil and Ryan Nielsen draw on their combined 54 years of teaching experience and extensive work as professional jazz musicians to remove the guesswork and mystique from the teaching process.

Each lesson is founded in the authors’ realization that the brain responds differently to improvisation than it does rote memory. The resulting lesson plans are flexible, easy to use, and equip students with a quick understanding of the simple choices they can make to create effective jazz lines. Lessons are designed for a range of settings, from ensemble rehearsal to private instruction. Music educators may find relief in the concrete, straightforward materials on rhythm section instruments like bass, drums, piano, and guitar. Beyond the nuts and bolts of improvisation, this book contains carefully curated listening lists, honest discussions about the meaning of the music, and talking points to advocate for jazz programs to administrators and parents.

With an inviting and conversational approach, The Classroom Guide to Jazz Improvisation is an essential resource for all music educators, from early career teachers to seasoned instructors.

John McNeil is a jazz trumpet player living in Brooklyn, New York. He has played with Horace Silver, Gerry Mulligan, the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra, and many others. He is also an active writer/producer on the New York jazz scene and is the author of The Art of Jazz Trumpet and Flexus: Trumpet Calisthenics for the Modern Improvisor. John recently retired from the faculty of the New England Conservatory of Music, where he taught for nearly 40 years.

Ryan Nielsen is the trumpeter in the Kobie Watkins Grouptet. Their first album, Movement, was released to international critical acclaim and was named one of the ten best albums of 2018 by Howard Reich, former member of the Pulitzer Music Jury. Ryan has performed and/or recorded with Ra Kalam Bob Moses, Delfeayo Marsalis, and the Summit Brass. He is currently Associate Professor of Trumpet at Utah Valley University.