An introduction to playing and teaching jazz, rock, and pop designed for string teachers & university students

In their day-to-day lives, music teachers are usually dealing with students who listen to rock and pop around the clock. Most string teachers never got the chance to familiarize themselves with this music when learning their trade. This workshop is designed to bridge that gap and introduce classically trained teachers to jazz, rock, and pop, groove, performance practice, music theory and – last but not least – improvisation.

Many methods of jazz teaching can be useful in classical contexts as well. We will work on how to integrate rhythm games, improvisation games, playing by ear, etc. into „classical“ music lessons.

Going deeper, we will also explore fundamental questions: What kind of thought systems and behaviour patterns is improvisation based on? What would a philosophy of improvisation look like? What concept of learning does it imply? How might pedagogy based on these principles look like?