ABSTRACT

Instrumental lessons at Improbasen contain a range of learning dimensions that are crucial for learning to improvise in jazz. Where explicit teaching and learning for the most part concerns melodic and harmonic parameters, rhythmic and interactive dimensions of improvisation are highly present implicitly, through ‘rhythmic scaffolding’ from the teacher’s piano accompaniment. The tuition is characterised by a non-verbal communication, where the interaction between teacher and pupil is often purely musical. This way the student is implicitly forced to activate her aural imagery and ear-hand coordination in independent problem solving. Further, scaffolding refers to a more or less constant presence of musical frameworks such as groove and form. Tunes and melodic material are immediately put into a musical context in an improvisatory interplay. Thus, the sounding musical environment for the child’s playing will always have elements of rhythmic flow, rich jazz harmony, and subtle call and response, which implicitly exposes the children to the improvised variation and interaction that goes on in a ‘mature’ jazz band.