Rationale for project

As I have started work on the project proposal, I have considered what the rationale for my project is.


It is a recognised problem that a musician who has been classically trained often finds the transition to improvisation uncomfortable as their training does not best facilitate for it. The aim of this project is to create an important teaching resource which aims to bridge this gap by teaching concepts using methods that a classical musician would understand. Relevant studies done so far include "Investigating musical performance: commonality and diversity amongst classical and non-classical musicians", (Creech,et,al 2008)
This review article focuses on aspects of musicianship that are similar amongst classical and non-classical musicians and where the differences lie. The study presents evidence from questionnaire data of 246 undergraduates and professional musicians. The results show that classical musicians place the advancement of notation based skills as their main priority. (Creech, et,al 2008 p1) This gives evidence as to the problem that this project attempts to address. The study found that classical musicians regard the ability to improvise as the "least important skill" (Creech, et al, 2008 p8) This suggests that there is only a minority of classical musicians that have the desire to improvise. There is evidence for the intended audiences’ interest in such a product. “A classical approach to jazz piano improvisation” (Alldis, 2008) is a teaching method tailored to pianists from a classical background. The author states in the preface “like many jazz pianists today, I have a background in classical music. Since 1993, I have taught jazz piano to classical pianists at the Royal Academy of Music in London “(Alldies, 2008, preface) It is clear then, that there is a group of people who are classically trained, but who aspire to extend their musicality beyond the classical genre. “A classical approach to jazz improvisation”, teaches concepts with much emphasis on notation, therefore being accessible to its intended audience. It explores what scales to use over what chords, left hand accompaniment patterns and has a chapter on Be-bop. As my method is going to use the I, II,II,V,I chord progression throughout its entirety, there is a different framework applied. This should result in the user becoming especially proficient at improvising over the one chord progression.