Drummer, creative percussionist, and educator Alex Tucker has joined us at JWA! Alex is an amazing teacher and performer and we are so excited to welcome him to the teaching faculty at Jazz Workshop Australia. Alex Tucker – drum teacher & performing artist Alex Tucker is a dedicated and thoughtful teacher. He brings insight both from his advanced study under Australian master drummers and his wide, high-level performing experience. His expertise is diverse to say the least, spanning jazz, improvised music, rock, and other contemporary styles. Alex is currently in his final year of studying ..read more

Do you want to learn to play jazz in a real band, how to improvise, and how to create music like your favourites like Miles Davis, Emily Remler, Charlie Parker, Herbie Hancock, or James Morrison? Well, now here’s your chance: This August at JWA we are delighted to announce a new Intro to Jazz combo for adults.  Scheduled for Thursday evenings and commencing 1 August, this is an introductory band for adults aged 18+. There’s also the possibility of a second group on Wednesdays (subject to numbers). What’s a ‘Jazz Combo’? A jazz combo is a small, improvising jazz band. Most of the jazz band ..read more

Summer Jazz Camp 2025 dates have been announced: Sunday 12 January to Thursday 16 January. Save the date! The venue will once again be at our new home at KCC Convention Centre in Katoomba, NSW. Summer Jazz Camp is for young musicians aged 10 to 19 with any level of experience from “never tried jazz before” to emerging professional. Any instrument is welcome, including strings and, of course, vocalists. If you only play spoons, ukelele, or jug then you can certainly come, though we can’t promise expert tuition for those instruments, and you’ll find that spoons and jug at least probably don’t ha ..read more

Phrasing is one of the aspects of music that you can use as a jazz improviser to really enhance the interest and musicality of your solos. It can encompass ways of making your playing expressive, stylish, fluent, and personal. In the video lesson linked below, I focus on phrase length and a technique for controlling phrase length. Phrase length in solos refers to how you group your notes and lines into something like musical sentences. Phrases can be long, short, regular, random, predictable, or unexpected. You can use phrasing to make your playing both coherent and varied. Here’s a video less ..read more

As is our tradition at Jazz Workshop Australia, a number of our bands and students will be performing at the annual Merimbula Jazz Festival, 7-10 June. Merimbula is a small seaside town on the far South Coast of NSW. The Merimbula Jazz Festival 2024 will be the 42nd edition of this long-running festival. For anyone who may be reading this familiar with certain types of band education, in this case ‘festival’ doesn’t mean some kind of band competition. It is a music festival organised by musicians and jazz lovers, mostly associated with the Down South Jazz Club. Most of the performers are not s ..read more

‘Comping’ in jazz is creating an accompaniment with chords and rhythms. Comping is usually improvised. What does ‘comping’ mean in jazz? Comping means to create an accompaniment to a tune using chords and rhythms. It is one of the fundamental roles of the rhythm section, particularly guitar, piano/keyboard/organ, drums, vibraphone, and percussion. Comping is usually improvised. Players create an interactive accompaniment, in real-time, to go with what everyone else in the band is playing moment-by-moment. Comping can be preplanned or might use variations on conventional patterns. For example ..read more

Is my child ready for music lessons? Your child is ready for individual music lessons if they can sit still and listen for at least 30 minutes without a parent supervising them. A young child will only benefit significantly from one-on-one music lessons if they are capable of sitting still and listening to an adult for at least 30 minutes a parent intervening. They need to focus and follow instructions. If a youngster can’t manage that yet, then they aren’t ready for lessons, not at Jazz Workshop Australia anyway. To be sure, there are teachers who specialize in private lessons for very young ..read more

Dear JWA students, our Term 1 is about to start this Monday, 5 February. That means it is time to enrol or re-enrol. You’ll notice some changes: some fees have gone up, but we no longer charge a fee for card payments. Also, no more PayPal. We use Square now instead. There’s now just one form for enrolling, re-enrolling, trial lessons, casual lessons. You can pay your fees and re-enrol in person: we can take card payments in the studio now. Term 1, 2024 is 10 weeks: 5 February to 13 April. We can’t wait to see you all back soon. The summer break has been nice, but its time for our wonderfu ..read more

The Summer Jazz Camp end-of-camp festival will be at Stay KCC, Katoomba, Friday 5 January. It starts at 9:45am. Here are the performers, their bands, and where to see them. The festival is in the Clairvaux building. Enter via Violet St. Park on Violet St or take your chances in the grounds. One way only.   The post Jazz Camp concert 2024 appeared first on Jazz Workshop Australia ..read more

It is with uniquely great pleasure that we welcome 2023 Freedman Jazz finalist Sam Gill to the JWA teaching faculty. Sam will be teaching saxophone and clarinet from Term 1, 2024. Sam Gill is a highly regarded teacher, a superlative performing artist, and an accomplished academic. He is quite happy to take dedicated students of any age or level. We are currently accepting applications to study with Sam Gill on saxophone or clarinet. Sam Gill is a graduate of the jazz performance undergraduate course at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, where he has recently completed a PhD researching improv ..read more