This month I’m joined by one of the UK’s finest jazz saxophonists and most highly respected jazz educators, Prof Geoff Simkins.

A musician of the utmost integrity, who’s musical output has been consistently at the highest level of artistry for several decades, Geoff has also been a visiting jazz professor at many of the UK’s top music conservatoires. He describes his flexible approach to teaching in an interview for Sussex Jazz Magazine as follows…

“I suppose my approach to jazz education has changed over the years. I now think that the role of the jazz musician is to act as a sort of guide or mentor rather than a teacher. I think that in the end we have to learn ourselves. Jazz, and music, is trial and error and we have to experience it for ourselves. So I think that I can act, hopefully, as a guide, as an advisor, somebody who can point the way for people. And that’s what I hope I do, certainly in my classes and the Saturday classes which I’ve put on for a number of years. And when I visit conservatoires, the Royal Academy and the Welsh College of Music, I think that approach is the one that I go for now.”

“Jazz, for me, is still an aural tradition, it’s still a sort of folk music and I think that sometimes the formal, academic side of jazz education, it’s not that it’s counter-productive, but I’m not sure that it’s entirely the best method for passing on the tradition… We still have to copy our heroes. And then find a way of our own, based on that. We stand on the shoulders of giants, as people say.”

“I’m pleased that young people are playing the music and developing it and changing it. The music has to develop and change, otherwise it just stagnates. So I’m not an advocate for the good old days, by any means. I’m happy that musicians are actually interested in what I do, and find it relevant. That’s really encouraging for me, having played all my life, that I go to colleges, and students still want to learn; they still want encouragement and advice, that’s great. So it’s a pleasure for me and actually a privilege to be able to pass that information on.”

    “I think we learn best by learning from others, firstly by imitating, and then we mould that into our own language. That’s what all my heroes have done.”

During this workshop Geoff will demonstrate some concepts and methods for learning a jazz standard by ear, from an audio recording he created, which you can download. He’ll then show you how to mine the tune to find the most useful nuggets of melodic and rhythmic ingredients that you can then use as a basis for your own improvisation.

This will be practical class, so please make sure you have your instrument ready to play.

Everyone is muted in the class, so you are welcome to play along as much as you like, or just tune in and observe. Either is fine. There is also a Q&A session at the end of the class.

The workshop lasts approx 1hr and starts at 10:30am

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​If you can’t make the live session a video recording of the class will be available in the lesson vault.