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Jazz Improvisation

Music Education for Teachers,

Learn the basic concepts of improvisation from Gary Burton, one of the most renowned improvisers in the jazz world, including the mental, melodic, and harmonic processes that contribute to the instinctive skills that an improviser puts to use when taking a solo. While many people are fans of jazz and understand that musicians are often “making up” the notes they are playing during a performance, most people—often including musicians, themselves, who are beginning to learn improvising—aren’t clear about what exact processes take place to enable this to happen. The purpose of this course is to introduce the basic concepts of modern improvisation and how to go about mastering the different musical and mental skills involved. Course author Gary Burton codifies a sought-after approach to improvisation that has been at the core of Berklee College of Music's curriculum for decades. Students who complete this course will know what to practice and how to practice the various aspects of improvising, in addition to understanding how the improviser spontaneously communicates to the listeners through their musical creations.

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Rating 4.7 based on 197 ratings
Length 6 weeks
Effort 6 weeks of study, 3-6 hours/week
Starts Jun 19 (45 weeks ago)
Cost $49
From Berklee, Berklee College of Music via Coursera
Instructor Gary Burton
Download Videos On all desktop and mobile devices
Language English
Subjects Art & Design Humanities
Tags Arts And Humanities Music And Art

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What people are saying

gary burton

Gary Burton is a great educator - He can give you a very good overview without losing too much time on details.

very straight forward and challenging... Gary Burton is a thrill.

Thank you Mr. Gary Burton.

I was amazed by how much I could progress in just 6 weeks... Great content, superbly delivered by Gary Burton.

Having Gary Burton as teacher is priceless.

I've learned a lot of things, and the honor to hear precious hints and marvellous notes by Gary Burton.

Exciting atmosphere, the progressive movement, the legendary Gary Burton, classmates from around the world... Amazing!

It's amazing to be able to learn from such a high standard artist and educator as Gary Burton Great Course !

Gary Burton is a clear and personable teacher as well as a jazz legend, so you can't go wrong.

Gary Burton is not only an excellent musician but also a great professor.

Gary Burton is a fabulous instructor.

Thank you i really enjoyed Gary Burton, do I need to explain more...

Good Opened up a whole new world for me :) Gary Burton's topics method of explaining concepts and the course topics touched upon are just right :) Thank you Coursera !

But it is an outstanding course, and it is amazing, if you think about it, to have hours of free access to Gary Burton.

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jazz improvisation

This is a very important opportunity to get into jazz improvisation, and if you are alredy playing some jazz music, this course have very nice tools for improvisation such as scales, harmony and "theme and variations" melodies that you can applay to any musical instrument.

Superb for those who begin to want to develop and/or improve their jazz improvisation level.

Excellent introduction to Jazz Improvisation.

It was a great course for those who know a lot about music and want to start in jazz improvisation.

The assignments are so well created that this provides wonderful guiding to the jazz improvisation.

me ayudo mucho a entender lo que parecia complicado Excellent start in Jazz improvisation.

Perhaps too advance for a novice but for an average intermediate musician, it is a great intro to Jazz Improvisation.

Gary clearly presents the idea of jazz improvisation.

After completing this course, and some personal work, one can hope to at least understand the language of jazz improvisation and become a far better listener, if not an improviser.

Take it if you want to learn jazz improvisation Absolutley great to give everybody access to information of this quality and on this subject!Paul Kovacs It is a great course and Gary Buton is amazing.

I had tried learning some jazz improvisation and theory on my own, but I wasn't making very quick progress.

I learned about the most important elements in jazz improvisation.

Excelente Excellent mini course on the rudiments of the language of jazz improvisation.

There are several basic concepts that this course presents for Jazz Improvisation that I found very helpful, such as chord scales and modes, guide tones, and theme & variation.

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very good

Very good overview of how tonal methods intersect with analysis of music.

Very good course.

Very Good.

Very good!But it isn't for beginner players.

to want to became master of jazz watch it Very good...

Very good and simplified instruction.

A very good and educational course, but you have to know your basic theory before you get started.

Very good course also for beginners and intermediates.

very good course to improve your musical skills!For me, like EDM producer it was really useful and necessarily to look in a new way (Jazz way) on music.

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so much

This was a truly great course, I learnt so much.

Excellent I think this course is pretty good Besides being a great musician, Gary Burton is a great educator and he teaches in a very simple way the basic knowledge that an improviser needs.Thank you so much for having this course.

Also other classmates mentioned nothing about that and thought all was perfectly fine).I hope this helps.Thank you so much,Regards,Ance Really great course.

I helped me a lot how to play and i think i have improved a little bit.Thank you so much Gary Burton and the Coursera team.

Learned SO MUCH ABOUT JAZZ IMPROVISATION.

I learned so much.

Thank you so much Gary Burton.

Learned so much!

I have learned so much already and I'm only on week 4.

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recommend it

All of the material shared in this course was really useful to me, I totally recommend it to anyone who wants to improve his improvisation skills.

However, I don't recommend it for people who start in music.

I have recommended the class to a friend who is taking it at the moment:) Will recommend it to others!!!

This course was a great experience and I could recommend it to all who want to improve their improvisation skills.

I highly recommend it!

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music theory

You should be able to play the melody of a jazz standard from a sheet, make sense of chords beyond simple major/minor, and ideally have some basic knowledge of music theory.

Especially if you are a beginner with respect to playing jazz, as I am, and if you are also a beginner with respect to music theory (which I am not, I have a master's degree in musicology), I guess it is more than tough.

This is NOT recommended if you have less than 1 year of music theory under your belt.

I'd recommend it to anyone interested in jazz improvisation who has prior music theory experience and is proficient in at least one instrument.

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Rating 4.7 based on 197 ratings
Length 6 weeks
Effort 6 weeks of study, 3-6 hours/week
Starts Jun 19 (45 weeks ago)
Cost $49
From Berklee, Berklee College of Music via Coursera
Instructor Gary Burton
Download Videos On all desktop and mobile devices
Language English
Subjects Art & Design Humanities
Tags Arts And Humanities Music And Art

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