Professional Notes

Doing it on the fly:

Critical Review on Professional notes
Jim Calderon
Westminster Choir College of Rider University

Professional Notes

In the article, Professional Notes, written by Robert Larson was published in the
September 2015 volume of the Music Educators Journal for jazz improvisation. The
author of this article, Robert Larson, is an extremely well known jazz pianist and now
teaches at the amazing college of Shenandoah University. Being the great educator that
he is, Larson incorporates critical pedagogy as a strong theme throughout his article,
showing the audience how an educator can give students the opportunity to improvise
their own unique solo. His pedagogical mindset can be directly correlated with music
education and concepts such as ideology, empowerment, and hegemony.
At the beginning of this article Larson begins to discuss the great opportunities
that performing in a jazz ensemble can offer like, being able to participate in a unique
group activity, where notated passages are blended with exciting moments of
improvisation (p. 33). Over the years the expectations of middle and high school jazz
ensembles have risen causing a decrease in improvisation and an increase in the use of
written solos. It is a rare occurrence when a middle or high school jazz ensembles is able
to perform well with actual improvising in the arrangement, but during the performance
of professional jazz musicians the improvised solos usually become the most exciting
part of the performance. Composers and arrangers have tried to accommodate for the lack
of experience of young musicians by writing out solos and as a result one of the greatest
expressions of jazz is completely removed from the performance. Although there are
many scores with solos written out there are improvised sections are still present so that
students can read the notation of a famously known improvised solo or even come up
with something of their own. It is important for a music director to provide improvising
students the knowledge of how to identify key centers. Identifying the V chord of a

Professional Notes

particular key allows the improvising student to examine the chords around it and figure
out which scale he or she would use in the moment. Jazz tends to modulate quite often
giving this genre an important characteristic that makes it unique, but remembering the
function of the V chord will make following the harmony all the more easier. Playing jazz
is very difficult and improvisation is probably the number one reason behind that claim.
But if the teacher gives great information and guidance to the student he or she will have
the opportunity to perform their own unique solo in a jazz performance.
In middle and high school jazz ensembles one of the most difficult, but amazing
things about jazz is improvisation and how jazz performers make up a unique melody
right on the spot. Every middle and high school jazz student must learn the function of
the V chord in whatever piece they might be performing so that they can navigate through
their solo. Students should also practice scales of the key centers so that they are free to
listen on what is going on harmonically and just play whatever they feel is appropriate.
Larson believes it is of the utmost importance to give students information so that the
student can be empowered instead of having to succumb to a written solo. Accordingto
McLarenempowermentrefersto,theprocessthroughwhichstudentslearntocritically
appropriateknowledgeexistingoutsidetheirimmediateexperienceinordertobroaden
theirunderstandingofthemselves,theworld,andthepossibilitiesfortransformingthe
takenforgrantedassumptionsaboutthewaywelive(p.98).Thestudentshouldbeable
toextracttheknowledgethatisbeingshowntothemsothattheycanunderstandwhich
willhelpthemgrowasanindividualandinthiscaseajazzmusician.Intheendthe
knowledgethatisgiventothestudentswillempowerthem,buttheywillhaveto
accomplishsuccessfulimprovisationonlybyperforming.

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Eventhoughthequalityofsolosthatareperformedisatahighlevelstudentsare
usuallyplayingimprovisationsolosthathavebeenwrittenoutbycomposersorarrangers
andtheteacherwillsaythatshouldplayonlywhatisonthesheetmusic.Thishegemonic
themepopsinandoutthroughouttheentirearticle.
Somecomposers,arrangers,andmusicteachersthatdirecttheirjazzbands
portraythedominantcultureofthehegemonicsituationsinthisarticle.According to
McLaren hegemony is, a cultural encasement of meanings, a prison-house of language
and ideas, that is freely entered into by both dominators and dominated (p. 77). To put
it briefly, the control of the dominant culture over subcultures occurs through common
ideologies, social norms, and practices. There is no active domination over the
subculture, but they just accept the ideologies that are put in place. Without the important
role that ideology plays, hegemony would not even exist in this world. McLaren says
ideology can be described as, a way of viewing the world and representations that we
tend to accept as natural and as common sense (p. 79). Typically in a middle or high
school jazz ensemble the first chair of each section will play whatever cool sounding solo
is written on their sheet music while everyone else either watches or plays in the
background. Larson shows us that every single student in that ensemble can stand up to
play a great, unique improvisation solo and no longer be marginalized, but instead
improve themselves.
In conclusion, the article, Professional Notes, has many points that the ideologies
of critical pedagogy. Larson was able to intelligently tell the audience what information
should be given to empower students as a unique and individual soloist. The usage of
solo and group improvisation should be present because then the students can express

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their imagination, individuality and ideologies with each other in jazz ensemble setting.
Even though this article has to with music education, every student in each classroom
should have a transformative experience that empowers imagination, freethinking, and
individualism.

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Works Cited
Larson, R. "Professional Notes: Creativity in the Jazz Ensemble--Let's Get Away
from the Written Jazz Solo." Music Educators Journal 102.1 (2015): 33-36. Web.
McLaren, Peter. "Critical Pedagogy: A Look at the Major Concepts." Critical
Pedagogy: A Look at the Major Concept: n. pag. Print.