Clarification Is The Key

So, what do I mean by that anyway?? Well, the context in which I'm mentioning this is with music education.......and in this case........"theory".

You know, I've come across a handful of sites over the past while that are advertising "online music lessons" so I decided to check some of them out to see what they were about, and I didn't always like what I found. The way some of them were explaining theoretical concepts seemed to be doing more harm than good, and in many of the cases, they were on the right track, but there was not enough "clarification" about what they were talking about. I could see where someone could easily become sidetracked or confused when trying to interpret these concepts, and there's no need for it.

I come by this whole "clarification" thing honestly........from teaching jazz harmony at the university level for 13 years.......to "non-jazz majors". Now, if there's one group of people that you really want to be clear and consise to about jazz harmony, it's classical musicians who have had the rules and regulations of "tonal harmony" pounded into their heads for years. Maybe it's time that our "post secondary institutions" spent more time on 20th century harmonic concepts within their curriculuums since the last time I looked at a calendar it was 2009. Don't get me wrong, having a understanding of the concepts of "tonal harmony" has its place, but the reality of the matter is, I've never been turned down for a gig because I wrote 4-part Bach chorales that had parallel 5th and octaves. Perhaps if this were 1709 and not 2009 it would really matter, but that's not what my calendar says (but I digress).

Anyway, I came across a site that was talking about the "jazz melodic minor" which, when I saw this, I had to read further to see where this was going to go. The guy's concepts were (for the most part) accurate, but his explaination still bothered me. Now, stay with me here as I'm jumping in the theory arena now!!

Anyway, he was mentioning that the notes "C,D,Eb,F,G,A,B and C on top, represented a "jazz melodic minor" scale. My first reaction was "NO.....that's a C melodic minor scale......the melodic minor "ascending form" is also called the "jazz minor". Please be careful.....it's not a "jazz melodic minor" it is a "melodic minor" scale period......it doesn't belong to the jazz idiom exclusively, it's just that in jazz, the decending form (flattening the 6th and 7th coming down) is not acknowledged because it's the same as the "natural minor" or "aeolian mode" of the major scale. He also says the it has the same structure as a major scale with a lowered 3rd......yes it does, and that's something that you should know, but do remember, it is STILL a minor scale.

Maybe I'm a bit "hypersensitive" about this, but for God's sake CLARIFY!! Students are looking for answers, not "fancy-dancy" terms they can impress their friends with at parties!!

In my days of learning jazz harmony, I agonized over a whole bunch of stuff that I would have gotten through 10 times faster if I'd had the proper "CLARIFICATION" about things, so.....ya, I guess I AM kinda hypersensitive, because there's a lot of unneccesary B.S. out there that is screwing people up.....and there's no need for it.

I'm not saying that the guy on this website is full of sh*t......I don't think he is, but you've got to be careful as to how you're delivering your message........clarify, clarify, clarify........leave no stone unturned, and don't be satisfied until your student has it "down". Getting a handle on this stuff is difficult enough.......let's not make it worse.

Best Regards,

Pat B.