The best aspects of this course included the combination of lecture and live playing in the classroom and the opportunity to practice improvisation. Students also appreciated the instructor’s enthusiasm. Some students felt the class was unstructured and disorganized. One suggestion included integrating some jazz history into the course. Prospective students don’t necessarily need to know how to play jazz but it helps immensely if one knows how to read music.

Prospective students who are seeking an interactive course that includes playing jazz music at the conclusion should enrol in this course. During the course, students focused on improvisation and jazz theory. The professor of this course connected with his students by being goofy and fun. Not to mention he displayed his incredible skills as a musician. However, students disliked the history aspect of the course and the professor missed class often. More playing time and more consistency were suggested by students to improve the quality of this course.

The best part about this class was the opportunity to apply concepts learned through in-class music performance. Students noted that the class was half lecture and half song playing, which helped to reinforce concepts and improve improvisational abilities. Some students found the lectures to be boring, because they lacked interaction and moved too quickly through some difficult aspects of the theory. Others noted that the class was not useful for vocalists or drummers. Suggestions for improvement included making lecture more interactive, listening to more jazz, and playing a wider variety of songs. Prospective students should know this is a fun and interactive course that requires no jazz background.