Bassist and educator J.B. Dyas visits Loyola University, New Orleans, to demonstrate his approach to0020teaching jazz fundamentals to high school and college students. He takes the audience through a first-class introduction to the history and sound of jazz, including the five key elements of the style (syncopation, jazz instrumentation, improvisation, rhythm and form), and then demonstrates with the help of a Loyola sextet how to help students get accustomed to reading, interpreting, memorizing, and soloing on a jazz tune.

Bassist and educator J.B. Dyas visits Loyola University, New Orleans, to demonstrate his approach to0020teaching jazz fundamentals to high school and college students. He takes the audience through a first-class introduction to the history and sound of jazz, including the five key elements of the style (syncopation, jazz instrumentation, improvisation, rhythm and form), and then demonstrates with the help of a Loyola sextet how to help students get accustomed to reading, interpreting, memorizing, and soloing on a jazz tune.

In this segment of a presentation given at Loyola University, New Orleans, educator and bassist J.B. Dyas explains why it’s important to start learning a jazz tune by looking at the root movement and scales used, rather than at the melody. The example used is Horace Silver’s “Song for My Father.”

In this segment of a presentation given at Loyola University, New Orleans, educator and bassist J.B. Dyas explains how he helps his students learn and unlock the melodic potential within the head of a jazz composition.

In this segment of a presentation given at Loyola University, New Orleans, educator and bassist J.B. Dyas explains his approach to helping students understand a jazz tune by having them listen to and memorize portions of improvisations from the definitive recording.

In this segment of a presentation given at Loyola University, New Orleans, educator and bassist J.B. Dyas introduces the jazz fundamentals curriculum which he developed to help high school jazz musicians understand the music they play, including a guide for explaining to students the origins of jazz in the musics of Africa, Europe, and North America.

In this segment of a presentation given at Loyola University, New Orleans, educator and bassist J.B. Dyas discusses syncopation as one of the five fundamental elements of jazz.

In this segment of a presentation given at Loyola University, New Orleans, educator and bassist J.B. Dyas discusses instrumentation and sound as one of the five fundamental elements of jazz – in specific, how orchestral instruments are played differently in a jazz context.

In this segment of a presentation given at Loyola University, New Orleans, educator and bassist J.B. Dyas discusses improvisation and spontaneous composition as aspects of jazz vocabulary. He compares improvisation to language (on both structural and creative levels), discusses the intuitive and emotional aspects of improvisation and shares ideas for helping students to grasp the nature of improvisatory playing and turning that understanding into music.

In this segment of a presentation given at Loyola University, New Orleans, educator and bassist J.B. Dyas discusses the rhythmic aspects of jazz and how to teach them to novice jazz musicians, especially how to explain syncopation and how it differs from straight time.

In this segment of a presentation given at Loyola University, New Orleans, educator and bassist J.B. Dyas discusses form and compositional structure in jazz, and how to teach students the basic song forms found in jazz.

In this segment of a presentation given at Loyola University, New Orleans, educator and bassist J.B. Dyas discusses how to teach students about song structure in jazz – explaining how jazz musicians use the words “chorus” and “head” and demonstrating how to help students navigate the chord structure of a simple jazz tune.