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Jazz Study

Anton is an exceptional player & inspirational teacher... and a lot of fun! He is organized & prepared, and so well versed in so many aspects of jazz performance and education... What more could a student want in a teacher?! — Susan Muscarella, Director, The California Jazz Conservatory

Anton Schwartz possess the perfect blend of musicianship; a top-flight saxophonist, an inspired composer, and a professional with a keen sense of the music industry and the jazz community-at-large. His teaching combines these gifts into…

…a unique presentation of sophistication, clarity, and personality; before you know it you've got the keys in your pocket! — Joe Gilman, Musical Director, The Brubeck Institute

I've really enjoyed your approach in the weekly workout sessions. Your teaching style strikes me as a rare combination of clarity, curiosity, creativity, and practicality. — Michael Gold, saxophonist

Anton is a superb teacher. He listens to my playing and singles out specific areas for me to focus on, which has improved my improvisation dramatically. He is engaging & enthusiastic... — Terrigal Burn, pianist

Anton Schwartz, Jazz Educator

Anton is passionate about helping professional and recreational musicians overcome hurdles in their musical pursuits. He has taught extensively at the California Jazz Conservatory, the Stanford Jazz Workshop, the Lafayette Summer Jazz Workshop and the the Brubeck Institute. He has been Artist-in-Residence at Harvard University and the Brubeck Summer Jazz Colony and has given clinics at dozens of jazz institutions, including the SFJAZZ High School All-Stars, Seattle JazzED, KPLU School of Jazz, and the Bellevue Jazz Festival Rising Stars program. He also teaches privately in Seattle and Oakland.

Anton brings the soul of an artist and the precision of a scientist—he has degrees in Mathematics from Harvard and Artificial Intelligence from Stanford. He is a highly accomplished performer and recording artist; see his biography for more information.

Here are the most recent postings on Anton Schwartz’s jazz blog:

To stay posted four times a year on Anton’s teaching activities, as well as pointers and thoughts about learning jazz, sign up for his jazz education email list .

Individual Lessons

75 minutes

Anton teaches lessons via remote interactive video and out of his studios in Seattle, Washington and Oakland, California. He works with intermediate and advanced students of diverse instruments who have an interest in some or all of the following:

  • Improvising fluidly over moving chord changes
  • Internalizing advanced harmony
  • Powerful self-expression through music
  • Fluency in the many idioms of jazz, plus funk & blues
  • Phrasing
  • [Saxophonists: technique, including sound production, articulation, altissimo and inflections]
  • Efficient practice methods for a busy lifestyle

Anton particularly loves working with musicians who have studied scales and chords but are frustrated in their efforts to use those devices to make great solos.

Combo Lessons

90 minutes

Anton works with jazz combos at his studio, on either a one-time or a periodic basis. He listens to their playing, points out areas of strength and weakness, coaches them to improve the weak areas during the lesson and suggests ways for them to further develop on their own. He has worked with beginning to advanced groups since 1995, at the California Jazz Conservatory / Jazzschool, The Brubeck Institute and the Stanford Jazz Workshop, and has taught entire courses and workshops on most of the components that go into successful ensemble playing.

Anton is an accomplished & effective clinician.

He gives workshops frequently at a variety of institutions.
Below are some of his upcoming teaching engagements.

Upcoming Events

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Nov 17 Sunday
California Jazz Conservatory - ONLINE, via Zoom

Clinic (Online) – open to all

“Alternative ii-V Resolutions”

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11am-1:30pm Pacific Time (3pm-6pm Eastern)
LIVE, ONLINE WORKSHOP
Description:
Q: What do “I Remember You,” “Stella by Starlight,” “Groovin’ High,” and “There Will Never Be Another You” have in common?

A: They all use a beautiful ii-V cadence that works very differently from a standard ii-V-I: the V chord resolves a semitone upward rather than a fifth down, and its functionality is based on diminished harmony.

In this workshop, we’ll explore this cadence and others, such as the backdoor and tritone substitution, each with its own unique sound and behavior. You’ll learn to hear and understand each one, gaining practical knowledge on how to identify them and improvise over them.

Prerequisite: Knowledge of jazz chords and scales. Advanced theory is helpful but not essential.

Feb2025 2 Sunday
California Jazz Conservatory - ONLINE, via Zoom

Clinic (Online) – open to all

“Sus Chords in the Real World”

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11am-1:30pm Pacific Time (2-4:30pm Eastern)
LIVE, ONLINE WORKSHOP
Description:
Are you happy with how you improvise or comp over sus chords? You may know to use the Mixolydian scale… and that it is important to emphasize the fourth note… but still be unable to create satisfying melodies. Let’s fix that once and for all. In this workshop you’ll learn how suspended dominant chords function and understand them in ways that will let you convey their essence fluently, at whatever level you improvise or comp, from advanced beginner to professional.
Prerequisites: Familiarity with basic music theory and the ii-V-I progression.

Mar2025 2 Sunday
California Jazz Conservatory - ONLINE, via Zoom

Clinic (Online) – open to all

“Practicing Better”

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11am-1:30pm Pacific Time (2-4:30pm Eastern)
LIVE, ONLINE WORKSHOP
Description:
Musical mastery requires a LOT of time. So let’s not waste any practicing the wrong way. Recent psychological experiments have lots to say about how to acquire skills efficiently and lastingly… and some of the results are not at all what you would think. We’ll explore a number of key findings, reshape our intuitions about learning, and draw numerous important, detailed conclusions about how we should practice music.
Students are encouraged to bring issues and questions they face in their own practice.

Apr2025 6 Sunday
California Jazz Conservatory - ONLINE, via Zoom

Clinic (Online) – open to all

“Practicing Better Part II: Masterclass”

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11am-1:30pm Pacific Time (2-4:30pm Eastern)
LIVE, ONLINE WORKSHOP
Description:
The sequel to the instructor’s Practicing Better workshop. Part I offered a number of important concepts about efficient practice, as well as many ways to apply them to musical mastery. But applying them effectively requires experience; intuitions must be built. In Part II you’ll have a chance to forge those intuitions by watching effective problem solving in action, over and over—and, optionally, participating.

Students are encouraged to bring one or more specific areas of their practice where they feel "stuck" (e.g. a particular melody phrase you can't get to land right; a sequence of chords that you struggle to improvise over, etc.). In each case, the instructor will show how to apply our knowledge of practice and of music by custom crafting a series of attainable exercises to address the problem.


You may also browse a list of workshops Anton has offered in the past.

 

 

ScaleMate App

ScaleMate!

ScaleMate is the interactive app for visualizing scales. It shows you scales in ways that make their harmonic qualities apparent, while playing you the sounds you see. Choose from its library of scales or use it as a playground to create on your own.

Average App Store rating:
★ ★ ★ ★ ★  5.0 out of 5

Watch the short video… or visit ScaleMate.app.

—Anton

Random Roots App

RANDOM ROOTS!

Random Roots is a groundbreaking practice app I've created for players looking to deepen their musicianship and increase the efficiency and effectiveness of their practice. Guaranteed that you've never experienced anything like it.

Average App Store rating:
★ ★ ★ ★ ★  4.8 out of 5  (100+ reviews)

To learn more and download it for free, visit randomroots.app.

—Anton