Jazz Study
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.
Jazz Blog
Educational Mailings
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 .
Private Lessons
Individual Lessons
75 minutesAnton 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 minutesAnton 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.
Clinics & Workshops
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
Subscribe: Tap an event for more info RSS | iCal
| Feb2025 2 Sunday | California Jazz Conservatory -
ONLINE,
via Zoom Clinic (Online) – open to all “Sus Chords in the Real World” Show More Info
11am-1:30pm Pacific Time (2-4:30pm Eastern) |
| Mar2025 2 Sunday | California Jazz Conservatory -
ONLINE,
via Zoom Clinic (Online) – open to all “Practicing Better” Show More Info
11am-1:30pm Pacific Time (2-4:30pm Eastern) |
| Apr2025 6 Sunday | California Jazz Conservatory -
ONLINE,
via Zoom Clinic (Online) – open to all “Practicing Better Part II: Masterclass” Show More Info
11am-1:30pm Pacific Time (2-4:30pm Eastern) |
You may also browse a list of workshops Anton has offered in the past.
Jazz Tools
- Music Paper: Blank Staves Blank music manuscript paper with 10 staves
- Music Paper: Treble Clef Blank music manuscript paper with 10 treble clef staves
- Music Paper: Bass Clef Blank music manuscript paper with 10 bass clef staves
- Music Paper for Piano Blank music manuscript paper with 6 grand staves for piano
- Circle of Fifths Musical reference sheet showing the circle of fifths
- Circle of Fifths (with key signatures) Musical reference sheet showing the circle of fifths with key signatures
- Random Roots Sheet Useful practice tool, along with discussion of how to use it.
- Sax Fingering Sheets Blank saxophone fingering chart useful for remembering your favorite fingerings. Especially useful for altissimo!
- MusicTheory.net Wonderful site for music theory training. Use their online tools or download their free standalone software for Mac or PC.
- Jazz Discography Project Great reference for information about classic jazz recording sessions. Dates, personnel, etc.
- MuseScore Free, full-featured, open-source music notation program.
- Jazz Standards Historical information on the important works of the great American songbook.
- Sax Buyer's Guide Extremely useful guide for those interested in buying a new or used saxophone in person or over the internet.
- Fingering Diagram Generator Interactive online application by Bret Pimentel that generates graphical representations of fingerings for most woodwind instruments: saxophone, clarinet, flute, oboe, bassoon, recorder.
- The Fake Book Index Searchable database lets you know which fake books contain the song you're looking for. A fake book is a bound collection for sale of jazz "lead sheets".
- RealBookListen.com This site points you to original recordings of many important jazz standards -- namely, the tunes in the original "Real Book". You can listen to clips of the originals for free, or purchase the original CDs.
- Tonometric Neuroscience-based musical tests & population statistics: rhythm, melody, pitch
- Clarion Great little ear training program for Macintosh to test recognition of intervals. Download it for free from Red Sweater software.
- Good-Ear.com Interactive ear training over the web. Listen to little audio files and identify them.
- Amazing Slow Downer Great shareware program - takes any CD or audio file and lets you change pitch and/or tempo independently of each other. For Windows and Macintosh.
- EarMaster Shareware program for ear training. For Windows and Macintosh.
- TapNTempo A fine freeware metronome for Macintosh.
