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.

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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Jul 10 Monday
Lafayette Summer Jazz Workshop - Lafayette, CA

Faculty

July 10-14

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Jul 30 Sunday
California Jazz Conservatory - ONLINE, via Zoom

Clinic (Online) – open to all

“Playing Bluesy over JAZZ Harmony”

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11am-2pm Pacific Time (2-5pm Eastern) LIVE, REAL-TIME, ONLINE WORKSHOP Jazz masters can play blues-based phrases that soar over jazz harmony, seemingly at one with the harmony… and simultaneously expressing an entirely separate logic. The ease of players like Kenny Burrell, Oscar Peterson and Stanley Turrentine is deceptive. Perhaps you’ve tried to use the same blues scale as one of them over a chord progression and found it sounded nowhere as good. In this workshop you’ll learn how to use the power of the blues idiom in your jazz playing. We’ll look at the general principles as well as the specific harmonic tricks necessary to make the blues idiom work over: major chords, “jazz blues” chord changes, turnarounds and other common jazz progressions—developing our musical “intuitions” through exercises we can practice to develop crucial sounds in our ears (and our fingers).
Prerequisites: Understanding of basic jazz chord-scale harmony. Familiarity with advanced harmony including altered and diminished chords will be helpful but not required.
Instruments recommended (optional).

Aug 20 Sunday
California Jazz Conservatory - ONLINE, via Zoom

Clinic (Online) – open to all

“Math for Jazz Music”

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11am-1:30pm Pacific Time (2-4:30pm Eastern) LIVE, REAL-TIME, ONLINE WORKSHOP Modular Arithmetic. Mutually Prime. Rotational Symmetry. Have I lost you yet? Terms like these are foreign to most of us, but what they stand for are things that, as musicians, we unknowingly deal with all the time. Let’s get our geek on and learn some new ways of talking about harmony and rhythm… ways that we can put to powerful use in better understanding and internalizing the music we play.
Prerequisite: familiarity with basic musical concepts such as chord types and the circle of fifths.


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