Jazz Study

Name: Teaching
Start: 2020-11-15T14:00:00
Location: California Jazz Conservatory

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 precision of a scientist—he has degrees in Mathematics from Harvard and Artificial Intelligence from Stanford—and the soul of an artist. 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 • $90

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

Improvising fluidly over chord changes
Powerful expression through music
Internalizing advanced harmony
Fluency in the many idioms of jazz, plus funk & blues
Phrasing
Saxophone technique, including sound production, articulation, altissimo and inflections.
The physics of musical sound
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.

Individual Lessons (Video) 60 minutes • $75

Like in-studio lessons (above) but via two-way video using Zoom or Skype or FaceTime. Anton has been giving lessons this way to students across the country and around the world since 2016.

Combo Lessons 90 minutes • $120

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 Jazzschool, The Brubeck Institute and the Stanford Jazz Workshop, and has taught entire courses and workshops on a great number 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


Sep 26 Saturday	California Jazz Conservatory - ONLINE, via Zoom Clinic (Online) – open to all! “Playing Bluesy over Jazz Harmony” Show More Info Time: 11:00am Price: $60 / ($75 day-of) All Ages Welcome Buy tickets. Venue web site: California Jazz Conservatory. 11am-2pm Pacific Time LIVE, REAL-TIME, ONLINE WORKSHOP On the 75th Anniversary of Charlie Parker’s first recording session.! The jazz masters play blues-based phrases that soar over jazz harmony, seemingly at one with the harmony… and simultaneously expressing & obeying an entirely separate logic. The ease of players like Charlie Parker, Kenny Burrell, Oscar Peterson and Stanley Turrentine is deceptive. Perhaps you’ve tried to use the same blues scale that one of them used 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)
Nov 14 Saturday	California Jazz Conservatory - ONLINE, via Zoom Clinic (Online) – open to all! “Playing BLUESY over Confirmation” Show More Info Time: 2:00pm Price: $40 / ($55 day-of) All Ages Welcome Buy tickets. Venue web site: California Jazz Conservatory. 2pm-4pm Pacific Time LIVE, REAL-TIME, ONLINE WORKSHOP The ease with which jazz masters sound bluesy over jazz chord changes is deceptive. Such playing requires not only fluency with the blues idiom, but special understanding of how to superimpose that idiom over complex chords—an understanding that is largely at odds with conventional chord-scale approaches to improvisation. In this workshop we use Charlie Parker’s “Confirmation” as a vehicle characteristic of jazz rather than blues—given its quickly moving chord changes and modulations—and delve into the details of improvising over it idiomatically to blues. Prerequisites: Understanding of intermediate chord-scale harmony, including half-diminished and altered dominant chords. The “Playing Bluesy over Jazz Harmony” workshop is good preparation for this workshop, but is not required. Suggested: have your instrument and a way of playing an audio file (to be supplied) through speakers, preferably not on the device you’re using for zoom.
Nov 15 Sunday	California Jazz Conservatory - ONLINE, via Zoom Clinic (Online) – open to all! “Developing your Ballad Playing” Show More Info Time: 2:00pm Price: $40 / ($55 day-of) All Ages Welcome Buy tickets. Venue web site: California Jazz Conservatory. 2pm-4pm Pacific Time LIVE, REAL-TIME, ONLINE WORKSHOP The slow songs of the jazz repertoire may be less technically demanding than their faster counterparts, but they require special skills and arguably greater artistry to play credibly. In this workshop we tackle those skills head on, focusing on phrasing and feel, and outline practical avenues for improving your artistry. We also explore rubato, cadenzas and double-time feel as time allows. Prerequisites: facility on a melodic instrument or vocals, improvisational experience, and knowledge of basic jazz harmony. Suggested: have your instrument and a way of playing an audio file (to be supplied) through speakers, preferably not on the device you’re using for zoom.

Jazz Study

Anton Schwartz, Jazz Educator

Jazz Blog

Educational Mailings

Private Lessons

Individual Lessons

Individual Lessons
(Video)

Combo Lessons

Clinics & Workshops

Anton is an accomplished & effective clinician.

Upcoming Events

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

Jazz Tools

Jazz Study

Anton Schwartz, Jazz Educator

Individual Lessons

Individual Lessons(Video)

Combo Lessons

Anton is an accomplished & effective clinician.

Upcoming Events

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

RANDOM ROOTS!

RANDOM ROOTS!

Individual Lessons
(Video)