Tuesdays 7:45 - 9:15 pm 9/19 - 11/28 (10 weeks) no class 11/21

This class offers a highly supportive and well-rounded introduction to improvisation, specifically for keyboardists. You’ll learn how to play comfortably and creatively with chord progressions drawn from blues, roots rock, funk, soul, R&B, salsa, and jazz. You’ll create and share your own chord progressions and make up grooves for them. You’ll get to do a lot of interactive playing in class and with backing tracks. This class is well-suited to repeat students and to both brand-new improvisers and more experienced players.

Prerequisites: basic instrumental proficiency and ability to read simple standard notation; strong Internet connection, laptop by your piano/keyboard, and wired headphones. Materials provided by the instructor.

Instructor: Jennifer Jolly

B.A. UC Berkeley. Keyboards and melodica, multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, composer/arranger, bandleader. Specialist in Americana, blues/R&B, New Orleans, rock’n’roll, Caribbean, and African roots music. Founder of Jennifer Jolly & Friends, co-founder of and composer for The Jolly Gibsons. Additional current projects include Pamela Rose’s touring theatrical concert “Blues is a Woman,” Zulu Spear, Kotoja, Tom Rigney & Flambeau (sub), Chelle! and Friends (guest), Bait & Switch Blues Band, Big B and His Snake Oil Saviors, The Party Monsters, The Linwood Chorus (accompanist), and the Creekside Community Church Worship Band. Previous credits include Phil Lesh, The Broken Angels, Hot Links, Barbara Dane, Rusty Zinn, two dozen theatrical productions, and numerous reggae, blues/New Orleans, singer/songwriter, and country bands; twenty-plus recording credits. Faculty instructor at The Jazzschool, Cazadero Family Camp, Jazzschool Women’s Jazz and Blues Camp, after-school programs, workshops, and private studio.