Just a quick word for now on the Associated Board Jazz grades.

These grades are a fantastic way to introduce a musician to the art of improvising in Jazz. The musical studies that are addressed as a part of the ongoing learning curve, are all incredibly relevant  to modern European and American Jazz, whilst still acknowledging tradition and it's importance in todays music.

The grade books come with play along Cd's. These Cd's have some of London's most widely respected musicians of the genre involved in the arranging, writing and playing. The experience of having this level of musicianship to play along with at an early stage is absolutely invaluable.  The beauty of learning to play Jazz in such a way is that is essentially a music born from aural tradition, and this method really encourages the student to sharpen those skills.

The Jazz grades currently only go up to Grade 5 but by this point the student has developed a solid grounding in the foundations of improvisation. All the grade details, plus details of other courses/events can be found at http://www.abrsm.org - if you haven't already had a look , it's absolutely worth it!!