Focus of Each Lesson

Each lesson is designed as a working session—addressing both immediate musical challenges and longer-term growth. The following elements form the core of weekly study and daily practice:

• Memorization and review of repertoire, with emphasis on internalizing form, harmony, and melody
• Solo transcription and analysis, moving from imitation toward assimilation and personal application
• Keyboard skills, including technique (scalar and other exercises), voicings, and comping, developed in service of clarity, balance, and interaction
• Improvisational concepts—harmonic, melodic, and rhythmic—applied within musical context rather than as abstractions

Assessment and Progress

Each week, students receive specific written assignments drawn from the areas above. Expectations for completion and mastery are clearly defined. Assignments are designed to be achievable within a one-week cycle, emphasizing depth and retention rather than surface familiarity.

By the end of the semester, six jazz standards must be fully memorized. Students are encouraged to begin with repertoire required for the Jazz Promotional Jury.

For each memorized piece, students should be able to:

• Play the melody from memory
• Sing the root motion
• Arpeggiate all chords
• Provide a harmonic analysis
• Improvise in a manner that clearly outlines the form and progression

Once a piece is memorized, it should be added to the student’s “Songs I Know” list. Each week, one selection from this list will be chosen for performance to reinforce long-term retention.

M = melody from memory · R = root motion sung · A = chords arpeggiated · H = harmonic analysis · I = improvisation outlines the form

Weekly assignments constitute 80% of the final grade and are evaluated using the Lesson Form’s four categories—Tune Memorization & Review, Solo Transcription/Analysis/Imitation/Assimilation, Keyboard Skills, and Improvisational Concepts—weighted equally, as detailed below.

Weekly Lesson Grading Chart

Each of the four categories on the Lesson Form is scored 0–10 using the descriptors below. The Lesson Grade is the average of the four scores (round to the nearest 0.5); multiply by 10 for an out-of-100 score.

Lesson Grade = (I + II + III + IV) ÷ 4 / 10 (×10 for / 100)

⇒ Lesson Form

To account for the natural ebb and flow of a demanding semester, each student’s two lowest weekly lesson scores will be dropped when calculating the final weekly-assignment average. This allows for an off week—illness, a heavy exam schedule, a rough stretch of practicing—without it having an outsized effect on the final grade. It is not intended to excuse chronic under-preparation. (Zeros from unexcused absences are handled separately—see Attendance Policy, below.)

A mid-semester progress report will be provided via HuskyCT/Student Admin.

A faculty-adjudicated jury examination will take place at the end of the semester and will account for the remaining 20% of the final grade.

Jury Examination Rubric (20% of final grade)

Grading Scale

The course content and schedule are subject to change at the instructor’s discretion and will be properly communicated to students as changes arise.

Attendance Policy

Students are expected to attend every scheduled lesson, prepared and on time. If you need to cancel, notify me as far in advance as possible—ideally several hours’ notice—so that I can make productive use of the time. Cancelled lessons are not made up. If I need to cancel a lesson, I will reschedule it.

Unexcused absences—lessons missed without advance notice—will receive a grade of zero for that week, no exceptions. A zero resulting from an unexcused absence is not eligible to be dropped under the two-lowest-scores policy described above.

Genuine emergencies—medical, family, or personal crises—are, of course, an exception. If something serious comes up, talk to me. I will always work with a student dealing with a real emergency; this policy exists to set a clear expectation for the ordinary term, not to penalize people going through something difficult.

Communication Policy

E-mail is the instructor’s preferred method of communication with students. Please allow 48-hours for replies. When requesting a meeting outside of regularly scheduled lessons, please submit several meeting time options. I prefer to be addressed as Professor MacDonald.

Copyright

My lectures, notes, handouts, and displays are protected by state common law and federal copyright law. They are my own original expression and I’ve recorded them prior or during my lecture in order to ensure that I obtain copyright protection. Students are authorized to take notes in my class; however, this authorization extends only to making one set of notes for your own personal use and no other use. I will inform you as to whether you are authorized to record my lectures at the beginning of each semester. If you are so authorized to record my lectures, you may not copy this recording or any other material, provide copies of either to anyone else, or make a commercial use of them without prior permission from me.