July 21, 2025 • 27 mins
If you’ve ever felt like jazz and improv sound great in theory but overwhelming in practice, this episode is for you. I’m joined by pianist, educator, and author Quentin Walston to talk about how jazz and improvisation can help teachers re-engage students, fight burnout, and bring more creativity into everyday lessons, without needing a jazz degree to make it happen.
Quentin’s book How to Teach Jazz & Improvisation is written for real teachers who want to normalize improvisation and make jazz feel approachable for students of any age.
We talk about simple ways to start, why it doesn’t have to be complicated, and how just a few minutes of improv can transform your lessons.
Get Quentin’s book: https://thisisjazz.com/product/how-to-teach-jazz-improvisation-book/
Use coupon code TEACHJAZZ for $5 off
Also available on Amazon, MusicNotes (ebook), and Piano Marvel (interactive app with songs only)
Grab my Policy Workbook with templates and tools to help you finally get your studio policies done, available now at www.scrappypianoteacher.com/resources/p/calendar-policy-scrappy-session-toolkit-replay-workbook-templates
Join the next Scrappy Session in August all about SOPs for music studios at www.scrappypianoteacher.com/scrappysessions
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Hey there. Hello there, and welcome back to
the Scrappy Piano Teacher Podcast.
My name is Jacqueline Rosick. You can call me Jackie.
And today's episode is one of those where you're probably
going to find yourself scribbling down ideas to try
this week, whether or not you ever thought you would be
teaching jazz. I am joined by Quentin Walston,
(00:22):
who is not just an incredible jazz pianist and composer, but
someone who's really changing how we think about bringing jazz
as an improvisation into regular, everyday piano lessons.
He is the author of How to TeachJazz and Improvisation and runs
This is Jazz, a company dedicated to jazz education and
(00:43):
appreciation. Quinton works with teachers and
students all over the country through workshops, performances,
and resources that make jazz accessible and approachable.
I will just say it, I think thathis book is pretty revolutionary
because it is written for real teachers and he makes it simple,
approachable, and honestly pretty drag on fun for students
(01:04):
of any age. He also brings some serious
experience to the table. He is recognized as a teaching
artist by the Virginia Commission for the Arts and a
touring artist with the MarylandState Arts Council.
He has spent over a decade teaching, performing, and
helping teachers understand how to make jazz part of what they
already do, not something overwhelming on the side.
(01:27):
Plus, if you're on social media,you've probably seen some of his
great content because he has been reaching millions sharing
insights on jazz history, theory, and performance.
We are talking today about how jazz and improv can be your
secret weapon for engagement, creativity, and boring lesson
prevention, not just for the students, but also for you too.
(01:48):
And don't forget to stick aroundto the end for a coupon code for
Quinton's book. Now before we dive in, a quick
reminder. If you've been putting off
updating your studio policies, I've got a resource that will
make it easier. My policy workbook is now
available at Scrappy pianoteacher.com and right now
it's discounted to 15 bucks. It walks you through what to
(02:10):
include, what to leave out. It helps you understand what a
policy really is and what it isn't.
And it even comes with templatesfor the policies and waivers.
And of course, my free calendar to help you get it done faster
and with less stress. And if you're ready to go a
little a little deeper into building systems that reduce
burnout, registration is open for the August Scrappy session.
(02:33):
We'll be tackling standard operating procedures, otherwise
known as Sops, how to create them, how to actually use them,
and why they matter for running a smooth studio.
You can find all the details on the website at
www.scrappypianoteacher.com. And with that, let's go ahead
and dive into today's conversation.
Hello everyone, and welcome to the Scrappy Piano Teacher
(02:55):
podcast. Today it is not just me, which
is quite refreshing for myself. I am joined by Quentin Walston.
I'm saying that correct, right? Walston, you are okay.
Awesome. Who is a jazz piano teacher?
Correct? And he has got so much great
stuff for us, especially since Iknow that the majority of you
(03:16):
guys are classical pianists likemyself.
So Quinton, welcome. I'm so glad to have you today.
Thank you for having me. I'm really excited to talk about
all this material and dive into Jazz and him.
Yeah. And I was checking out your
Instagram page the other day andyou've got a lot of interesting
stuff. So would you mind just kind of
sharing about yourself about, well, everything you do because
(03:38):
you do a lot? Yeah, absolutely.
So I'm a jazz piano. You mentioned the teacher as
well. I recently wrote a book called
How to teach Jazz and Improvisation.
And whether I'm performing or teaching lessons, I think that
jazz is such a joyful music and everyone can appreciate it and
especially when they just know alittle bit more about it.
So that's a lot of what I do on the Instagram side of things,
(04:02):
try to kind of show what jazz iseven to non musicians.
Like, hey, this is this is how improv works or This is why this
is really, really cool. Because in my own experience,
when I was starting jazz as a teenager, when I found those
little Nuggets of knowledge like, hey, this is what a
saxophone player is actually doing when they improvise, it
helped me to appreciate the music more.
(04:23):
And so I try to everything I tryto do is to help people enjoy
jazz more, whether they're just a casual listener or if they are
a musician or teach themselves. OK, I love this.
So you mentioned sax up. Do you play the saxophone?
I have not played the saxophone since middle school band.
OK, but you're a little familiarthat?
I'm familiar, yeah, I've been. I've taught jazz combos that
(04:46):
include all instruments from drums to saxophone and trumpet,
things like that. I've written for saxophone, I've
written all the way up for big band and a lot of the approaches
to jazz, whether it's the phrasing and articulation or the
improv side of things, there's such a through line, regardless
of instruments able to teach in that.
(05:07):
Regard all that. OK, so you started when you were
a teenager. So you you were interested in
jazz. Was your teacher a jazz teacher?
That's a great question. I got started when I was in
middle school. My parents bought this beautiful
giant upright piano that it's like 100 years old and they
still haven't got the Ebony and ivory keys and all of that.
(05:28):
And I just for some reason I wasalways drawn to like ragtime and
boogie boogie. Like I didn't know like quote UN
quote jazz proper, like all of that kind of stuff, like Miles
Davis and Oscar Peterson. I just thought that Ragtime and
Boogie Boogie was the coolest thing ever.
I was self-taught for a little bit.
My parents recognized that I'm really passionate about this, so
they got a teacher for me and she's a great teacher.
(05:50):
She didn't have a strong jazz background though, So what she
would do is try to find books that had at least jazzy
material, often through composed.
So I think that's most of the material out there as far as
lesson books, method books, it'slike Martha Mears, jazz, rags
and Blues I still love. That's exactly.
I was just thinking Martha Mere.I can see the book in my head.
(06:13):
I love it so much I still use those books with my students so.
OK, that's comforting to hear that you use it with your
students makes me feel so much better.
It sounds like you had a great teacher though, because I feel
like our generation, it was like, no, that's not how we do
it. We do it this way.
I don't know. I felt, I feel like it was very,
(06:35):
it was only in the classical realm.
So it sounds like you had a really great teacher that
recognized this and knew that this might not be her strong
suit, but she went and found resources for you.
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. And I don't know if I was
totally appreciative, appreciative of it at the time,
but yeah, that it's really cool that she did that.
(06:57):
And she was just one of those people where you say like, hey,
I want to do this. And she said, OK, we're going to
figure out how to make that workfor like, for instance, I took a
gap year to write. I stopped piano in high school,
then I think I came back to it in like 10th grade or something.
And it's getting close to when you have to decide what you're
going to do for college and stuff.
(07:19):
And yeah, like a year or two going back into lessons.
Baker, I think I want to do in college.
She's like, oh, oh, right, OK, we've got to put together your
your audition stuff really soon that that's coming up.
But I love that she like you have this, this teenage student
that's like, I think I want to do this for the rest of my life.
And she's like, sure, let's, let's make that work.
(07:40):
Yeah, because that's a lot of work on the back end.
Like, OK, what do I have to do? So was she big on scales and the
circle of fifths and all the music theory for you, or is that
something you had to learn lateron?
That was something that I would really motivated by.
I'm, I'm such an analytical person.
I love music theory. I am the biggest music theory
(08:01):
nerd there is. She had to work more with me on
the classical repertoire. So I, I love classical music.
I appreciate it. I've never felt confident in it.
So like I've never felt confident to express myself
musically through classical music.
I always feel like I was just trying to copy exactly whatever
the teacher said. So like I didn't have that
(08:23):
comfort of like, I'm going to interpret this piece, so I'm
going to make this piece beautiful.
So for me, it was a lot of stress of man.
Let me make sure I got all of myall my little details.
Learned so jazz for you is freedom.
Ticks, yeah, it's freedom. And then but the thing that I
love about jazz is it also scratches that intellectual itch
(08:45):
because there there is that really interesting balance of
there is so much freedom. But it at the same time is a
language that has its own grammar and syntax and
vocabulary. And there's a theory behind it,
whether it's the harmony or the chord progressions or what
scales are good resources for when you're improvising.
So I love that balance of freedom, the right side and kind
(09:08):
of the left side. Brain, but knowing the theory
behind it so that you can interpret that freedom is what
you need. So you have the circle of fess,
right? You have all those scales in
there, you have your harmonic minors, you have the natural
minors, all that. That's a lot of information in
itself. Outside of that, in the Blues
world, in the jazz world, we kind of go out there.
(09:30):
How much more would you say is there or is it all combined?
Yeah. So jazz is built off of Western
fundamental harmony or Western functional harmony.
Excuse me? So Western theory and stuff like
that. So when you look back at the
development of jazz, you had ragtime, which is just parlor
(09:51):
piano from the 19th century withmore syncopation essentially.
So all of Scott Joplin's music is just normal functional
harmony. And then you also have early
jazz using brass band and stringband music, which again is like
18th century pop music, which isall functional harmony.
Where jazz started to like step outside of that was with the
(10:13):
Blues. That was a folk music.
And they would have things that are called blue notes, notes
that stand outside of the key accidentals.
And so those are usually the flatted 3rd and the flatted 5th.
A blue scale is simply just including those notes on a
pentatonic scale. So if you have your normal
pentatonic scale, you're just gonna add those blue notes in
(10:34):
and they, they sound great and they sound wonderful, but it's
on top of the harmonic backdrop of functional harmony when you,
I think it's amazing to start students with that.
In my book, I start students with the first four notes of the
blue scale so that they don't have to be overwhelmed trying to
memorize all these notes. Like 4 notes is enough where you
can really create your own unique melodies, but it's
(10:56):
digestible enough that you don'thave to memorize or be hindered
by trying to memorize a longer scale.
And I find that 4 notes, you don't have to, well, when you
have a full blue scale, what I noticed in my lessons is
students will start to improvisein a scalar way.
Go back buddy, daddy, Dada, Dada, Dada, Dada.
(11:16):
But it's just everything is justgoing all the way up or down
South. I like the idea of four notes
because then the student can really start creating new
melodies. And that's what I think should
be at the core of improvisation is you're creating a new melody
and then as you go from there, any other elaborate jazz scales
(11:37):
are just, they can be full of accidentals or they'll be full
of chromaticism or maybe some fancy tricks like superimposing
a scale onto a different chord. They're just more elaborate ways
of kind of building out your your melodic vocabulary, if you
will. So that probably goes well above
and beyond your question of whatthis is tied in.
(12:00):
I think I just learned more fromthat little bit that I have in
all the years of trying to look it up.
I'm. Happy I can help.
You know, what I really, really like about what you said is how
you take it down to four, because I've seen where books
have done that, and I always addthe rest of them.
I'm like, why are we limiting? We should have more.
But you're right. They do that.
(12:21):
And by limiting them, they are forced to get more creative.
Otherwise, it's the same thing over and over again.
And I think that is really, really smart.
Yeah. So in your book, yes.
Do you walk us through all that?Yes, yes, I do.
So the the way the the book is laid out, it has seven
compositions. That's all based on the pedagogy
(12:44):
of taking away the fear of playing a wrong note.
So a lot of people, especially from a classical background,
they might be hesitant to improvise one because they feel
above their head, like they haven't done something like this
before. They don't know what to play.
They feel like what they will play is going to be wrong.
So the book has a teacher accompaniment that's all
accounted for. They don't have to improvise at
(13:04):
all. The teacher accompaniment is
just a repeated chord progression that sets up the
harmonic foundation for the student.
And it always sounds cool. It's just you don't worry about
trying to navigate really hard chord progressions.
It's just a great vamp. And then the student part starts
with those four suggested notes.It's like make up whatever you
want, have fun. Quick aside, piano can when you
(13:27):
improvise on piano, it can be tough where you can play
something that you're not truly hearing in your mind's ear
because like you're just pushingbuttons after all.
Like I could not look for piano and like play something and
something's going to come out whether or not I've really
internalized it. So starting with those four
notes tries to help overcome that really help students.
Like if you want to play bapa Doo dot, you can play bapa Doo
(13:50):
dot and be sure that that soundsgoing to come out.
And then for each one of the songs, one, they're in different
styles. There's like a minor groove,
then a bebop 1 and a boogie woogie 1 and Latin jazz and the
waltz and all this stuff. They all sequentially had things
or have the teacher suggest things like, OK, let's start
with those four notes. Now we're going to do the full
(14:10):
blue scale. Or you know what?
Now we're going to improvise. But you can only improvise with
this rhythm. Like you mentioned before, the
idea of like forcing someone to come outside of their box,
isolated rhythms is such a cool way.
Like if you just have like everything you play has to be
that like it's gonna spark creativity.
(14:31):
So that's the the material and what you would do in the lesson
with the book. And it's, it has, yeah.
Like I said, the seven differentcompositions.
And the first half of the book is all the other information you
want to know about jazz, like what are jazz chords and Lizzy
extensions, the sevenths and ninths and thirteenths?
Or how do you practice improvisation?
(14:52):
It's got. And when I wrote the book, it
was like, what would a a teacherthat doesn't have a jazz
background need to know about jazz to be confident to teach it
so? This sounds this I'm so I have
to have this book. I have to look at this book
because I have a few jazz books.I know that we talked about the
Martha Muir like the Rep that you can get right.
(15:13):
But as far as how to jazz, how it works and all that, I have a
few books and I open them and itis like I feel like I'm taking a
college course again and it you know, I don't have this time.
I don't have the stomach for that.
They've just been sitting collecting dust for whoever
knows how many years. But this sounds like and that's
was your intention. You can use this in action
lessons and it's not going to beintimidating for the teacher.
(15:36):
You have something that we can actually read because we like
reading music. Thank you.
And but then if the student has questions or you want to dig
deeper on the other side, you have all the information that we
need in a clear way. And you brought up like so many
of the exact reasons I wrote thebook.
Like there there is that gap in the literature.
(15:57):
Like they're like I said, I loveMartha near there are that
stuff. But that's through composed.
And then when you do get to the material that does prompt
improvisation, you're right. It's like a college level.
It's way too advanced. Like a beginner.
One of those books, and I don't want to name names, but they'll
start with a like a 32 bar form that has like 6 different chords
(16:19):
and you got to memorize all the these modes and all of that.
And it's like maybe you could dothat with the high schooler if
they the teacher had a strong background, but you can't bring
that out in like a 10 year old'slesson.
So I wanted to write something where you could bring it out in
a 10 year old's lesson. So but yeah and yeah it's really
written really concisely like, hey, if you want to know how
(16:40):
walking bass lines work, boom, one page, that's how walking
bass lines work. Like if you want to get swing
rhythm, whatever, but but yeah, so I'm glad that it's resonating
in the that that sounds interesting.
Yeah, it's exciting. OK, hold on.
You said mode, so can we talk about that for a second?
Yes. Is that mentioned in your book
at all? I mentioned modes.
(17:02):
I have. One of the seven songs is a
modal composition. It starts in D Dorian and goes
to E flat Dorian. There's a lot of jazz repertoire
that like sounds like So what and impressions do that.
And it's to help the kids hear and internalize when there's a
tonal shift. Because D Dorian and E flat
Dorian are so dramatically different.
I want to help kids internalize that.
(17:24):
I think in some pedagogy, jumping into modes comes too
soon. Because again, I think that
students, when they improvise, should be so focused on creating
melodies that they're actually hearing in their head.
And if you start with so many modes too soon, then you run
into kids improvising with theirbrain, not with their ear.
(17:46):
Like I feel like the theory should supplement and help their
ear. And this is coming from someone
that for years was improvising with their brain and had to kind
of go back and try to make sure,hey, am I playing when I'm
actually hearing? But anyway, that's an aside for
teaching modes. I do think it is important.
I don't want to throw it out completely.
I think one of the, so when I'vetaught modes, I will tell people
(18:10):
of the traditional way of teaching them and then I have a
way that I feel it stronger. So I feel like most of the time
when people teach modes, they dothe whole white key thing.
They're like, Dorian is all the modes of C major but starting on
D, and Phrygian is all the notesof C major but starting on E.
That's a really helpful way to introduce it, but I feel like it
(18:31):
can get so convoluted when you want to figure out a mode that's
not one of those seven ways on awhite key.
Like if I say, what's a flat Phrygian, someone's going to
say, OK, well if E Phrygian is Cmage and they're like having to
do all of this crazy work to figure that out.
And I can see why students mightjust shut down because it's
like, that seems like a crazy amount of stuff to learn.
(18:54):
It does it really. Does what I like to do is show
how the notes of a major scale will change?
So for instance, going from Ionian, which is a major scale,
to Mixolydian, you lower the seven, that's it.
So you don't have to think aboutall this other stuff.
If you want to go from the majorscale to Lydian, you raise the
(19:15):
4th. So you still have to memorize
those rules. But then you're just thinking
about how do I construct this scale rather than I have to
think this scale is starting on the third scale degree of that
other scale. And then what's that other?
There's a lot of, it's like almost like an algebraic
expression music land going on in your head.
Yeah. Cuz actually when you said that,
(19:37):
that was what my brain was doing.
It was moving this scale here. Yeah, it can.
Be a lot, but if you like, if you just memorize Dorian is the
minor scale where you just plumpup the sixth note.
Feel like that's a lot easier than to figure out any Dorian
scale because most kids. I think if you're going to start
modes, you should be familiar with all your major scales at
(19:58):
least. Or if not your.
So let's say that we're in a lesson, you know, there's only
so much time that you have per week.
We have evaluations, exams, recitals.
We have like all the stuff coming up and sometimes it's
hard to fit in what we want. Do you think that this is
something that a teacher could fit in within like, I don't
know, 5-10 minutes of their lesson?
(20:19):
Maybe just even do some improv. Yeah, yeah.
I mean, especially with the the compositions being these kind of
repeated vamps. I just repeated chord
progressions. I think it's super easy for a
teacher just to walk over to thepiano or just sit at the low end
of the piano and they're writtenwhere you don't need 2 pianos.
It's like a forehand thing. Yeah, the teacher could
(20:39):
definitely just like, hey, I'm going to play this here, your 4
notes, let's see what we can come up with.
And yeah, you could do that for two minutes if you wanted to.
The songs in the book also have a in jazz, we refer to the the
precomposed melody as the head. So if you listen to like a Miles
Davis recording, they'll play the precomposed melody.
They'll improvise in the middle and play the precomposed at the
(21:00):
end. It's kind of the one of the main
structures. So each one of these tunes in
the book at the bottom do have aquote UN quote a head like a
main melody. So if you wanted to treat it as
one of the students repertoire pieces, you can go like all
right, learn though the actual head.
All of the teacher parts are on every streaming platform.
So students don't need like a CDin the back of the book or
(21:22):
something. They can just go on YouTube or
Spotify and practice at home with the teacher part.
So I think it works as both works is like this is just a 5
minute lesson activity or hey learn your Bach minuet, learn
your whatever Clemente thing andalso work on hit it from your
jest. Oh, for Pete's sake, that's
fantastic. You know what?
(21:43):
You're giving me so many ideas too.
I'm thinking just about group lessons, so I'm always playing
around with when the kids come in and I want them to be
interacting because sometimes they come in, they're just
staring each other and like, so how was your week, you know, and
all that stuff. But this would be great if as
they're coming in, you're just on the piano and they're getting
in line and they're just improvising and it becomes a
(22:03):
regular thing. I'm thinking about, too.
Even teaching by rote some of these precomposed.
Yeah, call it the head, right? Yeah.
So you could do that and have students doing that as they come
in. I think there's so many
opportunities. And what you're doing too is
you're normal normalizing it. You're not making it seem like
this foreign concept that's so separate from what we do.
(22:24):
Because that's how I have alwayslooked at it up until maybe the
past five years. And I've been teaching for 27
years. So, so it's like, why?
Like, why can't we have? And then another thing I was
thinking as you were talking, sorry, I so many ideas do that
recitals because I know teacherswho have kids improvising at the
beginning and I'm always thinking, how are you doing
(22:46):
that? But that right there is a great
example. And if they're used to doing
that in lessons, they're not going to be nearly as freaked
out to go in and sample the piano by improvising as
everybody's sitting down. Absolutely.
And and what I love about it toois it it does kind of prime
students if they do want to pursue jazz more, if they do
want to play it in jazz band or like middle school jazz band or
(23:08):
high school jazz band, They're they're already familiar with
the concept of improvising on top of a chord progression
because yeah, I mean, middle school band directors, they're
they're always looking for like a pianist that can jump in or
something like that. So but yeah, I've done it.
I've done it in my students recitals.
We're all, I'm next to them playing the teacher part and
they improvise. They do the head and the solo
(23:29):
and the heads. You also brought up group
activities. I've done teacher training.
So I went into a county in Virginia and have all of the
high school band directors and we were all going around taking
turns improvising on the court. So it definitely works.
The book also has a separate, I think 2 pages of other kind of
improv activities like icebreaker kind of things.
(23:51):
So yeah, I like the way you saidit's like normalizing.
I think that's a great way of thinking.
As you're probably very aware, Bach and Beethoven and Mozart
were all brilliant improvisers. Like we can bring that skill
back into Pedigo. Yeah.
And then you can lead over to composition and the
understanding. And I'm really excited about
(24:13):
this. I think this is really fantastic
and it fits with everything. OK.
So is there anything else that we didn't touch on that you
wanted to mention? I think we touched on on
everything. I mean, I can tell you where
people can find the book if theyif they want to do that.
Yeah. So it's it's on my website,
which is this is jazz.com. That's where I have everything
(24:34):
from books to courses to teachertraining and stuff like that.
It's also on Amazon. Amazon is currently only only in
the US And then if anybody has done Piano Marvel, the
interactive app, the songs are on there.
So you can you can play along with the songs.
So yeah, those are probably the best ways to find it.
This is jazz.com, Amazon.com, pianomarvel0andmusicnotes.com.
(24:59):
Pick it up digitally. So that's a whole bunch of
places. I'm sorry to your listeners.
That's a lot to keep track of, but yeah.
And people can find you well at the website, yes.
And then you're on Instagram too.
Yes, and that's my my Instagram handle is my name Quentin
Walston. And that's Walston with an L.
Yes, WUENTINWALSTON. Awesome, now if teachers do go
(25:24):
to the website, there is a coupon code for $5 off.
Yes, yeah, your listeners can get 5 bucks off with the code.
Teach Jazz. All caps, no spaces.
So just teach Jazz or yeah, thisis jazz.com.
Check out the book, it's up there.
Ebook and a print book and yeah,Teach Jazz. 5 bucks off.
Awesome, awesome. OK.
And I'll put that in the show notes too as well for teachers.
(25:46):
So well, Quinton, thank you so much.
This is really exciting and we are excited about your book.
And what is the name of the bookOne More Time?
To teach jazz and improvisation,just want to make sure that that
it is super direct. People knew what they were
getting when they they found it.To the point and it does not
mimic a college course. It's very usable in lessons.
(26:11):
All right. Well, thank you, quick.
Thank you. Appreciate it.
All right, thank you so much to Quinton for joining me today.
That was a very refreshing conversation, especially when it
comes to something like jazz. And don't forget, Quinton and I
both will be at the NCKP this week.
This is the week of July 21st, 2025.
(26:31):
It is NCKP week. And if you're going, let me
know. I would love to meet up with you
on visit Quinton. He is going to have a booth with
his book. So stop by, say hi, let him know
that you listen to the podcast and take a photo.
You know, have some fun with it.Also, don't forget my policy
workbook at Scrappy pianoteacher.com.
(26:53):
It is available now. Yay.
It is discounted for $15 and it will be until September 15th.
It comes with templates, multiple templates to help you
create clear professional policies with less stressed and
if you're ready to build systemsthat actually support you as a
teacher and business owner, you know that's my jam.
(27:13):
That's what I'm all about here. The August scrappy session on
our Sops is open for registration.
It is 50% off up until August 1st.
The session is on August 15th. I would love to see you there,
but regardless, thank you for listening.
So happy you're here today. Have a great week.
(27:34):
I'll see you in two weeks from now and I'll catch you then.
Bye.
Hey there. Hello there, and welcome back to
the Scrappy Piano Teacher Podcast.
My name is Jacqueline Rosick. You can call me Jackie.
And today's episode is one of those where you're probably
going to find yourself scribbling down ideas to try
this week, whether or not you ever thought you would be
teaching jazz. I am joined by Quentin Walston,
(00:22):
who is not just an incredible jazz pianist and composer, but
someone who's really changing how we think about bringing jazz
as an improvisation into regular, everyday piano lessons.
He is the author of How to TeachJazz and Improvisation and runs
This is Jazz, a company dedicated to jazz education and
(00:43):
appreciation. Quinton works with teachers and
students all over the country through workshops, performances,
and resources that make jazz accessible and approachable.
I will just say it, I think thathis book is pretty revolutionary
because it is written for real teachers and he makes it simple,
approachable, and honestly pretty drag on fun for students
(01:04):
of any age. He also brings some serious
experience to the table. He is recognized as a teaching
artist by the Virginia Commission for the Arts and a
touring artist with the MarylandState Arts Council.
He has spent over a decade teaching, performing, and
helping teachers understand how to make jazz part of what they
already do, not something overwhelming on the side.
(01:27):
Plus, if you're on social media,you've probably seen some of his
great content because he has been reaching millions sharing
insights on jazz history, theory, and performance.
We are talking today about how jazz and improv can be your
secret weapon for engagement, creativity, and boring lesson
prevention, not just for the students, but also for you too.
(01:48):
And don't forget to stick aroundto the end for a coupon code for
Quinton's book. Now before we dive in, a quick
reminder. If you've been putting off
updating your studio policies, I've got a resource that will
make it easier. My policy workbook is now
available at Scrappy pianoteacher.com and right now
it's discounted to 15 bucks. It walks you through what to
(02:10):
include, what to leave out. It helps you understand what a
policy really is and what it isn't.
And it even comes with templatesfor the policies and waivers.
And of course, my free calendar to help you get it done faster
and with less stress. And if you're ready to go a
little a little deeper into building systems that reduce
burnout, registration is open for the August Scrappy session.
(02:33):
We'll be tackling standard operating procedures, otherwise
known as Sops, how to create them, how to actually use them,
and why they matter for running a smooth studio.
You can find all the details on the website at
www.scrappypianoteacher.com. And with that, let's go ahead
and dive into today's conversation.
Hello everyone, and welcome to the Scrappy Piano Teacher
(02:55):
podcast. Today it is not just me, which
is quite refreshing for myself. I am joined by Quentin Walston.
I'm saying that correct, right? Walston, you are okay.
Awesome. Who is a jazz piano teacher?
Correct? And he has got so much great
stuff for us, especially since Iknow that the majority of you
(03:16):
guys are classical pianists likemyself.
So Quinton, welcome. I'm so glad to have you today.
Thank you for having me. I'm really excited to talk about
all this material and dive into Jazz and him.
Yeah. And I was checking out your
Instagram page the other day andyou've got a lot of interesting
stuff. So would you mind just kind of
sharing about yourself about, well, everything you do because
(03:38):
you do a lot? Yeah, absolutely.
So I'm a jazz piano. You mentioned the teacher as
well. I recently wrote a book called
How to teach Jazz and Improvisation.
And whether I'm performing or teaching lessons, I think that
jazz is such a joyful music and everyone can appreciate it and
especially when they just know alittle bit more about it.
So that's a lot of what I do on the Instagram side of things,
(04:02):
try to kind of show what jazz iseven to non musicians.
Like, hey, this is this is how improv works or This is why this
is really, really cool. Because in my own experience,
when I was starting jazz as a teenager, when I found those
little Nuggets of knowledge like, hey, this is what a
saxophone player is actually doing when they improvise, it
helped me to appreciate the music more.
(04:23):
And so I try to everything I tryto do is to help people enjoy
jazz more, whether they're just a casual listener or if they are
a musician or teach themselves. OK, I love this.
So you mentioned sax up. Do you play the saxophone?
I have not played the saxophone since middle school band.
OK, but you're a little familiarthat?
I'm familiar, yeah, I've been. I've taught jazz combos that
(04:46):
include all instruments from drums to saxophone and trumpet,
things like that. I've written for saxophone, I've
written all the way up for big band and a lot of the approaches
to jazz, whether it's the phrasing and articulation or the
improv side of things, there's such a through line, regardless
of instruments able to teach in that.
(05:07):
Regard all that. OK, so you started when you were
a teenager. So you you were interested in
jazz. Was your teacher a jazz teacher?
That's a great question. I got started when I was in
middle school. My parents bought this beautiful
giant upright piano that it's like 100 years old and they
still haven't got the Ebony and ivory keys and all of that.
(05:28):
And I just for some reason I wasalways drawn to like ragtime and
boogie boogie. Like I didn't know like quote UN
quote jazz proper, like all of that kind of stuff, like Miles
Davis and Oscar Peterson. I just thought that Ragtime and
Boogie Boogie was the coolest thing ever.
I was self-taught for a little bit.
My parents recognized that I'm really passionate about this, so
they got a teacher for me and she's a great teacher.
(05:50):
She didn't have a strong jazz background though, So what she
would do is try to find books that had at least jazzy
material, often through composed.
So I think that's most of the material out there as far as
lesson books, method books, it'slike Martha Mears, jazz, rags
and Blues I still love. That's exactly.
I was just thinking Martha Mere.I can see the book in my head.
(06:13):
I love it so much I still use those books with my students so.
OK, that's comforting to hear that you use it with your
students makes me feel so much better.
It sounds like you had a great teacher though, because I feel
like our generation, it was like, no, that's not how we do
it. We do it this way.
I don't know. I felt, I feel like it was very,
(06:35):
it was only in the classical realm.
So it sounds like you had a really great teacher that
recognized this and knew that this might not be her strong
suit, but she went and found resources for you.
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. And I don't know if I was
totally appreciative, appreciative of it at the time,
but yeah, that it's really cool that she did that.
(06:57):
And she was just one of those people where you say like, hey,
I want to do this. And she said, OK, we're going to
figure out how to make that workfor like, for instance, I took a
gap year to write. I stopped piano in high school,
then I think I came back to it in like 10th grade or something.
And it's getting close to when you have to decide what you're
going to do for college and stuff.
(07:19):
And yeah, like a year or two going back into lessons.
Baker, I think I want to do in college.
She's like, oh, oh, right, OK, we've got to put together your
your audition stuff really soon that that's coming up.
But I love that she like you have this, this teenage student
that's like, I think I want to do this for the rest of my life.
And she's like, sure, let's, let's make that work.
(07:40):
Yeah, because that's a lot of work on the back end.
Like, OK, what do I have to do? So was she big on scales and the
circle of fifths and all the music theory for you, or is that
something you had to learn lateron?
That was something that I would really motivated by.
I'm, I'm such an analytical person.
I love music theory. I am the biggest music theory
(08:01):
nerd there is. She had to work more with me on
the classical repertoire. So I, I love classical music.
I appreciate it. I've never felt confident in it.
So like I've never felt confident to express myself
musically through classical music.
I always feel like I was just trying to copy exactly whatever
the teacher said. So like I didn't have that
(08:23):
comfort of like, I'm going to interpret this piece, so I'm
going to make this piece beautiful.
So for me, it was a lot of stress of man.
Let me make sure I got all of myall my little details.
Learned so jazz for you is freedom.
Ticks, yeah, it's freedom. And then but the thing that I
love about jazz is it also scratches that intellectual itch
(08:45):
because there there is that really interesting balance of
there is so much freedom. But it at the same time is a
language that has its own grammar and syntax and
vocabulary. And there's a theory behind it,
whether it's the harmony or the chord progressions or what
scales are good resources for when you're improvising.
So I love that balance of freedom, the right side and kind
(09:08):
of the left side. Brain, but knowing the theory
behind it so that you can interpret that freedom is what
you need. So you have the circle of fess,
right? You have all those scales in
there, you have your harmonic minors, you have the natural
minors, all that. That's a lot of information in
itself. Outside of that, in the Blues
world, in the jazz world, we kind of go out there.
(09:30):
How much more would you say is there or is it all combined?
Yeah. So jazz is built off of Western
fundamental harmony or Western functional harmony.
Excuse me? So Western theory and stuff like
that. So when you look back at the
development of jazz, you had ragtime, which is just parlor
(09:51):
piano from the 19th century withmore syncopation essentially.
So all of Scott Joplin's music is just normal functional
harmony. And then you also have early
jazz using brass band and stringband music, which again is like
18th century pop music, which isall functional harmony.
Where jazz started to like step outside of that was with the
(10:13):
Blues. That was a folk music.
And they would have things that are called blue notes, notes
that stand outside of the key accidentals.
And so those are usually the flatted 3rd and the flatted 5th.
A blue scale is simply just including those notes on a
pentatonic scale. So if you have your normal
pentatonic scale, you're just gonna add those blue notes in
(10:34):
and they, they sound great and they sound wonderful, but it's
on top of the harmonic backdrop of functional harmony when you,
I think it's amazing to start students with that.
In my book, I start students with the first four notes of the
blue scale so that they don't have to be overwhelmed trying to
memorize all these notes. Like 4 notes is enough where you
can really create your own unique melodies, but it's
(10:56):
digestible enough that you don'thave to memorize or be hindered
by trying to memorize a longer scale.
And I find that 4 notes, you don't have to, well, when you
have a full blue scale, what I noticed in my lessons is
students will start to improvisein a scalar way.
Go back buddy, daddy, Dada, Dada, Dada, Dada.
(11:16):
But it's just everything is justgoing all the way up or down
South. I like the idea of four notes
because then the student can really start creating new
melodies. And that's what I think should
be at the core of improvisation is you're creating a new melody
and then as you go from there, any other elaborate jazz scales
(11:37):
are just, they can be full of accidentals or they'll be full
of chromaticism or maybe some fancy tricks like superimposing
a scale onto a different chord. They're just more elaborate ways
of kind of building out your your melodic vocabulary, if you
will. So that probably goes well above
and beyond your question of whatthis is tied in.
(12:00):
I think I just learned more fromthat little bit that I have in
all the years of trying to look it up.
I'm. Happy I can help.
You know, what I really, really like about what you said is how
you take it down to four, because I've seen where books
have done that, and I always addthe rest of them.
I'm like, why are we limiting? We should have more.
But you're right. They do that.
(12:21):
And by limiting them, they are forced to get more creative.
Otherwise, it's the same thing over and over again.
And I think that is really, really smart.
Yeah. So in your book, yes.
Do you walk us through all that?Yes, yes, I do.
So the the way the the book is laid out, it has seven
compositions. That's all based on the pedagogy
(12:44):
of taking away the fear of playing a wrong note.
So a lot of people, especially from a classical background,
they might be hesitant to improvise one because they feel
above their head, like they haven't done something like this
before. They don't know what to play.
They feel like what they will play is going to be wrong.
So the book has a teacher accompaniment that's all
accounted for. They don't have to improvise at
(13:04):
all. The teacher accompaniment is
just a repeated chord progression that sets up the
harmonic foundation for the student.
And it always sounds cool. It's just you don't worry about
trying to navigate really hard chord progressions.
It's just a great vamp. And then the student part starts
with those four suggested notes.It's like make up whatever you
want, have fun. Quick aside, piano can when you
(13:27):
improvise on piano, it can be tough where you can play
something that you're not truly hearing in your mind's ear
because like you're just pushingbuttons after all.
Like I could not look for piano and like play something and
something's going to come out whether or not I've really
internalized it. So starting with those four
notes tries to help overcome that really help students.
Like if you want to play bapa Doo dot, you can play bapa Doo
(13:50):
dot and be sure that that soundsgoing to come out.
And then for each one of the songs, one, they're in different
styles. There's like a minor groove,
then a bebop 1 and a boogie woogie 1 and Latin jazz and the
waltz and all this stuff. They all sequentially had things
or have the teacher suggest things like, OK, let's start
with those four notes. Now we're going to do the full
(14:10):
blue scale. Or you know what?
Now we're going to improvise. But you can only improvise with
this rhythm. Like you mentioned before, the
idea of like forcing someone to come outside of their box,
isolated rhythms is such a cool way.
Like if you just have like everything you play has to be
that like it's gonna spark creativity.
(14:31):
So that's the the material and what you would do in the lesson
with the book. And it's, it has, yeah.
Like I said, the seven differentcompositions.
And the first half of the book is all the other information you
want to know about jazz, like what are jazz chords and Lizzy
extensions, the sevenths and ninths and thirteenths?
Or how do you practice improvisation?
(14:52):
It's got. And when I wrote the book, it
was like, what would a a teacherthat doesn't have a jazz
background need to know about jazz to be confident to teach it
so? This sounds this I'm so I have
to have this book. I have to look at this book
because I have a few jazz books.I know that we talked about the
Martha Muir like the Rep that you can get right.
(15:13):
But as far as how to jazz, how it works and all that, I have a
few books and I open them and itis like I feel like I'm taking a
college course again and it you know, I don't have this time.
I don't have the stomach for that.
They've just been sitting collecting dust for whoever
knows how many years. But this sounds like and that's
was your intention. You can use this in action
lessons and it's not going to beintimidating for the teacher.
(15:36):
You have something that we can actually read because we like
reading music. Thank you.
And but then if the student has questions or you want to dig
deeper on the other side, you have all the information that we
need in a clear way. And you brought up like so many
of the exact reasons I wrote thebook.
Like there there is that gap in the literature.
(15:57):
Like they're like I said, I loveMartha near there are that
stuff. But that's through composed.
And then when you do get to the material that does prompt
improvisation, you're right. It's like a college level.
It's way too advanced. Like a beginner.
One of those books, and I don't want to name names, but they'll
start with a like a 32 bar form that has like 6 different chords
(16:19):
and you got to memorize all the these modes and all of that.
And it's like maybe you could dothat with the high schooler if
they the teacher had a strong background, but you can't bring
that out in like a 10 year old'slesson.
So I wanted to write something where you could bring it out in
a 10 year old's lesson. So but yeah and yeah it's really
written really concisely like, hey, if you want to know how
(16:40):
walking bass lines work, boom, one page, that's how walking
bass lines work. Like if you want to get swing
rhythm, whatever, but but yeah, so I'm glad that it's resonating
in the that that sounds interesting.
Yeah, it's exciting. OK, hold on.
You said mode, so can we talk about that for a second?
Yes. Is that mentioned in your book
at all? I mentioned modes.
(17:02):
I have. One of the seven songs is a
modal composition. It starts in D Dorian and goes
to E flat Dorian. There's a lot of jazz repertoire
that like sounds like So what and impressions do that.
And it's to help the kids hear and internalize when there's a
tonal shift. Because D Dorian and E flat
Dorian are so dramatically different.
I want to help kids internalize that.
(17:24):
I think in some pedagogy, jumping into modes comes too
soon. Because again, I think that
students, when they improvise, should be so focused on creating
melodies that they're actually hearing in their head.
And if you start with so many modes too soon, then you run
into kids improvising with theirbrain, not with their ear.
(17:46):
Like I feel like the theory should supplement and help their
ear. And this is coming from someone
that for years was improvising with their brain and had to kind
of go back and try to make sure,hey, am I playing when I'm
actually hearing? But anyway, that's an aside for
teaching modes. I do think it is important.
I don't want to throw it out completely.
I think one of the, so when I'vetaught modes, I will tell people
(18:10):
of the traditional way of teaching them and then I have a
way that I feel it stronger. So I feel like most of the time
when people teach modes, they dothe whole white key thing.
They're like, Dorian is all the modes of C major but starting on
D, and Phrygian is all the notesof C major but starting on E.
That's a really helpful way to introduce it, but I feel like it
(18:31):
can get so convoluted when you want to figure out a mode that's
not one of those seven ways on awhite key.
Like if I say, what's a flat Phrygian, someone's going to
say, OK, well if E Phrygian is Cmage and they're like having to
do all of this crazy work to figure that out.
And I can see why students mightjust shut down because it's
like, that seems like a crazy amount of stuff to learn.
(18:54):
It does it really. Does what I like to do is show
how the notes of a major scale will change?
So for instance, going from Ionian, which is a major scale,
to Mixolydian, you lower the seven, that's it.
So you don't have to think aboutall this other stuff.
If you want to go from the majorscale to Lydian, you raise the
(19:15):
4th. So you still have to memorize
those rules. But then you're just thinking
about how do I construct this scale rather than I have to
think this scale is starting on the third scale degree of that
other scale. And then what's that other?
There's a lot of, it's like almost like an algebraic
expression music land going on in your head.
Yeah. Cuz actually when you said that,
(19:37):
that was what my brain was doing.
It was moving this scale here. Yeah, it can.
Be a lot, but if you like, if you just memorize Dorian is the
minor scale where you just plumpup the sixth note.
Feel like that's a lot easier than to figure out any Dorian
scale because most kids. I think if you're going to start
modes, you should be familiar with all your major scales at
(19:58):
least. Or if not your.
So let's say that we're in a lesson, you know, there's only
so much time that you have per week.
We have evaluations, exams, recitals.
We have like all the stuff coming up and sometimes it's
hard to fit in what we want. Do you think that this is
something that a teacher could fit in within like, I don't
know, 5-10 minutes of their lesson?
(20:19):
Maybe just even do some improv. Yeah, yeah.
I mean, especially with the the compositions being these kind of
repeated vamps. I just repeated chord
progressions. I think it's super easy for a
teacher just to walk over to thepiano or just sit at the low end
of the piano and they're writtenwhere you don't need 2 pianos.
It's like a forehand thing. Yeah, the teacher could
(20:39):
definitely just like, hey, I'm going to play this here, your 4
notes, let's see what we can come up with.
And yeah, you could do that for two minutes if you wanted to.
The songs in the book also have a in jazz, we refer to the the
precomposed melody as the head. So if you listen to like a Miles
Davis recording, they'll play the precomposed melody.
They'll improvise in the middle and play the precomposed at the
(21:00):
end. It's kind of the one of the main
structures. So each one of these tunes in
the book at the bottom do have aquote UN quote a head like a
main melody. So if you wanted to treat it as
one of the students repertoire pieces, you can go like all
right, learn though the actual head.
All of the teacher parts are on every streaming platform.
So students don't need like a CDin the back of the book or
(21:22):
something. They can just go on YouTube or
Spotify and practice at home with the teacher part.
So I think it works as both works is like this is just a 5
minute lesson activity or hey learn your Bach minuet, learn
your whatever Clemente thing andalso work on hit it from your
jest. Oh, for Pete's sake, that's
fantastic. You know what?
(21:43):
You're giving me so many ideas too.
I'm thinking just about group lessons, so I'm always playing
around with when the kids come in and I want them to be
interacting because sometimes they come in, they're just
staring each other and like, so how was your week, you know, and
all that stuff. But this would be great if as
they're coming in, you're just on the piano and they're getting
in line and they're just improvising and it becomes a
(22:03):
regular thing. I'm thinking about, too.
Even teaching by rote some of these precomposed.
Yeah, call it the head, right? Yeah.
So you could do that and have students doing that as they come
in. I think there's so many
opportunities. And what you're doing too is
you're normal normalizing it. You're not making it seem like
this foreign concept that's so separate from what we do.
(22:24):
Because that's how I have alwayslooked at it up until maybe the
past five years. And I've been teaching for 27
years. So, so it's like, why?
Like, why can't we have? And then another thing I was
thinking as you were talking, sorry, I so many ideas do that
recitals because I know teacherswho have kids improvising at the
beginning and I'm always thinking, how are you doing
(22:46):
that? But that right there is a great
example. And if they're used to doing
that in lessons, they're not going to be nearly as freaked
out to go in and sample the piano by improvising as
everybody's sitting down. Absolutely.
And and what I love about it toois it it does kind of prime
students if they do want to pursue jazz more, if they do
want to play it in jazz band or like middle school jazz band or
(23:08):
high school jazz band, They're they're already familiar with
the concept of improvising on top of a chord progression
because yeah, I mean, middle school band directors, they're
they're always looking for like a pianist that can jump in or
something like that. So but yeah, I've done it.
I've done it in my students recitals.
We're all, I'm next to them playing the teacher part and
they improvise. They do the head and the solo
(23:29):
and the heads. You also brought up group
activities. I've done teacher training.
So I went into a county in Virginia and have all of the
high school band directors and we were all going around taking
turns improvising on the court. So it definitely works.
The book also has a separate, I think 2 pages of other kind of
improv activities like icebreaker kind of things.
(23:51):
So yeah, I like the way you saidit's like normalizing.
I think that's a great way of thinking.
As you're probably very aware, Bach and Beethoven and Mozart
were all brilliant improvisers. Like we can bring that skill
back into Pedigo. Yeah.
And then you can lead over to composition and the
understanding. And I'm really excited about
(24:13):
this. I think this is really fantastic
and it fits with everything. OK.
So is there anything else that we didn't touch on that you
wanted to mention? I think we touched on on
everything. I mean, I can tell you where
people can find the book if theyif they want to do that.
Yeah. So it's it's on my website,
which is this is jazz.com. That's where I have everything
(24:34):
from books to courses to teachertraining and stuff like that.
It's also on Amazon. Amazon is currently only only in
the US And then if anybody has done Piano Marvel, the
interactive app, the songs are on there.
So you can you can play along with the songs.
So yeah, those are probably the best ways to find it.
This is jazz.com, Amazon.com, pianomarvel0andmusicnotes.com.
(24:59):
Pick it up digitally. So that's a whole bunch of
places. I'm sorry to your listeners.
That's a lot to keep track of, but yeah.
And people can find you well at the website, yes.
And then you're on Instagram too.
Yes, and that's my my Instagram handle is my name Quentin
Walston. And that's Walston with an L.
Yes, WUENTINWALSTON. Awesome, now if teachers do go
(25:24):
to the website, there is a coupon code for $5 off.
Yes, yeah, your listeners can get 5 bucks off with the code.
Teach Jazz. All caps, no spaces.
So just teach Jazz or yeah, thisis jazz.com.
Check out the book, it's up there.
Ebook and a print book and yeah,Teach Jazz. 5 bucks off.
Awesome, awesome. OK.
And I'll put that in the show notes too as well for teachers.
(25:46):
So well, Quinton, thank you so much.
This is really exciting and we are excited about your book.
And what is the name of the bookOne More Time?
To teach jazz and improvisation,just want to make sure that that
it is super direct. People knew what they were
getting when they they found it.To the point and it does not
mimic a college course. It's very usable in lessons.
(26:11):
All right. Well, thank you, quick.
Thank you. Appreciate it.
All right, thank you so much to Quinton for joining me today.
That was a very refreshing conversation, especially when it
comes to something like jazz. And don't forget, Quinton and I
both will be at the NCKP this week.
This is the week of July 21st, 2025.
(26:31):
It is NCKP week. And if you're going, let me
know. I would love to meet up with you
on visit Quinton. He is going to have a booth with
his book. So stop by, say hi, let him know
that you listen to the podcast and take a photo.
You know, have some fun with it.Also, don't forget my policy
workbook at Scrappy pianoteacher.com.
(26:53):
It is available now. Yay.
It is discounted for $15 and it will be until September 15th.
It comes with templates, multiple templates to help you
create clear professional policies with less stressed and
if you're ready to build systemsthat actually support you as a
teacher and business owner, you know that's my jam.
(27:13):
That's what I'm all about here. The August scrappy session on
our Sops is open for registration.
It is 50% off up until August 1st.
The session is on August 15th. I would love to see you there,
but regardless, thank you for listening.
So happy you're here today. Have a great week.
(27:34):
I'll see you in two weeks from now and I'll catch you then.
Bye.
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