What I Have Learned about Jazz from this Course
I went into this course with the intention of enhancing my jazz experience. I was already a medial listener of jazz, so learning more about it and its origins posed to me to be interesting. It's more to it than just rhythms and beats, there's a whole culture to it, something that people live for. This has been a very informative course, learning about the different eras and artists. Most of the artists that I learned about, I already knew of them for being pioneers. Then for me to learn of their backgrounds and inspirations gave me a lot of insight into how they made the music they made. For anyone outside of a musical education, a lot of what was talked about can sound too deep. By that I mean the way the author distinguishes each style and player by chord accompaniment and difference in improvisation.
English: Sonny Rollins in concert
Miles Davis
English: American jazz saxophonist Ornette ColemanIt can all sound very unfamiliar. It's like, I can hear the difference, but when it's put into literary terms it puts a lot of distance between you and a real jazz musician. I mean, not that I thought I knew anything about jazz already, but taking this course definitely opens your eyes to Jazz; the music and the culture. I think it's important to learn about jazz for the fact that it is a part of African-American history. Many of the intricate roles in jazz were played by African-Americans, which was empowering to know that they were making a difference during a time when race relations weren't that good. It was also enlightening to know that jazz was all that some of the artists had back then. Some of them didn't even have a home, sleeping in cars, and then driving to as...