Towards a Jazz Pedagogy: Lessons from Legends and Educators!
Tuesday 29th July 2025, 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM (London Time)
This two-hour virtual workshop explores the foundational tenets of jazz pedagogy as both a conceptual and practical framework for teaching. Drawing from my research in “Towards a Jazz Pedagogy: Learning with and from Jazz Greats and Great Educators,” we’ll investigate how jazz (its historical and cultural legacy, structure, improvisation, and relationality) can be mobilized to inform dynamic, liberatory educational practice.
Through an interdisciplinary lens that bridges Black studies, music, and critical pedagogy, this session examines what educators might learn from the likes of John Coltrane, Miles Davis, and Betty Carter, as both musicians and expert teachers. Participants will engage with activities that illuminate how jazz insists on listening, freedom, and collaboration, qualities often overlooked in contemporary educational spaces.
The session will offer a blend of lecture, short media clips, and reflective prompts to help attendees consider how jazz can reshape our pedagogical methods, classroom culture, and relationships with learners. We will explore key questions like: How can improvisation serve as a model for culturally responsive teaching? What does it mean to practice improv within a curriculum? And what can the jam session teach us about assessment?
This workshop is ideal for educators, voice practitioners, and creative facilitators who are interested in centering Black cultural knowledge, honoring artistic practices as intellectual traditions, and expanding the possibilities of teaching and learning.
🏷️ Price £30 (UK VAT inclusive)
🎥 Recording automatically sent to all who book (even if you cannot attend live)
▶️ Rewatch as many times as you like
📜 Certificate of attendance available
Dr Autumn Griffin
Dr. Autumn A. Griffin is an Assistant Professor of Urban Education at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and a 2025 Spencer Postdoctoral Fellow. Her scholarship sits at the intersection of Black girlhood studies, critical media literacies, and liberatory pedagogies, with particular attention to how Black cultural traditions offer new visions for education.
Attend this course for as little as £22 as part of the Voice Professional Training CPD Award Scheme.
Learn MoreSorry, this is an archived short course...
We have plenty of upcoming short courses coming soon. See details of some of them below or look at the full list of short courses.
Tuesday 13th October 2026
1:00 PM - 2:00 PM
(London Time)
MA Voice Pedagogy: Online Information Session & Q&A
Debbie Winter
Considering our MA Voice Pedagogy? Join our Director for a focused online presentation and discussion to explore the course, ask questions, and discover whether postgraduate study at Voice Study Centre is right for you.
Tuesday 13th October 2026
2:00 PM - 4:30 PM
(London Time)
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Amanda Flynn
Join Amanda Flynn for this extended 2.5 hour session on the the pedagogy of teaching musical theatre singing. She will begin by exploring the flexibility needed for musical theatre singing through definitions, listening exercises, and some historical context.
Wednesday 14th October 2026
3:00 PM - 5:00 PM
(London Time)
Thinking Outside the Voice Box: Adolescent Female Voice Change
Dr Bridget Sweet-Manternach
Join Dr Bridget Sweet for this 2 hour session as she unpacks this fascinating topic. The purpose of this course is to bring attention to adolescents who experience an estrogen-dominant voice change and to encourage new and holistic ways of thinking about [assigned at birth] female voices. While considering physical changes during adolescence, we will unpack basic vocal anatomy and physiology and then discuss what happens to the vocal mechanism during voice change for females vs. [assigned at birth] males.