Ongoing Dialogues

From the start in 1990, the IASJ Ongoing Dialogues were part of every IASJ Jazz Meeting. In the Ongoing Dialogues, several topics are introduced, discussed and conclusions were drawn. The conclusions were never final. Jazz education, just as jazz itself, evolves and changes all the time. Despite this fluidity, certain topics occurred over and over again. Below, a random list of topics.

Jazz standards

How many standards must a student know, in how many keys, in which phase of the study? Which standards are played in every jam session worldwide? Which standards are good selection tools at auditions and exams? The difference between 'standards' and 'originals'? How and when do new standards occur?

Ear training

Which are the best steps in ear training? How to integrate ear training and keyboard-harmony lesson? What is the best group size for ear training? Can online courses replace ear training classes?

Music theory

What is the importance of making transcriptions? How many must a student make, be able to sing, play, play along the original? Must transcriptions be written down and be analyzed? Which transcriptions from solos of one's own instrument, which of others?

Gender

How to improve the gender balance in jazz? Which programs and initiatives are successful? What do women say? How to make the male dominated jazz world more woman friendly?

Race

How to acknowledge the African American roots of jazz if you are not from the African American community? Does 'positive discrimination' work?

Performance

How to behave on stage? How to dress? Where to find your audience? How to connect and stay connected with your audience? Which media, social and other, to use in the right way?

Jazz history

Is the timeline historiography, the lining up of great stars with popular and financial success, dead? How to get rid of all the negative associations (lack of recognition, drugs, alcohol) that spice up jazz biographies?