Student Blog: Learning How To Improv Jazz

It's about 10:00 p.m., so I have a few lamps lit in my kitchen, but my computer screen shows the brightest light. It's illuminated by a jazz standard, playing a lively tune while I try to keep in time.

"Do ba-do wee-do-no-doy!"

-My boisterous scatting is cut short by my roommate walking through our front door. She stares at me and I hastily turn off the music on my laptop. It's as if she caught me red-handed, committing some kind of master crime.

I go to my room and continue the scatting, hoping my neighbor Claire can't hear me through the walls...she most definitely can.

This semester I'm taking a course called Jazz improvisation where I'm learning how to scat. I've studied jazz for the past four years, but I am nowhere near my idol Ella Fitzgerald.

Our first day off class when I realized I was the only singer, I immediately wanted the ground to swallow me whole. There's something incredibly silly about singing patterned syllables at random in a room full of jazz students where everyone is playing a guitar while I'm holding onto a microphone in the corner.

Jazz Improvisation has challenged me to step out of my comfort zone. I've never felt incredibly comfortable scatting, but it's something I hope to improve throughout the semester for performances and my own musical development.

My Spotify playlists have become full of Bessie Smith, Etta James, Eartha Kitt, and Ma Rainey. Some days I run out of class after messing up my improvised chorus, but other days...it just clicks. It's a learning process and a journey I'm excited to take.