Excellent video and I'm particularly glad to hear you advocating using the voice first. I think this is critical to becoming a good musician. I feel very badly for students who are only taught to read while being taught to play. If they are strictly developing an eye to hand reaction without necessarily hearing the note they are going to play, then they are not becoming musicians. Very sad and very unmusical. It's paramount to make the connection from mind/ear to the horn/instrument, especially if one ever wants to become an improviser. Again I feel very sorry for players who are strictly taught to copy and practice riffs and just play chord tones/arpeggios to charts without hearing the melodic possibilities. Doesn't matter how quickly they can "cut and paste" their well practiced riffs and arpegios. In the ears of an audience it says nothing other than the player has practiced a lot. Music is about communication. If all one can say to their audience is that they have fast fingers, that's pretty limited communication. Our job is entertainment. Telling stories, creating moods, giving people something to dance to, etc. NOT just trying to impress them with our fast fingers that ultimately say nothing.
Once again so glad to hear that at least you are teaching a next generation to hear and give meaning to what they play. Next, hopefully we can also leave the 1950s behind and play in styles relevant to the present remembering our job is to communicate to the audiences of today.
