Jazz Improvisation
Covers theoretical concepts, aural skill development, and analysis procedures for jazz improvisation; requires an audition.
Summary
Recent recorded grades — Fall 2023: 3.50 GPA, 62.5% A/AB (n=8 letter grades); Fall 2024: 3.00 GPA, 35.7% A/AB (n=14 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.65 GPA, 76.9% A/AB (n=13 letter grades).
What you’ll be able to do
Identify (visually and aurally) chord structures, scales and modes in the Major, Harmonic Minor, the Blues, Minor and Major Pentatonic, and Bebop scales.
Formulate and perform spontaneous melodies over song progressions and song forms.
Solve rhythmic placement of their improvisation within a steady pulse.
Apply historical and contemporary concepts of musical styles and forms, and research approaches specific to their instrument.
Apply melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic devices for improvisation over a chord and song form.
Describe and analyze improvisation by themselves, their peers, and from recordings.
Synthesize knowledge with insights and creativity to demonstrate self-understanding and improved performance practice and improvisation.
Source: UW Guide
Grade history
↗All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors
Prerequisites
Course mapProfessors
Spring 2027No instructors recorded for this selection.
Historical instructors & teaching patterns
Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.
Calendar & sections
Spring 2027Schedule loads here as you scroll.
| Section | Mode | Enrolled / capacity | Waitlist |
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Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections.
Meeting source records
Student experience
the class
Recent recorded grades — Fall 2023: 3.50 GPA, 62.5% A/AB (n=8 letter grades); Fall 2024: 3.00 GPA, 35.7% A/AB (n=14 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.65 GPA, 76.9% A/AB (n=13 letter grades).
difficulty & workload
No workload feedback recorded.
Topics
- Theoretical concepts and analysis procedures for the jazz idiom.
- Chord structures, scales, and modes including Major, Harmonic Minor, Blues, Pentatonic, and Bebop.
- Historical and contemporary musical styles and forms.
Skills
- Identify chord structures, scales, and modes visually and aurally.
- Formulate and perform spontaneous melodies over song progressions.
- Apply melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic devices for improvisation.
- Perform analysis procedures related to the jazz idiom.
Grades
Latest available · Fall 2025— not enough history to project Spring 2027.
Grade distribution · % of letter grades
Grades over time
Through Fall 2025
More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data
Not enough comparable courses for Spring 2027 in UW–Madison.
Sources & history
Catalog & offerings
Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.
Catalog observation history
Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.
Selected offering source records
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Raw records
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Student reviews
Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.
Read original reviews
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Grade history
Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.
Explore recorded gradesRecorded 2026-10-14
Model outputs & technical records
LLM outputs across runs
Full model traces
Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.
Model & dataset provenance
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"model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
"task_version": "17",
"output_id": "fb54c85ec4f39d4ec0de472979d65993533fd7522032cf7d240f08e01858dac2",
"requirements_status": "valid",
"dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
"observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}