Matt's Teaching PhilosophyView All Posts
Overview of Matt’s Teaching Philosophy
Ultimately learning is about discovering who you are as an individual and finding truth. As a teacher of the arts I believe we must learn the rules that man-kind has established only to break them in the name of expressing our deepest selves with an eye (or ear as it were) towards expressing the universal.
As an educator I am interested in providing many view points on a particular concept, be it one in regard to a socio-political outlook or be it about how to play a particular set of chord changes or groove. The learning process is at first a difficult and many times dry intellectual activity but I want my students to take their learning to the point where it sinks down into their core being and becomes charged with deep personal meaning.
Berklee College of Music main website
Berklee College of Music piano department site
Music and Life of Bob Marley ClassView All Posts
Overview of Bob Marley Class
Matt Jenson, assistant professor of piano at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA has created a class entitled “The Music and Life of Bob Marley” that takes an in-depth study of Marley’s life, maintaining the utmost respect for the soulfulness of his music, for his message of LOVE and his insistence that human consciousness be raised.
The story of Bob Marley’s life, despite the many contradictions and hard to understand realities that surrounded him, can be seen as one of a true modern day sage who remained committed to his vision of raising consciousness through music. His music is so powerful and expansive that it transcends the very idiom from which it came because it has the ability to communicate regardless of language, race, gender, religion or nationalistic boundaries. The recordings and performances of Bob Marley and his band represent near perfection in terms of groove music and spirit-ful production. Rhythmic layering, one of the legacies of the African musical Diaspora, is presented in such gritty precision that its study is imperative and a great joy to experience.
The Latin Piano LabView All Posts
Overview of Latin Piano Lab
Matt Jenson has been playing in Salsa and Latin Jazz based bands for some 12 years now and teaching this Latin piano lab (at Berklee College of Music and at other locations) for 7 years. In this class Matt clears the clouds away with a very concise and understandable description of how Salsa-based Latin music works with a focus on Salsa and Cha Cha Cha styles. You will learn how to play a montuno in both 2-3 and 3-2 clave directions. Playing montunos is a physically demanding activity that can lead to serious hand injuries. Matt will give you technique tips to help avoid this. You will learn what rhythms to listen for in the percussion section that determine how your montuno will properly fall. You’ll even learn a basic Salsa and Cha Cha Cha dance step which is essential to understanding how to play this music properly. And finally we’ll touch on some ideas and techniques for soloing in a descarga (jam session).
