By: Dr. Matt Warnock

Dr. Matt Warnock in a Workshop at Pro Music

One of the coolest aspects to being a musician, educator and writer, is that I get to work with and meet countless amazing people during the course of my work week. While I may never make a million bucks doing what I do, OK may should be replaced with will in that sentence, I get paid in experiences that are hard to duplicate in any other profession. One of my favorite things to do as a musician and clinician is travel to different regions of the country, and different countries, to work with students, professional performers and teachers of all levels of experiences, tastes and backgrounds.

This past summer, July and August 2010, I was invited to spend three weeks in Brazil performing and teaching at several festivals, Universities and music academy’s in the beautiful state of Minas Gerais. Though many people think of the Amazon, Rio and Sao Paulo when the word Brazil pops up, Minas is one of the country’s hidden gems, which is an appropriate moniker since it’s one of the country’s biggest mining districts.

The first part of my tour was spent in the quiet, but very cool, town of Sao Joao Del Rei, performing and teaching at the local university’s Inverno Cultural (Winter Cultural) Festival. After finishing two weeks in SJDR, I made my way over by bus to the metropolis of Belo Horizonte to teach a series of workshops and private lessons at the Pro Music academy, as well as perform in jazz clubs around the city.

Though this was not my first time teaching in Belo, and at Pro Music, it would be my first attempt at teaching entirely in Portuguese. On previous trips I was lucky enough to have a friend translate my clinics for me, but this time around I decided to man up and learn at least enough of the language that I could stumble through my courses. I embarked on an intensive five-week course at home before leaving for Brazil, which worked out surprisingly well, and was able to teach entirely in Portuguese during my three-week trip. Though I have to admit, by the end of the day my brain was toast and I do believe that actual smoke was coming out of my ears.

The classes at Pro Music were divided into two sections, 90 minutes in the morning and 90 minutes in the evening, with 3-4 60 minute private lessons in between. The morning class focused more on introducing the students to fundamental jazz concepts such as the blues form, motivic soloing, important jazz rhythms and making the changes with arpeggios and other harmonic outlines. The evening class was more advanced and we were able to cover Bebop concepts, ear training exercises, tune memorization and other jazz-related subjects.

Whether it was teaching the chord progression to a blues in F to the introductory class, or digging into advanced Bebop substitutions with the advanced students, one thing I loved about these classes was the exuberance of the students to learn and their excitement to try new things. Many of the students hadn’t improvised in front of their peers before, but without any coaxing on my part they volunteered to get up and solo along with the band, usually using concepts and techniques that they had just learned minutes ago.

I have to give my commendations to Giovanni Mendes and all the staff and teachers at Pro Music for nurturing such a great sense of community and support among their students. Not only was it fun to teach, it was enjoyable to sit back and watch the students get up and have fun improvising, something that doesn’t always happen in a pressured situation like a masterclass or clinic.

As well as teaching that week I was invited to perform with one of Belo’s top jazz trio’s Balaio de Jazz, featuring Giovanni Mendes on bass, Fernando Delaretti keys and Hudson Vaz on drums. These three guys are the real deal. Though I’ve played a lot of Brazilian music back home in the States with U.S. musicians, I couldn’t help but smile as Hudson laid down the first Samba groove during our initial rehearsal.

These guys sweat groove, which made my job as soloist and melodicist so easy I actually felt a bit guilty. Playing a repertoire of popular and lesser known jazz and Brazilian standards, the two gigs that I was invited to play with the trio were definitely one of the highlights of my trip, and I am looking forward to performing with the band again this coming November.

Being an outsider is never easy, especially coming into a music school and teaching another teachers students in a clinic situation. There is the potential for egos to clash and for the whole thing to be a bad experience for those involved. This was definitely not the case at Pro Music. The teachers and staff were very welcoming and open to my being there, the students were energetic and eager to learn and the facilities were first rate. The only downside to my time at Pro Music was that I was only able to say one week!

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Photo Gallery

Dr. Matt Warnock Workshoping Students at Pro Music

Advanced Jazz Workshop at Pro Music

Celebrating a Successful Week of Workshops at Pro Music