Teaching the Jazz Singer
Join us for an engaging 3-week course designed to help you grow and refine your skills!
Sessions will be held on:
Wednesdays - July 1, 8, and 15, 2026
Time: 9:00 – 10:00 a.m. PST
What You'll Learn
This three‑week course offers voice teachers practical tools for coaching jazz singers. Through listening, discussion, and hands‑on exercises, participants will begin to explore the essence of jazz singing, including its history, culture, repertoire, storytelling techniques, and improvisation.
Week 1: What Makes a Jazz Singer?
What’s the difference between a singer singing a jazz song, and a Jazz Singer? We’ll talk about the cultural roots of this African American artform, and the integral elements that make Jazz, Jazz.
Week 2: Repertoire, Storytelling & Melody-Based Improvisation.
We’ll discuss song selection, lyric interpretation and emotional connection, and explore exercises for melody-based improvisation.
Week 3: Improvisation Deep Dive.
We’ll explore more improvisational techniques: scat singing, phrasing variations, harmonic exploration, transcription, and call-and-response approaches. This will include practical exercises teachers can bring into the studio to build confidence and creativity in their students.
By the end of the course, participants will have a deeper understanding of the huge and diverse topic of jazz singing, and a toolbox of teaching approaches to inspire their students.
About Tessa
Tessa is a Jazz singer, band leader, and singing teacher with decades of experience teaching Jazz and improvisation to singers of different experience levels.
As a vocalist and band leader, Tessa performs music predominantly from the 1920s – 40s, specialising in playing music for Swing dancers, and performing the close harmony singing style of 1940s groups such as the Andrews Sisters.
Tessa has a BA in Jazz Studies, an MA in Vocal Pedagogy and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Her research areas focus on Performance Assessment for Popular Music singers, stylistic awareness in Popular Music styles, and decolonisation of Popular Music singing education and assessment.
She teaches in several Higher Education institutions across the North of England, as well as running choirs and community singing groups.
She is also passionate about helping singers to improve their practice – creating content on social media about how to make practice effective, efficient, and enjoyable. She has a podcast – The Singer’s Guide – and a membership – The Singer’s Practice Hub – dedicated to helping singers improve their singing through practical means, mindset shifts and bite-sized practice exercises.