Rick you are WRONG!!!! such biased views frighten many away....(and keeps music to an 'eleat' few) Quote..."One problem inherent in learning theory is it's plain scary! "////////

It is simple, it is LOGICAL,,,, and IT IS FUN!!!! Nothing "scary" about it.

Tim C's approach is BEAUTIFUL in its simplicity...check out his site....remember the ancient admonition when working with students...KISS...

In regard to the Jazz question...Let us build on the classic "Bill Baily" example of the honorable Mr. Seed.

After the first three notes of the tune, the audience instictively has an understanding of the key and the direction the melody is going, even if they don't know how to play an instrument or read notes. It is cultural.

It is the pleasure of the Jazz musician to tease, to tantalize, to "create harmonic puzzles/mazes" and then solve them for the listener. When inprovising, sometimes the performer will find himself "trapped" in an area of new territory or even "lost" ( In which case they will follow the same progression backwards out of the area...and then plunge right back in along the same thread looking for the "solution... the resolution." It is this "game" which the audience delights in...consciously, or without cognition.

This is easier heard than read: Starting with the original melodic line of "Bill Baily" and its chord transitions...we may decide to embellish the notes within the first phrase....perhaps we "double" every other one, or slip in additional notes, or insert chromatic half tones along the way....or turn to a "5-7 chord" when resolution was expected...so many things happen "accidently." Serendipity is at work in Jazz. It is a process of themes and VARIATIONS...

The "audience" (including the player) know where we are going...we just want to keep them wondering "IF" or "WHEN" we will get there...

There is little room for this... within the "digital tradition" which attempts to catalogue and record precise historic melodies....however, within the "oral tradition" it is the source of so many themes and variations that have found their way into the finely woven tapistry of song with threads borrowed from other lands and ages.