A Letter From Jeff:
Welcome to Jazz Wire. I built this place for you, for all the adult amateur and semi-pro jazz musicians out there who are wanting to connect, learn, and move ahead with their music. I’ve been doing this work for almost 20 years on the east coast of the USA, and I can’t wait to help you move towards your goals and your dreams. Jazz Wire is about connecting you with others at your level, and showing you where you fit in. It looks kind of like this – 
We have passionate adult learners and players from over 25 different countries around the globe. Come on in and meet them. We can’t wait to work with you!
Cheers,
Jeff
I’m not sure if I get it. What exactly is Jazz Wire?
Imagine a peerless educational experience for adult musicians + your favorite subject (jazz) + a social network, only 10x better + an encouraging group from around the world who has your back, always. All at your fingertips.
Jazz Wire is a brand new platform, unlike anything that exists online today for adult musicians. Creating Jazz Wire, I wasn’t content with just rehashing old techniques and information, pretending that it was somehow different from the rest. My goal was to offer something to adult players that had never existed.
#1 – Community and Connection. This is what is missing for the vast majority of us. Having a community, and group (at our level), where we can learn, trade ideas, support each other, and be supported. This was, frankly, the best part of my university experience, and I wanted to recreate that for you. Jazz Wire members are sorted into three groups, by ability, so that you can have meaningful, relevant interactions that are powerful and dynamic. This is not a “catch-all" experience. This is hand crafted and individualized.
#2 – Information, Curation and Wisdom. I have tons of fantastic information for you on Jazz Wire. But, in this age of the internet, information is not the solution anymore. These days, all that information is the problem! We all have too much information (YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, etc.) and we don’t know what to use and what to discard. That is the strength of Jazz Wire. Our information is curated. It is sorted and categorized and grouped, so that it resonates with you personally. And when all that information gets sorted carefully, it can become wisdom.
#3 – Instruction. To begin with, there will be three subscriber videos every single week. In each of the three Jazz Wire Communities, there will be a video lesson for that group, often centering on a specific song. The video will analyze and discuss the music, digging into scales and chords, grooves and rhythms, practice techniques, sticking points and solutions. There will be rich discussions around the videos, with Q&A sessions, members posting their recordings of the songs, and much more. And this is all happening every week, in each of the three Communities. By the end of the year, you will have studied, deeply analyzed and played over 25 jazz songs. Did you do that last year?
#4 – Down the road? Tell me what you’d like to see. Instrument-specific masterclasses, Special Guest Artists, live streamed concerts, jazz camps around the globe for us to meet and play in the “real world” . . . . anything is possible with a focused and passionate group like Jazz Wire members.
Is JazzWire like taking private lessons? What if I already have a private teacher?
JazzWire is definitely not meant to take the place of your private lessons. Good private lessons are incredibly important, and I can’t say enough about their importance. JazzWire doesn’t offer that one-on-one experience. It should add to and extend that experience.
At JazzWire, you’ll have plenty of opportunity to bring up your questions, observations, challenges, sticking points and much more. There will be three new videos each week in JazzWire, one for each Community, at those three different ability levels. Each video is a lesson with specific ideas and assignments that you’ll be working on with other driven musicians who have the same concerns and challenges as you. We will be addressing those questions as they come up, every week. We’ll make some instrument-specific suggestions certainly, but JazzWire is more about Jazz, and less about teaching specific instrumental techniques.
We love private lessons, and we encourage you to study with private instrument-specific instructors as much as is needed. The inspiration, the improvisation, the community, the support from friends, the jazz side of things . . . that we got!
I’m only interested in the Playing Evaluation part. Do I have to subscribe to the JazzWire site each month?
We don’t offer Playing Evaluations on their own, without a Jazz Wire subscription. While the Playing Evaluation is a powerful document, it is structured to work hand-in-hand with Jazz Wire and the weekly sessions in your Community. I am interested in doing only the highest level work for my students, and you won’t get that from the Playing Evaluation alone.
I’ve heard that my Playing Evaluation & Practice Plan is “dynamic.” What does that mean?
Your Playing Evaluation & Practice Plan will be changing and evolving weekly, sometimes daily – it is literally alive. If your Plan guided you to work on your Swing Feel and your Harmonic Language, every time those topics are addressed in a Jazz Wire or Digging Deeper Jazz video, it will be automatically added to your Plan online. Your Playing Evaluation & Practice Plan will LOOK DIFFERENT on October 1 than it will look on October 30. It will constantly be updating itself, and adding new practice ideas for you. This is the 21st century, and we are taking the technology and running with it!
Do I have to send in recordings of myself? I’m a little nervous, and I’d rather not.
I am truly excited to hear you play, so please don’t worry! I’ve been working with adult amateurs and semi-pros for almost 20 years. This is what I do, and I love it. We are just asking for a “snap shot” of your playing today, and like any snap shot, it won’t be perfect. Our hair might have gotten blown by the wind, we blinked our eyes, and our shirt collar was turned up. I doesn’t matter. It’s a snap shot!
Your recording is what makes Jazz Wire powerful. It is what lets me get to know you, and it’s how I can put you in fruitful and engaging situations with other Jazz Wire members. This is how Jazz Wire is different. If you are tired of how you’ve always done things in music, I’m pretty sure that Jazz Wire is the cure! Your recording is key to your experience with us.
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Jazz Wire is a brand new platform, something that hasn’t existed before for adult musicians. To begin with, Jazz Wire groups are sorted, steered, shepherded and organized. Most of us don’t even have families or jobs like that!
There are thousands of internet chat rooms and Facebook groups related to jazz, and anyone can sign in. No one has any skin in the game, and there is a lot of talking. A lot. If there is any “doing” going on at all, it’s pretty hard to gauge who is who, and what is what. The level of conversation ranges from ignorant to obtuse to rude, all in the span of one post. No wonder nothing important happens there most of the time.
The style of jazz is really all about community, when you think about it. It’s about how we come together, how we form a team, and what it is that we want to say as a team. It’s democracy and individualism at the same time. Well, we patterned Jazz Wire after a great jazz band. The community comes first, and then everything else follows. When the band is grooving as a unit, nothing else really matters. Jazz Wire is different because we are going to be grooving, not posturing.
Is the six month subscription paid all at once?
No, the $49.95 (USD) subscription is paid monthly, billed to your credit card.
Who will do my Playing Evaluation? Is it Jeff, or others on the team?
Jeff Antoniuk designed the Jazz Wire program, and he creates every single Playing Evaluation. You are in good hands! For almost 20 years, Jeff has auditioned, coached, and directed thousands of adult musicians, on every instrument imaginable. He has a rare sense of what needs to be done, person by person, to help them move ahead quickly. Cutting out the confusion and the busy work is a hallmark of his style, with a focus on clear and powerful exercises, all with a sense of fun and humor.
Who will be teaching and leading sessions on JazzWire?
Jeff Antoniuk is your personal guide on Jazz Wire, and you’ll see and hear from him regularly in the videos, Q&A sessions, and in the Communities. That said, we’ll be bringing in jazz professionals from around the world to inspire and guide you on endless topics, ranging from instrument-specific direction, to various styles and grooves, composition to performance techniques. At Jazz Wire, our teachers, guides and Guest Artists are chosen for not only their fantastic bios, but most especially for their ability to connect and communicate.
I play the violin, harp, chromatic harmonica, etc. Can I join JazzWire?
You can absolutely apply, playing any instrument. Jazz isn’t about the instrument, jazz is about what we do with it!
I see that not everyone may be let in to JazzWire. Why is that?
One of the compelling things about Jazz Wire is that we are setting up powerful Communities within Jazz Wire for our members. Places where the conversations and lessons, questions and answers are meaningful and effective for those in that group. Someone with little or no jazz experience just won’t have a good time at Jazz Wire. To those who apply but don’t quite get in, they’ll receive their Playing Evaluation & Practice Plan, and are invited to reapply after four months of practice (no additional fee to reapply). Our expectation is that they’ll get in then, and be ready for a great experience.
What is the cancellation policy?
Our cancellation policy is set up to ensure that you achieve the goals you want to achieve. There is no substitute for consistency and commitment, so we ask that of our members on the way in.
At JazzWire, you are signing up for a six-month membership that will automatically renew for an additional six months (i.e., no month-to-month) unless you provide written notice via email or snail mail no later than 15 days prior to the end of your current six-month membership. At each renewal, you will receive your new Practice Plan & Playing Evaluation, and your credit card will automatically be charged $49.95 (USD) per month starting from the date you signed up. If you cancel your membership before the end of your subscription, you will be charged a non-refundable and non-transferrable penalty of $300 (USD) and will also be responsible for the balance of your subscription payable simultaneously in one installment.
You can see the full terms and conditions here