Overview

Gary Burton

[MUSIC].
Hi, I'm Gary Burton. Welcome to my course introduction to improvisation. This is my instrument. It's
called a vibraphone. And it's one of the mallet instruments like xylophone and marimba. Only the
vibraphone has metal keys and was invented around 1930. So it's a fairly new instrument.
When I first started playing music. I wasn't too serious about it, I was just a kid. But when I discovered
jazz at about age 13, I became very passionate about it. I fell in love with the freedom and creativity that
comes with improvisation. I mean part of being a jazz musician. And as you continue working on
improvisation yourself. I'm sure you'll come to agree that it's a wonderful experience to make up the
music as you go along and play it spontaneously.
I've been very fortunate. I've had a wonderful career. I travel around the world playing concerts and
make records. And I'm very grateful for the opportunities that have come my way. I've also been very
involved in music education. And that's what brings me to your computer screen today. I was an early
proponent of online education. And when, it first became technically possible to teach music online. I
was a very enthusiastic supporter of that as well.
And in fact, I created my own improvisation course for Berkeley College for their continuing education
division.
It's called Gary Burton Jazz Improvisation. Been doing it for a while now, and I've learned a lot about
how online teaching worksand particularly teaching improvisation.
So, I thought, what a good idea. I'll bring my experience and my knowledge to anyone who is interested
here at Coursera.