I am quite a good classical pianist (working on a DipRSM at the moment) and am wanting to learn how to play jazz piano. How do I go about doing this? Or, rather, what's the best way?
If I had to do it over again I'd first pick up about a dozen recordings by the best mainstream players that appealed to my ear. My personal short list would be Hank Jones, Kenny Barron, Sonny Clark, Wynton Kelly, Oscar Peterson, Bud Powell, Bill Evans.
Then I'd focus on absorbing the rythmic language employed in their accompaniment as well as the rythms used for their right hand solos. Then I'd simultaneously focus on the harmonic aspects of the instrument (chord voicings). There are plenty of decent books on this subject. You should have a lot of fun learning copy the comping rythms of the recordings, even if your note choices for the chords themselves are different.
As far as learning the melodic aspects I'd transcribe about 5 solos and learn the heck out of them. The point is not to necessarily to regurgitate the lines as much as using that material as a point of departure for inventing your own lines.
Having a decent teacher to guide you can also be invaluable. Finding a good teacher can be hard though.
"Bradley Burgess" <bradleyburg...@webmail.co.za> wrote in message
> I am quite a good classical pianist (working on a DipRSM at the > moment) and am wanting to learn how to play jazz piano. How do I go > about doing this? Or, rather, what's the best way?
In article <e9c83056.0403280648.9861...@posting.google.com>, Bradley
Burgess <bradleyburg...@webmail.co.za> wrote: > I am quite a good classical pianist (working on a DipRSM at the > moment) and am wanting to learn how to play jazz piano. How do I go > about doing this? Or, rather, what's the best way?
Get a good teacher. When you find you're not getting what you want, dump them and get a better teacher. Try to avoid making friends you can't "dissapoint" or sticking with a lousy teacher because they are a great player, etc.
Study from books. There are many. Mark Levine's "The Jazz Piano" is a good one. Also the four volumes of John Mehegan books are invaluable for a pianist. Always have a book that you're working with/on/through. Take it with you to work or when you get stuck in traffic. Don't consider it a replacement for playing or practice.
Listen endlessly and analytically to your favorite players.
Surely you read well; get authoritative sheet music and learn the techniques of other players directly. Learn and discard. Learn and discard. Learn and discard. The things that are fundamental and important to you as a player won't evaporate but instead leach into the aquafir of your musical brain forever. On the irrelevant really washes away.
-- First they gerrymander us into one-party fiefs. Then they tell us they only care about the swing districts. Then they complain about voter apathy. -- Gail Collins
> I am quite a good classical pianist (working on a DipRSM at the > moment) and am wanting to learn how to play jazz piano. How do I go > about doing this? Or, rather, what's the best way?
> Thanks
Two excellent systems are the eleven book series by Alan Swain (Jasmine Press I think is the publisher) and Shelly Berg's book called the "Goal Note Method" (published by Kendor). If you don't know how to read chord symbols or any of that stuff, then there are a number of good books that can get you up to speed at a local music store, including those in the Swain system. If you do read, though, I'd suggest the Berg book which is primarily a bebop improv book, but teaches the blues in its first chapters.
You can peruse a lot of different jazz technique books at
The very best way to learn jazz piano though is by taking jazz lessons from a pianist in your area - I'm sure there are many in this ng who could help you locate a good teacher.
In article <DZF9c.341578$B81.4966...@twister.tampabay.rr.com>, Smith wrote: > Could you please remove from your message whatever causes it to load > Chinese characters in my news reader? Thanks.
There's nothing but plain ASCII in his message. Your news reader is misconfigured or broken.
> In article <DZF9c.341578$B81.4966...@twister.tampabay.rr.com>, Smith wrote: > > Could you please remove from your message whatever causes it to load > > Chinese characters in my news reader? Thanks.
> There's nothing but plain ASCII in his message. Your news reader is > misconfigured or broken.
No, there isn't. I'm using OE and I'll bet you're using a newsreader that isn't OE and not set to pick up weird ass fonts.
> "Tim Smith" <reply_in_gr...@mouse-potato.com> wrote in message > news:NbJ9c.3967$yN6.1396@newsread2.news.atl.earthlink.net... > > In article <DZF9c.341578$B81.4966...@twister.tampabay.rr.com>, Smith > wrote: > > > Could you please remove from your message whatever causes it to load > > > Chinese characters in my news reader? Thanks.
> > There's nothing but plain ASCII in his message. Your news reader is > > misconfigured or broken.
> No, there isn't. I'm using OE and I'll bet you're using a newsreader that > isn't OE and not set to pick up weird ass fonts.
Agreed. I get the same thing with Gerry's posts. I just cancel the dialog box and be on my way.
-- Mike C. http://mikecrutcher.com "As much as I love music, I never really thought it was my life. I thought it was the vehicle I used to express my life" - Herbie Mann
It's not Chinese but Japanese (a minor distinction for some, I know). I only just found that it was producing these difficulties and we'll put in on the list of things to do.
-- First they gerrymander us into one-party fiefs. Then they tell us they only care about the swing districts. Then they complain about voter apathy. -- Gail Collins
In article <e9c83056.0403280648.9861...@posting.google.com>, Bradley
Burgess <bradleyburg...@webmail.co.za> wrote: > Hi everyone
> Here's the situation:
> I am quite a good classical pianist (working on a DipRSM at the > moment) and am wanting to learn how to play jazz piano. How do I go > about doing this? Or, rather, what's the best way?
There is no "royal road" to learning to play jazz. Here's one possible program, more or less the way I did it over many years: (1) get a lot of recordings of Bill Evans, Art Tatum, Keith Jarrett, and anyone else you like. Listen a lot. (2) get a few books of transcriptions (there's several good volumes of Bill Evans available, for example) that include the chord symbols. (You might want to post a followup question asking for recommendations for specific books). Since you can play classical piano, learning the transcriptions shouldn't be hard; getting it to sound *in the style* of the artist is the real challenge, and takes lots more listening than reading. (3) Blank out the transcriptions, and just refer to the chord symbols. (I assume you know enough music theory to interpret the symbols, but Mark Levine's book can help with the less obvious ones). See if you can play in the style of the soloist, using only the symbols as cues to keep you in the form of the piece. (4) When you can do a decent job of "covering" a few different pianists this way, try playing a familiar tune from a fake book (using only chord symbols). After you've gotten skilled at this process, you can do it with less-familiar tunes, also. (5) Over time, you learn to associate chord sequences with sounds. Lose the fakebook, and figure out chords from what the tune sounds like. Now you can improvise from scratch, and you're playing jazz.
> "Tim Smith" <reply_in_gr...@mouse-potato.com> wrote in message > news:NbJ9c.3967$yN6.1396@newsread2.news.atl.earthlink.net... > > In article <DZF9c.341578$B81.4966...@twister.tampabay.rr.com>, Smith > wrote: > > > Could you please remove from your message whatever causes it to load > > > Chinese characters in my news reader? Thanks.
> > There's nothing but plain ASCII in his message. Your news reader is > > misconfigured or broken.
> No, there isn't. I'm using OE and I'll bet you're using a newsreader that > isn't OE and not set to pick up weird ass fonts.
In article <RGJ9c.342278$B81.4992...@twister.tampabay.rr.com>, Smith wrote: >> > Could you please remove from your message whatever causes it to load >> > Chinese characters in my news reader? Thanks.
>> There's nothing but plain ASCII in his message. Your news reader is >> misconfigured or broken.
> No, there isn't. I'm using OE and I'll bet you're using a newsreader that > isn't OE and not set to pick up weird ass fonts.
Nope. I examined the raw posting. The only slightly odd thing he does is specify iso-2022-jp as his character set, which is a set used for Japanese email. However, it contains 7-bit ASCII as a subset, and his post consisted entirely of characters from that subset. Any good newsreader should display his post just fine. OE is not usually considered to be a good newsreader.
> Nope. I examined the raw posting. The only slightly odd thing he does is > specify iso-2022-jp as his character set, which is a set used for Japanese > email. However, it contains 7-bit ASCII as a subset, and his post consisted > entirely of characters from that subset. Any good newsreader should display > his post just fine. OE is not usually considered to be a good newsreader.
Says who and why? People just like to bash OE because they're jealous of Bill G. I've used it for years and never had a lick of trouble except when someone inserts something funny into their message.
> "Tim Smith" <reply_in_gr...@mouse-potato.com> wrote in message > news:FKcac.4953$NL4.2739@newsread3.news.atl.earthlink.net... > > Nope. I examined the raw posting. The only slightly odd thing he does is > > specify iso-2022-jp as his character set, which is a set used for Japanese > > email. However, it contains 7-bit ASCII as a subset, and his post > consisted > > entirely of characters from that subset. Any good newsreader should > display > > his post just fine. OE is not usually considered to be a good newsreader.
> Says who and why? People just like to bash OE because they're jealous of > Bill G. I've used it for years and never had a lick of trouble except when > someone inserts something funny into their message.
Well, I use Outlook and the news reader is the same. The only thing that I don't like about it is that to sequentially read a newsgroup you have to hit the inconvenient CTRL U after each message. NEtscape had a handy little one click arrow at the top.
In article <DZF9c.341578$B81.4966...@twister.tampabay.rr.com>, Smith
<gsm...@tbanet.org.nospam> wrote: > Could you please remove from your message whatever causes it to load Chinese > characters in my news reader? Thanks.
Is this better?
-- First they gerrymander us into one-party fiefs. Then they tell us they only care about the swing districts. Then they complain about voter apathy. -- Gail Collins
> I can't seem to find any info on these books through Googling. Do you > have more specific info?
You can call Alan Swain Studios in Evanston, IL: 847-328-0653. It's a full line of books taking you from the very beginnings of Jazz (and music theory) through very advanced techniques and topics. The eleventh book is actually rather different, specifically geared at classical players wanting to delve into the Jazz world. It comes with a half demonstration, half play-along CD. I can't recommend his technique highly enough.
Same accolades go for the Shelly Berg book. Different approach, probably best if you have some rudimentary jazz knowledge and experience behind you. It covers the basics, but doesn't really explain them. It immediately launches into advanced solo technique (no, not scary advanced!). You can certainly use both approaches side-by-side, and you'll get a great education.
> "Tim Smith" <reply_in_gr...@mouse-potato.com> wrote in message > news:NbJ9c.3967$yN6.1396@newsread2.news.atl.earthlink.net... > > In article <DZF9c.341578$B81.4966...@twister.tampabay.rr.com>, Smith > wrote: > > > Could you please remove from your message whatever causes it to load > > > Chinese characters in my news reader? Thanks.
> > There's nothing but plain ASCII in his message. Your news reader is > > misconfigured or broken.
> No, there isn't. I'm using OE and I'll bet you're using a newsreader that > isn't OE and not set to pick up weird ass fonts.
If you can, take a class at a university if available. I've got a BM in piano performance, all classical, but I want to learn jazz piano also. It's forcing me to practice, stick my neck out and learn to improvise in front of other people and be ready for the next class. Our textbook is the Goal Note book by Shelton Berg mentioned in other replies, and it's a great approach.
I also tried taking private lessons but couldn't find a jazz piano teacher in the area. This class is definitely doing the job for me! Good luck to you.
> I am quite a good classical pianist (working on a DipRSM at the > moment) and am wanting to learn how to play jazz piano. How do I go > about doing this? Or, rather, what's the best way?
