First of all the question comes to mind as to what is Jazz?\u00a0 What music does this genre include and what are the main characteristics of this style of piano playing?<\/b><\/p>\n
\u201cJazz is a broad and complex genre, and so it may seem difficult for those who are first getting into Jazz to know where to start. There are lots of different subgenres, and lots of different concepts, such that Jazz can sound like a foreign language \u2013 a Jazz musician could say \u2018let\u2019s use the Lydian Dominant mode to play over the secondary dominant chords in section B of Rhythm Changes.\u2019 But Jazz doesn\u2019t need to be complex. You can actually get by with a minimum amount of theory and practice\u201d\u00a0 (From The Jazz Piano Site – Online)<\/i><\/p>\n
Today the term Jazz is used very loosely for nearly every style of music which is not classical or contemporary, like rock.\u00a0 On the whole, talking of Jazz, it will refer to music played from the Real books, well-known songs like Autumn leaves, Take Five etc. The blues are also an intricate part of jazz music. There is a long history around the development of jazz which can mostly be traced to music played in America by the less privileged group and the blues formed part of this period.\u00a0 Today jazz has become a very sophisticated genre which was looked down on in the past. Jazz pianists or jazz players were often seen as not educated and not professionally trained.\u00a0 Many a jazz player could not read music, but they had the incredible ability to play by ear, improvise and create music,\u00a0 having great fun and giving them almost a magical outlet for stress and emotions.<\/p>\n
Over the years,\u00a0 jazz players started to put the most known jazz songs together in a book format, called the Real Books.\u00a0 Most Jazz piano players know the basic songs from the Real book.\u00a0 The Real books contain the most well-known jazz songs with their melodies and chords,\u00a0 giving jazz players a universal book with lead sheets of jazz songs to work from.<\/p>\n
The difference between Jazz and classical music<\/b><\/p>\n
\u201cDuke Ellington expressed it best when he wrote the tune, \u201cIt Doesn\u2019t Mean A Thing If It Ain\u2019t Got That Swing.\u201d Jazz is nothing without the rhythms that create the music. Swing is the entity in jazz that makes you want to tap your feet, or move to the beat.\u201d\u00a0 Brendon Lowe from The Jazz Piano School<\/i><\/p>\n If you want to start to learn jazz, it’s important to realise that it will not just take one or two lessons to be able to play jazz, but rather a whole few years and a lot of mind-changing and hearing or listening to this style of music so that it can come from your inside as a player.\u00a0 This is especially applicable if you are classically trained and are used to the normal major and minor triad sound.<\/p>\n After I studied classical piano for years,\u00a0 I had the desire to expand my horizons and learn to play some jazz.\u00a0 I thought it would be easy and after one or two lessons would be able to carry on on my own!\u00a0\u00a0 Well to my amazement I found that this new world of music was not going to be a quick one to conquer at all.\u00a0 You need a whole mind shift to play and create in this style.\u00a0 In the end, I decided to enrol at a jazz school for 3 or 4 years to learn things properly.\u00a0\u00a0 Well after one year of study I realised that if I\u00a0 really wanted to do this genre well, it might take me closer to 5 – 10 years to reach the goal and not a few months or 2 lessons!<\/p>\n Of course, training depends a lot on the teacher and their ability to teach you the needed skills and lead you.\u00a0 At the university where I studied, the lecturers of jazz were more than excellent master performers but they had no idea how to convey this to their students, probably because they themselves were trained by ear.\u00a0 There were no jazz courses readily available before this time. Of Course, their training of what they could show or explain did help tremendously.<\/p>\n Being amongst other students helped in a major way and we learnt from one another, and of course from listening and listening and listening to jazz and practising chords, chord voicings etc.\u00a0\u00a0 We had to be part of a small band and this forced us to work, practise and play!\u00a0 Today there are jazz schools and colleges that make the learning of Jazz so much easier and there are amazing tutorials on youtube available.\u00a0 Finding jazz music to listen to is no problem today with google.\u00a0\u00a0 At the stage that I\u00a0 studied jazz, one had to \u201csearch\u201d for a CD with jazz,\u00a0 if you wanted to study something specific like \u2018Straight no Chaser\u2019 etc.<\/p>\n Jazz has lately become much more of an important genre than in the past when it was often seen as music for the lower uneducated class. And wow could they play! \u00a0It makes one think.\u00a0 Today jazz has been elevated and has become \u201csophisticated\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0 Jazz piano pieces are now even part of classical music exams, except that in the classical exams,\u00a0 the music is all written out on a score for the student and not really left to the creativity of the player, as the real jazz players would do.<\/p>\n Another major aspect of jazz is the improvisation used.\u00a0 Actually, jazz is mainly improvisation on chords and most times there is a main melody given which is often called the head or head part.\u00a0 Improvisation is the ability to spontaneously create music on the instrument, normally on a specifically given chord progression.<\/p>\n Jazz piano can be part of playing with a band or the jazz pianist can do solo playing.\u00a0 When you play as a band,\u00a0 each player will receive a lead sheet with the basic melody and chords.\u00a0 The head or melody is played and then each member of the band improvises on the chord progressions of the head given.\u00a0 When the leader calls the \u201chead\u201d or shows to the head again, the band will repeat the head or melody and end the performance.\u00a0 It’s an amazing and exciting feeling when the chemistry of a music piece or chords suddenly comes alive and the whole band flows together in a magical feel or oneness!\u00a0 Improvisation is always an exciting time to explore with new notes, tensions and creativity by each band member.\u00a0 The band usually at least consists of a bass player,\u00a0 drummer and pianist or another instrumentalist.\u00a0 Of course, you can add as many instrumentalists as you want.<\/p>\n The great pleasure of Jazz piano is the fact that you can play around with sounds, chords, \u2018feel\u2019 and be as creative as to whatever comes to your mind.\u00a0 This can be very very exciting and most satisfying to the performer or piano player.<\/p>\n Ok, so for you as an adult beginner, to start to learn jazz piano can mean a lot of excitement and creativity.\u00a0 It might take some time to get the basics underfoot, but it will be worth it.\u00a0 You will soon be in love with the feel of movement and creativity.\u00a0 Jazz is more based on feeling, hearing and creating of music than on reading of notes.\u00a0 For the formal intellectual adult, used to being in control of every note, this could be quite daunting and stretching, but it will bring you to new avenues and new heights that you have not experienced before.\u00a0 New sounds and chords and rhythms.\u00a0 In today’s intellectual world and preciseness,\u00a0 it is most exhilarating to be able to find an outlet and be more focussed on creativity and expression of emotion and sound.\u00a0 Jazz is great for this, as is singing and playing songs by ear, besides the classical disciplined piano playing.\u00a0 The classical piano piece is of course just on another level of expertise and can not be replaced by jazz.\u00a0 It’s two totally different ways of expression.\u00a0 If you are a classical pianist,\u00a0 do think about doing a bit of jazz training.\u00a0 It’s truly worth it. Today many classical pianists combine the classical and jazz sound to create a new amazing sound.<\/p>\n If you start to learn jazz, it helps to do a new Real book song each week.\u00a0 As a classical pianist,\u00a0 I really found that very hard to do, as, in my mind,\u00a0 I first had to play the former piece\/s perfectly before even thinking of another piece.\u00a0 In jazz playing, it is different and it helps to do many pieces and be forced to move on to the next melody with chords, even if the former is not perfect.\u00a0 When is it perfect?\u00a0 There are no written notes, so there is no \u201cperfect.\u201d\u00a0 Only better or close to perfect!<\/p>\n I will presume that you already know the basics of the piano,\u00a0 the sitting posture, basic scales, the keys,\u00a0 etc.<\/p>\n In classical music, the major and minor chords or triads form the basis of the music.\u00a0 The chords are basically built with major and minor 3rds built and stacked on top of each other.<\/p>\n Jazz music is built mostly on 7th chords.\u00a0 7th chords consist of a major or a minor chord with a major or minor 7th added to the chord.\u00a0 The main three 7th chords being:<\/p>\n These chords consist of 4 notes.\u00a0 The chords are built with major or minor 3rds which are stacked on top of each other.<\/p>\n After the 7th tone (which is the 7th degree of the scale), there can still be added the 9th, the 11th and the 13th degree of the scale.\u00a0 We call these add-ons or extensions and they create tensions that give us distinct jazz sounds on specific chords.\u00a0\u00a0 I will discuss the building of chords in a next article.<\/p>\n There is this very important II\u00a0 V\u00a0 I\u00a0 (two five one) progression which is used all the time in jazz.\u00a0\u00a0 Having this in mind will help you in understanding the harmonic structures better.\u00a0 This progression will rather look like this in jazz chord symbols:\u00a0 \u00a0II7\u00a0\u00a0 v7\u00a0\u00a0 I maj7<\/p>\n When you get your lead sheet, it will contain the melody of the song, let’s say you are playing \u201cAutumn Leaves\u201d by Johnny Mercer.\u00a0\u00a0 This melody will be notated on a stave with the basic key signature and time signature needed.\u00a0 (It will be most helpful if you have a teacher to help you with the basics of theory here.)\u00a0 Above the melody, there will be the chords used at each point of the melody.\u00a0 We call this changing of chords \u2018the chord progression\u2019.\u00a0 There are quite a number of chord symbols that are typically used in jazz.\u00a0 There are chords like the d minor 7th flat 5 chord with given symbols like D-7b5.\u00a0 It takes a while to get to know all these chords and know how they sound, but soon enough all will make sense.\u00a0 It’s important to use your ear and give great attention to the sound of each chord so that in future your ear will be able to \u201chear\u201d the specific chord before even playing it.\u00a0 Using your ear in learning jazz is of utmost importance. Especially as the whole genre is built on the ear rather than on notes.\u00a0 I can not stress the development of your ear more.\u00a0 It truly forms the basis of playing jazz, so do overtly listen and give attention to the sound of chords and their tensions.<\/p>\n I suggest that you start first of all with very simple chord progressions.\u00a0 Just maybe use two chords.\u00a0 Do an easy progression without a melody – just with chords.\u00a0 Of course, it’s advisable to learn about the different keys and chords and practise these in order to become fluent.\u00a0 This can be discussed in another article.\u00a0 Practising around the circle of fifths, throughout all the keys is part of today’s jazz students repertoire.\u00a0 For the new jazz beginner, I suggest that you first conquer one key properly and then move on to the next.\u00a0 Having to do too many scales and chords at the start will be too much!<\/p>\n Dear new jazz piano player, the subject of jazz piano playing is wonderful and huge so please, book yourself a lesson!<\/b><\/p>\n Well, I hope that some of this has helped you as an adult beginner.\u00a0 Maybe you feel totally lost with all this information.\u00a0 The best would be to start with very basic lessons in jazz piano.\u00a0 I would very highly recommend it.\u00a0 It will be worth your while and make things much easier.\u00a0 So do not wait.\u00a0 Book a lesson!\u00a0 There are so much information and wonderful avenues awaiting you.\u00a0 Do not give up or think this is impossible.\u00a0 Learning one on one with a good teacher will make things easy and worthwhile!\u00a0 So do find yourself a good teacher and enjoy the new era of the jazz pianist.\u00a0 Soon you will be able to create and improvise and enjoy!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" How to learn jazz piano for the adult beginner First of all the question comes to mind as to what is Jazz?\u00a0 What music does this genre include and what are the main characteristics of this style of piano playing? \u201cJazz is a broad and complex genre, and so it may seem difficult for those who are first getting into Jazz to know where to start. There are lots of different subgenres, and lots of different concepts, such that Jazz can sound like a foreign language \u2013 a Jazz musician could say \u2018let\u2019s use the Lydian Dominant mode to play over […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":5069,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[138],"tags":[139,229],"class_list":["post-5065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-jazz-piano","tag-jazz-piano","tag-learning-jazz-piano"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonpianoinstitute.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonpianoinstitute.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonpianoinstitute.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonpianoinstitute.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonpianoinstitute.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5065"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonpianoinstitute.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5065\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5068,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonpianoinstitute.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5065\/revisions\/5068"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonpianoinstitute.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonpianoinstitute.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonpianoinstitute.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonpianoinstitute.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
Learning will take time<\/h3>\n
Find a good teacher<\/h3>\n
Jazz today has become sophisticated!<\/h3>\n
Improvisation<\/h3>\n
Playing with a band<\/h3>\n
Creativity and excitement of Jazz piano<\/h3>\n
Do a new Real book song each week<\/h3>\n
Starting to learn jazz piano<\/h3>\n
Chords in Classical music:<\/h3>\n
Chords in Jazz music:<\/h3>\n
\n
Extensions:<\/h3>\n
The II V I progression<\/h3>\n
Lead sheets and chord symbols<\/h3>\n
Start with simple chord progressions<\/h3>\n