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Howdy,

I'm curious... How many of you are studying jazz piano? Are you taking lessons? How long have you been playing? Did you start with jazz or classical/other? Do you ever get together with other people and jam?

I want to play jazz piano but am having trouble finding a teacher. Comments from any fellow jazz beginners would be much appreciated. Thanks!

kat

Welcome to the forum Kat. I think TomboneAl likes jazz. You might PM him and see if he has any advice. Unfortunately, I have only recently begun to appreciate jazz music but I don't know anything about it musically, sorry.
Jon

I am not studying jazz per se, but my teacher has given me some pieces from Marth Meir's books to add some variety to my repertoire.

Her pieces are interesting, approachable, and pretty forgiving.

If you would like to get a start on jazz piano, I'd get my hands on her books.


As for finding a teacher, just keep asking everyone you know. I found mine through musicstaff.com but I had two duds before I got a keeper.

Hi Kat,
After my teenage daughter did her Grade 10 RCM exam I said she could learn jazz piano, which she REALLY wanted to do and she is really enjoying it now.
Fortunately, her (and my) piano teacher is a professional jazz pianist with a classical background.
You might try looking in places like music teachers associations, music stores that sell instuments and/or sheet music, or even check out jazz venues to see if they know of jazz pianists who also teach.
I hear that there aren't very many pianist jobs/gigs and I think that most of these players teach during the day to survive.
Good luck with your search.
I'm planning to learn jazz also.

Hi again,

Thanks, you guys for your tips. I will look into your suggestions as soon as I send this off!

To answer jazpianizt's question, in general, I am a fairly advanced beginner at piano. I have been a musician for years, but have only been playing piano for about a year. I feel like my strongest point is that I do a ton of improvising and general composing in my head-- classical, jazz, blues..., for piano and other voices. I have good finger dexterity and muscle memory (although sometimes I wonder if the latter is a detriment more than an asset). I have found that I'm also pretty good at distinguishing intervals, and have decent pitch when I sing, so I figure I probably have a trainable ear. (I have started doing Solfege, but am in need of a new partner for the purpose of drilling.) Plus I'm pretty sure I've got sufficient swing for a jazz pianist. So those are the things that make me think I might be able to pull off jazz someday. Where I know I'm very weak is in internalizing chords and scales, hearing chords, anticipating logical progressions, and just generally making a mental connection between the keyboard and the way each note sounds (all things that strike me as major "keys", excuse the pun, to being a good jazz pianist). Oh, and I'm a still lousy sight reader at piano, but somehow that doesn't strike me as super important when it comes to jazz.

Am I off base about that stuff? Is there hope for me? I'm still fairly new at even listening to jazz, but I LOVE IT, and really would like to be able to do cool solos and jam with other musicians in trio/quartet settings someday. That would truly be the bomb!

Thanks for your help- kat

I'm glad I poked my head in here. I graduated from the Grove School of Music 15 years ago. I now make my living from music (producing, arranging, playing). No person was more instrumental in preparing me for my career than Dick Grove! Not only was he a genius, but he really cared about his students. I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to study with him.

Although Mark Harrison was a couple years ahead of me at Grove, I know him well. He's a very gifted musician who has a knack for teaching. His books are outstanding!!!

All good advice. I would recommend contacting the music department at your local college/Community College. They can steer you to the best teacher for your level. Many of their proffessors teach privately as well, and some of them are excellent teachers. I would also ask any piano player you happen to see at a club/restaurant if they could recommend a teacher. I've gotten some great teachers that way.

CTBERG: Welcome to the forums. It's great to see another North Texan join in.
Are you an adult beginner, or are you one of those gifted and talented types?
Jon

If your looking for Jazz learning materials you might try Jazzwise publications they are real freindly too and dont mind a telephone tip or two - there is also the Jamie Aebersold play- alongs over a 100 of them. The first book gives coverage of the basics of jazz harmony - you wont find paino notes though - just the melody and changes and a live recorded backing band.
If you want to play Jazz learning the 2 5 1 changes in all keys is a good place to start - e.g for C major work Dm G7 C, in as many varients as you can use different voicings and arpegiated patterns.

I just posted about "Samba Hanon" in the Piano Teachers Forum, perhaps someone in the Adult Beginners Forum would be interested in reading the review. If you like Latin rhythms and syncopation in your "exercises" this could be it, with a LH melody and RH chords.

You may want to take a loot at:

Alfred's Beginning Jazz Keyboard (Book & CD) by Noah Baerman. (There are 3 levels in this series)

It assumes you are at Alfred's Adult Piano Level 2.

Hi, Kat -

here's a link to a thread in the non-classical forum on a Tim Richards book, whose books on jazz and blues piano have been recommended many times here:

http://www.pianoworld.com/ubb/ubb/ultimatebb.php?/topic/37/807.html

Enjoy the journey.

Cathy

Unless kat has been lurking since December 10, 2005 (the date of her last PW post), you might want to PM her.

Good catch, Mark

I saw some names on this thread that I haven't seen in eons. That made me check the dates.