Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner - Non Classical Where to start with jazz?

Hi, everyone. I normally post in the pianist corner, so I'm new to this section of the forum. Anyways, I'm 15 years old and I mostly play classical music. But often times when I am practicing, I find myself getting carried away, sometimes for hours, making up left hand riffs, while improvising with the right.

I noticed that most of the threads on this corner were related to jazz, so I thought some of you may know a good route that would help with getting more serious into jazz and improvising. I've looked in some music stores for books that teach jazz, but most of them seemed very basic, like they were for absolute beginners.

Any suggestions?

much thanks,

If you've been studying theory for awhile, go out and get yourself Mark Levine's Jazz Piano Book.

Then go out and listen to as much jazz as possible. You'll find your way.

In addition to Levine's excellent book, John Mehegan has(had) a series of books which covers most ,if not all of the bases. Moreover, learning how to "apply the theory" is where it gets fun.

The 3 most important rules to remember:

Listen, Listen, Listen.
fingers

Another plug for Mark Levine's "The Jazz Theory Book" which, as far as I know, is 90% of the "Jazz Piano Book" but adapted to be slightly less focussed on Piano (although most of the examples are written out for Piano).

http://www.bassbooks.com/shopping/shopexd.asp?id=294

Rob.

Hi,
If you are already playing classical, you will probably really enjoy "Let's Play Jazz" which is pretty easy in terms of the notes and ease of left hand but sounds like great jazz when you play the book.
www.letsplayjazz.com

I'm going to make another book suggestion for folks with classical training who want to start playing Jazz.

Joy Of Improv Book One: Beginning the Foundation
By Dave Frank (with John Amaral)

Published by Hal-Leonard

Check it here: JoyofImprov

Thank you all for all of the suggestions! I will start with some of these materials as soon as I can.

In addition to the other suggestions...

Listen to some of the greats of the 40s, 50s, and 60s.

And get yourself a fake book--start learning some tunes.

You left out the #2 great jazz piano book:

Metaphors For The Musician by Randy Halberstadt (same publishing company as the Levine book)
www.shermusic.com/metaphors.htm

ignorant kid,

You already know how to start with jazz---and in fact you're already doing it for hours! Good for you.

Jazz is not a method, it's a *way.* And that way is the way of creation, of spontaneity. You're already doing that.

I have the Levine piano book mentioned by Rob. But I'm guessing that if you already know about open voicings and substitutions, you don't really need it. (I did.)

You've already discovered what is at the heart of jazz. Just keep doing it.

Do you also already elaborate on your mistakes? Go back and see what they could become? Old saying: There are no mistakes in jazz. If your mistakes are already opportunities, you know what jazz is.

I'm a life long student and love learning, but really, all even a good book like Levine's can do is show you a few things that are used often in jazz---and I suspect that you may already doing them'-)

Are you already comping? Nice talent to have, when playing with others.

All the best,
DavidH

By a fake book, did you mean a jazz one or a popular one?

Thank you very much for your encouraging post. I am not very familiar with chord voicing, substitutions, and even much theory for that matter (I've had only a few lessons on theory, but I'm taking a class next year). I think books like what were mentioned above would be helpful so that I could understand and apply the theory involved better. But what I REALLY want in addition to that is something to work with, like a fake book or something so that I could use improvisation on actual songs, whereas the ones I make up are just simple riffs that I basically jam with.

As for comping, you'll have to tell me what that means...

Carl,

OK, forget Levine for now. Try "Practical Theory Complete, A Self-Instruction Music Theory Course," by Sandy Feldstein. Here' s a link: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...503914?v=glance&s=books&n=507846 This book should really be titled, "A Basic Overview of Music Theory." I have it and still use it. And the price is right.

I particularly still go back to one of the most basic lessons: intervals. Hum them, and you'll soon be able to hum the melodies to tunes that you like. Harmony is trickier. Maybe try a one-note bass line that sounds good to you.

Fake Books are available at Amazon, too, and you can google "fake book" for other sources.

"Comping" is just slang for accompanying. Could mean that your comping for a singer, could mean that your just dropping back from your featured position, to make room for another player. That's jazz, too;-)

The Levine book is dense and has good excerpts from lots of jazz standards. Levine's publisher is also the copywrite holder for those tunes, so there's a broad selection. Only problem for now is that the advanced voicings (just a hoity-toity word for harmonies) will make a lot more sense after you've gone thru Feldstein.

There's one other study aid I'd like to recommend: The Chord Wheel, by fleser. Here's a link: http://www.chordprogression.com/ By rotating a clear plastic wheel, you'll instantly be able to know which are the chords in any key that you want to play in.

The Feldstein book and the Chord Wheel were all I had when I wrote "The Duke In Three." (pls chk ur PM's) Used them both all the time. $30 will get both of them delivered.

All the best,
DavidH

I like the Sher books, as they are clean (print and paper), generally accurate musically, presented in the proper keys, and the books are wirebound (which makes them easy to lay flat or sit on the music stand.) Warner Bros. and Hal Leonard also publish adequate fake books. However, I prefer the wire spiral binding and the quality of the Sher products.

btw, a good resource exists on the Seventh String website....a fakebook index that you can use to find music in a growing collection of fakebooks...
(http://www.seventhstring.co.uk/fbindex.html). I use this company's Transcribe! program, which is also a great resource. When you get into transcribing music off the record, get a copy of Transcribe! Great tool.

Back to fakebooks: IMHO, Try Sher's The New Real Book, Vol. 1. It has a mix of old and new jazz tunes, some standards and a few latin numbers.

To play jazz, you'll want to know quite a few of these songs.

You'll also need to listen to the classic recordings of these tunes. The Levine Theory book has an excellent discography and will help you there.

Also, start listening to the jazz radio station, either where you live, or online. Your ear needs training and this takes time, but it's simple to do in that all you have to do is listen.

Good luck and God bless. We sure do need young jazz players to keep our uniquely American art form alive!

Don't forget to have fun.

Thanks for the suggestion. The theory book sounds like a good idea and I could get a good head start on my theory class next year.
As for harmony/melodies and such, I can play fairly well by ear, so hopefully that will come nicely into play.

I haven't done any serious accompanying yet, but I plan to accompany the school chorus next year (if they'll let me )

As far as voicing goes right now, I have a fairly elaborate book on jazz chords and voicing and such.

Carl,

If you're going to be comping, you might want to take a look at tri-tone substitutions. There's info about them on the web.

All the best,
DavidH

Oh, and go listen to as many good jazz CDs as you can! Start out with Bill Evans.

What about the Jamey Aebersold series? ii-V-I and others?

I've heard they're a wonderful way of learning to improvise with Standards or particular well-known progressions.

http://www.aebersold.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc

Also, Band In A Box is another good improv tool if you have a PC near your piano.

Rob.

Listen, listen, listen, listen, listen, listen, listen, listen, listen, listen, listen, listen, listen, listen, listen, listen, listen...

Get the idea

You CANNOT listen enough to the music you want to be able to play. No book in the world will teach you how to "swing" a piece of music, and only non-stop listening will get you where you want to be.

Books and sheet music are a great reference point, and I still use them a lot, but jazz is essentially an aural skill, and you need to develop your ear-hand skills, not your eye-hand skills.

For every hour you spend reading, you need to spend two hours with the books closed just trying to play. Try finding melodies from any starting note...try working out walking bases... Listen to an old standard (a slow Billie Holiday, perhaps) and try to work out the "real" melodie, the notes she actually sings, the different solos... It's a lot of effort, but well worth it.

Also listen to the great melodic soloists on other instruments (sax, trumpet...) to get a feel for melody and timing, and try to play their solos.

You should also mess around to see "what happens" when you add or remove notes from chords...when you sudenly change the rhythm. You also need to practice "disaster recovery" - which means carrying on playing when you make a mistake and seeing if you can recover the melody and/or rhythm.

Technically, it's worth doing exercises to develop the independance of your hands (I'm sure someone here can suggest techniques or books). Similarly, you need to work on speed and fingering, and I use the Czerny "School of Velocity" (against my better judgement ).

nick

Hey kid if you didn't ask you would never know. I have posted three replies that might help. All are here at the pianist corner. 1. piano lounge music from CHT, 2. ear training and jazz from Kateriniparalia, and the last when to play jazz with other people from the same person. review my answers and if you have any questions ask away. dpvjazz