Random question from a first time poster:

What do you all consider to be the best city for listening/playing/learning piano in the world? The reason I ask: I'm thinking of taking a couple of months off next year and spending that time on a piano bench somewhere in the world and learning how to play. I'm an adult coming back to piano (six years of classical as a child), and interested in how to play from a fake book, blues, improvising, piano bar piano, maybe some jazz once I improve. I'm learning from a teacher in Washington DC currently.

So I am thinking Montreal, Chicago, New York, New Orleans, maybe Paris, maybe Tokyo? Maybe Austin? What am I missing? If I were to head somewhere to study several hours a day what would you recommend?

New York would probably be on top of the list. There are piano teachers on every block.

You are missing Los Angeles and Boston. Boston has the Berklee School of Music and the New England Conservatory and there are lots of fine jazz piano teachers around the city.

New York hands down without a doubt. MOST of the best 'non classical' pianists in the world live there. It's where all the best work is. That's not to say there aren't world class monster pianists in every city in the world, but without a doubt the greatest concentration of them (by a long shot) are in the NYC area.
I'm curious why Austin and Montreal are on your list?

NY, LA, Boston

If you don't have to move, you can try local community colleges in you areas. You'd be surprised how many great players teachers at CC. But you should do some research first.

Thanks for the good suggestions. Keep em coming - I have a few months to figure this out.

@etcetra - community colleges are a good idea - I found my current teacher by emailing the head of the music department at a private university that is very convenient.

@AJF - Austin, because I keep hearing about the great music scene there, but I've never been. Montreal, because I've been lucky and found some great live music there and the city is great.

From a jazz perspective, there is no doubt New York is the best place to listen to live music in the world.

I'll also put in a pitch for my home town, Chicago. I think we've got as good as jazz scene as any city except New York. Plenty of good teachers, and if you want to play in a jazz ensemble, look into classes at the Old Town School of Folk Music (they have excellent jazz classes) and the Bloom School of Music.

I'm looking forward to the Chicago Jazz Festival this weekend!

You can find good teachers almost anywhere, so I don't think the guy is asking where to find a teacher. I can't believe a couple people said "Boston". Sure there is an abundance of music schools, but as a city to hang out in and experience a living breathing music scene, it's pretty worthless IMO.

Speaking purely in terms of a concentrated and happening music scene, New York can't be beat. Especially if you want to hear jazz. 7 nights a week you can go out and hear live jazz for free or with a minimal cover charge. Or you can spend money and see world-class players, every night. After the show, you can find a late night jam session almost any night of the week.

On the other hand, NY is pretty expensive. Summer is brutal, IMO, unless you plan to spend your days in an air-conditioned practice room, emerging at night to hear live music But since you're from DC, you can probably handle the hot summer. I'm from VT, so to me NY is a good place to hang in the colder months.

edit: I agree- Montreal is a great city! I love the summer festivals, and I love the Canadian vibe (the police aren't actively engaged in the War On Fun).

Berlin has at least four or five proper jazz clubs that have jazz every night, for the most part for a minimal cover charge. Free jam sessions. It's also an inexpensive place to live.

Many many thanks all. What's Tokyo like - has anyone studied piano there? When I was there last year I found a ton of tiny live jazz/blues joints with talented musicians.

Up and down the Mississippi seems good for jazz/blues/stride/boogiewoogie - from Chicago (thanks JJO), maybe to Kansas City (what's the scene there like these decades?), to St Louis, down to New Orleans.

And one challenge that I anticipate - how hard is it to find pianos to play when traveling? I sneak into university study rooms in DC, for example, to practice. Maybe the forum needs a listing of such pianos for all of us when we travel?

@wavelength - thanks. Once I figure out where I'll be I'll definitely need a teacher / mentor.

@charleslang - interesting idea Berlin. Haven't been but sounds fun.

johnoldfield,

Tokyo is very expensive. Be prepared to spend $80-120 for lesson, and $50-100+transportation to see a show. LA has a pretty good scene if you are willing to drive and look for the right venues. You can get lessons from world class piano players for like $50-80.. I think you pay around $20-50 to see live performance at places like the Mint, Jazz Bakery, Steamers.

Well, here's the thing, as long as you live in a major city, there will be big acts that's coming to town on a pretty regular basis. I don't know how washington is like, but I wouldn't be surprised if there is a pretty good scene with a lot of good players. Maybe you've already checked the local scene, but if you haven't it's worth checking that out first.

It's very hard to find places to practice when you are traveling. In japan you will have to pay $3-6/hr to rent practice rooms.. i know a lot of pianos in community colleges in LA are are open to students, but most universities requires you to have keys, and you won't be able to get one without being a student.

I used to practice at my community college all the time even after I graduated, but I was able to do that because the teachers knows me.Some of the faculty might get concerned if a stranger who is not taking classes are using practice rooms regularly..

wavelength,

I guess the problem here is that the OP wants to do two different things.. he wants to learn how to play jazz and at the same time he wants to check out jazz scenes in other major cities. I personally think it would be impractical to do both, because finding a place to practice regularly is pretty difficult when you are traveling.

If he want to check out jazz scene in NY he should just go there for like 2 weeks and go to as many shows as he can. If he wants to learn how to play, he should take courses at local community college or network with local musicians, and find people he can play with regularly.

Or better yet go to a concentrated jazz camp for couple of weeks. I am sure he can do all that in 3 months. In that respect Berklee summer program might not be a bad idea.

Speaking for myself, I never put in the hours when I don't have a piano where I'm staying. I would recommend choosing a city, finding a sub-let apartment, and renting a piano for the three months or however long the experience will be. The piano moving costs would be worth it. It's also an easy way to make sure the piano is of good quality, tuned and voiced because you're in control of all this. You might even find a sublet with a (good) piano in the apartment, though.

I don't see a conflict with the two goals of learning and listening. If you believe that listening to lots of live music will help you, it probably will, and any music program, or regular lessons, will be during the day.

From what I know most places do require a long term contract 6 months of longer to rent a piano..You also need to take into account the fact that in big cities like Tokyo/NY chances are you will be renting a small apartment, and you might run into potential problems with the neighbours, even if you are practicing during the day.

I just think if you are going to spend that much time/money, you might as well as join a summer program or find something locally. It's not going to be easy finding people to play with in a new town especially if you are new to jazz.. It doesn't make much sense to network in NY for 3 month just to come back to your hometown. You can spend that time networking with people locally, and find people you can play with on a regular basis.

I am saying this because the OP lives in Washington DC. It might not be like NY but I am sure they have a pretty strong jazz scene there. I am checking out Blues Alley In Washington, and Kenny Garrett, Joshua Redman, roy Harggrove and Jeff Hamilton, Jeff tain waits are playing in October and november..

either way I wouldn't recommend Tokyo unless you have a lot of money.. and you can speak Japanese You can go there to check out the scene and listen to music, but wouldn't recommend going there for 3 months just to study music.

btw johnoldfield did you ask your teacher about your plans?

Boston for lessons.

NY for live music.

I used to do the same thing. I imagine that it becomes less feasible as security gets tighter, and as I look less and less like a college student But you don't necessarily have to sneak; when I moved to NY I signed up for a music class at Hunter College. That got me a student I.D. and a security code for the combination locks on the practice rooms. It was worth every penny, and I met a lot of young musicians that way.

I hear etcetera's point, that you don't need to go to NYC to study the piano. You can do that anywhere. But I really do see the value of what the OP proposes to do, thought I may be presuming a bit when I imagine it. It could be like an "immersion" class when studying a foreign language. At the same time it would be a break or a retreat from your normal surroundings and daily life, helping you to focus on your music. Although I'm not intimately familiar with a lot of cities, I've never seen a city where a style of music is so obviously alive and native, as jazz is in NYC. Except maybe samba in Salvador, Brazil-- but you wont find many pianos there.

There is the added appeal of getting to know a city a little. In the States, New Orleans is very appealing. From what I hear the music scene isn't intense like NYC, but it's pretty happening. Oh, boy, and the food in New Orleans is so good! I've heard good things about Chicago's scene as well, but the character of that city doesn't attract me. That's about it for the States. LA is my idea of hell-- cities are hard enough, but at least in NY you don't need a car to get around.

With respect to practice pianos, the main branch of the Chicago Public Library, right in downtown, has eight practice rooms, each with a piano, open to the public. They are first come, first serve, and you get to use them for an hour. The pianos aren't great, but you can get a lot of good work in. In sneak over when I can from work.

@etcetra – thanks for the Tokyo insights. And I’m working on checking out the DC scene. Big names come through town frequently, but I haven’t found a ‘scene’ yet where folks are just hanging out playing blues and jazz incl. piano. But it’s here somewhere… I will ask my teacher about my plans for the ‘piano sabbatical’ next year – he’ll likely have some great insights at least into DC/NY.

Re practice rooms – thanks wavelength, jjo, all for the thoughts/tips – that’s going to be tougher than I expected with enhanced security measures and my own advancing age.

I really like the idea of immersion – some sort of ‘non-classical piano camp’ including jazz, blues, etc. I’ll check through other posts for ideas but welcome your continued suggestions. I also like the idea of signing up for a lesson at a local university/college wherever I am.

My sense is that type of scene is most prevalent closest to educational environments. Enrolling in some kind of class or program at a College or University is your best bet. Even though the school I went to didn't have a huge music dept, let alone jazz program, the musicians that were around were always getting together and doing sessions - and this carries over into the local clubs. Which is why I think Boston was mentioned so much. Walk through any College with a decent music department and you'll hear musicians getting together all hours of day and night.

I guess if you can find a summer jazz program in NY that would be great. You'll be able to take classes during the day and check out the music scene at night. That way you won't have to worry about finding a place to practice either(well at least while you are still in the program). And once the program is over, you'll have networked with some of the local teachers and students already.

If you are going to take a long sabbatical you can do both, you can spend half the time in NY checking the scene, and after you come back refreshed and inspired, you can do some serious practicing at home. But I strongly urge you to start networking now and meet people. If it's anything like LA's jazz scene you'll probably have to do some research to find out where the scene is at. Who knows by the next year, you might have a regular band you play with

btw isn't knotty from washington DC area?

Many colleges have a jazz program. Email the piano faculty and ask about the local scene, and practice facilities.
Sounds like a great adventure!

That would surprise me since I've rented a piano for a single performance and had it moved back to the store the next day. They might charge a little more for the short rental period, but I doubt they'll turn down the money.

In my experience, neighbors are very accommodating. In my last four apartments, I've played hours daily and I've had two complaints during the day. In the worse case I agreed to two hours a day when I did not practice, which still left many hours of practice time.

I think for this project one needs one solid contact - a good teacher, or a program - and the availability of frequent jazz performances. It doesn't need to be about networking beyond that, unless you're interested in playing in a combo.

The city depends on how often you want to see live music, and who you want to see. If you want to practice during the day every day and see a performance every night, that's one alternative and you can do that in fewer cities; but if one or two shows per week is enough, you'll have more options.

>> btw isn't knotty from washington DC area?
Yes I am!

That is awesome.

@knotty - looking forward to running into you at some point. I'll check out your sites. I saw something from years ago on the Forum about "DC Piano Dinners" or something akin - do those happen anymore? I'll be an enthusiastic fly on the wall in the near term and typically bring a bacon-centric dish.

@jjo - re practice pianos in the public library, wavelength said it best - awesome. I don't know how well they would do in downtown DC.

@danshure et al - yes, seems like college-y sorts of environments may be the best bet. Plus at least for the near future those kids can play circles around me so lots to learn. Thanks.

>> @knotty - looking forward to running into you at some point. I'll check out your sites. I saw something from years ago on the Forum about "DC Piano Dinners" or something akin - do those happen anymore? I'll be an enthusiastic fly on the wall in the near term and typically bring a bacon-centric dish.

I don't think the piano diners happen, but I've put together a small band of 5 and we play once a week. As far as finding people to play with, it's really easy.

Who's your teacher?

He's Jim Levy (George Washington U) - lives on your side of the beltway I think. I'm on lesson 4 or 5 working through Autumn Leaves, Blue Bossa, Billie's Bounce, plus some stride/boogie woogie.

If I had the freedom and the financial comfort you seem to have, I would go to NYC and visit Small's Jazz Club near Sheridan Square. The owner, Spike Wilner, is a pianist and an unusually nice guy. He is usually on site. Ask him about teachers. Better yet, check out the Small's website, watch and listen to the webcasts and see if the environment is copacetic. If so, try emailing him.

There's a jazz camp in New Orleans that lasts for a few days in the summer. Here's the site: http://www.neworleanstradjazzcamp.com/

I don't know too much about it - just stumbled upon it a few months ago. But I guess it would be a good way to see if New Orleans is your cup of tea.

@PaintedPostDave - thanks! Small's it is on my next trip to NYC in a couple of weeks.

@AimeeO - that sounds GREAT. No better way to see if I'll be into the New Orleans scene, no. The jazz camp website looks great.