Hello, I am extremely ignorant about jazz and I would like to start broadening my horizons in this beautiful musical field......except I don't know where to start!....Is there anyone who can give me some welcome suggestions?
Is a jazz piano teacher strictly necessary or can one learn as a self-taught musician?
How much time would it take to acquire a decent knowledge of jazz? a....just a curiosity..........is jazz a derivative of blues or vice versa???
anyway, I have been playing the piano for 4 years and I have good foundations in music theory
...only that I don't know where to begin!....Is there anyone who can give me some welcome suggestions?
Listening to good music and pulling solos from records, replaying them, varying them slightly, and decontextualizing them.
DanielePiano wrote:
Is a jazz piano teacher strictly necessary, or can one learn as a self-taught student?
...it depends on where one wants to get to.
DanielePiano wrote:
How much time would it take to develop a decent jazz culture?
It depends on the level of depth; I have been studying classical for 20 years and I am not finished yet.
DanielePiano wrote:
anyway, I have been playing the piano for 4 years and I have good foundations in music theory
A little bit; pronunciation is distinctive... if you want to learn English, you have to hang out with English people. In the metaphor, practically speaking, right now you speak Italian slightly.
I share everything that Valchiria has written. Perhaps at the beginning, asking for tips from a more experienced musician could save you some time.
Naturally, listening and, subsequently, practice remain the fundamental elements. It is not necessary to follow a particular path: start with the music you like most and that feels closest to your taste. The rest will come.
LISTENING is extremely important; unlike classical music where the musician is "only" a performer, in jazz you have to invent the music and the piece will be different every time you play it. Listening to what the greats do helps you express yourself in a jazz way.
I advise you to be followed by a teacher, perhaps with weekly frequency for the first few months, then even bi-weekly or monthly. Jazz piano is so vast and articulated that you would risk getting lost in no time, especially regarding the harmonic part.
jazz is an invention; to invent, you must know harmony well, so my advice is to study harmony and, in parallel, compare these studies with your character inclinations to bring out something of your own.
I believe that true jazz is something that goes beyond the theme and improvisation upon it, which is why my advice is to study modal harmony, which frees you from the harmonic constraints of tonal harmony.
T
Talentuoso
Member
Reply 6 by Talentuoso
Posts
206
modale wrote:
my advice is to study modal harmony, which frees you from the harmonic constraints of tonal harmony.
Because tonal harmony exists; this happened in the nineteenth century
... perhaps a century of music is missing
Harmony by fourths, by fifths, dodecaphony, serialism, microtonal, musique concrète, etc.
Well, in fact in Jazz the most practiced systems are tonal and modal, although the latter is a decidedly more recent introduction and constitutes a minor segment of Jazz.
Given our cultural background as premises (especially for a conservatory student or a classical music student nonetheless) and the progression through increasing difficulty, I think it would be easier to start from tonal to arrive at modal and eventually reach other systems.
Besides, if one wants to undertake a global study of Jazz, one cannot do without tonal harmony.
Let's say that for those who are starting out, it is a bit premature to talk about modal improvisation, tonal, etc. First of all, they must understand what jazz is, they must study the basics (main voicings, inversions, etc.), and then one approaches their own jazz style almost unconsciously, which can be more classical, like Bud Powell, more modern, like Chick Corea, or other
Small piece of advice, especially for those coming from a conservatory: in jazz, songs must be learned by heart
LISTENING is extremely important; unlike classical music where the musician is "only" a performer, in jazz you have to invent the music and the piece will be different every time you play it. Listening to what the greats do helps you express yourself in a jazz way.
I advise you to be followed by a teacher, perhaps with weekly frequency for the first few months, then even bi-weekly or monthly. Jazz piano is so vast and articulated that you would risk getting lost in no time, especially regarding the harmonic part.
Happy studying!
I agree that LISTENING is one of the most relevant parts for approaching jazz and for studying it.
As for how to approach the study of the jazz language, my opinion is that a chronological study path, approaching the study from the point of view of the evolution of the language, is the best thing.
Hi, Talentuoso, obviously you are right, but I have stayed on the practical side while simultaneously trying to step outside the obvious.
Certainly, arriving at modal harmony presupposes a knowledge of tonal harmony, ....as M. Davis used to say "to get out of the tonal cage, one must know it perfectly". Once you have stepped out, however, you must know how to manage all the space that you then find yourself in and ...perhaps...it is better to stay inside.
T
Talentuoso
Member
Reply 11 by Talentuoso
Posts
206
modale wrote:
Hi, Talentuoso, obviously you are right, but I have stayed on the practical side while simultaneously trying to move beyond the obvious.
Certainly, arriving at modal harmony presupposes a knowledge of tonal harmony, ....as M. Davis used to say "to get out of the tonal cage, one must know it perfectly". Once you have gotten out, however, you must know how to manage all the space that you then find yourself in and ...perhaps... it is better to stay inside.
Hi, perhaps it's better to stay outside; it's hard to be credible staying inside ... nowadays
It is harder to write well within tonality than outside of it, and then as I was saying, there isn't just modality ... in fact, it seems to me that even that is quite outdated ... 50 years have already passed
Nowadays one cannot pretend that electronics, computer music, and microtonality do not exist.
