| LearnJazzPiano.com archives: my melodies don't sound jazzy | |
| Ger001 -- 08/21/2006, 05:20:21 -- #29404 | |
| Hi you all out there, I'm playing piono for ~1,5 years (I take lessons). Jazz piano is a thing I'm doing for my own because my teacher isn't really fit at this style like often teachers at the normal music schools are here in Germany. So now my problem: I can't bring my melodies to sound like jazz in my mind I have so many cool jazz patterns but I can't bring that on the piano. I try to sing and then fit my sung melody with the piano but that destroys my idea of melodie an it gets more classical than jazzy. Only when I use the blues scale it sounds jazzy but playing blues scale only is boring. Playing jazz standars from leadsheets also sound jazzy but this all doesn't help me to sound jazzy when I'm improvising freely. Are there any special intervals or something else wich make music to sound like jazz? Or is it just only that I practice less and the sound comes with practice? OK thank you for reading this long post, I hope you'll have any helpful tips. | |
| Ger001 -- 08/21/2006, 05:22:34 -- #29404 | |
| eer - sorry sorry sorry - Could any admin please delete my double-post? | |
| Scot -- 08/21/2006, 09:49:02 -- #29404 | |
| You can only play jazz if you know the language of jazz, and the best way to learn the language of jazz is to listen to a lot of jazz recordings and to do a lot of transcribing. If you have music in your mind and can't get it on the piano, then you've already found a problem to work on. Take what you hear in your mind and spend as much time as it takes to play it on the piano. If you can play the blues, then you can play anything. You just need to expand your harmonies by learning more advanced chord changes and such. It might be time for you to get a book such as The Jazz Piano Book by Mark Levine. It's a very helpful book for people who feel like they need to progress but don't really what to do on their own yet. | |
| jazzwee -- 08/21/2006, 10:07:31 -- #29404 | |
| Jazzy sound is beyond just the notes. It has to do with phrasing and swing. Listen to some slower swing tunes with mostly eight note lines. Copy them exactly. How about checking out blues tunes by Red Garland? | |
| Jazz+ -- 08/21/2006, 10:35:40 -- #29404 | |
| When I feel my lines don't sound jazzy I practice playing the two Bebop Scales over ii V 1: The Major 6 Bebop Scale and the Dominant Bebop Scale. And I apply the lessons learned in "Forward Motion" Start phrases on the "+" End phrases on strong beats 1 or 3 (or an anticipation of them) End on a good note (or with a catchy Parker type phrase ending) | |
| jmkarns -- 08/21/2006, 11:12:40 -- #29404 | |
| For me it's not such much sounding jazzy, as trying to be original and not derivative. Seems to take hours at the keyboard to work these things out. | |
| Ger001 -- 08/21/2006, 13:34:06 -- #29404 | |
| Thankya for your helpful answers! OK I'll practise to get an the piano what is in my mind and I'll learn more jazz theory (chord progressions, harmony and so on). I never tried the Bebop scale 'cause I don't really like Bebop, perhaps now it's time to try that scale. @Jazz+: What "Forward Motion" Lessons do you mean? What do you mean with starting on the "+"? X+ chord? | |
| sdm -- 08/22/2006, 12:33:15 -- #29404 | |
| The + is the upbeat -- the "and" in 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 (one measure). Starting phrases, particularly swing phrases on the + reinforces the swing feel. Hal Galper wrote a book called "Forward Motion." I ordered it once but it was not available so I haven't studied it yet. I will! | |
| Brotherdavies -- 08/24/2006, 05:39:37 -- #29404 | |
| My playing didn't sound jazzy I listened and listened and it still did not sound jazzy. I listened some more and then one day a few months ago it happened, my playing started to sound jazzy. Thanks Oscar! | |
| cazort -- 08/24/2006, 19:53:50 -- #29404 | |
| I find there are two reasons I can play something and have it sound "not jazzy". One is I can't "feel" it. This is often true of music that I don't like--or music that I am unfamiliar with. If I listen to something a lot, and get "into" it, I get over this problem. The other problem is when I'm caught up in technical problems. If I am trying to play something that is a little bit too complex for me, I find that the first thing to be lost is the stylistic elements, and those things are really really critical in jazz. I didn't even try to improvise anything on the piano until I had been hearing jazz in my head for quite some time--maybe you need to work on cultivating a sense of jazz improvisation internally. I think you should be able to hum some sort of improvised solo before you attempt to play one on a piano! | |
| flapjack -- 08/25/2006, 00:56:12 -- #29404 | |
| IMHO The phrasing and accents are what makes us classify something as "jazzy" or "jazz". Try concentrating on the notes as simply a destination to deliver the rhythm. | |
| Jazz+ -- 08/25/2006, 09:40:41 -- #29404 | |
| God point, flapjack. I would re-phrase it to say" "Try concentrating on the notes as simply pathways to deliver the rhythm." | |
| flapjack -- 08/25/2006, 19:19:08 -- #29404 | |
| Well done Jazz+. I'm going to use that phrase if you don't mind. | |
| d3dy -- 08/28/2006, 07:26:26 -- #29404 | |
| you have to feel the notes, don't you just "listen" to the sound... my advice Leave your pentatonic or blues scales under your bed...back to the natural diatonic / major scale,combine with some chromatic notes.if you got the groove, then you are a jazzpianizt already. :) | |
| SolArt -- 08/29/2006, 04:20:30 -- #29404 | |
| "Leave your pentatonic or blues scales under your bed...back to the natural diatonic / major scale,combine with some chromatic notes.if you got the groove, then you are a jazzpianizt already." I disagree, there's nothing like blues scale fragments thrown in the mix. Jazz came from blues so the influence is definitely there. | |
| loveforJAZZ -- 08/29/2006, 06:06:47 -- #29404 | |
| Just combine those three scales - pentatonic, blues scale, major and minor scales, and so on.... This will get a more jazzy sound rather than leaving out the blues. | |
| rassi -- 09/06/2006, 14:23:49 -- #29404 | |
| Get som lyrick of a jazzy tune. Billy Holliday, Sinatra or --- "play the lyrick". eavesdrop the song. Lester Young, Joe Pass-- just doo that. No scala, no borring exer. Just play lyrick. Just right or left hand. Listen to the sound and get some harmonik. Have a nice day rassi | |
| SolArt -- 09/08/2006, 11:24:13 -- #29404 | |
| Slipping off black keys does wonders in achieving that Jazzy sound. | |
| Jazz+ -- 09/26/2006, 22:41:29 -- #29404 | |
| is there an echo in here? | |
| elvis79 -- 09/27/2006, 07:11:01 -- #29404 | |
| I'd say you rely on your ear and to the things you hear. Please don't forget icons such as Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday and of course the one and only Charlie Parker. You need to understand where this music comes from. Listen to them and consume EVERYTHING. Start with the easy phrases and licks before you advance to the more technically demanding ones. | |
| Jazz+ -- 12/23/2006, 21:44:20 -- #29404 | |
| Many fine suggestions here. A case can be made for it's how you play the notes (swing) rather than what notes. | |
| Copyright © 2005 by Scot Ranney. All rights reserved. | |
| Click Here for more information about performances and clinics. Click Here to sign up for Scot's music announcements. | |