| LearnJazzPiano.com archives: hi there. Classical turned Jazz pianist help | |
| wutrain -- 11/09/2006, 19:38:46 -- #31035 | |
| I'm new to this forum and I psyched about all this information in one place.. and finding it hard to navigate. Anyway, I've been playing piano for like... 10 years pretty hardcore, but all like classical stuff. So I'm wondering if anyone with experience can tell me how to make the best of my situation, and what kind of problems i might come up with. I know my basic theory, have read up some theory of jazz and rock, know my scales and stuff moderately well.. so where do i go now? I have issues with finding music to listen to, and even more issues with finding licks and such. I mean fakebooks are all well and good for melodies but how do i go about finding licks that are used during improvising and such? If you can help me out, I'd appreciate it, and could you email me too? jeffreyhaowu@yahoo.com. im not really sure how im gonna find this page in the forum again is all. | |
| wutrain -- 11/09/2006, 19:48:39 -- #31035 | |
| by the way... i've seen a bunch of threads but i cant figure out (blah its late at night) how to see what other people posted in it... so like for an instance below me theres riff/licks that fit chord progressions... but i cant figure how to get in! when i click, it just has a thing where i can post a response. | |
| jazzwee -- 11/09/2006, 20:24:21 -- #31035 | |
| The best source for licks is to listen. There's a lot of threads here about best piano players, so you'll get the usual suspects: Evans, Powell, Wynton Kelly, Chick Corea, Hancock, Mehldau, Jarrett, Tatum, etc...Transcribe what you hear. Now I only say this because you mentioned it. Believe it or not, a lot of licks can be learned from the fakebooks, by learning all the bebop heads (confirmation, donna lee, lots of Charlie Parker stuff). What's important, since you're a classical kinda' guy, is to study the phrasing. See if you emulate how they phrase the line. Listen to the accents and the swing feel. Swing is one of the most difficult things for classical musicians to pick up (as every teacher of mine has said to me). I specifically mentioned Charlie Parker (Bird) because piano players often neglect to listen to non-piano players. If you want to start with simple phrasing, just copy Miles Davis. Play the piano like he plays the trumpet. His stuff is slow and simple, but the phrasing and how skillfully he plays with 'time' is the important element here. I presume you already have the technique down. You're probably way ahead of me there. But you'll need to get a good feel for swing to make significant progress. Good luck. | |
| sdm -- 11/10/2006, 03:03:37 -- #31035 | |
| If you're interested in the bebop heads you might want to get a copy of the Omni book. It's a large set of both his heads and the solos. It's a slow go for me but I don't have your training. Might be just the thing for you. Get the recordings and listen while you read and then emulate. Stay in touch. | |
| Mike -- 11/10/2006, 05:04:51 -- #31035 | |
| well these days almost all of us started with classical music. So really you are no different than anyone. I forget where I learned of it but I will guess it was Billy Taylor that made me hip to the fact that many black pianist find it rascist when people act shocked that they were classical pianists before they were jazz pianists. The reason... Before there was Jazz classical music is all there was. Before Jazz if you were a pianist you were a classical pianist almost by default. And we all learn our fundametals by studying classical music. There is no better way to learn the quarter note and the eigth note than by the graduated study of Bach. So why the mini History lesson when this is not what you asked for: Because so many times I hear Classical pianists fail trying to learn Jazz beacuase they start out thinking they have this crutch.... I am pointing out you do not... We all started as Classical pianists (well almost all of us). You merely have to learn how to do it like the rest of it... IT is not difficult at times because you were a Classical pianist.... It is difficult at times because it is difficult at times. | |
| jmkarns -- 11/10/2006, 07:09:49 -- #31035 | |
| Albetan's area helped me figure out where I am coming from. I mean linear play versus harmony etc. In fact just hanging out with the folks at this site has been tremendous to my development. | |
| Scot -- 11/10/2006, 08:27:57 -- #31035 | |
| For those rooms that you see a "respond" box, just click on the "display newest" (or something like that) link to see the messages. Not all rooms here are threaded forums, some of them are just "leave a message and respond" type of rooms. | |
| Whacky -- 11/10/2006, 08:46:43 -- #31035 | |
| Well said Dr. Mike | |
| wutrain -- 11/10/2006, 13:39:37 -- #31035 | |
| wow. i didnt expect answers so quick. by the way.. whats a bebop head? like bebop licks or bepop players? | |
| Whacky -- 11/10/2006, 16:29:45 -- #31035 | |
| the "head" is the melody of the tune - so a bebop head is the melody of a bebop tune... | |
| wutrain -- 11/10/2006, 18:58:20 -- #31035 | |
| oh. thanks. by the way, ive only played like 3 bach songs Mike... like i never really studied classical music by myself, i just played whatever my teachers gave me...kinda regret it now. in fact most of the songs i play nowadays are like hard right hand... liszt, chopin. and then just a bunch of chords on the left. so now im not so good at left hand playing... i can do chords better than i can do single notes. how do you make the most of a fakebook? | |
| sdm -- 11/11/2006, 08:08:29 -- #31035 | |
| The point of "bebop heads" is that they (the melody of these tunes) are built of good licks properly positioned in the harmony. I'm learning about the best use of pickups, for instance (notes leading to the next chord or phrase). So as you learn these melodies you learn the jazz language. | |
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