| LearnJazzPiano.com archives: good classical chops, bad jazz chops. | |
| BlackWhiteKey -- 02/17/2007, 14:45:38 -- #33133 | |
| i've been raised on some good classical songs, fantasie improptu, clair de lune, and some of mozart's sonatas. but i'm not that great at jazz. is there a classical approach to jazz? | |
| grsbmd -- 02/17/2007, 16:30:49 -- #33133 | |
| If classical chops are major scales and arpeggiated triads, then jazz chops are chromatic runs, arpeggiated 7th, 9th, and 13th chords, bebop scales. These are the elements comprising most jazz lines. | |
| Jazz+ -- 02/18/2007, 01:13:38 -- #33133 | |
| Classical chops are even eighths and legato quarter notes, jazz chops are swing eights, dettached quarter notes, off beat accents and syncopations. Classical chops play pre-choreographed parts, jazz chops play improvised parts. | |
| Whacky -- 02/18/2007, 08:38:03 -- #33133 | |
| Classical chops are even eighths and legato quarter notes Not really true. Many classical composers wrote detached (stacatto) eighth notes - they provided a great contrast to the slurred phrases (Mozart, Beethoven, etc) one of the many features that made the music interesting. jazz chops are swing eights That's only true of "swing" or "straight ahead" styles. Latin and European influences feature straight and legato eighths. IMO, the classical approach to jazz (the word classical being an approach rather than a period) would be to listen to a lot of it, absorb it and experiment with it... | |
| Jazz+ -- 02/18/2007, 19:22:02 -- #33133 | |
| We all know that classical composers wrote stacatto and legato notes. And you know I was speaking in broad general terms, jeez... The advanced level classical players that I teach jazz to all have a problem with jazz phrasing and improvisation. Their phrasing technique, the timing of their swing rhythms, and the articulations of quarters and eighths is classical. I'm outta here. | |
| Jazz+ -- 02/18/2007, 19:26:21 -- #33133 | |
| Final thought, classical stacatto quarter notes are quite shorter than jazz's detached quarters. (I never said detached eighths.) | |
| jazzwee -- 02/18/2007, 22:03:15 -- #33133 | |
| BlackWhiteKey, if you're good at Classical 'chops' and not at jazz 'chops', that does imply you're having a problem with swing. So maybe if you stated your specific problems, someone here might be able to help. We can only generalize otherwise (and as you can see that can result in occasional arguments...). | |
| Whacky -- 02/19/2007, 08:11:07 -- #33133 | |
| Yeah, one has to be careful how to word things in a forum such as this, or you can get diced up - I've been on both sides of that fence - heh heh...often times arugments ensue as a result of various definitions and usages of terms. The word "jazz" in itself is a very general term, for that matter so is the term "classical" - general terms are hard to define and categorize in quantitative ways - hence, my comments- sorry to offend :) That's why I usually recommend listening to whatever kind of music you want to play. We tend to play like what we've heard the most - which is why blues players sound like blues players, and country players sound like country players, etc... Citing the stylisic defferences may help a bit, but only listening can make you authentic - you have to "be" the music you're playing | |
| spfldpianist -- 02/23/2007, 13:50:39 -- #33133 | |
| And don't feel bad about weak jazz chops. I have great jazz chops and my classical stinks because I tend to sycopate everything. | |
| Mike -- 02/24/2007, 23:43:53 -- #33133 | |
| For the most part Jazz requires a much more varied technique than classical music. That is why so many Classical pianists in history have been in such awe of the great jazz pianists such as Art Tatum, Bud Powell and Thelonius Monk. Textbook technique exercises gives one no clue as to how to develop the technique of the true inovators such as the above mentioned jazz virtuosos who composed there own modern exercises. At some point Jazz Pianists stop practicing other peoples exercises and only practice ones they make up themselves. This is part of developing ones own sound on your instrument. So technique in Jazz is a completely different thing than in Classical music. As with everything else in Jazz Technique becomes a creative thing as opposed to Classical music where it not a creative thing. | |
| 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. | |