Jazz piano is a built-in part of the jazz dialect because it has been originated in solo as well as group. Due to the melodious and consonant nature of jazz music, people of all ages are keenly taking interest in learning to play jazz and practice jazz piano, jazz bass line, jazz guitar etc.

Learning jazz piano is not dependent on age of a person; the music just comes from within the soul. If someone wants to practice jazz piano, he must initially learn to play chords, then he can learn to play it with swing rhythm. The chords can be learnt just as ordinary piano chords like learning main intervals and building the chords. By learning these, one can practice broad forms of jazz music. But in actual practice when, one starts learning chords , its not just few riffs and licks because when advanced chords like 9th,11th and 13th make it little confusing. No one is born with natural power and piano isn’t easy. To make it easy to learn jazz piano, there must be some fixed rationales and formulas which make it comfortable to remember.

There are a few points that should be remembered while you learn to play jazz piano. While practicing jazz piano, addition of the 6th tone and harmonization of chords makes the music extremely melodious. Try to provide the swinging rhythm as clear as possible. The learners should strike weak beat with their left hand and then a beat with their right hand. Establishment of the guide tones have also proved to be excellent at the course of cord changing. To provide your jazz music a harmonic multifarious ness, the technique of circle of fifths is used which involves planning of chord in such a fashion that firstly a chord is shifted and frequently voiced, and then the scale goes upwards giving it a recurring pattern.

After following these few tips one can definitely improve his art of playing jazz piano.In conclusion, it is not required that to learn jazz piano, you must first learn how to play a regular piano or you should first have the classical training about any instrument, music comes from within.



By: Akhila Choudhary

Jazz Piano – the History

Jazz Piano is an integral part of jazz idiom since it has been incepted in both ensemble and solo settings. Due to its harmonic and melodic nature, the instrument is quite important for understanding the jazz arranging and theory. Along with a jazz guitar, a jazz piano is also one of those instruments of jazz combo which may be played with chords as with a trumpet or saxophone.

If you are into practice jazz piano you must know about jazz practice tool where chords are the primary substance in the instrument, and the second skill you will have to learn is how to play jazz piano with swing rhythm. Then is the skill of improvisation which requires you to make something on the spot. This is a skill that requires tremendous skills and extreme knowledge of the piano.

Earlier, the jazz piano used to be heavily stride technique and it was often played solo. Historically influential promoters of early piano include Earl Hines, Jelly Roll Morton, Teddy Wilson and Art Tatum. The playing style of Mary Lou Williams, Wilie Smith and James P. Johnson shaped the history of jazz piano. The 1950s and the 1960s were the golden age of the jazz which created many important and influential jazz piano players. These powerful players included Red Garland, Ahmad Jamal, Don Pullen, Bud Powell, Cecil Taylor and Horace Silver. The jazz pianists require an exclusive skills set and the piano’s extended range as a playing instrument offers the solo players an exhaustive variety of choices. One can use bass register for playing a pattern of ostinato such as that of a melodious counterline or boogie woogie emulating the playing of upright bass. Stride piano is a style of playing in which the left hand of the player changes positions rapidly while he plays notes in bass register and the chords in tenor register. This can also be done in a more syncopated variant.

Bill Evans sat at the front line of new generation players who emerged in 1960s including Chick Corea, John Taylor, Dave Brubeck and Keith Jarrett. Today, the popular figures in the field of jazz piano include Bill Charlap, Brad Mehldau, Jacky Terrasson, Danilo Perez and Geoffrey Keezer.



By: Akhila Choudhary