Jazz

[theoperator]

Hey there,

First, a little intro, as I am pretty new here:

I am a 17 year old, been playing piano for about 11 years now. I've been playing classical/RCM up until last year-ish where I decided to change course. I was with a piano teacher for my first 4 or so years, then I switched to another teacher for the next 5 years. Then, after taking a short break from piano I decided to pick it up again, and I decided to get back in touch with my old teacher. He was thrilled to hear from me again and I've been taking lesson from him once again. He introduced me to jazz while I was with him, a genre that was relatively unknown to me up until he showed me. I was fascinated and I decided to drop my RCM education and pursue jazz as his apprentice, if you will.

Now, I need some popular yet not too hard jazz pieces to bring in to him. He said to bring in any songs I might wanna learn and I have, but I need some more now. So far I've brought in the likes of "You've Got a Friend in Me" , "What a Wonderful World" , "White Christmas" , etc. Any more popular jazz pieces that I will know and are fun to play/relatively easy?

[eleanorrigby]

You'll definitely recognise a lot of the jazz standards, I'll give you a few names.
Smile (Written by Charlie Chaplin, performed by Nat King Cole)
Pennies From Heaven
Don't Mean A Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)
Puttin On The Ritz
Cheek To Cheek
Nice Work if You Can Get It
The Very Thought Of You
Nature Boy
Satin Doll
Summertime

You should look into the music of Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, George Gershwin and Duke Ellington, some of the greatest jazz composers of the 20th Century. Actually, the Great American Songbook
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_American_Songbook
You'll know loads of these. It really all depends on what kind of music you want to play too, jazz is quite a broad spectrum, ranging from the likes of swing and stride to more elegant stylings.
Anyway, hope that's some help, enjoy it and good luck.

[drorperl]

autumn leaves is one of the most famous jazz pieces...




------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dror Perl. Pianist, Composer, Teacher.

https://www.sheerpiano.com/

[polojarvi]

Any tune you like will work for jazz. Are you learning to play from chord charts? If so, just do a google search with the name of the tune and "chord chart" and lots of things should come up.

The only thing that makes a tune a jazz tune is how it's played.

You can do a jazz version of Happy Birthday, for example. And you can also do jazz versions of classical tunes. Here's a link to a cool Bach-based jazz impro:

. On the other hand, once you learn the techniques you can create impros of pop tunes in a classical style. Here's a wicked cool Bach-ish Beatles tune:

I hope that helps,

DJ

[eleanorrigby]

You can do a jazz version of Happy Birthday, for example. And you can also do jazz versions of classical tunes. Here's a link to a cool Bach-based jazz impro:

. On the other hand, once you learn the techniques you can create impros of pop tunes in a classical style. Here's a wicked cool Bach-ish Beatles tune:

That Bach/Beatles video is wonderful, it's really brilliant, love it!
By the same token, Jaques Louissier is a brilliant jazz pianist that does these amazing jazz versions of classical songs;
 

Watch this, it's wonderful, let me know what you think.

[polojarvi]

Thanks for the Loussier video! It's beautiful. Cool how he swings from the serious to the light.

DJ

[dcstudio]

a jazz song is nothing more than a melody and chord changes -- -what the artist does with it makes it jazz.  this is hard for a classical player to understand because you've been told to play what's on the page in front of you since you were a child.  Now there's nothing on the page, and you will still try to look at that page and find something to play.  It can be quite overwhelming. I made the switch to jazz when I wasn't much older than you. I am able to play comfortably in both realms--but I get paid more, and I get paid more often in jazz.  pick up a "real book edition 6"  this is the skeletal remains, if you will, of hundreds of jazz standards. Also, listen to the jazz piano "gods" like Art Tatum, Thelonius Monk, Oscar Peterson, Bill Evans---et. al.  Pick one of their tunes and seriously impress your teacher!

[eleanorrigby]

Also, listen to the jazz piano "gods" like Art Tatum, Thelonius Monk, Oscar Peterson, Bill Evans---et. al.  Pick one of their tunes and seriously impress your teacher!

I would say be warned about listening to Art Tatum and Oscar Peterson especially when just beginning to explore jazz, they'll scare the shite out of you

[eleanorrigby]

I would say be warned about listening to Art Tatum and Oscar Peterson especially when just beginning to explore jazz, they'll scare the shite out of you

They are seriously mindblowing and are two of my all time favourite musicians, but they will scare the shite out of you.

[dcstudio]

They are seriously mindblowing and are two of my all time favourite musicians, but they will scare the shite out of you.

ha ha ha! for sure--they still scare me and I get paid to play jazz   I'm more the Bill Evans type--or--let me say -- I aspire to be... someday maybe I'll be worthy of the money I'm paid to play his tunes....

[eleanorrigby]

I'm more the Bill Evans type--or--let me say -- I aspire to be...

That's wonderful! Bill Evans is a hero for sure... I'm more the try-to-play-Art-Tatum-and-weep type hah