Before attempting Jazz.......

[mahmudfasihulazam]

Is there a certain level of musicianship to be acquired before a person even attempts jazz?

I ask because I can pick up melodies and harmonies (that are not jazz) by ear but whenever it comes to jazz, I am simply lost-I cannot tell what the artists are doing, except for the drums- but I am fascinated nonetheless.

I really want to be able to play some great jazz someday. I don't know what to do, where to start. Youtube tutorials seem very strange to me. I got the hang of the 12 bar blues but I still don't get the simplest of jazz harmonies- the ii-v-i. I can tell a pure minor 7th from a major 7th and a dominant 7th, I can detect a number of modal changes in harmonies and even play them but add the 9ths, 11ths and 13ths and I am totally lost- even the ever-so-familiar chords seem to outlandish. I can pick up certain parts of jazz solos by ear but a few seconds later I am lost again.

What should I do to get started? Should I concentrate on other forms of music first? Or can I learn jazz by starting with jazz itself? Get a book maybe? Because professional instruction does not seem to be an option where I live. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[kevin69]

Is there a certain level of musicianship to be acquired before a person even attempts jazz?

I don't think so, no.

From your post, i would say that you are probably playing at a higher technical level than me, and i've started playing jazz piano. I've been working from 'Beginning jazz piano' by Noah Baerman, and am working on it in parallel with alfred all-in-one piano, book 2.

I think you may be starting out a bit too ambitiously:
Are you comfortable playing from a lead sheet?
Are you familiar with different styles of voicing 7th chords?
Can you improvise within a blues or pentatonic scale?

Compared to the alfred book, i'm finding the jazz playing requires more theory and thought away from the keyboard, so (for me, anyway) theres quite a bit i would miss trying to pick things up by ear that are more easily learnt from a book.

hth,
kevin

[mahmudfasihulazam]

I cannot play from a sheet.
I am quite comfortable with the blues (both the harmony and the scales).
I can voice 7th chords in only a few different ways.

I think getting a book and learning to play from lead sheets is the best option then? Thanks again for your reply.

[kevin69]

I think that learning to play from a lead sheet will be a very useful skill to have. It'll make a lot more music available to you, especially if you want to play with other people. I expect it will improve your sight reading too. From my reading, to play jazz well you need to be familiar with a large repertoire of tunes so that you have a solid vocabulary to draw on when improvising. Common estimates seem to be 200 to 500 tunes for an intermediate musician. Learning tunes from lead sheets seems a relatively efficient way to gain this volume of repertoire.

[quantum]

Improvise with chords that are more complex sounding than triadic harmony or 7ths.  Even if you don't understand all the theory behind it yet, you need to get your ears accustomed to distinguishing between more complex harmony. 

Try this: take a standard, or any tune you know well.  Reharmonize the melody using more complex chords.  You don't need to stick to chords you know the names of, make up chords as well. 

Another exercise: improvise or compose a chord sequence where the simple major/minor triad is the dissonant chord structure within the changes.  Make outlandish harmonies sound consonant, and the simple triad the dissonance.  Again feel free to create chords. 

The idea is to get your ears attuned to listening and evaluating the sounds of all sorts of different chords.