what is best to play for learning

[pianoplayer51]

I love classical music and my teacher maintains that Bach is one of the best composers to play to learn all there is about the piano?   How can that be when there are lots of other composers like Chopin, Ravel etc etc..... What makes Bach so superior that my teacher says this?   

I am not interested in Jazz or playing pop music but can one learn properly by playing Jazz or playing pop by merely banging a few chords on a piano.

Pianists who are not classically trained, get on the piano and bash a few chords that make a reasonable tune, but is that really playing?   Singer/songwriters do this.   They sound ok but is that really playing?

[chopinlover01]

I love classical music and my teacher maintains that Bach is one of the best composers to play to learn all there is about the piano?   How can that be when there are lots of other composers like Chopin, Ravel etc etc..... What makes Bach so superior that my teacher says this?

Bach is the basis for everything. He cemented the study of counterpoint for one thing, all his fugues can attest to that. He won't teach you everything, but he will teach you a lot about counterpoint and harmony, which is pretty much the basis for all music. Also, he keeps your fingers strong and hands independent.

I am not interested in Jazz or playing pop music but can one learn properly by playing Jazz or playing pop by merely banging a few chords on a piano.

That's such bs... As a jazzer myself, I can assure you jazz and pop are not just banging chords. Pop is a little bit more of that, but the pianos main role in pop isn't to be beautiful, it's to accompany a voice. In jazz, it's similar- most of the time, comping (what you're reffering to as banging a few chords) is following the particular rhythms of a piece (which are very different than classical, and not easy to adjust to straight from Bach) in a chord progression behind a solo instrument- usually, if you're in a standard jazz combo, a sax of some kind, usually alto, though really any instrument can do a solo. Piano jazz soloing is becoming a lost art, IMO.