Now, I have been classical trained for a reasonable amount of time (Four? years total), but have stopped lessons for about 2-3 years. Now, I want to learn improv jazz. What I want to know is this: Is it easy, even for somone at my level to learn how to do? How is it done? (basics) Are there any free sites I can use to learn by or use as reference or help? How long does it usually take for an adverage someone to learn it to an adverage level?

This is a good question.
(1)It is easy if you really desire it. You will keep working on it.
(2)There are myriad approaches to it. I’ll give some easy starters.
(3)I don’t know of any free sites to help you but there was a series on vinyl records called "Music Minus One" that has been continued by Jamey Abersold on CDs. Google him. (These are recordings of a jazz band playing songs with "one" instrument out of the mix. For instance, piano. You play along with the CD. Most of the recordings have the entire group playing the song also on the CD.)
(4)You can start immediately at an average level.

Here’s what to start with:
(1) The chord structure of the song is all-important in most improvisation, so you need to know the song well. It is best to start with a simple chord pattern or any short pattern you know well. One of the most basic patterns is the "blues"– 4 bars (measures) of the I chord, 2 bars of the IV chord, 2 bars of the I chord, 1 bar of the V chord, 1 bar of the IV chord and 2 bars of the I chord. (If you don’t know the roman numeral system, they are just referring to the first, fourth and fifth tones of whichever scale you choose. For instance, in the key of "C" you would use "C", "F" and "G" chords. In basic theory the one chord is a major triad, the four chord (F) and the five chord (G) would be dominant 7ths (the first, third, fifth and flat seventh tones of the chord’s scale). This is the standard "12-bar blues form and there are many variations. Don’t worry about these finer points at first, just get the pattern down.

(2) If the chord pattern doesn’t bring any "melodic" line to your mind, pick any short (one bar long, for instance) rhythmic or melodic motif that you like. For instance, a group of three eighth notes on the fifth tone and a dotted quarter on the first tone followed by a half rest to fill out the measure. On the "C" chord this would be g-g-g-c (I would go down to the c but it doesn’t really matter.) On the "F" chord it would be c-c-c-f and on the "G" chord it would be d-d-d-g. Now this is just an example of a motif to use within the chord structure. I picked it at random to show how the tones of the scales are used to improvise upon the chord structure. You could use a more complex motif such as five-four-three-four-one in any rhythmic pattern which appeals to you. Or anything! Just choose something and play it across the chord changes. You are "improvising" a melody on top of the chord structure.

(3) Once you get the hang of playing on top of the chord structure try different motifs and mixing different motifs together. Or try playing a motif on one note throughout the chord changes (for instance a quartet of 16th note "c" notes every other beat through all the chord changes–stay on the "c" note. Another thing to try is "quoting" a line from another song on top of the chord structure–for instance just the six-note "happy birthday to you" or the 4-note "here comes the bride". Use anything that comes to mind, but fit it into the chord structure

(4) That’s basically all there is to it. You improvise a melody line on top of the chord structure. When you get really good at it, you can do it "in real time". Most of the improvisation you hear recorded is rehearsed and worked out ahead of time. It may not be written out note-for-note, but the player has some plan in mind. If you listen to live jazz, you might hear some purely free improvisation. It is indescribably wonderful when it comes out right– for the audience and for the player!

Not seconding, but thirding: with a teacher, with a teacher, with a teacher.

Adding, if you are a teacher you should not teach your child. If you are not a teacher you should not teach your child.

With a teacher, at age six, I started out with the Bartok Mikrocosmos and the Schirmer collection called Beginner’s Bach, not long after adding Schumann: Kinderszcenen.

I personally find a lot of the other collections, John Thompson, etc, so generally filled with banal music I am astonished more children aren’t completely turned off to music at the beginning because of these books.

regards, petr b.

I want some jazz songs to play on the piano, i’m okay at the piano, i used to take lessons but then i quit and now i’m starting back up again. So if you have any suggestion for me that would be great. Also if you could included the a link to the sheet music that would be great! Thanks!

Some nice and easy piano jazz pieces for you:

A Foggy Day (George Gershwin)
I Concentrate On You (Cole Porter)
The Song Is You (Kern / Hammerstein)
Round Midnight (Thelonius Monk)
‘S Wonderful (Gershwin)
A Fine Romance (Jerome Kern)
Georgia On My Mind (Hoagy Carmichael)
I Could Write A Book (Rodgers/Hart)
How High the Moon (Morgan Lewis)
A Lot Of Livin’ To Do (Charles Strouse)
Four (Miles Davis)
A Night In Tunisia (Dizzy Gillespi)
I Get A Kick Out of You (Cole Porter)
A Nightengale Sang in Berkeley Square (Manning Sherwin)
Here’s That Rainy Day (Jimmy Van Heusen)
Aint Misbehavin’ (Fats Waller)
Deed I Do (Walter Hirsh/Fred Rose)
It Don’t Mean A Thing (Duke Ellington)
Alright, Okay You Win (Wyche/Watts)
Mean To Me (Fred Alber/Roy Turk)
Always True to You Darlin’ In My Fashion (Cole Porter)
You’de Be So Nice To Come Home To (Cole Porter)
Honeysuckle Rose (Fats Waller)
Fascinating Rhythm (Gershwin)
My Funny Valentine (Rodgers/Hart)
Someone To Watch Over Me (Gershwin)
All Of Me (Simons/Marks)
I Can’t Get Started (Vernon Duke)
All Of You (Cole Porter)
I Remember You (Victor Schertz/J. Mercer)
All Or Nothing At All (Arthur Atman/Jack Lawrence)
I’m Beginning To See The Light (George/Hodges/Ellington/James)
All The Things You Are (Jerome Kern)
Just Friends ((John Klenner)
All The Way (Cahn/Van Heusen)
Like Someone In Love (Burke/Van Huesen)
Almost like Being In Love (Frederick Lowe)

I used to take piano lesson.
but it was beginner.
and i stopped for a year.
i was wondering how fast i could progress if i have a private lesson every week with a very experienced teacher?

You can never rush your progress in anything.

Still, I think you’ll move along very well.
If your determined, that is.
Hope I helped.

I’m auditioning for a jazz band in a summer camp I’m going to. I want to play the piano. I recently started taking jazz piano lessons. I figure, they are going to give me a chord progression. And I’ll have to play it right? I know major, minor, half/diminished, up to 7ths, I have a lot of work to do still. But my main question. For this audition, how should I play the chords? Is there some sort of standard rhythm or voicing that I should use to play through the progression? I ended my lessons for the summer and can’t talk to my teacher.

Comping, which is how jazz players say "reading chord changes" is a technique which pianists spend their lives developing — but there are some general rules that you can use to get yourself started in the right direction.

Normally, the answer to this question would be – find pianists who are good accompanists that you enjoy, like Herbie Hancock, Wynton Kelly, or Red Garland, and try to figure out what they’re doing.

In practice though, you need some quick answers, so here’s how to get started.

Get familiar with playing all of those chords in all keys quickly. For example – play all the Major seventh chords, starting on C, then F, then B flat. Then, move to the minor, and half diminished, and dominant.

The circle of fourths, which you should use to practice this, is
C – F – Bb – Eb – Ab – Db – Gb – B – E – A – D – G

If you can do just that, that will greatly help you out.

Usually jazz pianists use more extensions in their chords, and usually don’t play the root unless they’re playing solo, because the bass does.

A good general voicing for any chord is 3 – 7 – 9 – 5, (C Major 7th is E B D G) using the natural 9th for half diminished chords (for example, on D half diminished, F C E Ab). There are thousands of chord voicings, but this one will get you moving in the right direction, because I imagine you don’t have all the time in the world.

For rhythms; a good simple rhythm to get started on is Dotted quarter note, eighth note. So, you’d play a dotted quarter note, then an eighth note, then rest for 2 beats (in 4/4). Or, you could rest for two beats, then play the dotted quarter note, eighth note rhythm.

You also want to play on the offbeats. Generally the best offbeats you can hit are the "and" of beat 2 and the "and" of beat 4. The way you can hit those beats is, when you’re playing that dotted quarter note, eighth note comping pattern, just leave out the dotted quarter note!

The most important thing to do then is just practice, because it’s hard to actually just do it in the moment without losing your place. Buy ANY of the Jamey Aebersold playalong CDs, and mute the Piano channel, and just practice along. www.jazzbooks.com will be your friend. I recommend the book "Getting it Together."

Anyways, good luck, and hope you enjoy the camp!

Beginners lessons in the UK? (eg. £ estimate)

apparently they range greatly, like 6-30 pounds, so it would depend on the teacher.

I have played the piano since I was 6. I am classically trained having taken lessons until I was 18. I am a little out of practice, but I have made a new goal to polish up my skills again. I LOVE jazz, and have always wanted to learn to play jazz piano. So, in doing so, what would you recommend as the best approach? Please tell me of your experiences and what I should do.

I learned jazz piano at the same time I was learning classical piano, which was in my early teens.

My recommended approach would be to start with a good jazz music theory book to learn how jazz scales and harmonies are put together. I’d also recommend getting a good "fake book" (containing the melody line and lyrics with shorthand notation for harmonizing the melody) and using that to put the theory you are learning in practice.

Furthermore, I’d recommend getting a good collection of "jazz standard" songs (typically songs from classical musicals) with the piano part fully written out- that way, you can see how the songs in the fake books were originally presented so you have a basis of how to apply jazz harmonies to the fake book arrangements.

And I’d also recommend getting sheet music from some of your favorite artists- Oscar Peterson has a good beginning guide ("Jazz for the Young Pianist") and there are many publications of transcriptions of famous pianists’ work (such as Thelonious Monk’s compositions) so you can learn from the "great masters".

Finally, use your ears- listen to as much jazz as you can, and see whose music and styles impact you the most. (Earl Hines has a different way of playing than Bill Evans does, for example.) When you hear something you like, try to play it by ear on the piano- don’t worry for now about note-for-note accuracy (that will come with practice) but instead concentrate on capturing their pianistic gestures- what are they doing with the left hand, how closely compacted are their chords, how are they using the pedal, etc.

Will some time & practice, you’ll start to get the hand of playing jazz!

I’m 17 years old, grade 5 piano, taking my grade 6 within a month, and am wondering if I should start giving piano lessons to beginners. However I am worried that perhaps people will be precautious and put off since I am a teenager, and I am only grade 5.
So basically, would you take lessons from me?
- Thanks

I would send my child to your – or go myself. Here is why. When my child was about 7 she wanted to learn to play piano so I found teachers by word of mouth or newspapers. One lady wore stilettos and used a chop stick to emphasis her point – she was SO eccentric it just didn’t work. The next one was an accomplished concert pianist and set in her ways – we tried that for a couple years then tried a high school senior who was trained classical but now also learning from a lounge entertainer. That was the most fun for my kid and she started to enjoy it and bring her own "style" or personality to it. I’m guessing it was because the teacher could remember how painful a stern teacher could be.

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Need more help with slower, clearer instruction? Access my full version lessons available either by online video lessons or on DVD delivered to you! Visit http://PlayPianoKing.com
★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★
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