Many young piano players who are learning to play the instrument in a classical way are thrilled when they hear recordings by exceptional musicians like Charlie Parker or Herbie Hancock for the first time. How do these people create unique sounds and harmony? First of all, it must be said that the two jazz pianists mentioned belong to the absolute exceptional figures who are unique in the music scene. However, getting into the jazz piano is not that difficult for a musician if he proceeds step by step and is not afraid to deviate from the classic way of playing the piano from sight.

Tips for beginners

Learn some standards

Learning jazz is like learning a new language. Every new scale, every new chord, and every lick is a word. If you have a certain number of words in your repertoire at hand, you can form sentences. Whoever learns the melody changes and the chord changes of some simple standards quickly gets a feel for jazz. Some relatively simple standards are Satin Doll, Misty, or Autumn Leaves.

Learn to listen to jazz

In classical music, almost everything is given by sheet music. In jazz, a lot has to be picked up and understood while listening. The easiest way to start is with a few bars and rhythms, which are repeated in one of the standards that you learn anyway. Understand the stress tone by tone, bar by bar. If you listen to jazz music while on the road, it is wise to buy the best bluetooth motorcycle helmets for safety.

It doesn’t work without theory

Even with jazz, there is a minimal but fundamental theoretical knowledge, without which it is difficult to achieve success. This theory is ideally learned at the beginning.

Do you speak jazz

A jazz musician knows what a Charlie Parker Lick is and can talk to other musicians about the variations in the Bud Powell Lick.

Expand the vocabulary

Charlie Parker alone has over 2000 recordings, over 100 of which are jazz standards. So you can be sure that there is always another sentence to add to your own vocabulary.