Q. I play the guitar, viola and sing and I used to take piano. I really have been getting into jazz lately and I want to pick up the piano again. I never really learned jazz on piano though, just guitar. I know chord structure, scales, modes and all of that. My question is, how difficult would it be for me to pick up jazz piano? Should I find a teacher?
A. No it will be easy especially with your experience :D !
Well it will be easy to pick it up, but hard to master, as you never really stop learning Jazz or Piano!
Heres a free lesson on youtube, to get you started: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AB8VA1lAvPY
Start right away! Go on!
If your looking for more free advice or lessons, see my free e-book at: http://piano-secrets.weebly.com
Good-luck!
:D
Tom
How to play piano from lead sheets?
Q. My piano teacher gave me a few lead sheets a while ago, and I've been trying to figure out how to play them. I understand the chord structures, but how are you supposed to know what rhythm to play in? The only notes on the sheet are the vocals and the saxophone, but there's no written rhythm for the piano...do I have to be creative and make it up, or do is there a proper way to play it?
A. Part of learning to play from lead sheets is learning those accompaniment patterns! If you make this a regular part of your piano studies, you will build up a repertoire of patterns and styles to do with different kinds of songs. For a simple start, you can play the bass note of the chord in your left hand, and in your right hand, play the chord in quarter notes. So, for a song in 4/4, you'd play the chord 4 times per measure.
Then get creative and try out different patterns. You could also search on YouTube for recordings of the song to get ideas, and try to emulate things that you hear.
I think it's terrific that you're doing this and that your teacher gave you lead sheets! Learning to play accompaniment is such a great skill and it's too bad that more teachers don't include it in their lesson plans.
There is a great teacher online named Duane Shinn who is an expert at this - and he has a free course with 101 chord lessons. You can also just click around his site and watch free videos where he demonstrates some chord patterns - he's really a pro. Great inspiration for where learning to play this way can take you!
http://www.playpiano.com/101-tips/FreeLessons.htm
Hope that's helpful! Even if it's challenging at first, don't give up! It's a great thing not to be able to be creative and play from lead sheets.
Do I HAVE to learn to read sheet music to learn songs on piano?
Q. I've learned every song I know by watching YouTube videos. If you've done this yourself, you know that it's better than reading sheet music but still kind of sucks to do. My question is if I want to be able to play lots of songs, should I learn sheet music and if so how long does it take to be faster at reading it? Or is it better to learn chord structures and such and learn to play by ear?
A. If you learn sheet music, you'll go alot farther, because you won't have to depend on other people to learn a song. Once you learn to read sheet music, you'll be able to learn songs alot faster. I suggest using flash cards to learn the names of each note. Then start trying to learn to play songs by only depending on the sheet music.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Q_US3RRJws
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Title : How hard would it be for me to pick up jazz piano?
Description : Q. I play the guitar, viola and sing and I used to take piano. I really have been getting into jazz lately and I want to pick up the piano ...