Q. I'm a student in the 11th grade. I attend an art school, I am currently studying piano with jazz chords and progressions. I would like to join the jazz band but I need to learn to read a bit quicker. Any ideas?
A. READ --READ--READ--as much music as you can
try to play with other musicians
STUDY-STUDY-STUDY- theory and chord voicings
Whats an easy way to remember Jazz sounds and music for my test?
Q. My jazz midterm is next week and its really hard to memorize the music of early jazz. Im required to named the song or artist of the song playing.
This music is from the 1900s+ so it covers Louis armstrong/Ken Burns/Duke Ellington/Ella/Benny Goodman etc.
If anyone can give me a good strategy as to how i can memorize them, like certain instrument tunes etc, thatd be wonderful. Thanks!
A. Well, Ken Burns is a documentary filmmaker, so he shouldn't even be on the list lol.
Louis Armstrong played trumpet and sang. One of his big hits was "Jeepers Creepers", because legend had it that he couldn't remember the words of his songs and made up new ones.
All I can say about Duke is that early Duke to me sounds "modern". No one had harmonies like Duke. Check out an old recording [and I do mean the oldest you can find] of his group playing "Caravan". It sounds like it's from a different planet or something. Not by today's standards, maybe, but for the time. His chord voicings [which instruments play which notes] were unique and gave his group a distinctive sound. Duke played piano, so there might be a piano poking in and out. Be careful though. If you have Artie Shaw and Glenn Miller on your list, they also have a pianist in their group, although neither group used a piano as consistently as Duke's band.
Ella Fitzgerald is the only woman. lol. But Billie Holiday might appear too. Holiday is generally rougher in sound than Ella, who tends to be smoother.
Benny Goodman can be tricky, because, while he played clarinet, so did one of the Dorsey brothers and Artie Shaw. I think that Goodman rarely took large amounts of solo time while playing with the group. Check out his group playing "Sing Sing Sing". The trumpeter et a big solo, before Goodman even takes his extended one. Shaw pieces tend to heavily feature Shaw on his clarinet. Compare Shaw's "Begin the Beguine" and "Concerto for Clarinet" to Goodman's "Sing Sing Sing".
You might be able to "cheat" a little... your teacher might give you easy pieces, such as famous pieces or ones that are obviously one artist or another [such as Armstrong's voice and trumpet]. If you have a listening list, make yourself a CD. Record yourself saying the artist info and then put each recording before each track. Believe me, it helps. If I can learn to identify different Gregorian chants by this method, it should make learning a few jazz song a breeze.
How is it that you comp piano chords?
Q. I know how to do basic comping with 7 chords.
Like with a C7 I would play LH root C and RH the 3 and the 7 (or 7 and 3).
But how do you comp a chord like Fm? Without the 7 I'm not sure what to play. Just the 3?
I hope this makes sense.
Thank you!
A. I'm not a pianist, but I suggest leaving the root out (odds are the bassist is playing it) and leaving the natural 5th out (it does very little to define the quality of the chord).
Do play 3rd/7th in your left hand and other chord tones or melody notes in your right hand. You'll discover that the LH voice leading falls together pretty naturally this way, and you are free to add tension tones or improvise in the RH.
Less is more, and the larger the ensemble, the truer this becomes.
Now... that said, comping is a delicate art that requires years of study to do well, so take your time, have fun, and perhaps get yourself a jazz piano teacher who can help you along. Also listen to and steal from your favorite pianists a LOT. If you arent' sure who to listen to, start with Bill Evans, McCoy Tyner, and Chick Corea just to get their sound into your ear - all are very sophisticated and really playing the way they do will be out of your reach for a while, so cherry-pick the occasional cool voicing that you can and just enjoy the rest. McCoy is known for huge voicings that require a lot of strength, and Chick often plays polytonally (in multiple keys at once) so don't discourage yourself by trying to become like them overnight. Bill is the epitome of mainstream "cocktail jazz" piano, and you will learn and grow conceptually just by enjoying his amazing, delicate, beautiful compositions, solos, and voicings.
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Title : How do I practice reading jazz chords off of a lead sheet? How would I quickly learn to sight read piano music?
Description : Q. I'm a student in the 11th grade. I attend an art school, I am currently studying piano with jazz chords and progressions. I would li...