Listening is the Key to Playing Jazz and Blues Styles

What do jazz, blues, boogie woogie and stride piano have in common? They swing! In other words, they accent the off-beat. You know it's swinging when you're tapping your feet, snapping your fingers, bobbing your head and swaying your shoulders. It's great fun to play music that has this effect on people.

It is not my aim in this article to give a history of jazz or to profile the important artists, but to give those of you who want to give blues and jazz playing a try a way to get started and eventually start playing some hip stuff on the piano. My message is "Listen, baby, listen!"

Now, don't get me wrong. I think Beethoven grooves. And J.S. Bach is very hip himself. Truly. I'm just talking about the way rhythm is handled. If you're used to playing classical music, playing one of these styles, with its bouncy rhythm, can be a challenge at first.

By the way, these styles really overlap. There's alot of blues in jazz music. Jazz is sometimes played in the stride piano style. In case you're not sure what "stride piano" is, think of ragtime. It is played in stride piano style. Boogie woogie incorporates blues and jazz elements. So, if you want to learn to swing and improvise, you could explore any one of these styles to start to get a feel for swing rhythm.

How can you listen? Here's where the magic of the compact disk comes in. A trip to the local record store will yield some treasures. There's plenty of music in the jazz and blues sections that you can listen to and learn from. Maybe there's a style and artist that turns you on. In that case, you can concentrate on that artist.

Also, don't forget the magic of the Internet sound file. You'll notice that the links I've included at the end of this article may take you to some very early recordings. Why listen to all this old stuff? Because it's the basics. It's the foundation on which everything that came later was built. And -- it's just wonderful music! Remember, listening -- listening, listening -- is the only way to start learning to play jazz, blues, boogie woogie or stride piano.

Note that while there are many legendary solo jazz pianists, the piano is also a rhythm section instrument, which means you will learn a lot by listening to what the piano is doing in the background, and what the pianist does behind a vocal or horn solo, as well as what the pianist does during the piano solo. The Sheila Cooper link below will take you to a site with two links to sound clips that are a good example of this.

Go To Page: 1 2

Articles in this Topic    Discussions in this Topic