Learning Jazz piano is not just about being able to play fancy chords

To be a good jazz piano player, every pianist needs to go through a thorough process, and we believe there is no shortcut for this. We heard and watched many inspiring pianist played and improvise effortlessly, but we don’t see how much time they spend in the practice room, working on their licks, harmony, as well as listening and transcribing lots of tunes.

Learning jazz piano is not just about being able to play a tune with fancy chords, but also learn about the history, and how to speak the musical language with the right articulation. When we learn a foreign language, we have to learn the grammar as well as the vocabulary as part of the rudiments. Afterwards, we learn how to form sentences and paragraphs. The same principle and process applies in Jazz as well.

Jazz is about improvisation, and we believe that this can be taught. Being spontaneous and creative are two essential skills in Jazz, therefore strong fundamental technical skills and harmony are compulsory. Apart from that, listening and transcribing are also important supplements for our ear training.

This is why our Jazz piano teaching not only thoroughly covers all the essential components (including the harmony, important scales for improvisations, as well as the different styles in Jazz). but also involves a strong teacher-student collaboration and an active involvement of the students themselves. Find out why we are one of the highly-sought after schools to learn jazz piano.

What you can expect to learn

1. Ear training. Hone your listening skills & develop your ears to be well-tuned so that you can identify musical elements naturally.

2. Learn to play by ear. Learn to reproduce a piece of music without looking at sheet music notations create your own.

3. Techniques. Acquire the right harmonic and rhythmic techniques

4. 12 bar blues. Master one of the most prominent chord progressions in popular music. This blues progression has a distinctive form in lyrics, phrase, chord structure, and duration.

5. Solo improvisation. Learn to compose on the spot and invent solo melodies.

6. Chord Substitution. Discover how to substitute chords in the original progression to create an interesting mix and variety to a piece.

7. Chord Melody. Expand your chord melody repertoire and learn to build your own chord melodies.

8. Scales. Unlock your melodic potential that is essential for mastering the jazz language.You will learn the following scales:

• Bebop Scales
• Pentatonic Scales
• Modes

9. Music Theory. Understand and interpret written music, and translate that into your playing.

10. Solo transcription. Develop neccessary skills to transcribe any songs in the future.

11. Different Genres such as:

• Swing
• Latin Jazz
• R&B
• Gospel
• Bosa Nova
• Funk
• Walking Bass

Jazz piano improvisation

Song: Satin Doll (Half time bass technique)

Funky groove piano – What will you learn at Jazz lessons