Understanding Jazz

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Originally Posted by goodridge_winners

I have a piano student who wants me to teach him jazz...a style i love, but have no knowledge in whatsoever.

No offense, but it sounds like it would be best for your student to seek out another teacher who has more foundation in what he wants to learn. Trying to cram jazz knowledge in quickly, so you can start teaching someone else is a recipe for disaster. Basically a student teaching a student. If you want to learn jazz on your own- that is one thing. But trying to learn it quickly so you can teach and mold someone else is quite another....

Just my thoughts on this.

I would have to echo the sentiments of Nathan. This does not sound like a good idea. I don't want to get into the whole "You have to feel the music man" cliche but Jazz is really not something you can learn from a book. No matter how good your musical background is a few pages of reading is not going to teacher you jazz. A lot of being able to play jazz well is about listening to Jazz music, constantly, pretty much whenever you are not playing if you want to get good. So I would be careful before you started trying to teach it.

Sadly, I must concur.

Originally Posted by Nathan Madsen

...it sounds like it would be best for your student to seek out another teacher who has more foundation in what he wants to learn.

Originally Posted by andrew17

...Jazz is really not something you can learn from a book. No matter how good your musical background is a few pages of reading is not going to teacher you jazz.

True...BUT, having someone - ANYONE - be supportive and help steer you in the right direction is always a good thing.

Ridgewinner will not be teaching someone to play jazz - it can not be taught, only learned.

Something he CAN do, is focus the students energy on learning basic musical principles, which just happen to be rooted in jazz: modes, chords, rhythms.

All the hard shit (feel, time, etc.) the kid'll have to figure out on his own...

Originally Posted by robinjessome

True...BUT, having someone - ANYONE - be supportive and help steer you in the right direction is always a good thing.

Ridgewinner will not be teaching someone to play jazz - it can not be taught, only learned.

Something he CAN do, is focus the students energy on learning basic musical principles, which just happen to be rooted in jazz: modes, chords, rhythms.

All the hard shit (feel, time, etc.) the kid'll have to figure out on his own...

yea thats what i was gonna kind of do. in a way, i wouldnt be teaching him, but rather sitting down with him and figuring things out. jazz has a lot of personal flavour in it, and so we could even come up with our own style of jazz.

i do agree with the 3 of you that said this is a method for disaster, but the financial situation his family is in would not allow him to get a professional jazz teacher. I charge 10 dollars AUD for a lesson for all my students. So that is why we are doing it this way.

besides...i am trying to ground him in classical pianistic skills first! he is terrible at them.

There is little doubt that the harmonic knowledge and idiomatic insights required to excel at jazz piano are not going to be gained whilst the teacher is but one step ahead of the student but having classical technique lessons and spending some time listening to, watching and talking to jazz pianists may allow for some progress. THe problem with affordabilty re: lessons is a very real one. Music lessons of £30 (UK) are pretty much a middle-class luxury. Having said that, a genuinly commited student can always find a player who will teach him or her for free. A really great student is astonishingly rare!