Jazz Piano

Jazz piano is one of the most vibrant, energetic, specialized types of music. Famous jazz artists you may want to listen to are Herbie Hancock, Keith Jarret, Bill Evans, to name but a few. To learn jazz piano you need to take some time to listen to jazz CD's and maybe watch DVD's as well. To learn jazz piano, one needs to be very patient and dedicated to practicing the genre.

Jazz piano is characterized by a lot of improvisation. A jazz musician can be given a fake music sheet or chord chart and he can improvise on the spot over those chord progressions. It is recommended that a jazz musician know or have standard songs in their repertoire. Standard songs include songs like "Willow Weep for Me," "Summertime," and "Georgia on My Mind" to name but a few. Standard songs are songs that have been covered by many recording artists in the past, usually every year. For example one may consider the gospel song "Amazing Grace" a standard gospel song because a lot of artists have covered the song throughout the years.

Knowledge of scales and chords are essential tools needed to be a good jazz musician, let alone the technique needed to play this genre. As a jazz musician you will need to practice different types of scales, chords, arpeggios, staccato playing, legato playing, playing chords on the left hand while playing scales in the right hand at the same time.

To learn jazz you need to start with the basics: minor and major scales and minor and major chords. Once you master these then you can go forth to learning advanced chords(jazz chords) and scales. These chords include diminished, dominant, major nine, tritone chords, etc. Advanced scales will entail learning lydian, diminished, chromatic, melodic minor scales, for example.

You must remember that when it comes to playing the piano, it is not how you play but how you play is very essential as well. This is the reason why you need technique: how hard or soft do you play the notes, how you sit at the piano, breathing, how you position your hands and fingers on the piano, playing chords and scales, etc.

You will definitely need resources to play the piano, someone to hold you by the hand. The key to mastering jazz piano is to learn (get as much information as possible), patience and practice!practice!practice!

For more free information on how to play piano please visit: free piano lessons for beginners. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jay_Mtimkulu

Learn to Play Jazz Guitar - Practice Tips You Can Use in Jazz Guitar Playing

If you want to learn to play jazz guitar, you have to learn both the basic and revolutionary methods of guitar playing to become a master player.

Actually, learning to play any guitar at any level is not an easy thing to do. There are more techniques to familiarize and it requires a bunch of focus, patience and commitment to achieve it. But there are abundant resources and tips available to make it easy for you. If you are really eager to learn to play jazz guitar, you should prepare yourself in dealing with a lot of musical challenges that will come your way.

The best sources of basic jazz and improvisation lessons are the guitar books that will teach you different lead licks in different styles. Videos and CDs are also great tools to help you master this guitar style. You can also learn to play jazz guitar from local community colleges and from those who have mastered the art of playing jazz music on your guitar.

To effectively learn to play jazz guitar, you have to get an effective teacher or trainer as well. They will teach you the right attitude in learning all the aspects of guitar playing in addition to the guitar lessons you need to master. When searching for a good teacher, you have to consider if you and your teacher will like each other aside from just looking at their musical expertise or talent for teaching and guitar playing.

And as a student or a striving guitar player, you also have to do your part in practicing what is being taught to you. You have to put great value in your practice time and improving your skills. As they say, practice makes perfect. But only quality practice will keep you in tiptop form.

When it comes to the technical side of playing the guitar particularly the jazz, as a beginner you have to familiarize yourself with the basic jazz playing styles like comping and improvising. Comping is about playing the chords under the melody of a song or the solo improvisations of another musician. With improvisation, guitarists use the scales and modes related to the chords in the chord progression of a tune to improvise.

The approach to jazz improvisation has also changed since the early days of jazz guitar. Instead of reworking the melody, some jazz guitarists tend to improve on chord-scale relationships. But today, one unique approach to jazz improvisation is as simple as playing what you hear. This will allow you to play melodies anywhere on the guitar and will give you more musical freedom.

In learning these guitar playing technique, you have to start learning to play the minor chords. And it begins with understanding that major chord triads are based on the root. The minor chords on your jazz guitar should be played by lowering the third tone.

You also have to learn the important musical ingredients in playing jazz guitar like harmony and melody. Remember, that your knowledge on jazz theory and harmony will help you produce jazz chord voicing. Also, different chords are performed over the scope of different chord progressions. If you are interested in doing a solo, it can be made by integrating the basic patterns of scales and arpeggio into balanced melodic and rhythmic phrases.

Keep in mind too that if you want to learn to play jazz guitar, you have to give time and attention as well as patience to learn the tricks to guitar playing.

Carolyn Anderson a music lover and loves to share great guitar playing techniques she has learned. If you want to know the best-kept secrets to playing the jazz guitar, check out Play What You Hear. If you acre interested in learning the blues guitar as well, visit Guitar Mojo, a great website where you can sign in for a membership and learn blues guitar playing easily. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Carolyn_Anderson