opus 2, no. 2: musician and theory

Hello. I am sick (as of 2/28), which is why I am currently at home. Perhaps I should have gone to school, but then I might have infected the entire gifted program, so I played it safe.

Since I am home, I have some extra time to do stuff. Like catching up on my genius blog posts. So here, for the first time so far, here is this week's musician bio!

musician bio number one

Alright, so admittedly, while choosing this week's musician, I kind of cheated. Ragtime is more a precursor to jazz than it is jazz itself, so Joplin ~technically~ isn't really a jazz pianist. (I also lied about this in my history post. Sorry).

But since he was so important to ragtime, and since ragtime was so important for jazz, then, by the transitive property of equality, Joplin was very important for jazz. And since I just learned about the beginnings of jazz and ragtime, I thought it would be nice to learn a bit about someone who wrote so many famous rags.

This is how I will show Joplin:

I am so, so sorry for my terrible art skills. I can't draw people.

I apologize for my inability to draw people, but this is probably the best I can do. T_T 

By the way, I am using this website for the information here.

Sometime around 1868, Scott Joplin was born. He would have 5 siblings (eventually). Their family was located in northeastern Texas.

His mother's boss had a piano, and Joplin used it to learn piano. His teacher was Julius Weiss.

I don't really know if the picture I found was the actual Weiss, since he never really became super famous, but I think this was him. Anyways, Weiss was pretty important because he tutored Joplin free of charge, and also influenced him towards ragtime.

Teenage Scott Joplin began travelling the country. At one point, he visited Tom Turpin, a fellow ragtime musician.

Around this time, Joplin was playing a huge variety of music styles. He liked to combine western music with traditional African music.

Then, 1893 came along, and with it, the incredible Chicago World Fair.

Now, you may have heard about this fair. My summer reading book was actually about it, and it's fairly interesting - the fair involved a mass murderer, an assassination, a burst of new technology, and a vital moment in Scott Joplin's career.

At the fair itself, Joplin played cornet with a band outside of the fair. He also met Otis Saunders, who encouraged him to write down his music.

In 1894, Joplin moved to Missouri. Eventually, he pursued formal music education there, and learned to write down his music. He published several original pieces and collaborations during this time.

Then, in 1899, Joplin's famous 'Maple Leaf Rag' was published by John Stark, a local music shop owner.

Later on, two years later, Joplin moved to St. Louis, where Stark and several of Joplin's collaborators had already moved.

In St. Louis, Scott Joplin focused on teaching and writing music. He was praised and respected by music critics everywhere. However, due to his race, he faced many obstacles: he was still excluded from white society, and he struggled to publish many of his less-famous and longer pieces. His family suffered great losses as well.

New York, c. 1900

Joplin moved to New York City in 1907. He worked very hard on his music, but struggled financially. Treemonisha, an opera that he worked for years on, was not able to gain enough money for a full production.

He died April 1, 1917 in New York City, poor due to his lack of financial backing.


Today, Scott Joplin is known as "the king of ragtime writers" due to his huge number of well-known rags. His work would eventually heavily influence jazz.

this week: writing jazz melodies

Since it seems kind of sad to end this post with death, here's the jazz theory I've learned for this week. (Note: I have skipped a lot of notation stuff because a, I already know most of it, and b, it's kind of boring. If you want to learn it yourself, the link is here).

WRITING JAZZ MELODIES
Making melodies is really important in jazz - not only for the obvious reason of writing songs, but also for improvisation. Although rhythms are usually pretty strict (as I learned last week), melody patterns vary from person to person, so there aren't any real 'rules' to them. 

hermione granger is back 

Alright, well, that's kind of a lie. There are some rules, otherwise I wouldn't have very much to research.

The main secret (not really a secret, though) in jazz melodies are found in riffs - kind of like themes from last week, but not really. Riffs are usually a lot shorter, and they make up themes.

Riffs are typically around two bars length-wise, and are repeated as many times as needed to fill up a certain part. They were always important, but they were the most most important around the 30s and 40s for big band jazz.

There are several different types of riffs that I will cover below.

a comprehensive list of different types of riffs

• very basic riffs
• slightly less basic riffs
• slightlier less basic riffs

So, let's begin. I've learned (kind of) the art of organizing blog posts, so I should probably begin that right about... now. I'm going to be reusing my highly overused PPAP analogy, sorry.

Very Basic Riffs: These riffs are, as you have probably already guessed, very basic. There is one riff, and it's repeated word for word, over and over again.

This is very simple (hopefully you can tell), but it can still sound great. Take, for example, Jumpin' at the Woodside by Count Basie.

this is repeated throughout the 'A' theme.

Slightly Less Basic Riffs: These riffs repeat over and over again, but every once in a while, change very slightly. It might have a slightly different chord background, or a different ending note to switch it up.

Slightlier Less Basic Riffs: These have the same slight changes, but pretty much every time the riff is repeated. So the repeated section is very similar, but overall still different.

Alright! That's it for jazz theory this week. It's a lot shorter than last week, but as I mentioned before, I'm not feeling the best so I really don't want to drag it out for too long (also, I'm reasonably sure no one actually reads all the posts I make, since I make way too many).

I'm not going to have any actual playing this week (I have to practice for a classical music contest, which is on Sunday. RIP Jasmine).

Instead, I've got an update: as I said I would, I've chosen a shorter jazz piece to work on before I start the final project: Moon River.

If you haven't heard it, it is right here:

I've gotten the sheet music for it. Currently, I've got two versions of it, since I can't make decisions. They are here and here.

They're both pretty simple pieces, but realistically speaking I don't have time to commit to a large piece (otherwise, I'll never start the final project).

That's it for now!

moon river. haha

Okay, that was kind of long. Now I remember why I like to split up my posts.

This week I've commented on Ellie's blog, Olivia's blog, and Evan's blog.

opus 2, no. 1; overview & history (early jazz)

Hello, and welcome back to Jazz With Jazz(mine)! haha. please laugh.
Anyways, this post marks the beginning of the monumental

Finally. We're here - the fateful Week Two of this project. Fortunately, I haven't gotten too far behind on what I wanted to do. Unfortunately, I've spent far too long on this project so far than any sane person should (I'm so sorry for the overflow of posts. I should probably combine them into one post).

Either way, I should probably just go with it and try to make the most out of this sudden bout of productivity. Which is why I shall stop getting off topic and get straight to...

the overview: what will I learn this week? what will I do?

• History: I will learn the early days of jazz. This will actually be included in a summary below, so stay tuned!
• Musician: I did not do my Bud Powell one last week (oops), and I am not making it up this week. Maybe some other day. Based on the history I'm doing this week, I've decided to go along with it by doing Scott Joplin. :)
• Actual Playing: I will try to learn another section of jazz theory and choose my short piece this week. This will be in a separate post. 
• Other Things: I have arranged an interview with Mr. Conahan, which I will be completing on a Day 6 workday. I will probably include that in my Musician Biography post, assuming everything works out.

Alright! Now that that's over with, let's get onto some actual progress stuff.

this week on jazz history

My main question for this week was 'how did jazz begin?' As I mentioned in last week's post, the large creole population was very important for jazz to begin. Last week we were around the time period before the 1850s, but this week I'm focusing on late 1800s to the early 1900s. 

We've all (hopefully) already learned about this period of time in middle school: the American Civil War happened, emancipation happened, people died, and other notable things happened.

an inaccurate representation of the american flag, because i didn't feel like counting to 50

Another cool thing: remember the 10,000 hours article we read, and how there was that One Section talking about the Ideal Time to be born for something? And the part where it mentioned how most tech geniuses (Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, etc.) were born in this Ideal Time? Yeah, well, this is pretty relevant for jazz, too.

Because, as it turns out, a bunch of successful jazz musicians were born around the same time, too, around 30-50 years before the 1920s, or the jazz era. Here are a few.

a comprehensive list of successful jazz musicians born in the late-ish 1800s

• Scott Joplin (a jazz pianist!!). Born on November 24th, 1868.
• Buddy Bolden (first player of New Orleans Blues-style Jazz). Born in 1868.
• Jelly Roll Morton (another jazz pianist!!). Born on September 20, 1885.
• Mamie Smith (blues singer). Born on September 16, 1890.
• Duke Ellington (another piano player!!). Born on April 29, 1899.

That's a brief list, but there are a ton more. If you're somehow interested in Collecting Them All, check out the website I'm using (the All About Jazz link in my intro post). Although I highly doubt any of you will want to know that many people.

So what else is important to know? Well, in this same time period, Edison expands on the phonograph, which means music can spread a whole lot easier. Thanks, Tom. 

Plessy v. Ferguson happened, which led to segregation, 'Jim Crow', and all that jazz. It was very Not Good.

The rise of ragtime was also a pretty notable event. The term is first coined in 1893, reaches full-on craze around 1897, and continues on for a while, with a few great pieces by Joplin, Gershwin, and the lot.

So how did jazz actually, well... become jazz? Unlike what I previously believed, it was more a slow evolution than anything else. Ragtime and blues, both highly popular styles at the time, start to mix together. Jelly Roll Morton is one of the first people to mix these two. Add in some swing, and jazz is finally born.

the jazz king

Since I've already (sort of) answered the question I wanted to, I've decided to go a little more into detail and see some really important events around the time period I'm researching. (I will leave all Scott Joplin events out, and those will be in my biography post). Alright, so let's begin.

Louis Armstrong is born on July 4th, 1900 (according to him). He's actually born August 4th, 1901. Swing is generally credited to him, and he went on to write several famous pieces such as the well-known What A Wonderful World and the English version of La Vie En Rose.

At the time, ragtime, brass bands, and blues are already very popular in New Orleans. Improvisation begins as musicians start to change up pop songs.

Lincoln Park opens in New Orleans in 1902. It serves as an open venue for ragtime music. It also becomes a center for early jazz performances.

sorry for the terrible editing T_T

Around 1910, the dance craze begins. This leads to all the fantastic jazz dancing that we know now - with styles like the Foxtrot and the Charleston. These will all be pretty important during the Jazz Age, and also for 21st century guard routines.

There are obviously many other very important events during this time period, but I've decided just to mention these four for now. Like I said, if you're interested in knowing all of the other events, feel free to check out both the 'All About Jazz' and the 'Jazz in America' links in the introduction.

That's it for now. Tune in later (haha. I'm sorry. I'll stop) for some cool theory, low-quality piano recordings, and (hopefully) informative Scott Joplin info. 

Thank god. This was a shorter post, wasn't it? I think it's easier to read when it's around this length, but sometimes I just have too much information to include.

Sources:

 "Jazz History Timeline." All About Jazz. All About Jazz, n.d. Web. 23 Feb. 2017.

"Timeline." Jazz in America. Jazz in America, n.d. Web. 23 Feb. 2017.

opus 1, no. 3: actual playing

Before you read: I don't really have 3 blog posts worth of stuff to put up. It's really only one post, I'm just breaking it into three because they're separate topics and I don't want to throw too much information at everyone. Since that would kind of make this more like a lecture.

Maybe I should actually not put these under the 'bonus blog posts' category and just say they're all one f u s e d post. Or maybe not. I should probably ask. Anyways, back to

I'm sorry. Did I say actual playing? Whoops. I meant the stuff I have to know before I play. But the playing will come soon, I promise. 

If somehow you have enough time to actually want to figure out what I'm learning, I am currently using two sources (since I can't decide between them).

• This Jazz Theory handbook is pretty useful for the actual theory stuff. I'm skimming through it for things that I don't understand.
• This Jazz Handbook is less theory and more direct information. It gives me all the scales I need, some suggested listening, and practicing tips.

I'll probably use both. Don't worry, I won't actually be reading through the literal jazz theory textbook. I don't want to lose my sanity over this project (although honestly, maybe I already have). I'll most likely just skim through a bit each week, choose some exercises, and play some scales. Easy stuff.

I'm Sorry. I Am Rambling Again. I Was Trying to Make This Post Short and To the Point. (she said, failed, and also died.)

ANYWAYS. Jazz theory. Yep. What did I learn? 

a comprehensive list of things that Jasmine learned

• I.........................have learned nothing at all.
• I've learned that it's better to have organized blog posts, and yet, once again, this post is an utter mess. A big mess. Messier Than Any Mess Ever™️️.
• Maybe I should start organizing my posts.

JAZZ STRUCTURE
The author of the book I'm using, Stuart Smith, starts out by calling jazz 'rigid', so I guess that means my entire view on the style is wrong. Oops.

He also says that there are three parts to jazz structure, so I'll just trust him for now. Apparently, the third part, harmony, is really complex, so I've chosen to skip it for now. (It's the first week. I really don't want to confuse my brain even more.)

rhythmic jazz structure: three general layers and their rhythms
1. bass: the actual beat of the song, so usually played in quarter notes. (if you don't know what quarter notes are... there's really no quick way to explain it, since I'd have to go into time signatures. Maybe I'll make a crash course music thing later.)

haha, just kidding. I've got a terrible extended metaphor to help understand.

2. melody: plays twice as fast or even faster, so usually eighth or sixteenth notes. pretty fast.

I'm so sorry, I don't actually know how to draw cars. And if going by proportions, the actual driving speed would usually be around 80 mph. Whoops.

3. chords: normally slower than the bass. usually, will be twice as slow, so normally at half notes. sometimes whole notes.

once again, do not try this at home.

Anyways, ignoring my terrible analogy for musical speed, let's move on to the actual usage of this in Real Jazz. The way these layers are distributed depends on who's playing. 

If it's a solo pianist like me, I'm somehow going to need to learn to grow three hands, or play with a leg.

DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME.

(The logical way would just be to combine two layers into one hand, or not include one of the layers.)

If you've got a trio of oboes, then each person can have one layer. Easy! The hard part for this scenario is to find three jazz oboe players. (Sorry, Olivia.)

And, of course, if you've got a big band like WHS's very own, then multiple people can play the same layer. Now, moving on.

form in jazz structure: themes and variations
So, if you've ever heard music in your life, you probably know that most songs will have repeating sectors, or 'themes'. Not necessarily exactly the same, but the same general tune. 

Jazz, in this way, is no different than every other style. It also has recurring themes, although throughout the song these will be changed slightly through improvisation/solos. But even improvisation will match the song's theme.

Think of it like poetry - take Shakespearean sonnets, for instance. No matter what the subject is, the rhyme scheme will still follow the same ABAB CDCD EFEF GG format.

image credit: SnidgettheSalty on redbubble

Now, using letters for themes instead of rhymes, here are some common jazz forms. If you don't understand the letter notation, here is an example that I will make for each form:

AABA: the most common. Each letter here is an 8-measure theme. If you don't know what measures are... think of them like stanzas in poetry. Except stricter, because they all have to be the same length.

Songs with AABA form: Ain't She Sweet, As Time Goes By, The Birth of the Blues, and more that I don't want to list out.

ABAC: Once again, each letter is 8 measures. However, the song sounds more like it's split into two 16-measure sections that start the same but end differently.

Songs with ABAC form: But Not For Me, Days of Wine and Roses, Fools Rush In, and more that I don't want to list out.

Thorough-Composed: this is almost like a 'misc' category. Basically, it doesn't really have any repeating themes, and if the melody is split into 4 8-measures like the other ones, it's usually in 'ABCD' format. Example: Avalon

That's pretty much it in terms of forms that I'll actually use. There's one called Ternary in ABA form, but that's pretty rare.

For Week One, that's all the jazz theory I've learned. From the second handbook (look at the top), I've printed out a few pages to start learning blues chord progressions, as well as some jazz warm-ups. Since I haven't learned jazz chords yet in theory, I've only been practicing the relatively simpler chord progressions.

Here's what they sound like:

F7 F7 F7 F7 Bb7 Bb7 F7 F7 C7 C7 F7 F7

F7 F7 F7 F7 Bb7 Bb7 F7 F7 C7 Bb7 F7 C7

F7 Bb7 F7 F7 Bb7 Bb7 F7 F7 G7 C7 F7 C7

Finally! Some actual playing. Sorry for all the boring theory stuff. I've also got an

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT
I've decided to change my final project to converting a non-jazz song into something that sounds like jazz. This, I think, can better demonstrate that I actually know the patterns in jazz, rather than just reading the sheet music.

I've discussed this with a few friends already, and the non-jazz song I choose will probably be either pop or classical.

This idea change obviously leads to a change in schedule. I still want to practice an existing (small) jazz piece before I start. I'll choose this piece from the lists of pieces I have above under the 'form' section. 

For Week Two, I will practice the smaller jazz piece and hopefully finish it by Week Three. I want to have my non-jazz piece chosen by Week Three, and I will work on that for the last three weeks.

Also, note: there will not be a musician bio for this week, since I started kind of late. Hopefully, I'll have one for Week Two. :)

i'm so sorry this post was so long

Sources: 
Jazz, Jamey Aebersold, ed. "Jazz Handbook." Jazz Handbook (2010): 31+. Web. 20 Feb. 2017.
Smith, Stuart. "Jazz Theory." Jazz Theory (2014): 9-14. Web. 20 Feb. 2017.

opus 1, no. 2; overview & history (pre-jazz)

Hello, fellow geniuses. Surprise! I've survived the first week - which is what this blog post will be explaining (+ a summary of the history I read through). I've also realized that I've forgotten to include something in my intro:

hello. it is I, the jazz man.

This is what I'll be using to represent me through my amazingly interesting adventures. It's essentially a tiny upgrade up from a stick figure, which is unfortunate, but I guess we can't all be great artists (cough ellie acuna cough). Anyways, this is me. I shall use it to represent certain events/scenarios since I prefer the stick figure to actual pictures of myself. For example:

it's lit

ANYWAYS, MOVING ON. SORRY. 
Okay, let's Pretend This Never Happened. So. The summary and overview. You may have it.

the overview: what have I learned this week? what have I done?

• History: as planned, I have learned all about what set the stage for jazz to begin. More information can be found below.
• Musician: this week, I studied Bud Powell. I will be making a short biography post on him, so stay tuned (haha. because tunes in music. hah.)
• Actual playing: I learned jazz chords and common combinations of said chords. I will be making a separate post for that so this post doesn't become 3000 words long.
• I have asked Mr. Conahan for an interview. Date isn't decided, but he agreed to help out, so that's great! :)

Anyways, onward! Let's go over what I've learned.

this week on jazz history

Before jazz, the world was cold and dreary. Snow covered the lands, burying everything in ice and chill. No plants could survive. People were starving. The nations of the past had fallen long ago.

a lone human races through the snow, desperate for warmth. and jazz.

ANYWAYS, MOVING ON (part two).
My main question this week was 'what set the stage for jazz?'

The answer? Well, I'll go more in depth, but the answer can be pretty much summed up in one word: diversity.

Basically, think about this: the time is before the 1850s. What happened before the 1850s? A lot. But what really happened?

A comprehensive list of things that happened before the 1850s

• nothing at all happened before the 1850s.
• the antebellum era started before the 1850s.
• the end of the antebellum era was not before the 1850s, because the era ran from 1815-1861, and 1861 is not before the 1850s.
• the African slave trade closed before the 1850s. Unfortunately for humanity, the USA did not end slavery before the 1850s. It was somewhat fortunate for jazz, however.

Okay, so a lot did happen before the 1850s. And around the time period of the antebellum era is when historians really like to find the roots of jazz.

So what was the only other important thing on my.. comprehensive list? Slavery, specifically in the U.S.

The obvious fact here is that Slavery Is Bad, and the U.S.A's Morals Are Now Crappy (I mean they kind of were already but still). 

a very scientific graph

But in terms of jazz, the huge slave population at the time was very important. Because of the slaves, there was increased creole population - African-Americans who were born in the US, not Africa.

Then, as the creole population began switching around traditional African music techniques, a somewhat unique-sounding style of music began (keep in mind that it wasn't jazz quite yet, it just was no longer traditional African music).

Now mix this change in music with the 'melting pot' of diversity down in New Orleans, and you've got yourself The Perfect way to find a new music style.

modern-day New Orleans. Jazz would be born here. one day.

So basically, those were the conditions in America before jazz that prepared the world for jazz. Goodbye, that's all for now.

This was long, and there was a lot of information. I hope it was Not Too Boring. Thanks for managing to get all the way down here!

Also: I have commented on Nina's blog, Amanda's blog, and Allison's blog.

Sources:
 "Jazz History Timeline." All About Jazz. All About Jazz, n.d. Web. 16 Feb. 2017.

opus 1, no. 1; an introduction

I started playing piano around the time when I was seven. I didn't take any super formal lessons (mostly I just played little songs that my teacher made up). When I did start longer songs, though, they would be classical. Even when I switched teachers, around four or five years later, I played exclusively classical music.

Johannes Sebastian Bach with sunglasses.

By the time I moved to Pennsylvania, I was already pretty used to all the patterns in rhythms and chord styles of classical music. The rules were pretty simple: play exactly what was on the page, but with ~~feeling~~.

And then, for the first time, I was introduced to jazz piano, which seemed to me like pretty much the polar opposite of classical. It was more like I had been introduced to an entirely new instrument, because the rhythms were different and there were more seventh chords than I had seen in my life and improvisation was key. It was like a Hermione Granger - Ron Weasley type thing (not saying that either style is better, or anything, but both are very different).

Unfortunately, despite playing piano in jazz band for two years already, I still don't understand the music style nearly as much as I do classical (which is really just a nicer sounding way to say that I Don't Know How To Play It Well™️️). This brings me to my topic: jazz piano.

Adventures with Jazz(mine)

Now, jazz piano is a huge topic. Some people dedicate their lives to it and still don't know everything, and I have more or less six weeks (in fact, I'm not even really a master at classical music, since apparently you need 10,000 hours for that, and, unfortunately, I have less than a third of that). 

I don't want to just be able to read the sheet music to a song and play it, because I can sort of already do that since I can read sheet music (kind of). Instead, I'd like to have a deeper understanding of the style itself: so for this project, I'm kind of looking for a broad outlook rather than an overly thorough one. Here's my plan.

Week One: 

• research a bit on the music world before jazz. what set the stage for jazz?
• do a small summary post at the end of the week for this.
• know a little bit about a jazz pianist. (famous songs, what makes them unique, etc.)
• make a small bio for this artist with fun facts.
• learn common jazz chords. choose a simple jazz piece to start on.
• record progress! also include some info in the summary post at the end of the week.
• ask Mr. Hood / Mr. Mallory to arrange an interview

Week Two: 

• research a bit on the birth of jazz (part one). how did it begin?
• do a small summary post at the end of the week for this.
• know a little bit about another jazz pianist. (famous songs, what makes them unique, etc.)
• make a small bio for this artist with fun facts.
• work on the jazz piece. try to utilize the skills / notice patterns from chords knowledge.
• record progress! also include some info in the summary post at the end of the week.
• interview as soon as possible so I have more info later on

Week Three: 

• research a bit on the birth of jazz (part two). how did it begin?
• do a small summary post at the end of the week for this.
• know a little bit about another jazz pianist. (famous songs, what makes them unique, etc.)
• make a small bio for this artist with fun facts.
• learn jazz scales. maybe memorize.
• record progress! also include some info in the summary post at the end of the week.

Week Four: 

• research a bit on the spread of jazz (part one). how did it start spreading, and where?
• do a small summary post at the end of the week for this.
• know a little bit about another jazz pianist. (famous songs, what makes them unique, etc.)
• make a small bio for this artist with fun facts.
• using jazz scale knowledge, try some improvisation.
• record progress! also include some info in the summary post at the end of the week.

Week Five: 

• research a bit on the spread of jazz (part two). how did the different places where jazz spread make the style unique?
• do a small summary post at the end of the week for this.
• know a little bit about another jazz pianist. (famous songs, what makes them unique, etc.)
• make a small bio for this artist with fun facts.
• start a new jazz song (if possible, incorporate as much original work as possible) for final project.
• record progress! also include some info in the summary post at the end of the week.

Week Six: 

• research a bit on modern jazz. how does it influence culture today?
• do a small summary post at the end of the week for this.
• work on final project piece. make a video or something for it.
• record progress! also include some info in the summary post at the end of the week.
• wrap things up (maybe some pianists that I wanted to learn more about or something)

Now, this is a lot of stuff to learn. I'm not sure whether I'll really be able to accomplish all of it - but I'll definitely try my best. I think knowing basic jazz history and famous pianists will help me understand and appreciate the style itself, which is why I don't plan on only spending time on the actual playing.

List of Things I'm Particularly Interested in:

• Bud Powell. My jazz band audition piece was an improvisation done by him, and I'm still not over it. It Has To Be Magic. I'm convinced it's not humanly possible for someone to play something so fast off the top of their head.
• New York jazz! This is pretty much the only kind of jazz I knew before joining band. I hadn't really paid any attention to New Orleans jazz before, but New York jazz has definitely always been a favorite of mine and I'm already super interested in it.
• The mixing pot of cultures in New Orleans. The location just fascinates me in general - so many different cultures, all in one spot. I doubt there's anywhere else in the world that's anything like it. 
• Blues scales. The rest of the jazz band seems to know this off the top of their head, so whenever it comes time to play it I end up messing up :(

History Resources: Scholastic, All About Jazz, Jazz in America
Musician Resources: Discover Music, The Jazz Resource
Jazz Playing Resources: Jazz Standards, Jazz Theory

The Goal (and How I'll Measure My Success)

In the end (as shown in The Plan), I'd like to be able to have some sort of finished jazz piano piece, hopefully with some of my original improv or composition put into it. By the way, this is how I'll judge my success:

But bonus: since I'll likely be listening to a lot of jazz (especially the musicians I research), I might make some playlists. If you enjoy that kind of thing, I'll put them in separate blog posts and maybe make them on Spotify or something (although I think Spotify has a much better piano jazz playlist than me ;_;).

Spotify's superior jazz piano playlist.

And bonus bonus: as you may have noticed, I have incorporated some small doodles into the blog post so it's not only reading. In the end, I may compile them into a small video (if I somehow manage to accomplish everything in my plan). The video, if completed, would probably use the piano piece I learned as background music, and also be able to show the brief history of jazz that I hope to learn.

I'm... not sure that explanation made any sense at all. Think of a 'History of Japan' video, but it's actually 'History of Jazz', the art is made by Me, and the music is my song.

Speaking of History of Japan, I've dragged this on way too long. 

Sources:
Johann Sebastian Bach with sunglasses. Digital image. Super-Conductor. Super-Conductor, 30 May 2011. Web. 13 Feb. 2017.