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.