Taking The Simple Approach to Learning Jazz
The music is so infectious that you can’t help yourself – you want to go from avid listener to jazz player. So, now you are looking for an answer “How do I learn Jazz?” There can be no definitive answer, because everybody takes up an instrument at different ages and with different intentions. Some of course want to play music for a living, but that would probably not be the majority of people learning jazz. Often, people like to be able to just sit down and accompany themselves when they sing or they would like to be able to join in with other people and have fun playing and surely there is nothing wrong with playing for the pure enjoyment of it. In fact, if you aren’t having fun playing an instrument or doing anything in life, then if at all possible, do something else!
Buddy Rich used to say that he never worked a day in his life, because he loved what he did and no doubt many other musicians have felt the very same way. So, to get back to answering the question “How do I learn to play jazz or how do I learn to play music?” Well, I want to share the one thought that was imparted to me by the one and only Joe Pass. Joe said that the most important thing anyone could do to achieve their goal of learning music was to learn tunes. Yes, learn full songs. This is not to say that you shouldn’t learn chords, learn theory, learn triads, learn harmony or learn arpeggios. Sure, you should learn those, but first and foremost learn songs.
Can anything be more effective than learning the way a child learns? Well, a child will learn things in very simple terms. When Art Tatum was learning how to play piano at age three, he picked out the melody to the songs that were popular in his day. Should we do any less? Learn how to pick out melodies and then a really good thing to do would be to find other songs that start out with the same note intervals.
A helpful website for doing this that we have come across at Jazzipedia is the following:
Training your Ears
No, it’s not that we are affiliates of this site, it just is really good — Enjoy!