Find Jazz Piano teachers

How often should I take jazz piano lessons?

There is no perfect or exact amount of piano lessons that you should take before stopping. What you should do instead is have a clear idea of what you hope to learn, achieve or improve upon when it comes to your playing. Do you want to learn specific songs? Do you want to improve your technique? Do you know how to play the piano but want to transition into learning how to play in a jazz piano style?

Once you know what you want to learn you can then assess your current skills and playing and decide with the help of a tutor how much time it may take to make the progress that you hope to achieve. But learning is a process and can take longer or shorter than you expect and it can also depend on other factors such as what extra work or preparation you may do to help your playing outside of your classes.

Once you are satisfied with your progress and where you are as a player and have achieved the learning goals that you set out to attain then that seems like a good place to stop your lessons for now. But that doesn’t mean you have to stop forever. If you ever have the desire to learn or improve more then going back to learn from an experienced player who specialises in teaching what you hope to learn is always a good idea.

Only you can say how many lessons you may need or when you want to stop, but learning isn’t a definitive thing. There is always more to learn, improve upon and master and our tutors will be there whenever you need them.

What should I expect from my Jazz piano tutor?

Our tutors wish to provide practical lessons so that you can improve your playing, technique and style so that you can perform jazz piano music. Practical skills such as various left hand techniques can be taught, learning the various types of chords for the genre, improving your melody and learning how to improvise.

Even if you already know how to play the piano there are certain core concepts and styles that need to be learnt if you want to move into playing jazz piano and our teachers will assess your level and playing and will help you to do the steps that will allow you to play jazz piano well.

Some of the things that will be focused on is chord theory as it is much more relevant in jazz piano due to the improvisation aspect and the fact that jazz piano is often played in settings and other musicians where comping is more common as well as more spontaneous solo pieces. Your teacher may also set you exercise to help train your ability to play by ear rather than just sheet reading.

How is jazz piano different?

Classical piano playing is very structured, you play the piece of music that is in front of you and if playing with other musicians you stick to your own parts. With jazz piano improvisational playing is a key aspect, even when playing with other musicians. If you think that a particular melody will enhance the performance then you can go for it and meld it into the piece.

This also means that you need to have a good understanding of chords and rhythm and developing a good ear so that you can read ahead in a sense and have a good understanding of what each musician is adding to the piece so that you know when it is suitable and beneficial to add your own flavour to the music.

Jazz piano opens up the possibility of personalisation and people creating their own musical additions to performances. It promotes the creative opportunity to create variations in performances and to react to the playing of other musicians as opposed to all playing their own assigned piece.