Do you have to learn classical piano before jazz?

You could take classes with a classical music teacher and then study jazz together with him. Regardless of how you structure your learning, I would recommend learning classical piano, because it's a good starting point and then you can diversify into many different styles, using your knowledge of basic Western notation. While classical piano and jazz piano share many fundamental similarities, there are some key differences between the two styles. Classical music focuses more on interpreting the repertoire exactly as a composer has written it down.

While there are abbreviated versions of more advanced classical pieces that are suitable for beginners, the goal of music is generally to perform the piece with the precision and precision with which the composer has annotated it. For example, understanding the names and locations of the piano keys, understanding the basic major and minor scales, as well as the structure of triads and seventh chords will be of great help in both jazz and classical. The classical piano is an exciting subject that reminds me of my early days when I started learning to play the piano. However, jazz musicians praise me for my technique: they realize that I learned classical music and appreciate how it translates into the way I play jazz.

The main difference between jazz and classical music is that jazz takes advantage of the improvisation side more than classical music. However, once a jazz musician has learned the common progressions and how to do alone and accompany them, learning new jazz melodies becomes relatively simple. This doesn't mean that it's easy to learn melodies: jazz musicians have to work hard to learn the theory, the language of jazz and memorize the melodies. Welcome to the Piano World Piano forums.

More than 3 million posts about pianos, digital pianos and all types of keyboard instruments. On the other hand, the jazz piano is more rooted in improvisation and less focused on the precision of an annotated performance. While this may seem a bit complex if you've never addressed it, these scales are fundamental to the jazz piano and you should take the time to understand how each one sounds and works. Practicing the different families of seventh chords will open your fingers and ears to the basic chords used in jazz piano styles.

I have been a student and performer of jazz and classical piano for 20 years, and have experienced the unique challenges of both genres. Jazz can also be a technical challenge, but it's very rare to hear a jazz pianist play a passage that compares in difficulty to the more difficult classical pieces. The jazz piano is extremely complex and can be completely foreign to even highly talented classical pianists.