Four ways to learn jazz piano

Mr. Earl

Mr. Santisi

I have personal experience with these four approaches as a teacher, pianist, or drummer. Each approach works, to various degrees, but each approach has important presuppositions about the student's skills and musical backgrounds. In short, one of these approaches may be more applicable to you than others. If you are a beginning pianist who loves jazz, we will have to take a fifth path.
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The Traditional Berklee College of Music Approach of the 1970s, an apprenticeship method

Ray Santisi and Dean Earl were my main piano teachers, I loved those guys; they believed in me, and they encouraged and mentored me. I owe them everything. The traditional Berklee jazz piano method emphasized jazz theory, jazz mechanics, pep talks and sharing musical war stories. It was an old-fashioned approach to learning old-fashioned music, but their ideas and techniques worked, and I quickly became a much more valuable member of the jazz community. It is important to note that my theory knowledge was already high thanks to my Royal Conservatory of Music studies in high school, as was my experience on the professional band stand. I must also point out that not once in four years was my piano technique or lack thereof discussed. The method has been codified and is available in the "Berklee Jazz Piano Book". 

The Lenny Tristano Approach of the 1950s, a practical aural method

Lenny Tristano was a pioneer jazz educator. He emphasized copying seminal jazz solos, transposition, and basic jazz mechanics. (Students with weak aural skills will need to address their shortcomings to succeed.) Does this approach work? Yes, it is easily the quickest way to get from A to B and has been followed by earlier generations in musical genres like jazz, rock, and country. Duke Ellington, Elvis, The Beatles, and Merle Haggard learned to play their instruments while simultaneously learning the music through social and cultural immersion, the copying and mimicking of recordings, attending performances, and jamming with others. EDM artists continue this tradition today on YouTube. When this method runs parallel with studies in theory, piano technique, sight reading, jazz history, and repertoire memorization, jazz piano success will follow. 

Tristano lesson plan:

1. Singing solos by ear before working them out on your instrument
2. Comping approaches and left-hand mechanics
3. Repertoire, repertoire, repertoire
4. Transposition of licks into twelve keys

The Jamey Aebersold Approach of the 1970s, an intellectual method

I have attended his camp as a drummer and jazz educator. Jamie is a genuine jazz character, successful businessman, and significant educator. But there is a paradox in Jamie's approach, it really doesn't work very well. His emphasis on chord scale relationships and melodic patterning requires too much cognitive processing to work in real time. I've seen smoke coming out of the ears of red-faced students trying to construct a solo using memorized licks and preselected scales on the bandstand. His method and products do appeal to book learners, but alas reading a cookbook doesn’t make you a chef. You must get in there and can "muck" around with the recordings, block out time for practice, theory, sightreading, history, and aural skills. These activities require time, resources, and patience. In Jamie's defense, and I love the guy, each year he would tell the students, “The answers you seek are in the recordings,” and then watch them all run downstairs to the bookstore and buy another book. 

The Wynton Marsalis Approach, an authoritarian, historical, and sociological approach

His uncompromising demand for deep knowledge of both your instrument and the jazz field is tough for casual players. And, as well, his appeal to male authority is a turn off in 2022. But I support his dictums to know and respect “the tradition,” the necessity of instrumental mastery and primacy of swing and the blues as valid. Somebody needs to say, preach, preserve, and advocate for those ideas. But the problem with this conservative viewpoint, for music that was originally “the music of surprise", is that it cuts off its growth, development, and social relevancy. In short, it becomes museum music and everything in museum is dead and on display. (I recently had the opportunity to study with Ali Jackson, Wyton’s former drummer and a man who epitomizes this impossibly high bar. Ali raised my standards as a teacher and my self-concept as a drummer.)

Revised October 2022

Rankings:

1. Wynton, despite his blind spots. If you are planning to attend an elite jazz academy, start here. 
2. Lenny is a close second because he offers specific ideas that will help everyone progress, jazz hobbyists might start here.
3. Ray and Dino. The Berklee book gives a general outline of mid-century jazz piano techniques but requires additional material from a teacher as it is out of date. 
4. Jamey. There was too much theory too soon, students were overwhelmed.

What can I do for you?

1. Work on your piano skills. Nothing is more frustrating than not being able to execute what you hear in your head. 
2. Work on your aural skills.
3. Appropriately sequence the skills of jazz piano: repertoire, ear training, history, listening and analysis, theory, soloing, jamming, comping and more.
4. Teach you how to practice.

In short, I will present the material to you in a logical fashion, according to your specific circumstances, using a variety 21st c. multi-modal techniques and provide you with weekly feedback. 

Call me.
 
David

(Authors note I own more than one hundred drum books, listened to hundreds of hours of drumming podcasts, and subscribed to jazz and drum education subscription services promising great masterclass from my jazz heroes. I live on YouTube. Furthermore, I own too many drum sets, snare drums, cymbals and drumming paraphernalia. So, I understand your plight, frustrations, anxieties, and determination.)
Revised October 2022