Hi Hayden,
I am a beginner jazz student and have enjoyed completing a few of your jazz courses. I would like to continue learning jazz but I get distracted by other styles and have just started your stride Georgia beginners guide.
In your opinion should I stick to the traditional jazz style, or should I try and learn new styles in these early stages of my playing?
Thanks, Russell
Please excuse my late reply.
I think it’s a great idea to always be exploring new styles, but at the same time I’d suggest that you work on the theory areas covered in the Essential Jazz Harmony Learning Path.
There’s no single definitive way to learn jazz, blues, or any style of improvised music. One of the nice aspects of learning improvised music is that we can choose our own direction, and so I’d say to choose the styles that interest you most.
That being said, the theory that I teach in the Essential Jazz Harmony Learning Path (chord extensions, rootless harmony, and altered harmony) is what I personally deem to be the most important beginner/early-intermediate level jazz theory.
You can find that learning path here:
This learning path reflects the courses which I outline in the Beginner Jazz Piano Roadmap PDF which is sent in our welcome emails, here it is again for you:
- Beginner Jazz Piano Roadmap.pdf (445.2 KB)
Learning this theory and the drills that I outline in the PDF takes time. If you’re new to jazz piano it’s most likely a couple of years of study to really get a strong handle on this stuff.
That doesn’t mean that you can’t explore other styles as you are learning this theory, but my advice is not to neglect those theory areas (chord extensions, rootless harmony, and altered harmony) as no matter what style of improvised music you wish to play in the future, you will encounter this theory.
Does that help to answer your question?
As a pre-requisite to the Essential Jazz Harmony Learning Path, I suggest brand new jazz piano students to start with the Lead Sheet Fundamentals Learning Path, which is designed to teach students how to read and interpret lead sheets and understand 2-handed spread voicings.
It sounds like you already past this very early beginner level of jazz piano study, but I thought I’d mention it just in case.
Please let me know if you’d like any further guidance.
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