Stephanie Thomas
Jazz keyboard is a relatively young genre. The piano has been around for hundreds of years, and before that other keyboard instruments were used in music making. The classical piano nomenclature has been codified through the years so that there is a unified system and approach to teaching it. There are endless method books out there on how to teach it, but by and large the material is the same. In teaching Jazz piano there are many different pedagogical approaches that have not yet been unified into a single system. The notation of chords varies greatly among different pedagogues. For example, a major chord can be labeled with a triangle, with a capital M, or with the abbreviation Maj. This can make it daunting for a young musician to catch on quickly to the complex world of jazz music.
For my project, Dr. Steve Call and I worked on developing a unified approach to teaching jazz keyboard. We took strengths from several jazz books Dr. Call has used in the past and put together a series of beginning jazz piano worksheets and instructions. The first major worksheet we made was an overview of all the different kinds of chords we’d be learning, as well as all the different possibilities of labeling that exist. We specified which one we’d be using throughout the course. This introduction was created to expose new students to the different possibilities of notation.
Once a basic overview is understood, it is important for students to get comfortable playing in all 12 major keys. We put together a worksheet going through every key on the piano, playing different kinds of chords. We started with a basic major triad (three notes at a time) and moved up and down the scale of C Major. Then we moved on to G Major, and so on through all 12 major keys. We created a similar worksheet for major 7 chords as well as chord progressions through all 12 keys. One of the strengths of the way we did this, compared to other methods, was that we included every single chord of all 12 keys on the worksheets. Many of the examples I’ve seen give a few chords in one or two keys and then write “etc.” and expect the student to continue on through all the keys. I believe it is important to give a new student a thorough education in a new concept. These worksheets will help the students see the patterns and work through each key in depth. Once they have a detailed understanding of the keys, they’ll easily be able to memorize the key signatures and move on from the printed music.
The next important step in beginning jazz pedagogy is playing basic voicing progressions on the piano. This means that a student will play two notes with the left hand (the first note and the seventh note of the major scale) while the right hand plays two different notes (the third note of the major scale and the fifth note of the major scale). For the next chord, the hands will switch which scale degrees they are playing. They should be able to work through the major keys playing this kind of two-note voicing. We created a worksheet to help students get this important step comfortable in their hands.
Once major keys and voicing progressions are understood and mastered, then comes the fun part. Applying those simple voicings to an actual jazz tune is very exhilarating to a new student. Within the first few weeks of studying, a student can play the two-note voicings they learned with the left hand and play a jazz melody with the right hand. We put the chords of “Fly me to the Moon” together for the first “real tune”. We included several different voicing options so that students can see, and hear multiple applications of the things they have been working on.
This is a basic overview of the things we compiled and created this past year. We worked with music software called Finale which allowed us to digitize all our music so it is clean and accurate. We have a large compilation of worksheets that Dr. Call will be using in his jazz keyboard class next semester. As he applies the things we worked on together, we can update and tweak things. As we see our project in action we will be able to make changes and improvements to the art of teaching jazz piano.