How to Play Jazz Piano Without Learning Theory

The piano is a basic jazz instrument.

The piano is a popular instrument for playing jazz, which originated around New Orleans in the early 1900s according to A Passion for Jazz. You might think that it is impossible to learn to play jazz piano without learning music theory, but this is not the case--as pointed out on I Was Doing All Right, jazz began as an aural art form. This means that it's possible to play jazz piano without theory as long as you have a good musical ear.

Instructions

1. Sit down at your piano and play each white and black key in succession from the left to right. You don't need to know what the keys are called to play jazz, but you do need to know how each of them sound. Repeat this exercise going from right to left. Then select notes at random and see if you can tell if the notes are higher or lower than each other.

2. Purchase a metronome. This is a simple device that keeps a beat for you with clicks or beeps. Put your metronome on your piano, turn it on and practice playing one note on your keyboard with the beat. You need to be able to keep a beat to play any kind of music, including jazz.

3. Practice listening to your metronome and playing one key on your piano three times between each metronome click or beep. Space the playing of the three notes between each beat evenly by saying "1, 2, 3" as you play. Repeat this exercise, but this time, hit your piano key only when you say "1" and "3." This is the basic rhythm you'll need for jazz; it's known as swing.

4. Listen to piano jazz masters like Thelonious Monk, Duke Ellington and Oscar Peterson to get the basic sound of jazz in your ear. Focus on the melody of your favorite jazz tune and find the notes that are in it on the keyboard. Then play these notes as they are played in your recording to copy the melody.

5. Listen to your favorite jazz tune again, but this time listen to the notes that are played at the same time throughout the piece. These are called chords. Using the same technique as in Step 4, go through the piece and see if you can copy the chords by ear with your left hand. You'll find that most jazz songs play the chords in the left hand using the rhythm you learned in Step 3.

6. Combine the melody in your right hand with the chords in your left.

7. Repeat Steps 4-6 for any jazz tune you know. When this feels comfortable, practice combining chords and melodies that you make up yourself. Do this until you can combine chords and melodies on the spot or "on the fly"-this is called improvisation.

References

• I Was Doing All Right: Learning to Improvise
• A Passion For Jazz: Definition of Jazz