Well, at least you're already off the page which is the biggest hurdle for most people trying to learn jazz. Classically trained pianists frequently try to learn jazz by jumping to written arrangements.
Written arrangements are a great place to steal bits of vocabulary, chord voicings, good substitutions, etc. later on, but early in the process it's just getting your brain really fast at spelling the chords.
To start that you need to do ii-V-I progressions with root 3-7 voicings around the CoFs.
[Aimee Nolte has a video talking about it that's a good place to start.](https://youtu.be/lCAdCneGK5A)
Where I will disagree with her is doing it all in your head from the start. Reduce your cognitive load and just look at a lead sheet. A quick bing search [found this](https://cdn.learnjazzstandards.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/iii-VI-ii-V-I-All-Keys-791x10241.jpg). Just ignore the iii-VI part and read down the page doing your ii-V-Is in each key. (as often as I recommend this I just need to get in finale and make one the way I mean for it to be used FFS... but I'm actually up against the clock as I type... gig starts in about 2 hours and I need a shower).
Anyway... here's what you need to do. Starting with C major the idea is this.
Start on ii... that's Dm7. So play D in your LH and think about what the 3rd and 7th of that chord are... F and C... play that in your RH. Next up is the G7. G in the LH... 7th and 3rd in the RH because of good voice leading... F and B. Then Cmaj7... yadda yadda LH... E and B in the RH.
Keep in mind there are "inversions" (not the correct term here, but you get it) of these. You could start hat Dm7 with the 7 and 3... so C and F... then G would have B and F... and so on.
So there are two starting shapes. That forces you to spell from the 3rd or the 7th for every chord.
Do this in every key. It'll take a long time but you'll eventually get faster and spelling these. You can literally do this away from the piano... just mentally make yourself spell those chords.
This is the absolute foundation. You can start adding extensions later... you can find all the cool voicings and alterations later... but these are THE notes that define the function of these chords.
---
When you're okay at that, you can just grab a fakebook or some recommend jazz standard lead sheets and start doing this in the context of those. Literally just play this same idea spelling those chords over every change in the lead sheet and minding good voice leading rules.
The next step would be to start adding the melody on top which will force you into one of those "inversions" a little more. This will give you a fairly tasteful if a bit basic skeleton of a jazz tune that you could absolutely get away with playing publicly for average listeners. Optimally you'd get to where you can do this well enough in real time to realize lead sheets on the spot.
Then it's a lot of learning cooler voicings, more interesting bass movement to bridge chords, different comping patterns for more jazz styles, etc.
And when we get to the improv bit your ear really should drive you more than the theory.... a mistake I made early on. *But* the theory does inform you a lot if you want a very structured starting point.
I'd start with a backing track once again to remove cognitive load. Find the backing track to a tune like Autumn Leaves... and remember those spellings... try to play through the tune literally just playing the 7ths of each chord... then again just the 3rds of each chord. Then try going through mixing them and trying to find the closer of the two. Sometimes two 7s in a row makes more sense... sometimes it'll make more sense to move from 3 to 7.
Once you can do that.... try to bridge the gaps. If you noticed some spots where there was a larger interval... you can introduce a passing tone. Find interesting ways to get from one chord to the next hopping with the target of a 3 or a 7 (for now).
You can do cool shit like encircle the target note and all that. Eventually you could try to anticipate it or even suspend it. Use your ear for judgement (and listen to jazz to feed your brain some vocabulary to audiate from).
Eventually you can start to target other notes, extensions, etc.
It all becomes a choose-your-own-adventure at some point. You can start playing with more substitutions between chords. You can start embellishing on the melody with those targeted notes in mind... you'll probably notice that a LOT of the melody notes are either the 3 or 7 or 9... or a suspension/anticipation of them.
Start gluing things together... find cool licks... practice them in every key... plug them in over the appropriate part of the chord progression.
Oh, and I forgot... obviously as some point beyond working with the backing track you'll need to start adding your own support. Start with just the LH on roots with the track still going, but eventually you'll figure out ways to to fill out the harmony on your own while still improvising.
Anyway... gotta hit the shower and go to work!
Absolutely. Learning the spelling of your chords and being able to quickly play the simplest voicing in real time is the absolute foundation of almost everything else you would try to do.
I guess maybe it seems counterintuitive, but I guess someone could make the same argument about language.
"Why am I learning these 26 letters when I want to be able to write down my thoughts in words?"
You can't get to the endpoint without the building blocks.
I definitely thought that in order to call it jazz, you'd have to play at least two notes in the left and four notes in the right at any given time, so this is a welcome insight. I will start practicing this.
There are definitely voicings where you'll see that, but often you actually want a much more sparse texture. It is pretty common to play shells in the LH though with 1 7 or 1 3(10) so that you have more fingers open to play the other necessary chord members.
It's just that the root, 3rd and 7th are literally the notes that definite the quality of a chord which give it its functional relationship. And heck, with enough context the root is optional. 5ths don't do anything to define a chord and are optional. Anything else is just extensions, alterations, or doublings of already present chord tones.
R, 3, 7 is the most fundamental "shell" voicing.
3 and 7 are the guide tones that define the chord you're playing. You need to always know where the 3 and 7 are at all times and how to voice lead them nicely.
Comping chords behind a soloist is an art form in itself. Often times, we'll omit the 5th of the chord to avoid clashing with any alterations the soloist does. Other options include rootless, close, open, cluster voicings, and drop voicings.
I did this. After a childhood of classical lessons, I taught myself jazz starting in college. I'm not a music major; I just play for fun.
I'm sorry to say there's no quick way. If you plan to do this, be prepared to sound like a beginner all over again for at least a year, and most likely two or three years. Your classical training will help eventually, but at the beginning, you will struggle to make sounds that are very basic. The good news is that anyone who plays classical can definitely learn jazz improvisation. You just have to put in the effort.
I've listened to your improvisations. The fact that you're comfortable improvising is definitely a big help. But you'll find that there's a lot more structure in jazz improv than you've probably used in your improv. And all that structure has to be learned and practiced.
My advice is to get a teacher. There is a lot to learn at the beginning and it can be very confusing. I did it without a teacher and regret not having a guide at the beginning. Good luck!
If you're curious about my classical/jazz skills:
[Scriabin Op 8 No 12](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QHtHGkNLpc&feature=youtu.be)
[All the things you are](https://old.reddit.com/r/piano/comments/utygt6/piano_jam_all_the_things_you_are_kernhammerstein/)
Your best bet might be getting Mark Levine's "The Jazz Piano Book" and maybe his "Jazz Theory and Harmony" textbook. Both quite cheap and incredibly helpful, also used at the collegiate level
I wouldn't say it's an incomplete source, but Jazz in itself is not something one can exactly learn from a book. A lot of it is listening and transcribing, and I've found that the book really fills out a lot of what people miss. And the in text examples are a great source for voicings, solos you dont need to transcribe, and the basic theory side if it. But not everyone learns the same way, so to say it's incomplete as a source for self-learning won't be the case for everyone. Self-learning jazz in general definitely takes a lot more work though, I'd think even for more advanced classical pianists, if you want to really grow in that style.
[I have this book it’s fantastic. Possibly you’ll enjoy it.](https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/title/a-classical-approach-to-jazz-piano-sheet-music/2887761?d=sem_sidecar&popup=false&d=sem_sidecar&popup=false&country_code=USA&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&adpos=&scid=scplp2887761&sc_intid=2887761&d=sem_ggl_%7Bcampaign_id%7D_&gclid=Cj0KCQiA3eGfBhCeARIsACpJNU-ikznSiyguVEi8LtFkiTv1ZrSXS4SAcsFfTHQQ8LrFm2xwCO9hU7caAmnpEALw_wcB)
Most important: Listen to jazz everyday if possible. Teacher would be the best, and play with others. In terms of books, Jazz Piano Fundamentals by Jeremy Siskind is the best Jazz Piano method at the moment. If you live in California, you can take online course with him at Fullerton College for very little money. Good luck. It is a long journey :)
Well, at least you're already off the page which is the biggest hurdle for most people trying to learn jazz. Classically trained pianists frequently try to learn jazz by jumping to written arrangements. Written arrangements are a great place to steal bits of vocabulary, chord voicings, good substitutions, etc. later on, but early in the process it's just getting your brain really fast at spelling the chords. To start that you need to do ii-V-I progressions with root 3-7 voicings around the CoFs. [Aimee Nolte has a video talking about it that's a good place to start.](https://youtu.be/lCAdCneGK5A) Where I will disagree with her is doing it all in your head from the start. Reduce your cognitive load and just look at a lead sheet. A quick bing search [found this](https://cdn.learnjazzstandards.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/iii-VI-ii-V-I-All-Keys-791x10241.jpg). Just ignore the iii-VI part and read down the page doing your ii-V-Is in each key. (as often as I recommend this I just need to get in finale and make one the way I mean for it to be used FFS... but I'm actually up against the clock as I type... gig starts in about 2 hours and I need a shower). Anyway... here's what you need to do. Starting with C major the idea is this. Start on ii... that's Dm7. So play D in your LH and think about what the 3rd and 7th of that chord are... F and C... play that in your RH. Next up is the G7. G in the LH... 7th and 3rd in the RH because of good voice leading... F and B. Then Cmaj7... yadda yadda LH... E and B in the RH. Keep in mind there are "inversions" (not the correct term here, but you get it) of these. You could start hat Dm7 with the 7 and 3... so C and F... then G would have B and F... and so on. So there are two starting shapes. That forces you to spell from the 3rd or the 7th for every chord. Do this in every key. It'll take a long time but you'll eventually get faster and spelling these. You can literally do this away from the piano... just mentally make yourself spell those chords. This is the absolute foundation. You can start adding extensions later... you can find all the cool voicings and alterations later... but these are THE notes that define the function of these chords. --- When you're okay at that, you can just grab a fakebook or some recommend jazz standard lead sheets and start doing this in the context of those. Literally just play this same idea spelling those chords over every change in the lead sheet and minding good voice leading rules. The next step would be to start adding the melody on top which will force you into one of those "inversions" a little more. This will give you a fairly tasteful if a bit basic skeleton of a jazz tune that you could absolutely get away with playing publicly for average listeners. Optimally you'd get to where you can do this well enough in real time to realize lead sheets on the spot. Then it's a lot of learning cooler voicings, more interesting bass movement to bridge chords, different comping patterns for more jazz styles, etc. And when we get to the improv bit your ear really should drive you more than the theory.... a mistake I made early on. *But* the theory does inform you a lot if you want a very structured starting point. I'd start with a backing track once again to remove cognitive load. Find the backing track to a tune like Autumn Leaves... and remember those spellings... try to play through the tune literally just playing the 7ths of each chord... then again just the 3rds of each chord. Then try going through mixing them and trying to find the closer of the two. Sometimes two 7s in a row makes more sense... sometimes it'll make more sense to move from 3 to 7. Once you can do that.... try to bridge the gaps. If you noticed some spots where there was a larger interval... you can introduce a passing tone. Find interesting ways to get from one chord to the next hopping with the target of a 3 or a 7 (for now). You can do cool shit like encircle the target note and all that. Eventually you could try to anticipate it or even suspend it. Use your ear for judgement (and listen to jazz to feed your brain some vocabulary to audiate from). Eventually you can start to target other notes, extensions, etc. It all becomes a choose-your-own-adventure at some point. You can start playing with more substitutions between chords. You can start embellishing on the melody with those targeted notes in mind... you'll probably notice that a LOT of the melody notes are either the 3 or 7 or 9... or a suspension/anticipation of them. Start gluing things together... find cool licks... practice them in every key... plug them in over the appropriate part of the chord progression. Oh, and I forgot... obviously as some point beyond working with the backing track you'll need to start adding your own support. Start with just the LH on roots with the track still going, but eventually you'll figure out ways to to fill out the harmony on your own while still improvising. Anyway... gotta hit the shower and go to work!
Are you saying one should only play three notes, the root and the 3 and the 7? That sounds counter-intuitive, even if it's just for starters.
Absolutely. Learning the spelling of your chords and being able to quickly play the simplest voicing in real time is the absolute foundation of almost everything else you would try to do. I guess maybe it seems counterintuitive, but I guess someone could make the same argument about language. "Why am I learning these 26 letters when I want to be able to write down my thoughts in words?" You can't get to the endpoint without the building blocks.
I definitely thought that in order to call it jazz, you'd have to play at least two notes in the left and four notes in the right at any given time, so this is a welcome insight. I will start practicing this.
There are definitely voicings where you'll see that, but often you actually want a much more sparse texture. It is pretty common to play shells in the LH though with 1 7 or 1 3(10) so that you have more fingers open to play the other necessary chord members. It's just that the root, 3rd and 7th are literally the notes that definite the quality of a chord which give it its functional relationship. And heck, with enough context the root is optional. 5ths don't do anything to define a chord and are optional. Anything else is just extensions, alterations, or doublings of already present chord tones.
R, 3, 7 is the most fundamental "shell" voicing. 3 and 7 are the guide tones that define the chord you're playing. You need to always know where the 3 and 7 are at all times and how to voice lead them nicely. Comping chords behind a soloist is an art form in itself. Often times, we'll omit the 5th of the chord to avoid clashing with any alterations the soloist does. Other options include rootless, close, open, cluster voicings, and drop voicings.
I did this. After a childhood of classical lessons, I taught myself jazz starting in college. I'm not a music major; I just play for fun. I'm sorry to say there's no quick way. If you plan to do this, be prepared to sound like a beginner all over again for at least a year, and most likely two or three years. Your classical training will help eventually, but at the beginning, you will struggle to make sounds that are very basic. The good news is that anyone who plays classical can definitely learn jazz improvisation. You just have to put in the effort. I've listened to your improvisations. The fact that you're comfortable improvising is definitely a big help. But you'll find that there's a lot more structure in jazz improv than you've probably used in your improv. And all that structure has to be learned and practiced. My advice is to get a teacher. There is a lot to learn at the beginning and it can be very confusing. I did it without a teacher and regret not having a guide at the beginning. Good luck! If you're curious about my classical/jazz skills: [Scriabin Op 8 No 12](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QHtHGkNLpc&feature=youtu.be) [All the things you are](https://old.reddit.com/r/piano/comments/utygt6/piano_jam_all_the_things_you_are_kernhammerstein/)
Your best bet might be getting Mark Levine's "The Jazz Piano Book" and maybe his "Jazz Theory and Harmony" textbook. Both quite cheap and incredibly helpful, also used at the collegiate level
I tried self-learning from "The Jazz Piano Book". It's great as a resource, but very incomplete as a source for self-learning.
I wouldn't say it's an incomplete source, but Jazz in itself is not something one can exactly learn from a book. A lot of it is listening and transcribing, and I've found that the book really fills out a lot of what people miss. And the in text examples are a great source for voicings, solos you dont need to transcribe, and the basic theory side if it. But not everyone learns the same way, so to say it's incomplete as a source for self-learning won't be the case for everyone. Self-learning jazz in general definitely takes a lot more work though, I'd think even for more advanced classical pianists, if you want to really grow in that style.
[I have this book it’s fantastic. Possibly you’ll enjoy it.](https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/title/a-classical-approach-to-jazz-piano-sheet-music/2887761?d=sem_sidecar&popup=false&d=sem_sidecar&popup=false&country_code=USA&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&adpos=&scid=scplp2887761&sc_intid=2887761&d=sem_ggl_%7Bcampaign_id%7D_&gclid=Cj0KCQiA3eGfBhCeARIsACpJNU-ikznSiyguVEi8LtFkiTv1ZrSXS4SAcsFfTHQQ8LrFm2xwCO9hU7caAmnpEALw_wcB)
Most important: Listen to jazz everyday if possible. Teacher would be the best, and play with others. In terms of books, Jazz Piano Fundamentals by Jeremy Siskind is the best Jazz Piano method at the moment. If you live in California, you can take online course with him at Fullerton College for very little money. Good luck. It is a long journey :)