Women in Jazz Piano Listening List for a Gloomy Monday Morning

Here is a brief post to brighten up this very gloomy and rainy Monday morning in Charleston, South Carolina.  It is a short list and it comes with apologies to the many amazing female jazz artists around the globe whose names I have not included. 

Toshiko Akiyoshi

Geri Allen

Lil Hardin Armstrong

Carla Bley

Barbara Carroll

Alice Coltrane

Eliane Elias

Marian McPartland

Terry Pollard

Zoe Rahman

Diane Schuur

Helen Sung

Kate Williams

Mary Lou Williams

Katherine Windfield

In the above list you will find, not only fine pianists, but composers, arrangers and ensemble leaders. Enjoy finding their recordings, and listening to their styles. And, please leave names of your favorite female jazz pianists, that I have not listed, in the comments.  

Practice Makes....Progress

The legendary cellist, Pablo Casals, was asked why he still practiced when he was 90 years old. His response was, Because I believe I am making progress.

Growing up I always heard "Practice Makes Perfect" from adults. But I never knew how to get to perfect. When it was time to perform my music for others I was a nervous wreck. I was told that only perfect was acceptable, and I knew I wasn't there. I'm so happy that I haven't reached perfect because there is no opportunity for growth and new discoveries there.  

As musicians we want to express ourselves more clearly. Whether we are comforting our own soul, using our music as meditation, praising our personal God, or sharing music with others. Every time we practice our music, and even while performing for others, improvement and progress is made in our skill set. This gives us the ability to communicate more expressively.

One single music tone can be approached, played, and released in so many different ways. Therefore, there is no perfect, static, goal because music moves and breathes. I think that is what captures our hearts and minds when we rehearse or hear music. Each note is a momentary sound that can be expressed with many subtle variations within that movement of time. 

Communicating is our work. Making progress with your music means you are becoming a better communicator by gaining the skills to add more inflections to your personal sound. The beauty is that you can confidently communicate at the skill level where you are. A simple five finger position on the piano, with one hand, can create a musical line that moves others. 

We use the word practice for many professions: She practices dentistry, he practices medicine. These are also fields that are alive, growing and improving. Like music, when you spend time practicing, progress happens.

I will be the first to admit that I have overused the word perfect as a teacher and I am removing it from my teaching vocabulary. 

Progress is a direction forward. Perfect is a dead end with no more growth. As a musician we are working in a space that is alive and breathing and progressing forward. A musician's age is of no significance, and years of advanced skills on a musical instrument are only a reminder that there is so much more for us to discover in our practice and sharing sessions.    

Going forward, this studio will be saying, Practice Makes Progress. 

Learning to Improvise with Basic Jazz Chords and their Scales

One of the first questions students ask me is, "How do I know what notes to use for improvising?" 

Every chord that you see on your lead sheet has come from a scale. We are going to start today by looking at five basic scales you can use to improvise within chord areas on your lead sheets. These five scales are a good start for beginners. As you gain experience you will learn more chords, and more scale choices for each chord. Your teacher has probably started you on a lead sheet that contains the following basic chord forms. We will use the key of C as our example.

Now that you know each chord's name, let's look at the spelling of each of the above chords:

Now refer back to the chord name in the first chart, this is also the scale name we will use. Here is the pattern for each scale in whole steps (W) and half steps (H):

Now we will use those patterns in the key of C so you can see how to use the patterns with any other key:

Within the rhythm of the chord on your lead sheet, you can practice playing the solid chord, in any inversion in your left hand, and improvising over that chord using the corresponding scale notes in your right hand. Take your time. Enjoy the process.