Music is something that connects you directly with nature. It needs a lot of dedication as well as hard work to learn any particular style of music. Moreover, it comes from within you how you learn and how you progress in that style. Today, lots of types of music have emerged and the older and traditional music styles are lost somewhere.
However, recently the once forgotten Jazz music has regained its popularity among the musicians and the listeners. Jazz music is something that requires your whole self and a complete dedication to learn it. For the beginners, it becomes a bit difficult to learn it in the initial stage. But, it is not a rocket science that you go complete negative about learning this style of music.
For learning jazz music, you need to its standards from a melodic, harmonic and improvisational points. Also, you need to learn different chords, licks, and scales through which you can create a whole note of music. Yet, there are a few tips that will guide you through the initial stages of learning the jazz music.
Let us take a look at these few points that you need to consider while learning jazz music as a beginner.
Learn The Lyrics
When you learn any melody or harmony, if you know its lyrics, it becomes easier to deal with and learn the tunes thereof. When you learn the lyrics to a tune, it helps you learn the melody because each of the notes you will play will be connected with a word or phrase. It makes easier to remember each phrase.
You can learn the jazz lyrics from countless lyric websites and vocal versions of jazz standards, available on YouTube. When you know the lyrics to a tune, it helps you understand what the tune is about and may also change how you interpret and play the song you may be working on.
Examine The Harmony
Learn the chord progression and look for common chord movements, key centers, and modulations. When you analyze a harmony, you need to break it down into small chunks. Now, learning these chunks will be easier compared to learning the whole chord at once.
You can open up the Real Book to any random tune and try to analyze the whole tune and harmony. When you do this with around 20 songs, your process of analyzing the harmony will quicken up. It is because many jazz tunes use similar harmony and structures.
Listen To Some Of The Jazz Songs/Music
Listening to the music is very important when you want to learn it. It is crucial for you to observe to each of the notes of the song you are listening. When you listen to the melodies, you will be able to transcribe some of them. Especially, when you learn to play jazz music on guitar or a piano, it is very important for you to analyze the notes and chords. It will be then, easier for you to play the same melodies on your instrument.
You Can’t Just Memorize It
Listening to jazz music only is not enough to learn it. It does not need only your head, but it also needs your body involvement. When you listen to the music carefully, you also need to implement it somewhere, which will ultimately be useful in your learning process. To learn something like music, only the theory part doesn’t help you. You also need to implement your listening skills on your musical instrument.
To learn jazz, you need to learn new scales, arpeggios, and chords, and when you learn them, you need to play them to ensure your learning. Therefore, listen to the melodies and then try to play each note present therein on your guitar or piano.
Create And Develop Your Musical Social Skills
Jazz is basically a social and an improvisational art form, wherein you need to interact with other musicians. When you interact with other musicians, it will develop your sensitivity and understanding for the dynamics of working correctly. Communication has a significant role in music like jazz. Learning different skills from various musicians will help you learn a lot of techniques, which you may not know even after learning the style and practicing it.
Get Educated With The Music
Jazz music consists of lots of complicated rhythms, and it is natural that while playing you will be required to read music. Therefore, it is crucial that you should be jazz music literate before you take a step forward for playing with other musicians. So, make sure to keep yourself well-versed with reading jazz music.
Have Patience
You cannot learn music overnight and it is too much to even expect that. It takes years of practice to develop your music skills. Nothing can be learned in just one day and for learning something like music, you are required to have complete patience. Day by day, you can improve your skills and learn the new notes, chords, and harmonies.
It is not that difficult to learn jazz music. With a few guiding tips, a lot of hard work, complete dedication and developing your music skills day by day, you can learn it well. Also, you can join a jazz music school, which is the best option if you are serious about making it your career.
