Recently I had a brand new student that wanted to study Jazz. He was preparing for an audition and, although he was already a solid player in classical music, his skills in Jazz needed improvement.
We talked for awhile about the difference between the old world of Classical music versus the newer one of Jazz. I’ll go ahead and reveal our conversation. Jazz requires for every player to improvise, which is a sort of composing on the spot, while Classical music ask musicians to play what’s written on the page. You do not compose in Classical music, there are some artists who have been playing in that medium for their whole life and have never compose a not. In Jazz, you almost never stop creating, everything is up to your own interpretation, your own style.
Jazz is more focus on what you can express, what comes from your heart or even your guts. Is the fingering important? Not really. What about the correct note or rhythm as written on the sheet music? Yes, but only up to a certain point. You have a bit of leeway in Jazz. But, and that’s a big but, but you absolutely need to know which notes you are going to use in order to improvise.
Now let’s come back to the lesson with the new student. After we went through what I just explained, I asked him if he was interested in technique. The answer was a resounding “no”. His mum was there and suggested that he does some kind of technique. To which I said: “No, he doesn’t have to work on technique. I do not force it.” All of this is what brings us to today’s topic: Is it important to work on technique?
Here is what I think: put your hands on the keys and you are working on technique, no matter what. If I were to give a definition of technique, it would go something like this: the means to get to the end. In other words, the know-how to achieve what we want. The exercises in technique usually target one specific concept and, through sheer repetition, tries to print it in your DNA. But that doesn’t change the fact that you need some technique to play anything.
I consider that if you have never played the piano and you attempt to get “Mary had a little lamb” out of it, you will be obliged to do some technique. The song will have some repeated notes, some interval, some rhythm, the very material that music is made out of. All of that needs to be adapted to two hands, ten fingers and 88 keys. It will require a bit of thinking on how to pull it off, in other words: technique.
Is technique important? It’s absolutely essential, you cannot play without it. But in the situation I was in, (let’s review it quickly: a proficient classical player with plenty of technique who is a brand new beginner in Jazz), there was no need for technique, no need at all, at least no for quite a while. The technique he would need was to know, for example, what is the second inversion of a dominant chord or what is the II-7, to V7 to I Maj 7 progression. That will give him the means to know which notes to play once he improvises.
Now, don’t get me wrong, all my students, whether on drums or piano do some technique. But I try to teach it in a fun and interesting way. I don’t have one single student who doesn’t enjoy doing technique. So, I guess, it’s all about how you approach technique that matters most.
