tl;dr read: I have two different Zoom piano teachers, one for jazz, and I'm considering dropping one and taking a class with an online (virtual, synchronous) jazz piano teacher who teaches at a community college in California.

I've been doing Zoom piano lessons twice a month since the pandemic started. I may have written about this here before, but the teacher I found is classically trained and has a PhD in piano pedagogy. But unlike teachers I've had in the past, he also sincerely enjoys new music and unlike some teachers I've had in the past, likes the music I bring to our lessons and is just generally very enthusiastic and supportive about helping me pursue pianistic advancement in the kind of music I actually want to play. In a lot of ways, he's more like a consultant than a teacher (although he teaches me a lot!) -- by that, I mean, I choose pieces that I want to play but that are beyond (either just beyond or way beyond) my playing ability, and we work on them together. We do sometimes do more "traditional" things (like I was working through the Music for Millions books with him), but mostly he just helps me do a better job of traveling done the piano-road I've been on for a long time. I really enjoy working with him and I think I'd like to continue.

Separate from that, I've been interested in learning more about jazz piano, esp. chord theory, for a long time. On a whim, I ended up contacting a jazz piano teacher and have been have twice/month Zoom lessons with him since April or May. I didn't mention it to my other teacher since I thought I would just try it and see what happens.

I like the way the jazz teacher plays and he's got a good set up for online teaching, he uses some app so I can see a piano keyboard on my screen and see what he's playing. And he does a other fancy tech-y things that augment the lessons. And I like what we're doing (working on chords, improvising, comping). But it's pretty expensive (almost twice my other teacher) and completely without a curriculum. Surprisingly, it sort of feels like what I do in my other lessons, expect the jazz teacher has been choosing the pieces thus far. But he doesn't have any materials -- well, he gives me lead sheets, but there's no book, no chord theory, no scales.... There's also no "contract" or explicit agreement about our lessons, I'm just paying upfront for two lessons per month.

So, I'm thinking if I'm going to be paying this much, or even if I'm not, I want more organization, more of a body of work that I'm going to be mastering....

So, I found out that the author of this book:
Jazz Piano Fundamentals

teaches a group class jazz piano course (two levels) at a community college in California, and it looks a lot more like what I want (a syllabus of jazz!)

The class meets twice a week from late Aug to Dec, because of the time difference, I could actually attend in the evenings. And even paying out of state tuition and fees, comes out to be much less than my current jazz teacher.

So, should I consider enrolling? I probably need to do so next week, since the class fills up apparently. If I did, I think I would need to quit my current jazz Zoom lessons.

Also, do I need to tell my main teacher? I do think I want to keep working with him... Is it bad to two-time your teacher if the two lessons are so different?

You do whatever you feel is best for you.
You paid your fees for lessons, you don’t owe your music teacher any “loyalty.”
You can learn different things, experience different approaches, with different teachers/courses. Go for it.

Yup.

Thanks Ax & WTG!

Ok, maybe I won't feel so bad then!

Did you make the change and, if so, how's it going?

Big Al

Sounds like the California course is a class, so not one-on-one, like the other jazz teacher. I can appreciate that it’s more well-rounded and historical though. I guess it’s fine if you feel you’re getting enough individual attention.

quote:

Did you make the change and, if so, how's it going?

Yes! Thanks for asking! We are in the third week of classes. It is going well, although I feel like I'm flying by the seat of my pants! I have two huge (work) deadlines at the end of September, so until those are behind me, I will be scrambling to keep up.

But it's really fun being a student again! (I got a chuckle when I received a parking sticker in the postal mail for parking in student lots on campus. In California!)

There's HW coinciding with every class (so twice a week), Also, the first quiz was last week, and although the teacher is generally very open about late assignments (i.e. no points off), he wanted everyone to do the first quiz on time, which was before the last day to drop w/ full refund. This is because he finds that students who don't do well on this quiz have a hard time keeping up in the class, and he encourages them to drop and either take an earlier piano class or do some prep work and enroll in a future semester.

So, as it happens, my own teaching started the same week as the piano class and I started off by not finishing the first three assignments and just generally being behind -- although attending the classes themselves. And, as it happens, the first quiz was on major 7th chords and dominant 7th chords -- the (entry-level) jazz chords!!

Yeah, great, my knowledge of chord theory sucks. if you throw sheet music at me, I can play it. If you say "whats an E major-7th chord or Bb7 chord" I have no idea.

So I was kind of freaking out and spent maybe like an hour or so cramming like crazy and took that quiz at 10pm last Thursday. He recommends you drop if you miss more than 4 questions out of 20. I missed 2. Whew!!

Anyway, I got all caught up on the homework this past weekend, good thing because now the stuff coming up is more hands-on, and more fun! One of our assignments is to play (RH part of) Afternoon in Paris with jazz articulation, another is (LH) comping to that... also writing in the LH part for a lead sheet w/ only the RH, and adding the articulation to the RH etc. etc.

It's a blast!!


RP,

quote:

Sounds like the California course is a class, so not one-on-one, like the other jazz teacher. I can appreciate that it’s more well-rounded and historical though. I guess it’s fine if you feel you’re getting enough individual attention.

It is a class, so not one-on-one. I wouldn't say I'm getting "enough" individual attention, but that's beyond ok. I have had one-on-one piano lessons for the better part of 20 years, so I'm ok in a class format for a semester or two.

More to the point, what I like is that there's a fixed curriculum, even if I don't keep up, we'll cover all of it. Then if I want or need one-on-one on any (or all) of the things we cover, I can get it in future private lessons.

I just have so many wholes in my piano learning because I've always been repertoire-based, i.e. my lessons have always focused on working through actual repertoire -- which I love!

But as an adult learner, and someone who reads music really well, I think teachers tend to judge "oh, she can read this score, so we can play it and move on to the next."

And the private jazz teacher I worked with over the summer was also repertoire-focused. Also I sensed that he had no larger picture of a body of knowledge to be learned.

So again, that's great, but it means there's a whole huge set of knowledge/theory that I have a passive understanding of at best.

And I've already learned so much that's useful with regard to chords and jazz articulation, so even if I keep flying by the seat of my pants for the whole semester, I will learn sooo much!

The teacher for this class is obviously a really excellent pedagogue. And he's also a working jazz musician, which in my opinion is a superlative combination. I have never had a teacher who was so well-rounded, they were all mostly pedagogues.

We use one of his books in class, and the second volume of it just came out. He's obviously very well-regarded, and most of the students are in the class because they see his videos on YT and see his book and want to play like him. There are also several classically-trained pianists and piano teachers in the class. I am probably the lowest level student in the class in terms of jazz or other piano training, and I am probably the student who is the least familiar with the teacher, which is interesting!

I don't want to put it his name or the name of the books in this public thread, but if anyone is curious, PM and I'll share a link to his books and a YT video or two.

We have class tonight, yay! These classes are the highlight of my week!

I'm glad to hear that you're off to a great start and enjoying it. I hope that the demands of your teaching allow enough time to continue enjoying and learning from your class.

Please give us an update when you want to share.

Big Al

Be happy that you don’t have to attend classes in person. That college is notorious for inadequate parking - sticker or no.

Glad you’re enjoying the course!

quote:

That college is notorious for inadequate parking - sticker or no.

Maybe it's because they give out parking stickers for free??