Jazz is music for life. ——Martin Luther King, Jr. What do we think of when jazz music flies through the ten fingers on the keyboard? Perhaps it was Ryan Gosling in “City of Philharmonic”, singing and dancing in LA LA LAND, drunk with the black and white keys of the piano, and only the souls stopped at the end of the song. The music touches people’s hearts, the love is full of night, and I won’t regret that you and I will become peaceful. Or… “The Pianist on the Sea”, who has ignited the screen again recently? 1900’s hands flew up and down, shaking off wonderful notes like waltz in the cabin of the cabin. There is no end to the city on the shore, only the black and white piano keys under him are those who are familiar with it.
If you are keen on jazz, in addition to saxophone and jazz dance, you must not miss the jazz piano. The artist pointed to the jazz music flowing, sometimes deep and lonely, sometimes passionate, and slowly flowing down with the last note, all the music will turn into a warmth in the heart.
Origin of Jazz
Jazz piano is derived from a kind of piano music called “Ragtime”. “Ragtime” is a transliteration of Ragtime, and the word means “ragged beats”. So it is also called “Slapai music”. It was developed from African folk music. Different from other styles, it has won the favor of pop fans and pianists all over the world with its rich segmentation and free improvisation. Especially jazz is also popular music. Because of its unique style and rich variety, popular music works that can cleverly add jazz elements can often be different and stand out.
Methods of Jazz Piano
The performance of jazz piano is never confined to boring single, boring, but has a variety of performance characteristics.
Long span
The long-span playing method is a continuous big jump with the left hand when playing, forming a distinctive “Stride Bass” (Stride Bass). This playing method often appears in Ragtime and early jazz.
Buji-Uji playing method
This method of playing is a fast blues piano style that has a great influence on jazz pianos. “Buji-Wuji” often uses “rolling”, called Crushing in English, to reflect its characteristics. In addition, it often uses the left hand to continuously play a fixed bass to set off the complex melody of the right hand. The bass tone of “Buji-Wuji” mainly has two forms: “walking” (Walking) octave bass decomposition and “dual tone” repetition.
Bop play
“Bopp” playing method is characterized by fragmented rhythm and very incoherent melody. Sometimes the right hand plays a series of monophonic notes from time to time. It is named after the development of Jazz Bebop.
Other
There is also a jazz piano that is not actually a way of playing, but it often appears in slower jazz (such as cold jazz) and is unique. It is characterized by the use of complete or relatively complete chords to add some divisions from time to time on the basis of dichotomies or longer durations to reflect the relaxation of slow jazz. The key to jazz piano performance lies in the mastery of improvisational skills and style. For those who have received good training in traditional piano performance, they may not be able to play a jazz piano style or a “ragtime” without special learning. Piano music, jazz piano improvisation requires a certain amount of theory and a lot of practical accumulation as the foundation.
The most touching thing about music is that the excessive text is just embellishment. Only when we live in a quiet corner, calm down and savor it, can we feel the heart and soul. The same is true for jazz pianos. What is more beautiful is that it is always full of changes and always full of vitality. Today, after 102 years of jazz development, jazz piano is still full of possibilities, composing an ode to the great life and life.