Wanna learn jazz piano? Geoff Keezer has this posted on his blog. Iron Maiden, eh? Who would have thought...
Looks like my chances are shot...
1. Have musical parents who both teach music and own a rich and diverse record collection: jazz, classical, soul/R&B, etc. When you're 5, play Chick Corea on your "Close-N-Play" stereo when you should be taking your nap.
2. Hang out with your dad every summer at your local jazz camp.
3. Start out playing drums. No matter what instrument you end up playing, learn something about the drums.
4. Have a junior high school band director who forces you to listen to Count Basie every morning, until you like it and start buying your own Basie records, and listen to them every day for two years. Along with this, listen to Art Blakey, Miles Davis, Oscar Peterson, Wynton Kelly, Phineas Newborn Jr., Hank Jones, Ahmad Jamal, Thelonious Monk, Bud Powell, Art Tatum, Art Tatum, Art Tatum, Ellington/Strayhorn, Art Tatum, Elllington/Strayhorn, Count Basie, Ray Brown, Sarah Vaughan, Art Tatum, Chick Corea, McCoy Tyner, Phineas Newborn Jr., Red Garland, Herbie Hancock, Weather Report, David Sanborn, Iron Maiden, The Dead Kennedys, Phineas Newborn Jr., Judas Priest, Spyro Gyra, Kate Bush, Wayne Shorter, Woody Shaw, Clifford Brown, Herbie Hancock, Weather Report, Count Basie, Ellington/Strayhorn, J.S. Bach, Beethoven, Art Tatum, and Ellington/Strayhorn. Listen to Basie mostly, but wear your Iron Maiden tour shirt to school so you don't get beat up.
5. Sit down with an old-fashioned Radio Shack cassette recorder and transcribe the above (you can leave out transcribing Iron Maiden, although it helps to play keyboard bass in your local metal band, playing instrumental versions of metal classics!)
6. Spend 8-12 hours a day sitting your butt at the piano, ignoring anything resembling women, girls, meals, exercise, social skills, personal hygeine or basic psychological development.
7. Have a dad who will drive you 4 hours in a blizzard across the state to see Art Blakey or McCoy Tyner play, then drive you home afterward. Have the same dad drive you 2 hours to a Rush concert the next night.
8. Have a mom who doesn't mind if you stay up till midnight jamming the Real Book classics with your high school friends in your basement, even when she went to bed at 9:30.
9. Play lots of dodgy local gigs, using a Yamaha DX-7 as your piano, at car wash grand openings, pizza parlors, hotel lounges, and weddings where you play "Giant Steps" and "Obla Dee Obla Dah" as polkas.Make sure you have a dad that doesn't let you ride to gigs alone with this guy, despite your protests about being "grown up"...Thanks, Dad!
10. Play, play, play. The best way to learn to play is by playing - after you have done your homework listening and transcribing, and also during this process. It's great to work out new ideas at home, then bring them in for a "trial by fire" in a rehearsal or gig.
