(44) Fake Books, Jazz, Improvisation
It is important to learn contemporary music because it is educational (music theory, improvisation, new music genres), transforms you into a better performer, greatly widens your audience, is the fastest way to expand your repertoire, creates many performance and income opportunities, makes you a more complete musician, gives you a greater sense of empowerment, requires only a modest investment of time — classical students are more than half way there already and you have a big advantage over those who have not studied classical — and, compared to classical music, you get quicker rewards for a given investment of time.
What is the most important skill to learn? Chords! Basic chords (3-note), inversions, major/minor, dominant 7th, diminished, augmented, larger chords, and how to use them. You can learn just a few of them, and start performing immediately. You also need to learn all the scales, and to coordinate the RH melody with the LH accompaniment (things you already know if you learned classical), the circle of fifths and chord progressions. You can be playing the simplest things in a matter of weeks; but it will take a year for most students to feel comfortable with this genre. For example, there is no such thing as true improvisation for at least a few years because true improvisation is almost as difficult in this genre as composing is, in classical. Although contemporary music is often considered to be freer than classical, it is restricted to a narrower range of musical parameters, which makes improvisation easier. What is generally referred to as improvisation is "practiced improvisation" in which you choose from optional "improvisations" that were previously practiced. The greatest reward of all this effort is that you will develop the ability to play by ear [(18) Play by Ear (PBE), Composing], which is one of the genius skills [(65) Creating Geniuses].
Begin study with Neely's "How to Play from a Fake Book". Fake books are simplified sheet music in which only the RH melody and the associated (LH) chords are indicated. It is up to the pianist to decide how to play these chords – this is why you need to learn all about chords; not only are there many of them, but each can be played in many different ways. Fake books are easy to start with because you don't have to know chord progressions – they are given to you on the sheet music.
The next reviewed book to use is "How to play the piano despite years of lessons" by Cannel and Marx, which is not a book about technique; instead, it teaches how to play jazz, popular songs, or from fake books. Again, we learn all about chords but, in addition, we learn about the circle of fifths and chord progressions, so that you can "play by ear" – remembering a melody, you should be able to figure out the melody with your RH and add your own LH without a fake book. Gets you started immediately by playing simple stuff – read the review for more details. This is the only book of the three discussed here that treats rhythm, which is especially important in jazz.
A third book you may want to read is Sabatella's "A Whole Approach to Jazz Improvisation" which provides definitions of all the chords and scales, as well as discussions of jazz history and what music you should listen to, as examples of how they are played. This book can be browsed free (see review), but there are no lessons, songs, or music to play – just theory and discussions for those interested in jazz concepts.
Perhaps the happiest finding in all this is how restrictive the chord progressions are, in terms of the circle of fifths (see Cannel & Marx, Sabatella). This makes it easy to get started, giving you the time to advance gradually, without much pressure, into more complex music. From a general music education point of view, we must all learn the circle of fifths because it is needed for tuning the violin, understanding temperaments and learning how to tune the piano in the temperaments, figuring out all the scales, their chords, and the key signatures, as well as understanding music theory. The section on Absolute Pitch, Relative Pitch will be useful for this genre also. For those who are just starting piano but want to learn both classic and contemporary, Humphries, Carl,, may be the best choice.
In summary, the process of learning this genre consists of practicing the chords and scales sufficiently so that, given a melody, you can figure out the right chords that go along with it. You will learn to recognize the chord progressions, and use music theory more than in classical music lessons. Therefore, if you take a long term approach, and start with a few simple pieces, you can start performing almost immediately and be able to keep advancing on your own schedule. It is important that you perform these pieces as soon as possible, and to quickly learn your strong/weak points. Because this genre is still young, the instruction books are not all consistent; for example, the circle of fifths in Sabatella goes clockwise with respect to the sharps, but goes counter clockwise in Cannel and Marx, and exactly how you should use the 7th chords depends on which book you read. The most important skill you will develop is play by ear [(18) Play by Ear (PBE), Composing].