bvfms.org

I am a Classically trained pianist in a Jazz band. Unfortunately, my instructor tells me that I am square all the time. He says I need to be triangle. What the heck does that mean?

you dont swing
everything is on the beat
your chord voicings are very basic

7 Responses

1. pianojazz man Says:
   January 21st, 2010 at 2:25 am

   you dont swing
   everything is on the beat
   your chord voicings are very basic
   References :

2. Billy Joe Clegg's Ghost Says:
   January 21st, 2010 at 2:48 am

   Your best answer is the first answer. Give a listen to Thelonious Monk, Bud Powell, Oscar Peterson, Teddy Wilson, Cedar Walton on You Tube. Note how each uses different phrasings if you listen to each playing the same song. A couple of minimalists who come to mind who really could swing are Hampton Hawes and Ahmad Jamal. Bill Evans used a classical approach but he took swing to a new level- his work on the Miles Davis masterpiece "Kind Of Blue" changed jazz as we entered the 1960s.
   References :

3. Dale M Says:
   January 21st, 2010 at 2:55 am

   You could ask your teacher. Obviously he wants you to swing, but what that means you’ll need to find or (or better "feel") for yourself.

   I have never heard of being triangle — that’s a strange thing to say.
   References :

4. Sax Man Says:
   January 21st, 2010 at 3:19 am

   Your playing is too classically. You don’t really feel the swing in the jazz. You don’t lay back quite right when playing with jazz music. Never heard of triangle though.
   References :
   I am a sax player

5. pearlene Says:
   January 21st, 2010 at 3:29 am

   You aren’t "letting yourself go". You are being a technician, rather than a soulful improvisationalist. Step up the "cool" factor, and don’t be too tight. If you were a portrait painter, I’d say start painting abstracts. It’s in the FEEL of the playing, as opposed to hitting all the right notes.
   References :

6. Flower Says:
   January 21st, 2010 at 3:40 am

   I havent heard anyone use that term for a long time. It means you are not hip, not with the program whatever it is in his mind or too conventional.
   References :

7. Knotty Pine Says:
   January 21st, 2010 at 3:54 am

   Square means that you don’t swing. A good way to hear swing is to play a scale of eighth notes, then have your instructor play the same scale of eighth notes ( assuming that your instructor can swing). There should be a difference. Your classical eighth notes will be even, but your instructor’s will not be even, they will swing.
   References :

Leave a Comment