playing.jazz

I am a classical pianist. The end. But for some reason, Wes won't accept that. Since we began dating, he's tried to convince me to learn some jazz piano. Sure, if I was good enough, it could be a ton of fun playing together, but that's just the point -- I'M NOT GOOD! I even took a whole semester of jazz piano lessons with an amazing jazz pianist. She was great and I learned a lot, but jazz just doesn't come naturally for me.

I was getting really frustrated with it, so I took a break for a while. Lately though,Wes and our friend John have been eager to jam together. With John on trombone and Wes on bass, a keyboard was really the only thing missing. Hmm. So I am stuck once again in the jazz world. After a huge meltdown the first trio session with Wes and John, I determined to change my attitude and quit thinking I can't do it. It wasn't as bad the second time. Actually, I kinda enjoyed myself even.

First of all, I realized one of the reasons I didn't want to play jazz was because I was too intimidated by Wes' beastly skills. He's one of the best (if not the best) bass players in Tulsa to be sure. He's a pro! Then I sat down at the keyboard and let myself enjoy what I could play, rather than stress over what I was missing. Sure, I didn't play every extension of every chord, nor did I play all the chords with the proper inversions, but I did, for the most part, play the right chord qualities at the given tempo. And it was fun!

Playing jazz with Wes and John