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Someone who has spent that amount of time chart reading on the piano has developed a very good set of "chops" in another sense.
While they may not have the ear-training, chord-analysis and such available to them, they do have quite the arsenal of proper fingerings, scales and chords, etc. under their command.
Most people whom I've taught to improvise who come from that kind of background soon start to realize that they DO know quite a bit about the thing, what they really don't know is more a matter of nomenclature than anything else. For example, they have never equated the "Eb7" fake chord as being an old familiar pattern from Chopin's Pathetique, etc.
Once those students "bite the bullet" and start working on the rather simple fundamentals behind chord naming conventions, once they "get it" that the whole thing is based upon the numbered steps of the Major Scale, they typically grab the ball and RUN with it.
They've alread developed plenty of hand coordination and strength from all that chart reading.
What most don't realize is that they've also done a pretty good job of ear training along the way as well.
Every one of them has become a better jazz pianist than the self-taught ones, with a few exceptions, of course.
--Mac
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One more thing that may be very important:
The PGMusic Blues Piano offerings are awesome.
Here you start out with the simplest of patterns and can go as far as you like, right up to and including full-on jazz blues improvisation.
Well worth the money.
And right up your alley, it seems.
--Mac
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Quote:
Most people whom I've taught to improvise who come from that kind of background soon start to realize that they DO know quite a bit about the thing, what they really don't know is more a matter of nomenclature than anything else. For example, they have never equated the "Eb7" fake chord as being an old familiar pattern from Chopin's Pathetique, etc.
--Mac
Exactly, the best example I know of is my friend who escaped communist Poland in the 60's who I've mentioned before here. She's a graduate of the Warsaw Conservatory. You want to talk about technique, she was trained to front the Berlin Philharmonic on piano. She taught me some Chopin and I taught her how to read fake book charts exactly as you described. She knew all of it already it was just a matter of equating the scale tone chords to what she calls "functions".
I also do some retirement home gigs with a friend who lives there. One of those gigs was a Christmas party and he told me a resident wanted to use my rig to play some Christmas songs and to lead a sing along. His name is Henry and he's in his 70's. Turns out he played a big pipe organ at some huge church for years. I set up my Kurzweil with a nice pipes patch and when I heard him play, I was just blown away. The guy was awesome. He was totally in command, playing some complex stuff while he's talking on the mic and leading sing alongs. No sheet music either, he knows all of it. I asked him about that and he said he was taught to memorize everything. The funny thing is when you ask someone like that about memorizing they they look at you like why are you even asking me this? Of course you have to know it.
He loves jazz, wishes he could play it and I've offered several times to show him how just like I did with Bozena but he just puts a hand up, gives me a big smile and backs off. He shows up at every gig we do there and he always walks up to say hello. I've stopped asking him to sit in and play something. I know the old folks (and me too for that matter) would love to hear some Virgil Fox for a tune or two but he just won't do it. Different strokes and all that.
Bob
Biab/RB latest build, Win 11 Pro, Ryzen 5 5600 G, 512 Gig SSD, 16 Gigs Ram, Steinberg UR22 MkII, Roland Sonic Cell, Kurzweil PC3, Hammond SK1, Korg PA3XPro, Garritan JABB, Hypercanvas, Sampletank 3, more.
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Well, consider things from the organist's standpoint.
Without several ranks and a full pedalboard plus real stops available, I doubt he really wants to play a MIDI keyboard, even if it is set to some Pipe Organ patch...
--Mac
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Asus Q500A i7 Win 10 64 bit 8GB ram 750 HD 15.5" touch screen, BIAB 2017, Casio PX 5s, Xw P1, Center Point Stereo SS V3 and EWI 4000s.
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I'm mainly a singer and guitarist, but I'm also a reasonably competent rock and progressive keyboard/synth player. Good enough that in the past, I've been asked to tour with a couple of known rock acts as keyboard player, but turned those gigs down for various reasons. But I'm no Bill Evans or Jordan Rudess. 
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Ask sales and support questions about Band-in-a-Box using natural language.
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