Milan Dvořák - Jazz Piano Etudes 2

Translated Preface: In the preface of the first volume, right at the beginning I made the quite untactical remark, that somebody who isn’t a jazz player will not become one, even when studying all those etudes. That’s not too important for the second volume, since here are more styles/genres. The title was kept because of the first volume, although not everything is really jazz. When ordering them, I tried to have contrasts in style, tempo, genre, such that every etude has something “new“ to offer. I believe, these etudes do not only help to perfection for technique or style of professional/amateur pianists who play jazz, pop music, but also that at least some of them can be used as concert piece. Etude 1: When we mastered this one technically, we try to learn the mechanical tempo without acceleration (positive, negative). All syncopated notes we will accentuate a bit. Etude 2: Keeping the tempo is the main challenge here. Be careful in measure 9 and 10. The left hand should play the g in the 10th measure a bit earlier. Etude 3: One of those slower performance etudes. We try to play the eight notes in the left hand regularly, and a little bit of pedaling helps us. Etude 4: The first 24 measures require exact and precise rhythmical work of the left hand. Then there are 4 measure groups, which are actually a written out improvisation, but the 4th measure is always the same though. In the coda we notice the rhythmical breakdown of the pulsating metrum. From “piu mosso“ onwards, we play the fastest tempo, such that we can still play precisely. Etude 5: Again a “chopinian“ piece. The means of contemporary jazz/pop music appear in reduced form, for example in the recurring part marked “tempo I“. Etude 6: Structure: A 8 measure theme with corresponding variations. The melodic line [..] has to be dynamically separated from not very significant responses [..]. The left hand is kind of in the middle, dynamically. Etude 7: This one is more difficult for the left hand. We can play it with a little swing by resembling a punctuated rhythm [..]. But I prefer the contemporary version with “straight“ eight notes. The jazz phrasing appears only in the 4 measure group starting from measure 21. Etude 8: One plays this calmly, legato; only in the 8 measure middle section from measure 23 we accentuate in a controlled way. In the left and right hand we can imply this “punctuated“ rhythm. Etude 9: Calm etude in minor. We allow ourselves to use the pedal, but we will lift it after every change of harmony. Starting from measure 17, with that moving bass line, we will not use it at all. Etude 10: Most part of this one are broken chords, some passages of the left hand we study beforehand and choose a suitable fingering. For measure 24,25: Several possibilites [..]. The 2 measure group starting from measure 30 we study carefully, the reading of the score is more complicated than the playing actually, and this applies to the 2 measure group from measure 34 onwards. The jumps in the left hand starting from measure 38 we play marcato, sovereignly. Etude 11: A pure jazz etude which should “swing“, i.e. in a always fresh tempo it should just flow over all those difficulties. Directly after the 2nd measure of the theme (measure 6)., the left hand plays stubbornly precise half notes, while the phrase of the right hand ends too early, often with an accent. Calm moments and exciting moments should, if one can say it like that, coexist. Etude 12: Let us forget for a time the jazz syncopations and play it as it is actually written there, i.e. NOT like this: [..] Etude 13: The left hand plays quarter notes staccato, regular as a machine. In the right we accentuate especially the syncopated notes, and since we are in a part of music which is influenced by jazz, we indicate the punctuated rhythm, which is also written in the score by the way. Etude 14: This etude is derived from the classical 12 measure blues form, but with consideration of the triplet-structure, written in a 12/8 measure. Etude 15: This etude reminds of the song production of the 6os, the harmomic scheme is stereotypical, as well as the style of the accompaniment. Etude 16: Again we play “straight“ eights. But if you want to play it in this fashion [..dotted] or more precisely in this fashion [..triplet], we would play measure 19 in the following way [..]. Etude 17: If you know the composition “Take Five“ by Dave Brubeck, german like “Let us try it with five“, you will surely not be surprised by the quintuple meter here. Every measure should really consist of 5 equally long time units. If you can, I would very much appreciate it if you donate any amount for my work in this channel:)