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Posts Tagged ‘Jazz Songs’

Jazz Piano Lessons – Tips to Help You Learn to Play Jazz on the Piano Fast

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In order to play Jazz piano you need to get a fundamental knowledge of piano theory. Some of this knowledge will consist of chord formation, rhythmic feel, and scales and modes.

All Jazz songs have a one of a kind chord progression in every piece. Your jazz piano lessons should focus on learning the different rhythms of a jazz piano.

Every jazz style is dependent on beat and has a unique rhythm. You should practice playing different rhythms in the bass line.

Your jazz piano lessons should emphasize weak beats which are also referred to as syncopating. You should know that in jazz music the second and fourth beats are emphasized by resting on the normally strong strong beats. In order to make a stronger syncopation you should rest on just the first half of the first and third beats.

Your lessons should also focus on a key element in the jazz feel and this is the swing rhythm. To accomplish this you need to play uneven eight notes.

Within a pair of eight notes you should play the first note longer than the second to make an uneven pattern. You shouldn’t hold all the notes for the exact same amount of time.

Your jazz piano lessons should practice jazz chord progressions. The basic progression is the twelve bar blues. The twelve bar blues includes progressions among the I, IV, and V chords.

In the key of C, the chords would be C (I), F (IV), and G (V). You should begin on the C and move between the C and F for various bars, adding a G chord until you get a pattern with twelve bars.

These are some of the things your jazz piano lessons should focus on. With the right lessons there is no reason you can’t learn how to play jazz piano songs.

By: Jenna Mae

A Short Introduction to Jazz Radio

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The spirit of jazz music reflects the American spirit that consists of many races from all over the world that came to America to find American dream. The spirit of this music causes it to be always subject to new twists which many musicians improvised. The expansion of this form of music has made possible the singing of jazz songs in many lounges, bars, clubs, and, most of all, radio. Perhaps it is a source of wonder that there are numerous radio stations at many parts of the world that only play these songs.

Before it reached wide audience, it was conceived in the state of Louisiana at the time when 20th century was about to come. The state was conducive to give birth to a music type such as jazz simply because it is a port city where different races can come and go. Hence, this type of music is a mixture of European classical music, American blues, and South American songs and rhythms. Jazz can be attributed to be created by Black Americans. Although it emerged during the time when racism in America was at its peak, it survived and until now it flourishes in jazz radios. The emergence of jazz radios makes this music to possibly endure in the many eras to come.

Here is a list of popular jazz radios located at many parts of the world.
o WWOZ
This is located in New Orleans, USA which play jazz as well as rhythm and blues music.
o KCSM
This San Mateo, USA based radio station offers solely jazz music. It provides non-commercial jazz music in San Francisco Bay area.
o Boise State University’s Jazz Station
This radio station does not merely play jazz songs for the students inside the campus. It plays jazz for residents in three different states namely, Idaho, Oregon, and Nevada.
o Smooth Jazz
This all jazz station is located in Monterey, USA.
o Soft Jazz FM
This popular jazz radio is based in United Kingdom.
o SoulfulSmoothJazz.com
This online jazz radio station provides a convenient way to listen to your favorite jazz tunes since you can choose what time to listen and what songs to play.
o TSF Jazz
This jazz station is a pride in Paris, France.
o KUVO
This jazz radio station is considered the oasis in the city of Denver, United States.

The foregoing list contains only the most popular jazz radio stations. There are many other stations of this type at many parts of the world that play these songs that are characterized by different improvisations. The web is an excellent place for jazz radio stations that provide convenient way for listening to these old-time favorite songs. The sites can let you choose what songs to play, hence it is undoubtedly most searched out by jazz fanatics.

By: Jim Oneil

Popular Jazz Songs

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Jazz music has been on the music scenes since the turn of the 20th century. It amazingly survived its crucial years, the first years, when racial discrimination against Black American was at its peak. Jazz music came into light through the musical intelligence of Black Americans. It is no wonder that many of the most popular jazz songs are composed and sung by Black Americans who are famous themselves in the field of music.

The most popular songs of this kind are great songs of all time. They live great impressions on their listeners not only because they belong to jazz genre, but because their melodies and lyrics can touch the hearts of many people. It is a source of wonder that many popular jazz songs are Christmas songs which are official soundtracks of popular Hollywood movies. Some have observed that the popularity of the movies contributed to the popularity of the songs. However, some have contested this by saying that the popularity of these songs contributed to the success of the movies. Whatever the contention many people hold, some of these songs are constantly played worldwide for reasons that vary from person to person. Read on to find out the most popular jazz songs.

• White Christmas
This song is at the top spot and is considered the most popular jazz songs to date. It is sung by Bing Crosby and was used as official soundtrack of a popular movie entitled St. Holiday Inn.

• A Holly Jolly Christmas
This is originally sung by Cast and was featured as original soundtrack of the film, St. Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer.

• What A wonderful World
This constantly played jazz song in many ad campaigns is originally sung by Louis Armstrong, one of the pioneers of jazz music.

• Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer
This is standard jazz song that is constantly played in many parts of the world when Christmas season comes.

• A Year Ago
This popular jazz song is originally sung by Kenny G.

• Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
This hit Christmas still tops on many radios during Yuletide season.

• Away In A Manger
Kenny G tops the billboard for popular songs list for a long time now with this Christmas carol as well as A Year Ago.

• Baby It’s Cold Outside
This standard jazz song is much popularized in the movie St. Neptune’s Daughter.

• Jingle Bells
No one can ever refute the popularity of this song because even little kids from all parts of the world can hum this song.

• New York, New York
Frank Sinatra is not only popular for his My Way. This jazz song makes it to the top ten constantly although there are time when it drops to places in the list of top 20.

By: Jim Oneil