Gregory Hillman

I never enjoyed playing piano when I was young.  In fact, I ran away from quite a few lessons before I was a teenager but my parents and especially my father wanted me to play.  Eventually I met a wonderful piano educator that I enjoyed but parents in general want their kids to play music for many reasons.  I believe my father wanted me to play because he felt other people would be impressed by my playing and would want to communicate with me.  Every time I would try and quit he would remind me of how many attractive people would enjoy my playing and want to take me on a date.  Maybe he was partially correct.

From Silent To Confident

Sometimes when I play piano it is for an audience that has not heard any live music that day or evening.  Some of the people in the audience may not have heard live music for years and frankly, at times, people seem to disassociate themselves from each other before the music begins if there is no opening tune.  Once the music begins I am able to see faces brighten up and start to look at the people close to them.  After a tune and maybe some applause the audience is suddenly talking to their neighbors and smiling.  About what?  Sometimes the music but it seems like the live music is almost more of a demonstration of communication which leads the example for the listener.

Real Life Communication

Last week I enjoyed playing at a private venue in Los Angeles for a large group of total strangers all looking towards the ground and not talking to each other at all.  No one at the location knew I play a little piano.  I almost saw it as low hanging fruit.  They were all waiting near the reception and there just happened to be a grand piano close.  I asked the security guard if I would be permitted to play one tune and after one tune the group all started talking!  No just to me but to each other.  The song was only a few minutes long but it helped everyone relate to their neighbors.  I only played one song that day but even the security guard asked if I would please continue playing for rest of the day.

All music is not meant to be like this.  Some music may not help with communication but, in general, I would say that my father was correct in the way that years of piano lessons can help people communicate but I don’t believe it will always help you find a date.  I did not meet my partner playing piano but she seems to enjoy it.

Gregory Hillman Live

Educational Tip:

One example a free piano lesson from a USC Phd Doctoral Degree in a piano performance related field granted me was to really focus on preparation just before playing the piano to ensure your complete ability and full range of motion to perform and communicate with your audience.

Describing Jazz to others can be hard for many people who have not studied the foundations and history of Jazz.

To an untrained ear you may believe Jazz has accents on 2 / 4 and uses tied triplets in each measure. You may have heard Jazz is performed by small groups with trumpets, saxophones, guitars, drums, bass players, maybe some vocals, and piano. It is true that there is Jazz that has characteristics like this but just because it has these components does not make it Jazz.

Greg Hillman

When you find music in categories Jazz comes from a tradition of many artists. You may find DJs performing on a Jazz albums or even spoken word artists but to be called Jazz the music must come from the tradition of Jazz.

Please leave your comments and I will help you understand more about the tradition of Jazz.

Most of this understanding comes from University of Washington Music professor Marc Seales and Olympic College Professor Kent Curris.

-Gregory Hillman
Life Long Student Of Music