Always wanted to learn jazz?
Hundreds of students have come to me over the years with the same problem:
"I've had piano lessons before, but have never been able to improvise. I'd love to learn to play jazz, but have no idea where to start. It seems too complicated."
If that strikes a chord (no pun intended), then this course is for you. Sign up today for a 7 day free trial, and if you're not playing jazz by the end of the week, just walk away. You've got nothing to lose, and absolutely everything to gain.
Here's what Kenneth Thompson had to say:
"As a conservatory trained classical pianist and teacher I am grateful that I have spent my life delving deep into the amazing music of the classics. I always admired great jazz composers and performers yet never took the time to delve in. At Eastman, the jazz majors had a huge amount of confusing work to do on their art so I thought that learning jazz would be something I would not have time to do. As a result there were many times I wanted to sit and play by myself, for friends or at parties and had classics to play yet yearned for something more - jazz and improvisation. What Doc Watkins has created is something truly remarkable - great teaching that works from the first lesson and gives you a lifetime of material. It is fun, inspiring, exciting, instructive and it WORKS! He brings down so many barriers for the classical trained as well as those new to piano. He goes into the history and ethos of the music which helps you play it and also enjoy listening to jazz even more. It is a great course in every way and I HIGHLY recommend it."
- Ken Thompson, San Antonio, TX
CEO, Musical Arts Center of San Antonio
More about the course:
I call this course Conversational Jazz because we'll learn by doing. As an older (and wiser) musician once told me, "Experience first. Then explanation."
It's the way you learned your native tongue. In a relaxed environment, where trial and error were part of the game. And new information meant new possibilities. Believe it or not, our brains still work best this way.
At what point does fear of embarrassment and failure enter the picture? I don't know exactly, but I do know that it can become a dominant force that holds us back from trying, from doing things we always dreamed of doing: learning a new language, traveling to new places...and yes, learning jazz improv. Trust me—I’ve been there.
I'll walk you through the very same steps that I took to learn jazz from the ground up
(no metronome or sheet music required)
During this course, I'll retrace the steps I took to learn this music (believe it or not, it took me twenty years to take the plunge—the fear is real), and created this online course to help you get the results you want.
When I first tried learning jazz, I looked everywhere for guidance. Textbooks were of little help; memorizing scales and patterns was useless without context, which is rarely given. Jazz sheet music (yes, it's actually a thing) was the dead end of all dead ends. Listening to jazz recordings was helpful—to a point. What are you supposed to do with an Oscar Peterson solo when he's playing sixteenth notes at 80 miles per hour?
It wasn’t until I hit the restaurants, bars, and local street corners that I started to discover the best way for me to learn, which became the same method I'll use to teach you.
Over the years, I've used these principles to teach others and have seen them achieve remarkable success learning the genre. They start out thinking they’ll need years of formal training, but within a matter of weeks, they're riffing and creating their own renditions of their favorite tunes.
And now it's your turn. Let's play some jazz.
SIGN UP FOR THE FREE TRIAL
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
(Click the question to read the answer)
Is this course for me? How can I know?
What all is included in the course? How long is it?
What's the end goal of the course? How far can I really get in 8 weeks?
Who's Doc?
Sign up now for a 7 day free trial, and see for yourself.
There are absolutely no strings attached. We won't ask for your credit card, phone number, mailing address, nothing.
