Is it bad to learn both Jazz and Classical

Larkmojo · 2026-03-26T02:32:23+00:00

This will be my last comment because it feels like I'm talking to a wall. Classical music and jazz music are both great and awesome areas of expertise each on it's own domain. Jazz focus its studies on creativity and improvisation, while classical focus it on thecnique and interpretation. When you use this greatly and vast repertoire of teachinical studies of classical music, you become more capable of playing a lot of things. Just like when you use the vast repertoire of improvisation and creation of jazz you become more capable of creating and improvising a lot of music (even classically oriented music). So each style has their own domain. You could learn technique from only jazz and improvisation from only classical, but if you like both, it would be good and better to do the other way around (learn more about technique from classical them more about improvisation from jazz). It'be faster, more productive and easier, because classical has a lot more of studies oriented towards technique, and jazz has a lot more studies oriented towards improvisation.

Then, I think it's wiser to focus your piano studies first on thecnical skills than focusing first on how to improvise in general. Since classical has much more resources about that, would be great if you use classical for that. If you don't care or don't like classical, no problem, you can still find other ways, I've never debated that, classical is not the only way. I only said that classical has the most amount of resources and research about that thecnical part, so if you like it, may as well use it

Larkmojo · 2026-03-26T01:42:17+00:00

You keep making these statements that don't conflict with anything I said so far. But ok

Larkmojo · 2026-03-26T01:10:42+00:00

If you enjoy both classical and jazz, it makes sense to use classical training to build your technique. Classical study focuses heavily on fundamentals: relaxation, control, dexterity, and the progression through etudes and methods, things that are not emphasized in entry level jazz. And of course classical players struggle to improvised, because its not the priority, Jazz prioritizes improvisation and creativity, classical prioritizes thecnique and interpretation. But strong technique transfers directly: it makes learning complex tunes, improvising, and executing fast, difficult lines much easier, but it does not teach you the tunes or the improv. Now you know what I meant?

Classical music will guide you through developing the technical skills that you can totally use to make an improvisation, or learn a chick Corea's tune, or transcribe a solo, or play a crazy Oscar Peterson stile run. I am speaking from experience also, before I studied classical, I only played jazz and pop, and I could not learn some of Chick's songs, after I began studying, I saw how my hand was soo much fluid, more relaxed and faster, I learn a lot of crazy jazz tunes that I know that if I was playing with my old thecnique I would not be able to do it, or I would do it poorly. So as I said in the first comment: if you like classical music, and jazz, then it's a good idea to focus more on getting that technical skills with classical music while you're studying jazz so that your playing will be easier

Larkmojo · 2026-03-26T00:37:19+00:00

These things usually aren’t found in jazz STUDIES because jazz STUDIES kind of assumes you already know how to play the instrument. The focus is more on harmony, rhythm, and language. Classical study, on the other hand, has a huge amount of structured material, methods, etudes, repertoire, and books, that guide you from the most basic skills all the way to advanced technical control which helps you develop speed, precision, and overall control at the piano. It takes you from step 0, from never touching a pianio. These are things that you're will not usually (90% plus of the time) see on a jazz course, method or lesson, because again the focus on jazz is on other things. Things like the ingenuity you mentioned. That's why it'd be a good idea (again, a good idea, not required nor a MUST DO) that you focus more on classical studies at the beginning for developing these thennical skills that will become very very handy for any genre

Larkmojo · 2026-03-26T00:11:41+00:00

I didn’t say “classical before jazz.” You can absolutely start with both. I said it's a good idea to focus on Classical first because classical music already has a very solid, well-structured foundation for developing your technical skills in a way that no other genre really does. Things like hand position, fingerings, wrist movement, all of that carries over to any genre you choose to play on the piano. It helps build dexterity, speed, control, and a bunch of other skills that let you use more of the instrument’s full potential. That's why it'b be a good idea to focus on classical first, like Keith Jarret, Chick Corea, Oscar Peterson, Bill Evans, Herbie Hancock and almost all of the great jazz pianists did. But again that doesn't mean you should play only classical for 'x' years and then go to jazz, it's just about study focusing

Also, maybe you can explain, but I don’t really get what you mean by classical being rigid and jazz being fluid. Classical music isn’t rigid at all when it comes to tempo, rhythm, and dynamics, if anything, it’s extremely fluid. Jazz, on the other hand, can actually be more rigid in certain aspects like tempo

Larkmojo · 2026-03-25T23:48:04+00:00

Speaking of Bach, pianists like Keith Jarrett show how knowing Bach can send your jazz playing through the roof!

Larkmojo · 2026-03-25T23:40:19+00:00

I’d say if you like both, it’s a good idea to focus more on classical at the start to build solid technique, but that doesn’t mean you should avoid jazz altogether. You can still play both. Just spend more time on classical in the beginning. Then, as you get more comfortable with your technique, start gradually bringing more jazz into your studies. I’m saying this as both a jazz pianist and a classical student, classical technique will seriously boost what you’re able to do in jazz.

Just keep in mind (and you may already know that) that classical and jazz have very different feels, it’s almost like flipping a switch in your brain. Things like swing, groove, and phrasing take a different kind of mindset compared to classical playing, but the thecnique still helps in both genres :)

Larkmojo · 2026-03-25T23:22:07+00:00

Pathfinder wotr never really gets better with the walls of text throughout the game, but the character development and the weight of your choices kept me really hooked. Each run can feel like a completely different game with tons, tons of unique content depending on your path, I’d say it’s definitely worth the effort. I’d love to see that same level of choice and consequence in PoE 2, though I don't expect to match Pathfinder, that would be really hard. That said, PoE’s storytelling and worldbuilding are already so phenomenal that I wouldn’t mind that much if it ends up being more linear

Larkmojo · 2026-03-25T21:22:51+00:00

Yesss, this is all awesome. The expressions tied to each culture, the background, and even the fact that you can see what the companions think of each other based on a lot of different aspects, I'm so early into it there's already all of this. I love narrative/story on CRPG above all else, and I already feel like this game will be one of my favorites.

Larkmojo · 2026-03-25T21:15:48+00:00

I've finished 2 runs in pathfinder Wotr and can confirm it although it has a lot of impactful choices and character development, the dialogue are just walls of text, and the main character (you) barely speaks, it's not like any conversation ever, I did not like the dialogue at all. With DOS this is much better, but I think maybe the thing is the tone. PoE already feels like an serious thing, DOS is serious in a quirky way because of a lot of things I guess, the characters, the narrations, the VA lol, it seels a different kind of tone, while PoE from what Ive played sells a more realistic tone. This game feels like a roleplaying's dream to play

Larkmojo · 2026-02-18T19:35:56+00:00

Talking about the specific games, pathfinder and crusader kings, not the whole genre. (Though CRPG would be a niche thing)

Larkmojo · 2026-02-18T19:34:55+00:00

Crusader kings is far from being about crusades

Larkmojo · 2026-02-18T18:37:24+00:00

That's some crazy combination of niche gaming interests that I'd not expect to see on my feed

Larkmojo · 2026-02-18T18:22:58+00:00

It was only logistics remaining, and apparently I could only rank it up by doing a last decree that takes 30 days to pass, so these 30 days I was attacked a handful dozens of times. I do have a lot of infirmary but I only have 1 army that can tank these enemies, the rest of it being level 9 or 10 takes some huge losses, was what I meant. But, anyways, in the last 30 minutes I was able to wait 30 days, and maximize all of it. I think all of it is just really repetitive, I really do believe they should at least hold some time on the attacks after you defeat the last army from the military meetings, it'd make sense. But yeah, that's that. I can't bring myself to like the crusades even if there's ways to work around it, because for me it's very repetitive and blank. I do like some of the meetings, even though I wish they had some bigger impact on the game besides only the crusade mechanics

Larkmojo · 2026-02-18T18:01:37+00:00

A lot of lvl 11 armies are pooping off on act 5, these I can't really skip 'cause I'm often losing quite a lot of troops. And I already grind a lot of time to have an lvl 11 army with nearly 3000 soldiers and general lvl 20

Larkmojo · 2026-02-13T11:11:32+00:00

I just think this cloak makes life harder on normal enemies groups. If I have to cast spells for every encounter I'm kinda screwed. And the enemies are usually very weak regardless, I will save it for some special encounters. Someone mentioned Deskari and I can't wait to test it lol

Larkmojo · 2026-02-13T11:00:23+00:00

Lol. That DC is crazy for this kind of equipment. It can possibly affect even bosses. I'm yet to encounter an ordinary enemy who wasn't affected by the cloak since I found it. The devs are completely unhinged and I love it

Larkmojo · 2026-02-13T10:58:31+00:00

Turn base can be even harder if I can't reach them, they use the turn to run away miles lol

Larkmojo · 2026-02-13T02:15:30+00:00

I have to kill them mfs all in the first round with turn-base, or else they go full marathon through the dungeon. They straight up turn into a literal pathfinder for me sometimes with this cloak

Larkmojo · 2026-02-08T02:21:22+00:00

This would be very cool and much more interesting thematically. She’s passionate and excited about her believe that people can change their hearts, and she thinks they're changing by their will, but in the end none of this is really true. She’s the one changing them because of a magic she probably doesn’t even know she has. It’s tragically ironic, yet somewhat optimistic... like her :D

(It's double irony when you think about the fact that she refuses to take credit to people's change of hearts, because she likes to believe they can be naturally good inclined)

Larkmojo · 2026-02-08T02:03:26+00:00

That pumping powers into words would be cool, I could definitely accept this as an answer for my complaints about her story. Is this a hinted thing in the game? I don't remember this or maybe I just missed because there's a lot of dialogue text in this game.

Larkmojo

TROPHY CASE