Should I try jazz?

You've got nothing to lose by learning it, as much of it can be (and has been) ported to other popular genres. It's a richly developed language with a fairly long and documented history

 

It will make you a better all-around player and musician. I don't know that it will necessarily make you a better metal player, though. Hearing chord changes and forming walking bass lines carries over to most popular music styles (including country, pop, and a good amount of rock and roll), but metal tends to be very riff-oriented with very few chord changes. So if you are certain that metal is all you will want to play the rest of your life, you can probably do fine without ever learning jazz.

 

"If you don't like it, don't play it."
Sounds good to me. You like playing metal and don't really like Jazz? then play metal, and play the hell out of it, and forget about Jazz. You don't need to learn Jazz to learn theory better, theory is independent of genre. Just keep playing metal, study theory on the side, work hard, and you will be a better musician overall. Play the music that inspires you, that's what will get you the furthest.

 

No you shouldn't learn jazz...its really,really hard and takes lots of practice...you will probably just get tired anyways and want to take a nap. Try Yodeling, its really cool and the chicks dig it! So do dogs, if ya have any of them.

 

Music is music, theory is independant of genre....as said but you will never realise this for yourself until you explore other forms of music, then you can evaluate any relevance it will have to your playing.....or genre.......genre is a sound, as well as a feeling.

Check out the link, check out the date, check out the guitar, give him a tube screamer, jeans and a tee shirt and what is he playing then.....but in the middle of the 50's.....so a way ahead of any the rock and metal players of the 70s and 80s.... as was Bach centuries ahead of them as well.

 

NO!!! Instead, learn music theory (how to read and write music, etc).

 

Give it a shot, see if you like it. Decent jazz bass players are always in demand, so it could open some doors.

 

If you don't like it, don't bother.

 

Generally, I'd agree, but I've found that jazz is the sort of music a lot of people don't know that they like until they actually try playing it. Worth a shot, anyway.

 

Nothing wrong with learning from a wide variety of musical genres when you rehearse, but I wouldn't recommend trying to join a jazz ensemble if you don't like the music.

 

IMO you can't play it until you've listened to a LOT of it. If you don't like it, you won't listen.

 

You can't play it WELL until you've listened to a lot of it, but you can certainly start learning and playing right away - high school jazz bands across the nation attest to this fact.

 

When I first started taking lessons at 14 or 15, I was definitely a hard rock/heavy metal dude. And my first instructor was a 100% jazzer. At first, I didn't understand the appeal of that kind of music--at all. But jazz was primarily what we studied. Eventually, I came to appreciate it, and ultimately, to love it.

 

That was my experience too - except substitute prog rock for heavy metal.

 

Jazz isn't an art form. Its a discipline. Being able to play jazz means you can play anything. It doesn't work the other way around. The average jazz musician must have vocabulary, knowledge and facility in Improvisation, Swing, Funk, Latin Music, American Folk song, and the history of American music.

A jazz musician is by definition a virtuoso, someone who can gunfight in any situation.
A good jazz musician operates from a different rhythmic clock

I started as a progressive rock bass player who wanted more. All the technique you practice, scales and arpeggios with a metronome don't really do anyone any good without function. Ridiculous speed isn't really necessary for any form of music, all it does is feed the wrong side of a musicians ego.

If you want to really experience music and moreover experience yourself, the deepness of your soul and communion with other musicians, you need to begin this journey and pledge yourself to something greater.

Its a journey that will take your entire life, and in my experience so far, ups and downs, i wouldn't trade anything for it.

Oh, and I hated anything not metal for a long time, until i made the decision to embrace that fact that i wanted greater knowledge and made myself receptive to those desires.

 

preach, this is the reason i'm cancelling projects now to study jazz really thoroughly

 

One of the awesomerest posts I've read in a while.

 

If you want to: Dont do it.
If you have to: Go ahead.