Ask Me Anything 2024: Standards, Jazz School, Musician Finances, and Getting Unstuck

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Pianist, tiny dancer, and blue jean baby Jeremy Siskind answers questions that you wrote in for 2024's AMA! See the list of questions below:

I feel like in jazz, playing with others is important. How might I meet up with other instrumentalists play, improvise and just get better? Should I seek out jam sessions, and do they even exist anymore for an amateur like me?

What is your best advice for someone who feels stuck in their playing and end up always playing the same voicings/licks?

do you have a best practice when you figure out a new move and want to become as fluent speaking with it as you are with your other improvisations?

As a jazz arranger, do you need to move cities for work? If so, where is the best city for work as a jazz arranger? (With singers, big bands, studio orchestras, small groups etc) Are there any skills you think current young musicians lack more than other generations? (If I may ask) How do you afford to live as a jazz musician? What streams of income are better than others?

Hi Jeremy, i wanted to ask what was your piano background, how did you start? What music have you learned? What age? Thank you and i hope you have some fantastic holidays. Sorry if my english is bad, i'm italian.

Happy Holidays, Jeremy! What do you think music pedagogy in the USA was like in the early 1900s? (1900-1949) What harmonic exercises would professional players, composers and orchestrators of that period have been exposed to?

Hi Jeremy, a question that always comes up with my students has to do with whether or they can play root position voicings in their HS jazz band. I always explain to them its best to have a healthy vocabulary of voicings and to listen. I would love to hear your thoughts on the subject.

Just wondering when you transcribe, do you slow down or keep in real time or does it depend on what you are transcribing. Do you also prefer to write down your transcriptions for future reference?

Is there a jazz great you don’t particularly care for?

Why is a lot of jazz just people playing their own versions of standards? Why aren’t and don’t people/especially the greats make their own music? I know of some but not a lot

Is a Jazz Studies/Performance Degree worth it?

Do you know anything about Irish piano playing?