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Who are you, and what do you do? What do you
like to do when you don't practice or play the piano?

My name is Martin, I’m a teacher for mathematics and physics and I like to demonstrate experiments with light and electricity. I live in the South of Germany together with my dear wife and our three wonderful children. When there is some time left we love outdoor activities like playing football in the garden, hiking in the forests.

Martin lives in the most northern region of the “Blue Danube”

Why do you play jazz piano?

At the age of 10 my first piano teacher sometimes played "Misty“, or "The Man I Love“ at the end of a lesson and asked if that sounded good to me. And yes, I was delighted with the beautiful jazzy sound. So we started with "Barrelhouse and Boogie Piano“ and some Jazz theory, for example I had to drill the A- and B-Voicings in all 12 keys.

Moreover my parents took me on vacations to England, Sweden and Norway and there were piano players in the hotels or shopping malls. I still remember some songs they played just like "Ain‘t Misbehaving“ or "Milord“. This touched something in me. I knew I wanted to play like these pianists and so I started my "Jazz journey“. And the more I discovered the more I wanted to carry on. Then I found the “Jazz Piano Step-By-Step Course”. I‘ve been practicing a lot during the last five years and I “took care of my music” using Gjermund’s practicing methods. Right now I have finished lesson 60 and I’m through with the “Lounge Jazz Piano Masters Course” and the “Ear Training Course”. Still there are so many things to learn…

Here you can listen to some songs I recorded while I was completing the Lounge Course.

What is your current practice setup?
Where do you prefer to practice?

I play an acoustic piano Kawai K3 and an E-Piano Yamaha P120. Every day both instruments are in use.

Martin's setup

What tools and resources do you
use that help you practice better?

With the "Jazz Piano Step-by-Step Course“ I started to use some apps that help me to practice more efficiently. I use the following tools:

The Timer of the Smartphone - this is one of the most important devices to organize my daily practicing routine
Pro Metronome is my metronome.
Anytune is one of my favorite apps to transcribe songs or play along with the masters.
I use iRealPro as my backing band for improvising and playing trio-piano. Recently I found the automatic tempo increase: Every round is played a little bit faster than the previous one which is very helpful!
To notate my music I use the free software MuseScore.
And of course Transcribe! – this software helps me to slow down solos and to figure out complex voicings.

What is your current practice routine?

Every day I practice for 60 minutes. As I can’t spend this time en bloc I divide it up into ten little practicing units with six minutes each, which are distributed over the day (and night). I usually concentrate on technical things in the first three units. The next four parts are provided for the main practice and in the last three parts I just play for fun.

When I’m driving my car I do some Ear-Training-Exercises. This is perfect as these exercises can be done without a piano.

What have been your biggest AHA moments or breakthroughs for your music?

There are so many things I‘ve learned from Gjermund. For example I used to play octaves with the left hand and now I manage to play 10ths. But it is impossible to enumerate all the things I have learned. Apart from the musical contents I’ve learned many other things which are highly valuable to me:

Planning the practicing routine, sticking to the plan, taking my time, not switching to the next topic too early… One example is the Jazz Trick No. 1 or the "Alt-Ratio-Lick“. I learned these tricks years ago and they are still part of my practicing. Now I can apply them in any Standard – no matter which key.

In the "Step-by-Step-Course“ I found that - except learning Jazz Standards - there are many other important approaches to cracking the Jazz-Code:

Study the Masters. Transcribe solos and apply some elements during improvisation.
Play solo piano, duo piano, trio piano and band piano („4 hats“).
Play different styles.

Since I‘ve learned the"Finger Tapping Technique“ (Ear Training Course) listening to music is more effective and also more fun.

What have been your biggest AHA moments or breakthroughs for your music?

In general terms I’d like to play and improvise more freely. I’d like to establish a connection between my head and my fingers, so that the fingers can automatically play what comes out of the brain.

A short-term goal is to finish the "Ear Training Course“ as there is only one lesson left.

A long-term goal is to continue the "Jazz Piano Step-by-Step-Course“ restarting at lesson 61 and going up to lesson 90 and after that to have a Tuna Salad in Oslo with Gjermund…

And I‘d like to become a piano player in a piano bar or café…

Enjoy the cake and thank you Martin for participating!