We recently connected with Rebecca Cordes and have shared our conversation below.
Rebecca, we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.
I have always had a broad range of interests. When I was in high school, I enjoyed chemistry as much as music or creative writing. That – combined with growing up in a small, rural community where the arts had little foothold – made my path into music an unlikely one. When I graduated from high school, I didn’t even consider majoring in music, mostly because I didn’t see anyone in my rural community who had music as a career.
Once I got to college, I decided to sign up for private piano lessons as a non-music major and was placed with an amazing teacher, Dr. Chiu-Ling Lin, who I credit with laying the foundation for my career in music. After my first year I decided to major in music. While I was behind the curve due to my lack of early training, I found music to be the thing I could do for hours without tiring of it. That’s when I decided that the metric for “what to do with my life” would be to choose the paths that I could pursue with joy, curiosity, and unbounded energy.
I really haven’t waivered from that initial premise. It has led me to grow from playing only classical music into being a jazz pianist, composer, and arranger. It has guided my teaching philosophy and provided motivation to create my jazz piano education series, Jazz Piano ABCs.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
My professional life as a musician is focused in three roles: pianist, composer, teacher. As a pianist I perform primarily in the jazz genre. I lead my own band Plus One Jazz Group and perform as a side musician for The Satin Dolls Band, an all-female jazz quintet. Artistically, I’m interested in the connecting threads between different musical styles, which leads me to arrange jazz renditions of classical melodies, Broadway tunes, and pop music for my band to play.
I’m currently working on a solo piano recording, American Blue, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the premier of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. The album will feature classical and jazz pieces written by American composers of the early 20th century whose music has been influenced by the blues. Listeners will welcome familiar names – like Gershwin and Ellington – as well as some they may not recognize, like Florence B. Price and Mary Lou Williams. The recording will be available in early February.
In my teaching I have always sought to combine the creative aspects of jazz and improvisation with classical reading and technique. Seeing the joy in my students as they learned to improvise led me to want to share that experience with other teachers and students. Eventually I decided to create the Jazz Piano ABCs, a jazz piano teaching series for early learners. The series is comprised of Guidebooks – multi-media collections of sheet music, improvisation exercises, audio accompaniments, and videos – that each focus on a different topic in the jazz genre.
While piano teachers with a jazz background can certainly use the materials, my target audience is traditional, classically trained teachers, who would like to provide this type of music education to their students but are lacking the background and training. I hope to empower them to share jazz and improvisation with their students. The first Guidebook, Frog In My Pocket, is currently available at JazzPianoABCs.com. A formal product launch will be held in 2024, once the trademark process is complete.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
1) Keep growing.
Making a living as a musician is a daily challenge. It’s important to continue to expand your skill set in the directions that resonate with your personal philosophy or artistic point-of-view. If you expect there to be a job that fits you perfectly, you’ll be perpetually disappointed and left in a cycle of struggle.
2) Seek out mentorship from those you admire and with whom you feel a connection.
It’s okay to not know how to move forward. Look to your community for people who have done what you want to do. If you find someone you admire, seek their counsel, teaching, or mentorship. My journey into jazz wouldn’t have been possible without my jazz piano teacher, Arlington Jones. He’s a master jazz pianist and a generous teacher who has guided me for over a decade. I owe all that I can do in jazz to his investment in me as a pupil, and I am forever grateful.
3) Walk through the doors that open for you.
The music community where I live is incredibly generous and kind. I have been perpetually humbled and inspired to be presented with opportunities to make music, and this has always motivated me to prepare thoroughly and give my absolute best. It’s important to reply to opportunities with a “yes, and . . .” mindset. Even if you have doubts about your abilities to fulfill the expectations of a gig, override those doubts by trusting in the belief that the person who’s extended the invitation has in you. Then work your butt off!
One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?
I am interested in collaborating someone who can help me build connections with music teacher groups for whom I could demonstrate and promote Jazz Piano ABCs. I would also love to have the opportunity to present concerts to these groups. In general, the marketing and promoting of my music performances and products is always limited by the time available to devote to these efforts. It would be so helpful and liberating to have a partner in this area.
If you’re interested, you can connect with me through my website: https://www.rebeccacordes.com/contact
Contact Info:
- Website: www.RebeccaCordes.com
- Facebook: Rebecca Cordes Music
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@rebeccacordesmusic363
Image Credits
Vladimir Kolopic Bart Marantz
