Celebrating 50 Years in Music

As of September 9th 2009, Alan Swain is celebrating 50 years of teaching and playing jazz piano.

Alan came to the Chicago area to study at Northwestern for a master's degree in composition. After a two-year stint in the army, he returned to reestablish himself as a jazz pianist. His teaching career was launched by people who heard him play at clubs and parties and inquired "how can I learn to play like that?" That question has continued to motivate him 50 years later as he completes his seventh book on how to create music spontaneously.

Besides operating his private teaching studio which included many of Chicago's top pianists as jazz teachers, Alan also taught "The Essentials of Jazz" at DePaul University for 30 years, basically starting their jazz program that began in the 70's. His college-based text, "A New Look at Keyboard Harmony" is still being used there today.

One of Alan's unique contributions is his ability to break down complicated music systems and build them back together, step-by-step. In this way students of all backgrounds and abilities can learn to use melody, harmony and rhythm creatively in order to improvise, compose and arrange. His most noted works, "Four-Way Keyboard System, Books I and II" were originally published in 1969 and have an international audience.

Many talented professionals credit their training with Alan as a wonderful launching pad for their careers in music. Jim Trompeter in Wilmette, Paul Libman in New York, Randy Waldman in LA, and Judy Roberts in Phoenix are notable local musicians that studied with him. At the moment his most famous student is the 7 year old prodigy, Emily Bear.

Now in his fifth decade of teaching, writing and playing jazz piano in the Chicago area, Alan Swain continues to pursue his passion with the steady, disciplined and inspiring approach he is so famous for.

We send a request to all students and teachers, former and present, to send us a short paragraph on your experiences with Alan and Swain Music Studios.

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