The 10 Most Popular Piano Styles

It can be challenging for a piano student to decide which piano style to learn. There are many different piano styles with different characteristics and playing techniques that require different practices. Learning different styles beforehand can greatly help you choose the ideal one for you.

From classical piano to boogie-woogie, there are many different approaches to the piano in terms of sound, playing, and style. Each style has different things to offer to musicians and requires different training. To be a good pianist, you should be comfortable with at least a few of these playing styles.

The following are some of the most popular piano styles you can explore to determine which ones you prefer.

1. Classical Piano

Starting with the most traditional one, classical piano is the richest style in the piano world. To play the classical piano properly, you need to learn many techniques and skills as it is one of the oldest and hardest playing styles. Considered the base for music education, most beginners start with classical piano.

As the name suggests, classical piano refers to playing classical music on a piano. It is one important tradition in piano education, rather than the source of most of the world’s music. There are countless pieces in the style for any level of pianist, from short beginner studies to demanding concert works.

Some popular classical choices for pianists are “Für Elise” and “Moonlight Sonata” by Beethoven, piano arrangements of “Canon in D” by Pachelbel, and “Prelude No. 1 in C Major” by J. S. Bach. Pachelbel’s Canon was originally written for strings and continuo, so choose a piano arrangement suited to your level. Other composers to explore include Haydn, Chopin, Handel, Wagner, Debussy, and Tchaikovsky.

2. Jazz Piano

One of the most popular piano styles is jazz piano, which came to the music scene in the early 20th century in the U.S.A. It is arguable the hardest piano style as jazz music deviates from classic harmony, rhythms, and technique. Players need to be very comfortable with their techniques and need to have a high musical knowledge to play jazz piano.

Pianists like Scott Joplin, Jelly Roll Morton, and Fats Waller had big influences on the development of jazz piano and its musical background. Joplin’s ragtime, Morton’s early jazz, and Waller’s stride playing belong to different stages of that history. Swing, improvisation, boogie-woogie, ragtime, and later bebop offer different ways to create melodies, rhythmic patterns, and musical sentences.

Some famous modern jazz pianists to listen to are Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Michel Camilo, and Kenny Barron.

3. Gospel Piano

Gospel piano is a form of Christian music with influences from jazz, blues, and R&B. It originated from church music and typically used jazz-like syncopation and prolonged chords for a more spiritual experience. The melodies and the feeling are mainly divine, spiritual, and light.

Gospel piano songs may sound basic, but they can feature highly complex musical techniques and harmonic content. Syncopation, passing chords, and extended voicings are useful parts of the style, rather than a requirement to use 11th chords in every song. A learner can begin with simple chord changes and then add fills and richer harmony as the accompaniment becomes comfortable.

Gordon Mote, Cory Henry, Anthony Burger, and Thomas Dorsey are referred to as some of the best gospel pianists. 

4. Blues Piano

Blues piano is the mother of many different modern piano styles. This style heavily relies on major and minor pentatonic scales, extra out-of-scale notes, particular patterns, and licks in the 12-bar form. The melodies typically are melancholic and sad with a smooth feel.

Some of the strongest characteristics of blues piano are the flatted 5th note added to the pentatonic scale, 12-bar blues rhythm pattern, along with the left hand playing the bassline and the right hand playing the melody.

Ray Charles and Otis Spann are useful blues-piano listening examples. Jon Lord and Jimmy Smith are also worth hearing for the wider blues keyboard tradition, especially the Hammond organ. Their playing helps show how blues ideas can transfer between piano, electric organ, and rock keyboards.

5. Musical Theater Piano

Piano music is a crucial element of musical theater as music is the core with which the main emotions and ideas are transmitted to the audience. Musical theater pianists must be highly versatile and master many different techniques and styles to create the right music and feeling whenever necessary.

Playing piano in a musical theater is very different then other styles, hence its own style. Musical theater pianists need to be very sensitive and flexible while they have to improvise well and fluently when needed. As different plays will require different styles, tempo, emotions, and techniques, they have to be familiar with different styles. 

Broadway musicians like George Gershwin, Andrew Lloyd Webber, and Marvin Hamlisch are considered some of the best musical theater pianists in history.

6. Pop Rock Piano

Pop Rock piano is a modern piano style derived from the blues piano style in the 50s. Pop-rock pianists accompany pop and rock songs with relatively simpler particular chord progressions and rhythmic grooves. Today, keyboards are capable of many unique sounds, and the tonal characteristics are also key for pop-rock pianists.

In Pop Rock piano style, minor and major, along with some diminished chords, are often used. The tempo varies from song to song, and a steady groove matters even when the chord progression is simple. 

It is a popular style for pianists who want to accompany familiar songs, perform with bands, or entertain an audience. Those skills can be useful for paid work, but learning pop-rock piano does not make well-paid jobs easy to find. Building a repertoire, keeping reliable time, and learning to play with singers are more practical goals than expecting a particular income.

There are many worldwide famous musicians that are pop or rock pianists, such as Elton John, Jon Lord, Billy Joel, and Alicia Keys.

7. Country and Western Piano

Country and western piano is another modern style born in the U.S.A. with the influence of earlier folk music of the region. Country piano characteristics are simple chord progressions, upbeat rhythmic grooves, bright melodies, and heavy use of pentatonic scales.

The feel of the style is created by the left hand’s basslines which are quite simple to play. There are cliche up and down walks in country piano along with simple techniques like adding an octave to the chords. 

Floyd Cramer, Hargus “Pig” Robbins, and Moon Mullican are the most talented and famous country pianists of all time.

8. Liturgical Piano

Liturgical piano is piano playing used in worship services. It describes a setting and purpose, rather than one fixed musical vocabulary shared by every congregation. Some services use closely notated accompaniments; others allow chord charts, improvised introductions, or flexible support for singers. The amount of personal interpretation depends on the service and its musical direction.

Liturgical songs can be very easy to play as they feature 2 or 3 basic chords and simple progressions. But there are also some complex and challenging songs, so the level heavily depends on the individual tracks.

Liturgical repertoire can include hymns, chant arrangements, contemporary worship songs, and other music chosen for the service. It does not all stem from folk songs, and an accompaniment that looks simple can still demand careful voicing, timing, and sensitivity to the congregation. Many pianists pursue this work as part of their musical life.

Names like David Haas, Hector Olivera, and Jason White are the most popular names in the liturgical piano world.

9. Boogie-Woogie Piano

Another piano style derived from blues and jazz piano is the boogie-woogie piano style. It is one of the most fun piano styles as it is actually a dance music style with jazz and blues harmony influences. The end result is a distinctive dancy rhythm along with music that expresses sadness and melancholia.

Boogie-Woogie is a highly percussive blues piano style in which the left hand supplies a repeated bass pattern, often called an ostinato. The right hand adds riffs, chords, and syncopated phrases above it. Keeping that driving bass steady while the other hand varies the melody is a large part of the style’s feel.

It is not a challenging style to learn and play some songs, but it is difficult to master the style to an advanced level. This is because you need chops and high stamina to play the songs properly.

Arthur Migliazza, Jimmy Yancey, Albert Ammons, and Meade Lux Lewis are regarded as some of the most talented boogie-woogie pianists in the world.

10. Cocktail Piano

Cocktail piano differs from other styles not with its different techniques, melodies, or genre but with its application. Cocktail piano or lounge piano is the piano style that accompanies the room as the background music in a meeting, dinner, or any occasion. The music can be jazz, classic, or any other genre.

The most important characteristic of the cocktail piano is the fact that the pianist is not the star of the room but just a part of the atmosphere. The music composed and performed for cocktail piano style must acknowledge that fact. The music should be easy to listen to and suit the ambiance well.

Some important cocktail pianists are Liberace, Eddy Duchin, and Roger Williams.

What are other popular alternative piano styles?

There are countless piano styles and substyles to explore. New-age piano and ragtime pianos are popular alternative piano styles not mentioned on the list. They are both quite distinctive with unique characteristics.

Ragtime features syncopated melodies, with accents that work against a steady underlying beat. In classic piano rags, a regularly moving accompaniment supports those displaced accents. Ragtime is an important American piano tradition that helped shape later styles, rather than the first piano music ever to develop in the United States.

On the other hand, new-age piano often uses spacious textures, repeated figures, and slowly changing harmony. Simple progressions can be part of that sound, but polychords are not a requirement. A polychord combines two distinct chords at once; that is a harmonic device a player may choose, rather than a definition of new-age piano.

What are the benefits of learning a new style of piano playing?

Every piano style has something to offer for pianists. To be a skillful piano player or a master, you need to be comfortable with most genres, and you have to be familiar with them all. This way, you can become a more versatile player and can play better and richer improvised partitions.

Conclusion

Every piano style is different from each other with its techniques, melodies, cliches, licks, rhythm grooves, and harmony. Mastering all of them, or at least most of them can make you progress with your playing significantly as it forces you out of your comfort zone to learn and play new skills and melodies.