Page "Duke Ellington" Paragraph 8

Ellington began listening to, watching, and imitating ragtime pianists, not only in Washington, D. C., but in Philadelphia and Atlantic City, where he vacationed with his mother during the summer months.

Dunbar High School music teacher Henry Lee Grant gave him private lessons in harmony.

With the additional guidance of Washington pianist and band leader Oliver " Doc " Perry, Ellington learned to read sheet music, project a professional style, and improve his technique.

Ellington was also inspired by his first encounters with stride pianists James P. Johnson and Luckey Roberts.

Later in New York he took advice from Will Marion Cook, Fats Waller, and Sidney Bechet.

Ellington started to play gigs in cafés and clubs in and around Washington, D. C. and his attachment grew to be so strong that he turned down an art scholarship to the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn in 1916.

Three months before graduating he dropped out of Armstrong Manual Training School, where he was studying commercial art.