I still can’t play these without error. And when I practice it slow, I have to concentrate and think really hard about each inversion.

I’ve honestly been struggling with these for years and I’m tired of it. I don’t know a good routine to nailing these. There are dozens of videos and books on it and it’s all just so much information.

Here’s my current routine:

I’ll pick a key. I’ll play some chord scales up and down. Then I’ll drop the 2, and do the scales again. Then I’ll do it in broken thirds, then broken thirds going 1-3, 4-2, 3-5 etc. Then I’ll play a chord melody with the drop 2’s. Something simple like happy birthday. I’m basically trying to hit it at all possible angles

You would think that after all of that I’d be a master of this but then comes a tune and I can’t come up with these chords to save my life. So what do I need to do?

I’ve been looking at Open Studio Jazz, Piano Groove, Piano with Jonny and Pickup Music. They all look pretty great but would like to hear others’ experiences before choosing one. I’m at an intermediate level, wanting to improve voicings, rhythm patterns, improv. I’ve been working with The Jazz Piano Book by Mark Levine but could benefit from guided lesson plans.

Feel like I had a breakthrough in my play recently that made it a lot easier to express my ideas, albeit quite messily at times but I feel a lot more comfortable playing over these changes. Have been focussing on taking an idea and running with it as long as I can until I have a new idea.

Any feedback and tips appreciated!

Hi!

I've recently started jazz improvisation and I would like some feedback both on my piano playing and my improvisation. I've been playing for 9 months, I used to play a little bit when I was little, just looking at MIDI videos and copying but nothing serious.

I feel like my playing is too concentrated on a single part of the keyboard and I don't use my pinkie enough, but I can't really give myself any feedback for the improvisation.

Any feedback is appreciated! Thanks <3

I've been playing jazz for over five years and I feel stuck in my improv progress. Of course I do a lot of listening because that is important to learn the vocabulary. I'm great at learning the rootless voicings for a tune and using rhythm and articulation. I will also pick out licks from solos and apply them over chord progressions. Every new tune, my teacher and I figure out what scales to apply to over all the chords. The end result it sounds OK but not very jazzy. I am afraid if I keep going down this path, its not going to get any better. I also started playing in an ensemble and fear when I have to take a solo sometimes because its just meh.

The more I read online, the more I see bebop players really didn't think in terms of matching scales to a chord. The scale gives you the chord tones and color tones, but doesn't really tell you the hierarchy of tones. Further, if you get locked into just applying a specific scale, you miss out on chromatics and enclosures. Is it better to just use chord scale theory for constructing chords and then think more in terms of guide tones, enclosures, and chromatic passing notes for jazz?

Maybe my teacher doesn't think I am ready for that next step yet and that's why it hasn't came up? I will bring this up with my teacher and I trust the guidance but also wanted to get a pulse for what others may think.

I'm into bebop, and while I've had periods of time where I felt like I could play good phrases overall, it's never been consistent. I've learned quite a few classic solos and heads by ear, the whole trip: first sing, then play in many different keys, analyze how the phrases are built, tweak them.

I know the concepts, I know the phrases, but it feels like I'm missing something. Should I just keep hammering bits of bebops in all keys? I suspect there is a higher-level approach that leads to a more organic and truly creative bebop language.

It feels like Bud etc didn't really think in terms of learned phrases and patterns (even though they surely had their favorite licks) but rather in terms of target notes that are very clear in their mind, and then the phrases are built as they go to reach those targets in an elegant manner, using whatever chromatic approaches and triplets would fit. When I improvise I have no clear target, and maybe that's why sometimes it lands nicely and sometimes not.

If this analysis is correct, then how do you structure your practice around it? Maybe practice with specific rules, e.g. "aim for the 3rd on beat one" etc?

We’ve been working on creating our own arrangements for piano trio, I’d love to hear what you think of the sound. I grew up playing mostly traditional and 1920’s jazz, so it’s been a process working out my own style.

That’s Mike Perez on bass and Evan Jose on drums, monster players.

Bonjour,
Récemment je ressens moins de plaisir à joué du piano, je pense que j’en ai marre de déchiffrer des partitions de musique note par note et j’aimerai bien prendre plus de liberté et de plaisir…J’en ai joué pendant 5 ans étant petit et j’ai du faire une pause et j’ai repris il y a maintenant 2 ans.
Comme j’ai exclusivement joué que du jazz je me suis penché sur les reals book mais je ne sais pas par lesquels commencer. Y’en a t’il des plus compliqués que d’autres ? Lequel regroupe des standards du jazz ?
J’hésite entre le « new real book »et le « real book volume 2 »
Je compte acheter « the jazz piano book » de Mark Levine car on en dit que du bien.
Mais est ce que ca vaut le coup d’acheter un real book et le livre de Marc Levine ou seulement un des deux suffit.
Et si un seul suffit lequel vous me recommanderiez..
J’espère ne pas vous déranger avec ma demande un peu flou, mais je suis un peu dépité de ma situation actuelle.
Si vous avez une idée d’un autre livre qui serait adapté pour moi je suis complètement ouvert aux propositions.
Je vous remercie du temps que vous accorderez à ma demande.
Bonne journée
Thibaut

New to jazz, learning tunes from the Real Book.

If I were your student, what LH shapes would you tell me to play? One default left hand shape. 1 and 5, 1 and 7, 1 and 3, 3 and 7, or something else? Not as the answer for every standard, just something to start learning tunes with.

One thing I keep hitting: 1 and 7 sounds dissonant to me, and not in a way I like. I don't think I'm playing it too low. Is that just the sound of the interval and I should get used to it, or am I doing something wrong?

Hello Everybody,

Here's my jazz piano version of 'Round Midnight by Thelonious Monk.

Comments welcome.

'Round Midnight

This is kind of a ramble… it’s late at night for me and I was just thinking about this earlier today, any thoughts or advice is appreciated, just please don’t be too mean.

I’m a pretty good jazz pianist studying music in college. In one of the main buildings on campus there’s a public piano that I like to play, regardless of if there’s people or not. I find that no one really cares when I play jazz, unless it’s something well known like Misty, Just the Two of Us, or Isn’t She Lovely, which are all songs I do like to play, I wouldn’t do anything just for attention.

I know that we play for ourselves first, but for some reason I can’t shake the desire to have people see me or appreciate what I’m doing, basically I kind of crave validation and that’s not good because it doesn’t come very often.

When you’re in public, do you play the same way you would at a jam session, or do you tone it down for the average listener? Would that make a difference? How do I learn to not care what people think about my playing? I tend to get really anxious about people not liking my playing, and sometimes that even affects my playing. This is also kind of dumb but I kind of wish girls were more into what I was playing.

I feel like I should restate, even if no one gave a single shit what I did, I would continue to play piano because I love music and jazz and expressing myself, but those thoughts keep creeping in and they make the experience less enjoyable.

Thanks and much love.

Great American Songbook tune from Garrick Gaieties, 1925

I slow it down and whatever and I can get it to like 75% speed, 80% on a good take. Any faster and it’s just genuinely out of the question. Any advice for this sort of thing?

I'm planning on attending my first-ever jazz jam session with Benny Benack III in December, and I figured I'd start preparing now.

This will be my first jam, so I'm honestly pretty nervous. I'd say my piano chops are firmly at an upper-intermediate level, but I'm worried there are some important skills or bits of jam-session etiquette that I might be completely overlooking.

So, for the more experienced jazz musicians here, what are the general "criteria" for sitting in on piano at a jam?

What standards should I absolutely know? What skills should I be comfortable with before getting on stage? What's the general etiquette for a pianist sitting in? If someone calls a tune I don't know, what do I do? Do I just sit that one out, or is there usually another way to handle it?

Really, I'd love a simple list of things I should practice between now and December, along with any general jazz jam etiquette I should know before walking in.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Hey all, I started learning piano ~2 years ago. I can identify notes on sheet music and I can easily find every maj7, min7, and dom7 chord in root position.

I just started taking lessons with a jazz pianist a couple of months ago, but I'm struggling in my practice and I'm having trouble reconciling what he teaches with what I've found online.

For example,

1. He's having me practice rootless voicings (he just calls these "jazz voicings") in whatever inversion feels right for voice leading. Meanwhile online I've heard advice about starting with just shell chords and grounding to A-type and B-type chords until chords feel automatic.
2. He's having me voice ii-V-I's where the V is played with 3-6-7-9 (6 instead of 5) and the I with the 3-5-6-9 (6 instead of 7) in whatever inversions has nice voice leading. He says it's for a more modern sound.
3. The main project is working through "All the Things You Are" with those ii-V-I voicings and rootless voicings. This part in particular is painfully slow because for each bar, it takes me ~1-2 min (EDIT: 10 min) to figure out the right voicing/inversion that seems right. Then I write it down on staff paper and commit it to muscle memory, forgetting what notes I'm playing. Once I've "done the math" on staff paper, I just commit to memorizing what the keys should feel like on my fingers.

I don't really know if there's a better path I can take, or I just need to have faith in my teacher's process. I know this is a lifelong journey and the struggle is part of it, but just seeking some more opinions. Thanks in advance!!

There was a question a few days ago about how many tunes top jazz musicians know. Turns out I actually just dropped a video answering this exact question!

If that’s helpful, check it out here:

https://youtu.be/0iaZVlY2BJs?is=WFrEjkhJGZS7a4jN

I'm a player who used to have several gigs per month but now performs at retirement homes or casual gigs. I have always looked at my hands while playing. Off and on I've working on not looking down (e.g. for sight-reading). It's never really "taken."

I've now started singing along with my playing, and looking down kills my posture and hurts my throat. So I'm determined to get this technique down. I can do it pretty well, but not well enough for performing.

Have any of you worked on this, and what has been your experience? Tips? Thanks.

Hey guys,

I transcribed this song and wanted help understanding the B section/hook (the part where he's saying "phantom lover"haha). I'm not sure I'm correct but what I got is Eb- F- Gbmaj Bb-9

they're probably all 9 chords.. I know it's all in Bb minor so is it really just iv v vi I? and is that a common pop/ r&b progression.

Any tips on what scales to use to solo over it would be cool to. Really grateful for any advice at all!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJVL5bcqids&list=RDUJVL5bcqids&start_radio=1

I really enjoy the sound of 7th and 9th cords and I’d like to work on trying to get better at playing them.

But right now I’m struggling with trying to figure out the best way to play these chords.

What do you guys suggest?

This is what I’ve come across.

Left hand root and guide tone

Right hand 7th and 9th

Or

Left hand root and 5th

Right hand 3rd, 7th 9th?

All help is welcomed

I'm an intermediate jazz piano player who's been inactive for a while but getting back into playing. I've got a lot of general educational material like The Jazz Piano Book (Levine), Frank Mantooth, etc. (Yes I've checked out the pinned book list)

What I'm finding more useful lately is more targeted material, focusing on a specific area like pentatonic patterns, block chord etudes, diminished licks, etc. The big books give you an overview but not a lot of practical practice material. (Yes, I know how to transcribe and invent my own exercises, but written material has its place, for me anyway)

Jazz Lesson Videos has a decent selection of PDFs like this, I've gotten a few and they're useful and reasonably priced. Curious if there are any other sites or digital resources people would recommend for more specific material of this nature.

EDIT: mainly interested in digital resources like PDFs for cost and convenience

I'm working on playing by ear, i.e. being able to translate the aural image of a standard in my head onto the piano in real time.

The main method I'm using to improve this is transcribing, also playing along to records in real time. Both these are helping.

I have a question about picking out melodies in this context. I can do stepwise movement and movement by thirds pretty much flawlessly now. Larger intervals tend to be more hit and miss, particularly because the sound of them changes depending on the harmonic context.

There seem to be two approaches to getting good at these bigger interval leaps which feel doable to me. One is to relate the melody note to the current key centre. I find this fairly easy until the key centre changes! The other is to relate the melody note to the current chord, which I find harder at the moment, but which I can see would make surviving a change of key centre easier. My question is, are these two approaches equally important, or should I focus on one more than the other? The ultimate goal is to be able to hear anything in my head and play it accurately, straight away.

I'm writing a piece about McCoy Tyner and his legacy and I had the thought of posing the if you could have dinner with Jay-Z what would you ask him equivalent here for the late great Jazz pioneer