Here’s lesson 12: The blues

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You can now purchase lesson 12 of my online course ‘Learn Jazz Piano online.’ This lesson is all about the blues. You will learn how to solo, using many creative techniques. I have also included the minor blues.

The blues isn’t always in 4/4 time. In fact 12/8 is very common so we also take a close look at this.

As always, I’ve provided you with backing tracks, sheet music and a quiz.

http://www.learnjazzpianoonline.com/lessons.html

Lesson 11 now available

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I’ve just uploaded lesson 11 of Learn Jazz Piano Online. It’s called Autumn Leaves part 2 and picks up where lesson 10 left off. This lesson is divided up into three sections: head, comp and solo.

Head – this is just the jazz term for the tune or melody. Because we have been using shells in our left hand, this sometimes creates a rather bare sound when we play just the melody note in the right hand. Shells play 1 and 7 or 1 and 3 of the chord. Most chord voicings require the 1, 3 and 7 in order that the harmony makes sense. Once these three notes are present, we can then add ‘filler’ notes like 5, 9 etc.

In Autumn Leaves, the melody mostly hits the 3. If the shell is playing 1 + 7, then a good filler note might be 5. Remember that it’s the dominant seventh chord that provides all the potential tension. Therefore, our voicing can include altered notes (secondary extensions) to add some spice. These 4 notes are b9, #9, #11 and b13.

Comp –  we are at present using a 4-note comp. Once again, look out for the dominant seventh chords, for it’s here that we can include the altered notes. In Autumn Leaves we already have F7 and D7 but in this lesson we add G7. This is known as a secondary dominant.

Solo - In lesson 10 we used horizontal improvisation. This is when we can use one parent scale to play over a family of related chords. In lesson 10 we are starting to solo more vertically, and, once again, the dominant sevenths give us the opportunity to deviate from the parent scale. For example, the chord F7 allows us to play Gb, G# and Db, respectively b9, #9 and b13.

We also revisit ‘walking 3s’. We target the 3 of each chord and walk between these chords on their ‘parent’ track. Once we are walking 3s we are then able to use the diminished chords contained within the dominant seventh (3+5+7) and then play another minor 3rd interval above the 7. This results in the b9.

If you have any questions, please ask.

You can click here to find lesson 11.

Why I set up Learn Jazz Piano Online.

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Some of you have followed my iTunes audio podcasts over the last few years. A natural progression would be to use video and offer backing tracks. Although this is what I’m now doing, it’s not the reason why I started the site. The truth has nothing to do with music!

Around two years ago I went on jury service. The average time a trial usually lasts is two weeks, In fact a juror can get through a few cases in this time or sit around in the waiting room and not be called at all. The trial I was allocated to lasted nine… months! And if that wasn’t bad enough, this case was about investment fraud. I can’t even add up, yet had to stare at balance sheets and listen to the evidence of accountants for weeks on end. After a couple of months I was at the point of insanity. Now I’ll not say that what I then did to save myself took place in the actual court room under the table, because I want you to know that I was paying attention for every minute of those nine months. So, instead, I’ll tell you that in the lunch and tea breaks I  got this bright idea to write a book on jazz piano. This book would be based around a web site where you could watch videos, download backing tracks and even do a quiz.

Time flew by! Working it all out was the easy bit, great fun actually. But I didn’t take into account that I would eventually have to learn to make and edit videos and then find someone that would put my dream together. To be continued…

My article on WikiHow

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The following article was first published on WikiHow. 

How to Play a Jazz Piano Solo

Can you play a great jazz piano solo just by instinct? Errol Garner and Chet Baker are two instances of masters that, apparently, couldn’t read music. However, unless you are a genius, you need more than just good instinct.

Steps

  1. Gain a sound knowledge of each chord and its extensions. A good deal of the excitement of jazz comes from the concept of tension to release. This is created by the dominant seventh chord moving to its tonic: V – I: the perfect cadence. Let’s take G7 moving to Cmaj7. All the tension is contained in the G7 and we create this tension with notes known as extensions. These are notes not within the chord. So we have 9, 11 and 13 – let’s call these primary extensions, and b9, #9, #11 and b13 – the secondary extensions or alterations. In the case of G7 these three primary extensions are A, C and E. The four alterations for G7 are Ab, A#, C# and Eb. By combining these extensions with the basic notes of G7 (G, B, D and F) you create the tension that will release into the tonic chord of Cmaj7.
  2. Get to know your way round the scale or mode of each chord? Again, taking G7, the basic mode that fits any dominant seventh chord is the the Mixolydian mode – just play the major scale but flatten the seventh note. So the Mixolydian mode of G7 is G, A, B, C, D, E, F, G – all the white notes. But to create more tension, and bring in some extensions you could try some other scales. The diminished scale ( just play alternative half step/whole step from the root of any dominant seventh) works really well as it creates a b9, #9 and #11. The notes for G7 would be G, Ab, A#, B, C#, D, E, F, G. Other possibilities are the whole tone scale (whole steps) which gives you the #11 and b13 and the Lydian Dominant (same as Mixolydian but with a raised 4th) which gives you just the #11.
  3. Combine a knowledge of the chord’s extensions with scales and modes that fit the chord. Yes, this involves a lot of work that needs to become second nature before ‘instinct’ kicks in.

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Well, that’s what I wrote. When I mentioned it on the Linkedin forum ‘Jazz Piano’ it created quite a fuss. The usual extremes from “let’s have more theory” to “who needs theory?”