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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?”