Benny Green – Just A Tadd (From the album “That’s Right”) [LOTW #89]
Benny Green is well known for his extremely fast double handed bebop lines. Here is one of them from Just A Tadd. It takes a long time to get your LH as strong as your RH, but Benny has obviously done it, and it sounds awesome! To work on double handed lines like this one, […]
Benny Green – Greens (From the album “Greens”) [LOTW #88]
Here is a very nice blues lick with a lot of varying rhythms. This line can be used in an actual blues of any bluish progression that is moving down in half steps. Enjoy!
Benny Green – Decidedly (From the album “Greens”) [LOTW #87]
Once again, another nice 2536251 progression that fits perfectly. Benny uses approaches very well. Especially approaches that are anticipating another harmony. For example in the first measure after he gets to the F# he jumps back up to an A over the Bb7 chord. If he were using the chord scale this note would be […]
Jazz Piano Lick Of The Day #86 – Benny Green – “Wiggin'” (From the album “That’s Right!”)
As you might begin to see there are similarities that exist in Benny’s Lines. He loves to use the #11 over dominants to approach the 5. For example in measure one he jumps back to the F#, to approach the 5th of C. He also use the #11 in measure 3 to approach the 5th […]
Benny Green – Celia (From the album “That’s Right”) [LOTW #85]
Here is another great line that strings together two 2-5’s back to back. Benny Green’s line seamlessly flow together with ease with his use of approaches, bebop scale passing tones, and motif ideas. There’s a reason he is one of the greats. When approaching this lick outline the chord tones and use approaches and passing […]
Benny Green – Just A Tadd (From the album “That’s Right”) [LOTW #84]
This one kicks off our Benny Green series. I absolutely love Benny’s playing. It is very phrase oriented and it always sounds perfect. His lines fit together like a puzzle. All the harmonies connect so well as if there are no holes. This line here is a great line to finish up a 36251 to […]
Mulgrew Miller – Thinking Out Loud (From the album “Hand In Hand”) [LOTW #83]
This is a great maj#5 line to use to spice up major 7th chords. You can use this line over all major 7th chords and especially to end 2-5-1’s. Mulgrew is just using a major scale but adding a #5 into the mix instead of a natural 5. He then comes down with some other […]
Jazz Piano Voicings – Why Not Just Two Notes?
By Sam Griffith A lot of times in jazz we need to remove ourselves and look at the bigger artistic picture of what is happening when we are playing a jazz song. The deeper we get into studying harmony, rhythm, form, memorizing standards, etc.., the easier it is for us to lose track of the […]
Mulgrew Miller – On Green Dolphin Street (From the album “Young At Heart”) [LOTW #82]
Here is a nice pattern type of line you can use for runs. In the first measure he starts his run off by outlining an F7sus chord over the Eb maj7 chord. From here he plays somewhat of an A pentatonic but is leaving out the root. This gives certain colors over the Dmaj7 chord. […]
Mulgrew Miller – I Remember You (From the album “Wingspan”) [LOTW #81]
Mulgrew Miller starts this one of with the Eb7 Bebop scale but quickly defers to some extensions by going to the b13, the note B, jumping to the 3rd, then going #9, b9, Gb then E. In measure 2 he resolves to the fifth of the Abmaj7 chord and plays a diatonic pattern which he […]
