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 […]
Jazz Piano School Ep 41 : Improvising Rhythmic Motifs
By do some solo’s sound boring and some sound awesome? Rhythms. Rhythms in jazz are the feel good mojo that spices up your solo. They are at the heart of our soul. In order to make our solos pop and have the feel good feeling to them we need to add rhythms to our solo that have contrast. If we are playing all eighth notes and quarter notes on downbeats, our solo’s will sound bland and dry. In this episode I give you many different ways to practice your rhythms in order to spice up your solo.
Jazz Piano School Ep 40 : The Altered Scale
When you’re first learning jazz it’s hard to get that jazz sound that gives tensions and sounds like we’re not playing like a baby. It might sound to you like you’re playing is sooo beginnerish still. Well here’s how to change it. By learning the altered scale we will immediately give our playing lots of tension and color by using the extensions in this scale. Enjoy!
Jazz Piano School Ep 39 : The Tritone Substitution
We as jazz musicians have a lot of freedom to change progressions and harmonies in a tune. How exactly do we do it though? In this podcast I’ll teach you a foundational concept that will lead to many more reharm opportunities while soloing, comping, and playing solo piano. Enjoy!
Jazz Piano School Ep 38 : How To Develop Your Solos
As I’ve said before jazz is like speaking a language. We know that person in our life that won’t stop talking. They just talk and talk and talk. It’s never fun to listen to them. The people who take their time and say something meaningful are the ones to listen to. We want to be those people on the piano. It’s extremely easy for us as pianists to play and play and play because we have a percussive instrument. We can just bang away on the piano and not reazlie we’re not leaving space. In this podcast I’ll teach you how to focus your mind so you can develop your solos and say something meaningful.
Jazz Piano Voicings – Think Like A Big Band
By Sam Griffith A few years ago, Wynton Marsalis participated in an documentary on HBO that featured him directing a group of prodigious high-school jazz musicians. Wynton gives tons of great feedback to the musicians, especially to the pianist of the group. In a discussion about comping, Wynton gives several awesome conceptual ideas for the pianist to explore. […]
Mulgrew Miller – If I Should Lose You (From the album “Live At The Kennedy Center, Vol. 1”) [LOTW #80]
Here is a nice solo break Mulgrew Miller uses over a dominant 7th chord. He starts on the #11 and runs down the altered scale until he gets to the second measure. At this point he has a nice skip pattern he uses to get back in to the altered scale at the C natural […]
