Wynton Kelly – Kelly Blue (Pt. 2, From the album “Kelly Blue”) [LOTW #60]
This is a great 2-5-1 lick over the last measures in a blues. A few great things Wynton Kelly does in this one are his 16th trill, grace, notes and approaches, as always. In the first measure he chooses to use B natural over the C-7 chord. This note works because it is simply a […]
Wynton Kelly – On Green Dolphin Street (Pt. 2, From the album “Kelly Blue”) [LOTW #59]
Here is the second half of the Wynton Kelly line from #58. After coming from an Eb, he resolves down into the fifth of the G7 and walks down to the third and starts a two beat triplet pattern. After doing the Wynton Kelly series, I’m sure you can see he loves using triplet patterns. […]
Wynton Kelly, – On Green Dolphin Street (Pt. 1, From the album “Kelly Blue”) [LOTW #58]
There are so many learning components in this line by Wynton Kelly, I had to make it two parts. In this first part, Wynton starts off the line on the up beat of 2 which is a great thing to do. Starting lines on upbeats really intensifies the swing feel. He goes down a half […]
Jazz Piano School Ep 37 : LH Solo Piano Components
Solo piano can be very frustrating. You have 88 keys and ten fingers. What the heck do you play? It’s easier than you might think. Your LH and RH have different roles that should work together to produce a great sounding tune. When you understand the roles each hand plays you’ll be better equipped to play solo piano and make progress. I will dissect the specific LH components in this episode. Enjoy!
Jazz Piano Voicings – How To Create LH Voicings
Everyone always is looking for more jazz piano voicings. Whether its two handed, or one handed, it seems like a jazz pianists is on a never ending journey for more voicings. I can’t say I wasn’t in the same boat at one point in my life. This is how we all start. But if I […]
Jazz Piano School Ep 36 : What Are Extensions?
Most people gravitate towards jazz because of the rich colors and sounds that come from the music. We all want to be able to play those amazing sounding chords on the piano. How do we do it though? I’ll tell you right now. Extensions. Extensions are the colors that allow you to spice up your playing and start to paint the music however you’d like. Extensions are the beginning of the road to freedom in music. Just as a painter paints with his colors, a jazz musician paints with extensions. Let’s get into it!
Wynton Kelly – Softly As In A Morning Sunrise (From the album “Soul Station”) [LOTW #57]
Here is some nice easy blues language from Wynton Kelly. All of this is blues scale but notice how he uses some grace note slides to spice things up along with a triplet note phrase. Always look for these characteristics to add flavor to your solo’s. Points for practicing this lick: Play with grace note […]
Jazz Piano School Ep 35: Walk Bass Lines Part 1
Learning how to walk bass lines is a skill all jazz pianists want to accomplish. And who wouldn’t? We have a nice bass register on the piano but we never learn how to do anything with it. Anytime we see an bass player walking all over a tune like he owns we just stare in awe. In this episode I’m going to get you started on the right path to walking bass lines that will impress a bass player! Let’s do it!
Jazz Piano School Ep 34 : Rootless Voicing Textures
We recently learned our rootless voicings. In this episode I’m going to show you how to turn these rootless voicings into two hand comping textures to use with groups or while playing solo piano. These sounds are the heart of jazz comping. Anyone who uses these will be creating jazz sounds used through out the years. We’re finally getting to the good stuff of jazz piano voicings and comping.
Jazz Piano School Ep 33 : Beginning Ear Training
Ear training is highly sought after in jazz because much of the music involves using our ear to hear progressions, licks, movements and much more. The better ear you have, the better player you will be. So how exactly do we go about improving our ear and helping it to hear movements and notes better. In this podcast that’s exactly what I will tell you.
