Educational Perspectives of a Jazz Pianist by David Hazeltine
By David Hazeltine I was 11 years old when after 3 years of basic music instruction, I began my weekly lessons with Will Green, a very accomplished blind, Jazz pianist and organist. His style of teaching was completely hands on, meaning he taught me exactly how to play tunes with precise voicings and bass notes, […]
Now For Something Different – Lee Konitz’s “Motion”
By Joanna Sabater Let’s talk about a wonderful album called Motion by the great saxophonist Lee Konitz. Motion features the following musicians: Lee Konitz – Alto Saxophone Elvin Jones – Drums Sonny Dallas – Bass Do you notice anything interesting about this lineup? There’s no piano! Although the piano is an extremely important instrument, listening to groups […]
Jazz Piano Voicings – How To Comp Like Wes Montgomery
Wes Montgomery is frequently overlooked when talking about the GREAT jazz soloists. Montgomery’s approach to jazz improvisation should be utilized by ALL soloists but especially pianists. Instead of focusing on specific harmony or rhythm devices used, the core of Wes’ improvisation come from his use of different textures to develop ideas. Pianists can take full advantage of […]
Useful Considerations for Jazz Piano Comping
By Sam Griffith Jazz piano comping can be extremely difficult. When accompanying other musicians, pianists have a lot to think about! Here are a few things to ALWAYS remember: Keep It Simple! This process always begins with finding the right notes AND playing them in time. This is not always easy, but very important to remember! […]
How To Impress Drummers With Your Rhythmic Comping
One of my students recently asked me a great question about how to approach exploring rhythmic concepts to incorporate into his playing. Although he has played classical music for many years, he started taking jazz lessons with me about 2 years ago, and has just recently played his first gig and a couple more after […]
4 Considerations for Jazz Piano Comping (Written by Dr. Samuel Griffith, trombone)
1) Time Beginning jazz pianists frequently forget, ignore, and devalue the importance of comping IN TIME. This should be the number one consideration when comping! If a pianist comps with bad time, or is playing out of time, the power of everything they do is lessened. Sometimes, even more experienced players will sacrifice time to […]
