How To Approach Incorporating Transcription Into Your Playing
-Guest Blog Post Written By Joey Lieber for Jazz Piano School. Joey Lieber is a pianist and piano / music teacher based in Westchester, NY. To follow Joey or for any questions, visit http://www.joeylieber.com A common question I’ve gotten from students is: “What is the best way to learn new vocabulary?” After all as musicians […]
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 […]
Red Garland Plays “A Foggy Day”
By Sam Griffith Red Garland is a masterful pianist. He plays with taste and eloquene, and is a great pianist to emulate. Garland’s adaptations of standards are usually pretty terrific and provide nice blueprints for playing in a trio format. Let’s take a look (and listen!) to his version of “A Foggy Day” from the album […]
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 […]
Active Listening – Written By Fred Hersch
I have taught jazz piano and composition for many years at music schools including New England Conservatory, The New School, The Manhattan School and have given workshops, master classes and done residencies at schools around the world; I am been lucky to have taught a number of prominent young pianists. And one thing keeps showing […]
Beginner Course Launch, Saturday, January 10th, 10:30pst
[x_video_embed type=”16:9″ style=”padding-bottom:20px;”] [/x_video_embed] Beginner Course FAQ’s What is the Jazz Piano School beginner course? I wanted to create a course for beginners that started them at point A and led them to point B. In my experience beginner jazz piano materials don’t do a great job of tying information together. Yes they present information […]
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 […]
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. […]
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! […]
