Jazz Piano School Ep 45: How To Practice LH Comping, With RH Improv
This is a great topic that someone requested on the podcast page the other day. Learning to improvise is one thing. Learning to comp with your LH while your RH improvises is a completely different story. So in this podcast I go over 5 key points that will help you practice your LH comping with your RH improvisation. I know you’ll love it! Enjoy!
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 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 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.
Jazz Piano School Ep 29 : How To Use Modes
I don’t use modes. Who needs modes? What good are modes anyway? Modes are the building blocks of improv. Modes are the notes that correspond with a chord. Not using modes is like misspelling words.
Jazz Piano School, Ep 27 : Connecting Chord Changes In Your Solo
To make our solo’s sound good we need to be able to connect the chord changes smoothly in our right hand. This means hitting chord tones on down beats without having to think about it. The ability to play these chord tones on down beats as the chords are changing will allow our solos to reflect the harmonies perfectly. We want to practice this very slowly at first until we build up our spontaneous flow. This is not something you will be able to go fast with. If you do you will hinder your learning of this skill set.
Jazz Piano School, Ep 26: Beginner Improv Part 2, Connecting Chord Tones
Jazz information has always gone about jazz piano improvisation as if it is some trip to outer space. Well you have to explore yourself in order to find out how to improvise. I couldn’t disagree more. Jazz improvisation in the beginning is definitely a step by step process. In this episode we move on to step number 2, connecting the chord tones with notes from the major scale.
5 Improvisation Upgrades For Any Level
I had a student that was a puzzle to me. It barely seemed like he cared, was always late, and never practiced. But…when I asked him to improvise over tunes, he would tear it up! I just couldn’t understand. I hadn’t even taught him much yet he was playing like a ten year vet. So […]
Jazz Piano School, Ep 24: How To Start Improvising (Beginner)
When learning how to improvise you want to make sure you have the necessary foundation to support your solo. These initial steps will make sure you get started on the right path to playing killin jazz piano solos and sounding your best.
5 Improvisation Tips That Will Make You Better Immediately
Have you ever opened a jazz book and read through some things and then said to yourself, “Am I really going to be able to use this at all?” I’ve probably done this thousands of time. Searching the internet and musical book stores for those nuggets that will make your playing sound better without even […]
