How to Play “Block Chords” Like George Shearing
In this lesson we’ll learn how to play “block chord” voicings in a jazz style. This technique was made famous by George Shearing, and used by other pianists such as Oscar Peterson and Bill Evans. You can use it to harmonize melodies and achieve a fuller soloistic sound when playing in a group.
9 Ways To Storytell With Your Improvisation
I’ve heard extremely technically proficient and knowledable improvisers completely fail at telling a story with their solo. When this happens it stinks! None of us want to be in that position. Here’s 9 ways for you to be a GREAT story teller when soloing. Let’s get it!
JPS Ep:141 – How To Integrate Jazz Extensions Into Your Voicings
I get this question a lot, and that is… “Brenden, how do I integrate extensions into my voicings?” Well most of the time you’ll here upper structure triads brought up immediately. In this episode I would like to go a step further and teach you some easy strategies you can use to extract SPECIFIC colors from your voicings by integrating the extensions of your choice! Here we go!
JPS Ep:140 – The 8th Note Exercise: The Key to Smoother Lines for Jazz Piano
This exercise is a trade secret I learned to make my improvised lines smoother. After working with this exercise, you will make it through the changes of tunes you used to find challenging with style and grace! In this podcast lesson, well be looking at the notorious jazz standard, “Cherokee” and I’ll be showing you different ways to approach working on your eighth notes flows through this exercise. Let’s go!
JPS Ep:138 – 4 Ways To Spice Up Major 7th Chords
We ALL get stuck in our own ways of playing something the same way. Even me! Check out these 4 ways to add some spice, texture, and atmosphere to your major 7th chords.You can start to use these 4 building blocks to expand upon as well and create new sounds!
JPS Ep:137 – What JPS Is Today & Where It’s Going
Jazz Piano School has come a LONGGG way since the days I first hacked together a terrible wordpress site. Now, JPS has helped, and is CURRENTLY helping thousands of people learn jazz piano freedom. In this episode I’ll explain my goals and ambitions that I’ve brought JPS to where it is. I’ll also talk about the AMAZING expansion, custom website, and teacher tools we plan to implement!Hold on to your butts cause here we go!
JPS Ep:135 – Learn Jazz Piano – Our 4 Step System
Learning jazz piano isn’t a guessing game, even that’s how I approached it for 15+ years. It’s a system. The majority of students, including myself start by learning tunes.This should be the LAST step we do. Before that we need jazz piano TOOLS. Would you try and read and write without learning the Alphabet? No of course not. Jazz Piano is the exact same way. In this 15 minute podcast I’m going to break down the 4 step system we use that is has successfully taught thousands of students jazz piano so you can use it too.
JPS Ep:134 – Pentatonic Voicings Tutorial Part 2
Here we look at how to create more 4 and 5 note voicings in a modal setting. Today’s session explores a more flexible approach in D dorian by transposing shapes through the mode. To take it further, we look at a technique of chromatic transposition used by Herbie Hancock.
JPS Ep:133 – 4 Must Have Blues Voicing Setups
This it taken directly from our new specialty course “How To Crush The Blues”. These 4 comping setups are sure to give you everything you need to know in order to provide lush and rich sounding blues accompaniment to anyone.
JPS Ep:132 – Pentatonic Voicings Tutorial
Here is a tutorial to create 4 and 5 note pentatonic voicings. These voicings work well over modal tunes like “So What” by Miles Davis, and will give you a modern sound to add to your toolbox of voicings! Enjoy!
