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Take a tune you really like, and transcribe it into all 12 keys. Breakdown the tune so you see it as not just a complete melody but a series of intervals. Or, try just learning basic intervals on their own in all 12 keys. This is a good app for that: piano interval trainer. Doing this away from the keyboard is a good idea, because it gets you away from relying on your muscle memory.
Thanks!
It's not that hard actually :). I have bought "Mark Fletcher's JazzDrumsV1" on Loopmasters. ( http://www.loopmasters.com/products/1719-Jazz-Drums-Vol1-Mark-Fletcher ) There are jazz drum loops on there, and I used it for the drums.
Then I downloaded a double-bass sample somewhere on the internet, it was free to use.
I use the Renoise software ( http://www.renoise.com/ ) to compose my music. I put it at the right BPM and just added the drum loop on every pattern. The only thing left was the double-bass and I started with the root notes of the chords I was playing and then added some extra in-between notes.
I played this on my headphones and recorded myself on the piano and mixed my recording with the generated audio from Renoise in Audacity. I used a Compressor effect on my recording to improve the sound a little bit, although it wasn't necessary as I found a good way to record my piano with my Zoom H1 microphone which is awesome.
This whole process took about one hour, and most of that time was spent in making multiple piano recordings to get a flawless one.
I see Alfred All-in-One recommended often. I'll vouch for the Schaum series since my teacher used it when I was a kid.
Tim Richards Exploring jazz piano is a good choice. No nonsense and a great way to learn the basics.
I also consider Learn Jazz Standards to be a great resource.
this is the best book of jazz scales that i have found, it has good fingerings:
https://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Scales-Arpeggios-Exercises-Improvisation/dp/1976515300/ref=sr_1_3
Just want to say you might enjoy a book about reharmonization, like this one.
both of your voicing suggestions are nice. in general if you have a larger open voicing (like 5 or 6 note) you make inversions just by moving them up one note at a time to the next available in the group. it takes a lot of practice to be able to do this in real time.
another possibility to deal with this chord is to think of it as E-7 over C. then you can take a standard drop 2 voicing of the E-7, or some other open voicing, and add a bass note. usually something like that works well.
the book that i think discusses these issues the best is this. i highly recommend it.
https://www.amazon.com/Creative-Approach-Piano-Harmony-Dobbins/dp/B000WMIPMQ#customerReviews
this book has reasonable arrangements of some standards at different levels
i don't know if this is the level you're looking for or not. if you are an absolute beginner then unfortunately you might have to suffer through low level piano books with kids songs, elves, gnomes, etc.
I thought it looked cool, I don’t have it though and it seems that it may be a little too advanced for me so I’ll hold off for now. I’m sure it’s a great book though!
Oscar Peterson - Jazz Exercises, Minuets, Etudes & Pieces for Piano https://www.amazon.com/dp/0634099795?psc=1&ref_=cm_sw_r_apin_ct_AAEQHMX0Y1683B2YAZSV
Books aren't the answer for everything but for voicings I would pick up this book and burn on it til it's all second nature
https://www.amazon.com/Stylistic-II-V7-Voicings-Keyboardists/dp/1562240846
The exercises in Jazz Keyboard Harmony might be down your alley. Basically do what you're doing but with more variety: not only the circle of fourths but also moving by thirds, by whole step, by half step, and randomly.
Another way to practice is to simply flip through tunes in a fake book and play them using the inversions you're practicing until you can do it consistently to a metronome.
what's your goal? if you want to use it in solo playing then it's a great way to make a reasonably full sound when you add a bass note in the LH (so 5 notes total). by using different bass notes with the same 4note voicing you can get very interesting harmonic stuff going on. check out Bill Dobbins's book on harmony
https://www.amazon.com/Creative-Approach-Piano-Harmony-Dobbins/dp/B000WMIPMQ
to see what i mean.
I recently started reading through this book by Bert Ligon, and have liked it so far. It takes an approach of trying to classify patterns and sequences of notes in specific ways - it's almost scientific in its approach. Like some others here have said, taking improv and tying to boil it down to fundamental building blocks can be a little odd, since it doesn't sound very "natural" if you then just follow a bunch of sequences. But the trick then is to take the sequences and work them into a passage so that it sounds natural. And the book does a good job of showing how to do this too, since it provides examples from real jazz and classical music. Bottom line, I think it might be roughly what you're looking for, but the fact still remains that you'll have to do a ton of drilling and practice to get it sounding good, regardless of whether you take a more "scientific" approach like this book, or a more "natural" approach of just doing what you think sounds good.
I've found this one very useful for improvisational work.
​
(1) practicing drop two voicings in all inversions of all seventh chords. combining them with different bass notes to make five-note voicings with smooth voice-leading in progressions. basically as described in
https://www.amazon.com/CREATIVE-APPROACH-JAZZ-PIANO/dp/3892212406/
(in my opinion the best book to take someone from intermediate to advanced, whatever that means).
(2) improvising 4-part arrangements of tunes to develop inner lines, cf
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCDQCL9_XbI
and what he does with Body and Soul.
(3) playing tunes in different keys, as much as possible. look at what voicings you do in what keys, and transfer them between keys.
Yes if you’re a pianist then get for C instruments/C concert, it’s well worth it.
Awesome! FYI, this same take is transcribed in the new Bill Evans Omnibook. I can send you pics of the pages if you want to compare it to your version.
I just started looking at Phil DeGreg's Jazz Keyboard Harmony and it's by far the most hands-on, incremental, comprehensive program I've seen for getting chord voicings into muscle memory. Has anyone else here used it?
Based on replies here, it sounds like it may be more intensive than you need. Just google "shell voicings" and practice 3-note voicings for primary chord types in all keys.
diminished scale
hexatonic scales
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hexatonic_scale
(a relatively exhaustive treatment of their applications in jazz is given in Terefenko's book.)
i would also recommend broadening your scope and putting some time into two-handed voicings and their inversions. that's one of the key things to get to a new level. best resource i know is
https://www.amazon.com/Advance-Music-Creative-Approach-Harmony/dp/0206309341
there's a lot to say about playing solo piano and building voicings. one immediate thing to point out is that many jazz piano players have some classical background, and in particular have spent some time playing the classical solo piano literature. one of the benefits is that they have a good idea already of how notes in voicings are distributed across the hands, how the LH can generate rhythmic interest, what typical accompaniment patterns are used, etc. since you know a lot more about guitar and bass you won't have that experience (i know firsthand because i play a little guitar and have the opposite experience).
i think the best thing for you to do would be to get a teacher. short of that, it would be to get some books that explain how the problems you raise are typically solved. The Jazz Piano Book by Mark Levine is often given as a reference. it's overall very good imo but has some problems. in any case it's not a bad place to start.
another option is the 4 vol set by Bill Dobbins The Contemporary Jazz Pianist. it's a heavy lift but has tons of info. i wrote up something about their contents here:
finally, for more advanced material on building 2-handed voicings efficiently, there is this book by Bill Dobbins:
https://www.amazon.com/Advance-Music-Creative-Approach-Harmony/dp/0206309341
Love it.
Heads up I wanted to read your blog posts but they aren't showing
Another cool feature would be "functional training" where the app plays a simple chord progression to establish a key, e.g. ii-V-I, followed by a single note in the key which the user has to identify. This app here1 got me so excited about getting to a bare minimum level of competence that I posted about it somewhere and got accused of shilling for it.
Thanks for making this site!
fake books refers typically to unauthorized anthologies of lead sheets that circulated among musicians. the original music means the sheet music published by the original composers.
a lot of tunes became standards because they were written by the great Broadway composers. they form what is called the Great American Songbook cf
https://www.amazon.com/American-Popular-Song-Innovators-1900-1950/dp/0195014456
you can read a lot more about the history of fake books here
https://www.amazon.com/Story-Fake-Books-Bootlegging-Musicians/dp/0810857278
One way to improve technique is to take away or improve the "thinking" or the "calculation" that your brain does when it comes to playing a chord or scale.
By "calculation", I mean the task of your brain having to work out all the notes that need to played, or what would be an appropriate voicing for a chord.
It might be that it takes you only a few seconds to figure out all the notes. But even this small delay in process will greatly reduce your technical fluency on the piano.
For instance, how quickly can you voice a Minor 7th Flat 5 chord in Gb, and resolve it to its tonic?
Many people make the mistake, on just relying on the muscle memory in their hands to remember where things are. This comes from practicing something over and over again, till they they are fluent.
But muscle memory is dangerous because it relies on you playing things in a certain way to recall information. For instance, recalling all the notes in a scale, by playing it in an ascending fashion. This is an inefficient method recollection.
A better way is to focus on how to see things in all keys on the pianos. Learn to the visualize the shapes in all 12 keys.
You can use an app like this for that. piano trainer
As an intermediate pianist, the app won't treat you like an idiot and teaches you to visualize everything using the Circle of 4ths ad the Circle of 5ths.
Just use the free portion of the app, and see if you can memorize a Triad in one of the inversions in 1 day.
Basically improving your ability to see where things are will have the residual effect of improving your technique.
If you're on Android then Music Tutor would do the job perfectly.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.jsplash.musictutor
I'm sure there's something similar on ios
it was great to learn them. they are an essential tool in building solo piano performances, because they are a very efficient and quick way to get a balanced and full voicing (which is why they get used all the time in horn arrangements). a lot of interesting, highly altered voicings can easily be formed by combining them with different bass notes. after one gets them in the fingers, other (more interesting) voicings are easy to quickly play.
the bible of this idea is this book by Bill Dobbins (highly recommended)
https://www.amazon.com/Advance-Music-Creative-Approach-Harmony/dp/0206309341
https://www.amazon.com/Harmonic-Exercises-Piano-Clare-Fischer/dp/B008OHVRU8
also i found this video of someone demonstrating one of them. there are other variations, and it's good to run all of them through all keys.
Great post. I would also add The Lobster Theory. It's not a music theory book, but a book about the philosophy of being a better jazz musician. I highly recommend it.
you should check out this book: https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/title/jazz-keyboard-harmony-voicing-method-for-all-musicians-sheet-music/5139624
I use it with all my jazz students. It's a very systematic method to build your voicings up from exactly where you are right now.
Or if you want some more expansive/creative voicings, you could try this one:
https://www.amazon.com/Pianists-Memorization-Substitutions-Arranging-Techniques/dp/0971596905
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Get a copy of the Charlie Parker Omnibook for C instruments, 10 bucks on amazon. Has the heads and solos notated out but honestly you should just listen to the recordings and try and learn just by ear eventually, don’t bother notating them out that’s way too time consuming. Link to the book is below.
I would recommend the tunes Confirmation, Blues For Alice, Bloomdido, and Moose the Mooch which is a rhythm changes tune. Pick any one of those you can’t go wrong. Also, don’t learn the entire solo. Listen to it, but analyze and transcribe just small sections, like a phrase over a 2-5-1 or turnaround phrase, or a blues lick/phrase. And learn that one phrase you like in all 12 keys. Then move onto a new phrase you like and do the same.
Charlie Parker is jazz 101. Confirmation gets called at jam sessions allllllll the time. Some of his phrases aren’t the most pianistic or fit under your fingers super well but will make you much better. Also study and transcribe pianist Bud Powell, the epitome of bebop genius. Both him and Parker are well worth your time.
As other commenters have noted, it depends on where you want to go with this. If guitar will remain your primary instrument, you may not need something super sturdy. I'm picking up the chromatic harmonica (primary is jazz piano), and I absolutely started with something meager to get me going.
In terms of learning more theory, and as a fan of myriad voicings and chordscales and how they sound in different ranges — I think range will be more important than how organically natural the hammer action is. You don't want it to feel like a synthesizer, for sure, but you may want to compromise on priciness of super-professional weighted keys versus full range of keys.
I found <strong>this one for ya</strong> at a similar price point — I've always liked Yamaha's pianos and loathed their keyboards for some reason, but I know nothing about the Alesis brand.
Check out this book: https://www.amazon.com/Worlds-Best-Piano-Arrangements-Standards/dp/0898985986/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1500027652&sr=8-1&keywords=worlds+best+jazz+piano+arrangements
Not for beginners. Great jazz piano arrangements.