Jazz Piano School

I still get asked all the time, "How do I use modes to improvise and why are they important?" I'm confident this episode will remove this questions and finally allow you to understand how and why modes are important to your jazz improvisation. Enjoy!

We continue our series on minor 2-5-1’s as I explain rootless voicing options and different ways to improvise along with the notes and scales that you can choose from. With a little practice you’ll feel confident about playing minor 2-5-1’s in standards in no time!

Playing minor 2-5-1 is usually a mysterious process for most. There is a lot of harmony that surrounds this subject and how to approach it. Rest assured these Minor 2-5-1 basics will allow you to feel confident when playing this type of harmony.

We continue our Benny Green Transcription Series with a minor 2-5-1 into some very nice rhythmic motifs and harmonic development lines. This is the 2nd part of his solo on "Celia".

I absolutely love Benny Green's playing. His lines are very clear, solid, and connect with the harmonies perfectly. In this podcast series I'm going to walk you through a Benny Green solo and point out the building blocks for you to practice in order to build freedom within your improv.

If you're new to adding extensions into your voicings learning these upper structure triads is a great way to get you started. With these you'll start to create some amazing sounding jazz voicings with ease! Enjoy!

As we continue our voicing series we are adding extensions into our voicing fundamentals. This is progressing us a little further and teaching us how to create freedom to build any voicings we want. With these methods you are becoming the creator instead of simply copying voicings and not understanding how they're used. Enjoy!

During my career I was always copying voicings. I spent so many years just mimicking voicings instead of learning a solid foundation that will allow me freedom to build voicings myself. This fundamental voicing building system will give you the opportunity to build voicings for yourself for the rest of your life!

There are just some tools that every pianist has to know...this is one of them. These "McCoy Tyner" 4th voicing structures are a must know tool to have in your tool box. This is a simple episode that teaches you exactly what they are. Easy to add in your repertoire. Enjoy!

We're at the last episode of our reharm series. We're using our previous tools to reharm the bridge to rhythm changes. Let me tell you...this is a doozy. Because we have two bars each of our 3-6-2-5 our options expand by A LOT! This episode is for the brave. :)

We're continuing our reharm series of progressions this week with a 3-6-2-5. We get a little crazy with the reharms, but all beautiful and effective none the less. We build off concepts from episode 83 so you if you haven't watched that I highly recommend it. Enjoy!

Once you learn a couple of reharm tools it will completely open up your playing. Not only will you be able to comp differently but you will have more options for improvisation, arranging and solo piano freedom. Check out these reharms for a 2-5-1. I will cover different progressions in the upcoming podcasts.

Connecting harmonies during improvisation is very simple when executed properly. Watch as I breakdown some ways to work on connecting harmonies and show you how to put everything together.

This is part 2 of I Should Care Improvisation Analysis. We got a lot of great feedback on this type of podcast so we're going to release a couple more as well. Watch as I break down my thought process while creating a solo from scratch.

Watch as I build a solo from scratch talking about the importance of specific and harmonic changes you should add. I also add my thought process at approaching your connections through the harmonies.

Soloing over diminished chords can be tricky, but very pretty if you have some tools in your toolbox. Check out these two scales to help your improv over the diminished passing chord and dominant chords.

It's hard to know exactly what to do to improve our improvisation right? Most of the time we just spend time learning licks and transcribing but this doesn't really create the freedom we want. Learn how to systematically approach improvement at bebop!

There are always those tiny details that instantly improve the sound of someones playing. This episode is about the little secret movements players put into their playing to add flavor and spice!

Space doesn’t always have to be in your right hand, and it doesn’t always have to mean not playing. Check out these different ways to conceptualize space and add it into your playing for some tasty improvements.

Improvisation is like trying to fill the gaps in a resolution. We're trying to land on chord tones but there are so many ways to resolve, mixed with rhythms...we need to figure out what fits the gap! In this video I debunk improvisation so you don't have to copy and paste licks into your solo's.