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Almost all of my jazz gig playing is based on what I learned from that book.
I usually play with a bass player, but when I'm by myself I play a walking bass line with the left and play the melody and occasional rootless chords between melody notes with the right. This is tricky at first, but once you get the hang of it it works well.
Alternatively, I play 1 & 3 in the left hand and 7 and melody in the right or 1 & 7 in the left and 3 and melody in the right.
Gyro, I wish you luck in your approach. Perhaps there's another option to learning if you don't understand it all. Others can help, you know. You never ask a question here. I am willing to help you if you ask.
HooDoo, you don't get it. You don't want to listen to me, or anyone else. You should develop your own style. Suppose, heaven forbid, that you listened to me and liked what you heard and then tried to emulate it. What's the point of that, copying someone else's style? You might as well not play if you're just going to copy someone else. Someone already plays like that. Adding another copy of such playing to the universe serves no purpose at all. Go your own way. Copying some jazz great just adds another carbon copy to the thousands already in existence from people who previously copied him. That's worthless. We don't need another copy in the universe. There are too many already, thousands of people who all play the same way.
HooDoo, you don't get it. You don't want to listen to me, or anyone else. You should develop your own style. Suppose, heaven forbid, that you listened to me and liked what you heard and then tried to emulate it. What's the point of that, copying someone else's style? You might as well not play if you're just going to copy someone else. Someone already plays like that. Adding another copy of such playing to the universe serves no purpose at all. Go your own way. Copying some jazz great just adds another carbon copy to the thousands already in existence from people who previously copied him. That's worthless. We don't need another copy in the universe. There are too many already, thousands of people who all play the same way.
Gyro - listening to others play is not necessarily about copying someone else's style. Most of us here enjoy listening to music. We are a member of PW because we enjoy the piano. I listen to music on my walks, during mealtime, in the car. In other words, when I am not practicing, I am listening just for the joy of listening. Would you rather me not listen to music and just waste my time by watching TV?
Surprise us all someday and post some of your music. Better yet, put a link to your music in your sig line. We are all ears.
Barb
A Sudnow Method Fanatic "Color tones, can't live without them"
Barb, the greatest favor I could ever do for you is to not post my playing, so that you don't listen to it. You've already got a lifetime of musical experience, which is more than enough material to work with in order to develop your own style.
Forces within the jazz community have already succeeded in turning jazz into something uniform and standardized, like classical piano, where everyone just plays the notes and sounds the same. That's never been what jazz is all about.
With the decline of classical composition and improvisation, jazz is the last place to turn to for people who want to really create and innovate. But that's becoming increasingly difficult with the standards of performance that have been put in place by the textbook jazz people.
You don't want to listen to another jazz pianist, lest you fall into the trap of thinking he's the last word in playing and then copying his style. You should develop your own way of playing. There are already thousands of jazz pianists who all sound the same. There's no point is adding one more carbon copy to them.
Sit down at the piano and dig in and play purely by ear, never thinking for a moment about any theory. This is your own playing, created by you. If initially it sounds like a child pounding mindlessly on a keyboard, that's just great, because it means that you're not sounding like all the jazz players who just copy each other end up playing the same way. You're the one who'll be playing real jazz piano, because you're creating and being original, in contrast to the textbook, everyone-sound-the-same playing that you hear from jazz pianists today.
Gyro - I gotta ask this... Do you gig with other musicians? Do you jam with other musicians? Do you have any desire to ever perform with other musicians? Do you/did you ever sit-in with a band?
With the decline of classical composition and improvisation, jazz is the last place to turn to for people who want to really create and innovate.
There's also New Age piano playing. In fact, listen to what can be just with a few seventh chords in the right hand...
Desert Flowers is from one of my online lessons where students learn how to use the power of limits, i.e. playing only seventh chords in the right hand. This is actually a modal improv.
To take Gyro's odd view, we should not listen to music of other people! What's the point of doing that? We should listen to our own music. No more Beethoven, no more Mozart, no more Clayderman. Only your own music.
This begs the question Gyro: Why did you join this forum? What's the point of learning from anyone else if you only believe in your own "sound"? Can you spell weirdo, Gyro, which incidentally rhymes with your name?
Gyro, you are beginning to infuriate me. You are not a musician, you have no idea what it means to be one. You repeat your posts verbatim, you haven't said one thing helpful to a pianist here.
Wynton Marsalis, one of the the top jazz musicians today says that all people imitate to learn. He is at the forefront of jazz education, and you are telling me that he is wrong?
I suggest you quit playing the piano now and just give up. Stop making excuses about your playing and post some songs for us to hear. If you cannot prove your way is better than get out of here.
Let's face it, Gyro doesn't play jazz, he's never played a jazz gig, or even played with a band. And whatever new sound he is making, its probably not "jazz"..If He actually goes to a jam session to sit in.. he is probably one of those clueless people musicians will make fun of behind their back.
He is giving people advice to beginners on how to get used to improvising freely, which is fine, but it's not jazz.
So far, we have these styles (I added three new ones at the bottom, plus the summary from everyone else):
1) Play the C major chord in the LH on every count (4 times), or variations thereof (once for the whole measure, or even roll the chords, like C E G E, or C followed by (E G) together three times, etc.).
2) Play a ballad style: on 1/8th notes, counting 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &: C G E G E G E G.
3) Play Alberti Bass style.
4) If the chord changes every 2 beats, plunk out that low root on beat 1. For beat 2, bring your left hand up to a higher two note chord consisting of 3 and 7. Then, repeat process for beats 3 and 4
5) Alternate inversions on the beat. Example, CEG, move lower GEC, back up CEG, lower GEC, etc. Lots of variations possible.
6) Oompah. C, EG, C, EG.
7) Arpeggios at various speeds. C, E, G, E quarter notes. CE, GE, CE, GE. (eighth) CEGE, CEGE, CEGE, CEGE. (sixteenth)
8) A woman at my church did this particularly smoothly: C, C octave, above that G, E, C, Repeat.
9) boogie. C4, C5, E4, C5, G4, C5, C4. with a dotted rhythm.
10) root-fifth. C4, CEG4, G3, CEG4, C4, etc.
11) I play a walking bass line with the left and play the melody and occasional rootless chords between melody notes with the right. Alternatively, I play 1 & 3 in the left hand and 7 and melody in the right or 1 & 7 in the left and 3 and melody in the right.
12) Play a full arpeggio: In ascending order, C G E G C, then back to G (for 3/4 time).
13) Play low C, then higher C, then C Major.
14) Play low C, then 2nd inversion of C chord, then C major. If in 4/4, play C major twice.
I still don't know what to do if I have a seventh chord to play, say A7 or E7. How do you make it fit some of the above?
I still don't know what to do if I have a seventh chord to play, say A7 or E7. How do you make it fit some of the above?
Those chords are often used as secondary dominants in the key of C, sometimes to modulate to another key. Another use is E7 to lead in to Am (still in C)or A7 to Dm. Of course they must harmonize with the melody.
You know, we really do need to upload audio samples to make things clear. With that in mind, here's Mary Had a Little Lamb with the 1-3-7 and 1-7-3 method of playing it:
That technique sounds better with a split keyboard and a Bass sound in the left hand, because it's hard not to play the bass line too loudly, as I did in that example.
