Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner - Non Classical Adding jazz to my practice schedule

Hi all,

Not been on here for a few years I think so will start at the start.

I’m 35, been playing piano since I was 19 but there are large gaps in there, and to be honest, I think other than the first couple of years I’ve mainly just dabbled.

I came back to it in earnest a couple of years ago and aiming to complete my grade 3 exams when covid allows. Will more than likely go with the performance grade and email it in.

So. I love playing classical. But I’d really like to be able to improvise, and would love to play with other people at some point.

With this in mind I’d really like to develop jazz skills.

My piano teacher is fantastic but I’d like to keep this a bit seperate. But hey whilst different both skills should help the other hopefully.

I just want to be able to play freely, every now and then just sit down and see what comes out. Again, love classical playing but I’d love to be able to do both.

Can anyone recommend any online learning? Or books or anything really. There are no local jazz teachers. And I’d find it hard to travel for hours to get to one. So hoping with my face to face classical studies I could slowly teach myself the jazz side of life - or find an online teacher.

Any help would be great

A much-discussed topic. You might look here.

The first thing you need to do is learn your seventh chords in all 12 keys: major 7, dominant 7, minor 7, minor 7b5 and diminished 7.

I have a free lesson here to show you how to do this:

https://www.jazzpianoonline.com/courses/five-essential-7th-chords

I show you an easy drill based on the major scale to show you how to form them and then I quickly show you how to match them up to chord symbols so you can start reading repertoire from the Real Book to solidify them into your head and hands.

This will take some time but with your background you probably know a bit of it already.

Once you have your seventh chords memorized I suggest to students to learn basic one handed voicings, rootless voicings with added tension. I have a lesson on it here: (requires subscription)

https://www.jazzpianoonline.com/courses/rootless-voicings-with-added-tension

These voicings are standard professional voicings that you will enjoy playing. I use the same approach as with the root position seventh chords in that I show you how to build them and then get you reading tunes to cement them into your head and hands.

This is typically a large project that takes months to get to the point where they are useful to you in the sense that you can play them fast enough upon reading a lead sheet to play in time.

From here you are well positioned to narrow your study to solo playing:

https://www.jazzpianoonline.com/pages/solo-jazz-piano (requires subscription)

or improv:

https://www.jazzpianoonline.com/courses/improv-the-concept (Free)

or two handed voicings:

https://www.jazzpianoonline.com/courses/two-handed-voicings-part-1-open-fifth (requires subscription)
https://www.jazzpianoonline.com/courses/two-handed-voicings-part-3-ust (requires subscription)

I have lessons on virtually all aspects of jazz piano playing.

Live webcam lessons are available too.

I'm happy to talk more just send me an email.

I can't help with suggesting where to find instruction, but I can stay you need to start listening to a lot of jazz if you have not already started this. Jazz is based a lot on feel that is not notated, and the best teacher for this is listening to a ton of jazz, which is not exactly a painful thing to do!

Looking back at learning to play blues/jazz (after classical), I agree those are the fundamentals you need to practice: 7th chords + voicings. You need to know them like you know your times tables - they should be that automatic. In addition, practice them in the context of ii7 V7 IM7 and IV7 V7 I7 - the goal is to develop your ability to play in a key (vs. just knowing a scale).

And yeah, it’s a large project. It will take several months of practice to learn just the fundamentals, but it’s well worth it.

A proper jazz teacher is invaluable, but here are some books that I found practical:

Improvising Blues Piano, Tim Richards
Jazz Keyboard Harmony, Phil DeGreg (my favorite)
Exploring Jazz Piano, Tim Richards
Exploring Jazz Piano, Tim Richards

TIP: collect good backing tracks to practice with - it can make doing all that work more fun. Personally, I like the Lumbeat drum machine apps.

Here is a place where you might be able to find a teacher without breaking the bank ....

https://pianoteachersconnect.com/

Thanks for all the advice everyone.

Think I’ll see if I can find someone on pianoteachers connect and go from there.

I can get books and go through it but I really want a jazz teacher so hopefully someone will be the right fit.

Thanks again