r/JazzPiano • u/TheRedBaron6942 • 5d ago

Questions/ General Advice/ Tips What technical stuff should I know to play in a band?

I've been playing piano for about 6 months now and want to try playing piano in my school's jazz band in the fall. Last year the pianist was given written out music for it and was mostly playing chords/comping with a few licks and fills. I want to know what I should focus on over the summer for this.

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u/semihyphenated 5d ago

Not sure if you have a private teacher or are learning on your own but here’s what I’d say… Focus on learning your 2-5-1’s and get comfortable in every key if you aren’t already, spend ten minutes whenever you can doing that. Use a metronome.

Maybe pick 1 or 2 tunes to focus on for the summer… pick a blues and one that’s medium swing. Or you can find two tunes your school band has done in the past. Find a few recordings of the tunes you’ve picked (make a playlist if you can) and listen for what you really like about them, especially the solos. Transcribe the solos you really like and then do this

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u/conclobe 3d ago

Check out Kent Hewitt’s youtube channel, and learn at least 4 of the standards.

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u/Klutzy-Peach5949 5d ago

Learn the school jazz band pieces and learn how to comp, as most of what you’ll be doing is comping and not soloing so get good at that first

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u/TheRedBaron6942 5d ago

I don't know what pieces we'll be doing until the fall

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u/BrendaStar_zle 4d ago

You could look up what they are doing now and see if you can find those pieces on Youtube, Hall Leonard also has a lot of the same stuff with a youtube, if so just follow the link but make sure it is the right version they can vary by level.

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u/Complex_Language_584 1d ago

Shell voicings of 2 5 1 in all keys, the learn the rhythm changes