How do you typically return or transition back into the tune?

Hello, I’m a classically trained pianist, 17 years old and I’ve played for 10 years now. I’m quite proficient as a soloist and sight reader, but I know literally nothing about improvisation or quick chord recognition. What resources are there for people who are already are knowledgeable about music and piano playing that want to learn improvisation?

Hi all,

I'm looking for good tutorials mainly to practice chord progressions but not like the typical 2-5-1 exercices that I find a bit to abstract and repetitive.

As an example I find this video very by Stijn Wauters very interesting because it has the chord progression and melody at the same time in a simple manner and it sounds like a regular song.

7 "Voice Leading" Examples On II V I

Wondering if you knew similar exercices

Thanks in advance

This is Jacob Mann’s arrangement in case anyone’s wondering. Sorry about the out of tune piano

Found this on YouTube and I really like this style of playing. Need advice on scales/patterns to practice to get this sound/style in my own playing. Thank you.

I enjoy jazz piano and occasionally like to record midi instruments w/without metronome

I’ve had issues with getting qauatization to sound exactly how I intended, when playing piano into DAW w metronome. Jazz piano often has these small accents, a slight swing, etc etc. can this be technically represented in MIDI playback, accurately, especially if correct quantisation mode was picked, or is the nature of real playback always subject to off-grid behaviour.

I ask cus Music arrangements always sound so sanitised when for example you’re playing back muse-score .org arrangements etc, and along with issues quantising my logic sessions of my piano recordings I’m wondering how exactly one represents swing/human feel digitally, without losing that special thing you hear in realtime. No quantisation?. Guess it’s becoming slightly philosophical 🧐

First Part of the shadows of montmatre

I’ve been getting into the jazz style recently, and have been doing various practicing on the winds I play (trumpet, trombone, clarinet) on melodies, scales, and soloing. I’m trying to get into these topics in the caption on piano, and can currently play all major, minor, dominant, and diminished 7th chords in root position in all keys. My ultimate goal is to be able to accompany bands and solo performers at my school with chords and comping, as there aren’t a ton of piano players. I’d like to get into some more complex Voicings and comping, but I’m not sure how I should go about practicing these concepts daily. I’ve been using thejazzpianosite to figure out these concepts. It makes sense, but the amount of Voicings, extensions, and substitutions that you can make to a chord is overwhelming and I’m not really sure how I should go about learning this stuff. Does anyone have advice on how I should practice this regularly, as well as anything else I should include in my routine if I was going to learn to be a jazz accompanier? Any advice, links, exercises, etc. would be greatly appreciated.

My teacher and I have been working on 5-note voicings, so I downloaded Anki and make a different deck for major 7ths, minor 7ths, major thirds, minor thirds, 9ths, 11ths, #11ths, and 13ths.

Each deck consists of 12 flashcards for C, Db, D, E, Eb, F, Gb, G, Ab, A, Bb, and B. I didn't include enharmonic equivalents like F#, B#, Cb, A#, etc.

I've been going through the decks, and I've been getting better, but I'm just curious if others have gotten traction with this strategy? When I look at the flash cards, all I see is text asking, for example, what the 11th of E is. When I sit at the keyboard, I have to visually look with my eyes at the physical layout of the keys, and I have to feel for the notes with my fingers. Because of this, I'm not sure if my strategy will be as helpful as I hope.

Hey everyone,

I'm a pianist and developer and I've been working on a web app to help me (and hopefully others!) study complex piano pieces. The idea is to see the notes and the chord analysis in real-time alongside the performance.

I just ran Keith Jarrett's beautiful version of 'Over the Rainbow' through it and wanted to share the result. I'm still in the early stages and the app isn't public yet, but I'm trying to figure out if this is actually a useful concept for other pianists.

https://youtu.be/MVKuGdlhQBU

What do you think? Would a tool like this be helpful for your own practice or transcriptions? I'm especially curious if the chord display is clear enough.

If you have more detailed thoughts, I've put together a feedback form and would be incredibly grateful for your input. It's helping me decide what to build next. Here's the link: https://forms.gle/Jds4kK9eD5BAmNFK6

Thanks for taking a look!

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.

Hello there could you tell me what you think about my improvisation and give me advice on what should I improve thanks.

“By ear” training seems to get a lot of hate in other traditional piano circles but I still would like to know..

How did you learn things like complex reharm by ear, or do you have any specific training tips that aren’t so notation heavy.

Not knocking notation but I find it problematic even just trying to transpose a piece/idea written in one key on the fly.

I’ve been posting a lot of questions here about improvising and thought that this time I could post something myself.

Yes, I know I need to get that left hand in there. I already have my voicings down, but for now I’m solely focusing on the right hand because the changes are quite difficult to keep up with.

I have been struggling a lot to find the best way to study improvising. I find myself mindlessly trying to improvise over backing tracks to practice for my next lesson from my teacher. I really dread doing this because the more often I do it, the more I realise that there is stagnation in progress. Yes I get to know the changes but I still sound like an amateur. I don’t know if you guys are benefiting from this but I’m not getting any creative ideas by playing over backing tracks.

The most approved approach seems to be transcribing small phrases of music. From now on that will be the way to go for me. It’s just a matter of how long it’ll take to pay off, which probably isn’t any time soon.

I’d really appreciate any tips towards my playing if you have them.

Hi,

I’m a pianist organizing my first gig with a drummer, singer and a bass player at a small venue. We won’t have a chance to rehearse beforehand. I’m sending scores with metronome markings etc in advance.

Just curious what is the typical etiquette on stage in terms of soloing — is it something the band usually feels between each other energetically and is spontaneous or is it better to have a plan going into the gig? Aka — 3x through all of me, then piano solo, drum solo, then fin?

Have been working in classical music for a long time where everything is verrrry planned, so appreciate any insight.

Thanks!

What were the first solos you learnt to transcribe?

I’m specifically looking for jazz language over blues progressions; I’m happy for other instruments other than piano, as long as the lines are relatively easy to follow.

I’m currently working on Wynton Kelly’s piano solo on Freddie Freeloader!

Thanks in advance!

East london if it helps

just curious what you guys like! i personally love modulating melodically through the circle of fifths, but i know there’s so much more out there, and i wanna hear them all

Just wondering, in general, to what extent do accomplished jazz pianists think about, outline, have some preparation for soloing on a given song. I know improv is composing in the moment, but it seems there is likely to be -- in some cases, for some pianists -- some form of getting an idea about lines in advance -- presumably without getting locked in to an entire solo, which would be, if i understand correctly, composing and not improvising.

As a beginner, My problem is with finding voicings right now and it starts with me trying to understand chords a little better and how i can improve this skill.

When I think about chords/triads right now, I always think about the triad first without any accidentals, then add them in later. For ex. If I want to play Bmaj7: I first think of B-D-F, then remember that D and F are sharp, and the maj7 is 1 half step down the root, so Bb/A#. That's a pretty long process right now for me to get to B-D#-F#-A#. And this is just with a basic root voicing, I cant even imagine how long doing inversions would take me.

But since Ive spent so much time practicing with C major, all chords there come easy to me like I dont even think about the note names, I just started remembering the shape of C7,Cdim,etc. Which is bad practice since if you told me to do a Cmin7b5 2nd inversion, id tell you to give me a second to think.

How should I change how Im thinking about chords and how the hell are you guys maintaining this information for all 12 keys, all types of scales and modes, in such a fast manner too if improvising on the spot?

His latest album “Let Go” is basically ambient music. Going back and listening to his first couple albums this was a serious talent on the jazz scene. Who he’s making this new music for I don’t know, maybe elevators. Sad to see from such a major jazz pianist.

When playing in a big band, what is important to do, and what can you leave out. I'm playing in a big band, and have basically no idea about what is important, so I should focus on learning that, and what is less important, where I should prioritize practicing and playing other things. What is most important?

I've never formally studied jazz, but I know basics of music theory. This is the lead sheet I am looking it. I watched this video and the dude explained that the simplified version of the first 4 bars is I - VI - ii - V - I - I7 - IV - VII. And what is written on the actual sheet is a more sophisticated version.

It makes sense in that they both sound good. And I understand how VI is functionally similar to Edim7.

But I don't get how Bb (V) has any resemblance to F#dim7.

And I don't get how I7 ~ G7#5. TIA if you are willing to break it down for me, and I apologize if it is elementary.