I think that ultimately, we all learn in different ways, and there is no one-size-fits all so always follow what you are feeling is most beneficial and giving you the best results.
I appreciate that 5 minutes is not a long time for the exercises, particularly as a beginner.
However, the more you do them, you should find you can drill through them quicker are are able to attack all the keys in that time frame.
One of the reasons I set this breakdown is that multiple teachers of mine - all very accomplished musicians - all had the same recommended plan outline, which is:
lots of topics, and a little time on each.
For me personally, the jazz standards have always been extremely important and help me to really memorise and internalise the theory through practical application. This is why I personally recommend a half/half split theory/jazz standards. This is what i enjoyed doing.
Another thing, if you have 2 hours, then simply double up each time slot of each exercise to 10 minutes. Or perhaps reduce the jazz standard element and beef up the theory time slots
The sheet is just a guide, so you donāt need to follow it religiously, simply use it for inspiration and to find out what works for you.
Always here to help and give me opinion on any other comments or questions Sean.
Thanks for the feedback. Youāre right, in that everyone has different learning styles. Iāll try to take your advice about ālots of topics, and a little time on eachā when Iām able to make the exercises stick a little bit better in my head.
Perhaps do 3 of the drills, and spend more time on each, and then the next day, do the other 3.
Some of these exercises are tricky and I make mistakes running through them. For example, inverting the different 7th chords up and down in certain keys, I will often have to pause to find the voicing, or I play the wrong note, and thatās totally fine. It shows me the ones I need to work on and after all thatās what practice is for.
The topics in the Foundations Course, and the Chord Extensions Course are very much interrelated. Such as learning the major scales numerically in the Foundation Course, and then using that information to identify the 9th (or 2nd ) in each key to create those beautiful 9th chords.
I think itās nice to be working on these exercises/drills in tandem even if you feel itās ābeyond youā right now. Alternate the plans on different days, make sure you are hitting up all keys, not just C, F, G Bb, Eb etcā¦ sometimes start in F#, B, E, A, despite those keys being less common in the jazz standard repertoire.
It will be tough, you will feel the cogs in your brain grinding as you are doing these drills. That is a good thing!! Effectively, we are learning a new languageā¦ an awesome one that gives us complete freedom to express ourselves musically. So it does take time.
A little each day, on many different exercises, and you will see gradual, but real improvements
And finally, just have fun playing the jazz standards. Thatās always been something thatās kept me engaged and enjoying studying jazz.
Hello
I just started the ājazz piano foundationsā and I thank you very much about the beginner practice plan. It is very useful. Major scales : About playing the intervals with major scales( 3rds, 4th, 5ths, 7ths), do I use any fingering ? Example : For the thirds, is it 1-3, 1-3,1-3ā¦, or 1-3, 2-4, 3-5 ?
Playing intervals with left hand has no importance ? And both hands ?
Minor scales: Do I practice the minor scales only with the right hand ? About left hand and both hands ?
Practicing minor scales up and down and intervals : It is OK with the right hand.
What does it mean patterns in your practice planner ?
You did not speak about Dorian mode of the minor scale in the video concerning the minor scales. The Dorian mode appears only in the beginner practice plan. But it does not matter.
Marc
About inversions of triads and 7th chords, is it necessary to practice inversions with both hands ?
I think that playing inversions with both hands takes much more time than with one hand .
But playing inversions with both hands is better to make progress.
What do you think ?
I would recommend using whatever feels comfortable for interval exercise. Of course you can see my fingering as an example. Also remember that different fingerings might be more suited to different keys/scales.
The main purpose of that exercise is to be able to visualise the intervals within the scale, so that we are not always playing the scale as a linear set of notes, which often doesnāt sound very musical.
@Charles_Hill shared an awesome resource on scale fingering, check it out here: https://www.pianoscales.org/ - this website contains images and fingerings for a wide selection of scales so Iād recommend bookmarking this resource.
I would say that the exercise is more important in the right hand and will help you to see scales differently when creating right hand melodies.
However, left hand practice can certainly be beneficial. Personally it is not something that I have spent much time on, and I think the amount of time you have to practice would come into account here.
The idea with the practice plan is that you get through 6 different theory topics in one sitting, and so to start, Iād recommend just doing right hand, and then if you have the time to pay more attention to this exercise, you could incorporate the left hand, and even both hands together.
Again, the same applies here.
Start with your right hand, and if once you are comfortable with that, you could incorporate the left hand and both hands.
The key is getting through all of the exercises in the practice plan Marc, so that each day you are working on all 6 topics.
Whilst scales can be an effective tool to use in the left hand when playing jazz piano, my opinion is that it would be much more beneficial to have them memorised in your right hand as a priority.
a pattern could be any repeating sequence of notes.
As a simple example using scale degrees 1234567 : R-2-3 then 2-3-4 then 3-4-5 then 4-5-6 then 5-6-7 then 6-7- and back to Root.
That is a very simple example, perhaps you could experiment with the diatonic triads within the scale, up and down, then inversions of these triads. Just as an example for inspiration.
By āpatternā this could be any sequence of notes and then repeating this idea throughout the scale. Again the goal here is to ensure you are not simply running up and down scales in a linear fashion.
Yes we have a course on modal theory here, it is in our āintermediateā jazz piano lessons:
Yes I feel that it is much more important to practice triads and 7th chords in the left hand, than it is for scales. I would recommend practicing both hands here.
As you highlight, practice time can be a constraint, and so make sure you are not starting in the same keys every time you practice. Perhaps focus on 3 or 4 keys in one practice sessions, and then move onto the next 3 or 4 keys next session etcā¦
Another very important point Marcā¦
It is a big task to learn the triads and 7th chord inversions in all 12 keys. It is a gradual process that takes months or even years and one that you will be working on simultaneously as you progress through the PianoGroove syllabus.
For example, when we play rootless voicings, we are also working on 7th chords, and when we play upper structure triad voicings, we are also working on our recognition of triads and the potential inversions:
So you will always be revisiting this foundational theory and improving as you progress through the PianoGroove syllabus.
Do not worry about having all inversions 100% perfect in all 12 keys and do not let this stop you from moving onto the next practice plan on Extended Chords & Voicings:
In fact, I recommend that students can work on 2 practice plans simultaneously, because many of the topics are interrelated.
Once you feel comfortable with the Foundations Plan, and you can see improvement, then perhaps alternate your practice sessions, 1 day on Foundations Plan, 1 day on Extended Chords Plan, then repeat.
I hope this helps Marc, if you would like me to elaborate on anything above just let me know.
Thank you very much for all your quick answer.
Another question about exercices intervals:
Suppose we are in the key of F ( with Bb) . I want to play an exercise about perfect fifths with my right hand.
F -C, G-Dā¦,
What is the fifth of E , is it B or Bb ? If you want a perfect fifth (31/2 step), it is B . But B is not in the key of F . It is Bb which is in the key of F. What can I do ?
Marc
Hi hayden
OK. You recommend all 6 exercises that I must do for each key (72 exercises for all keys).
But how many keys you suggest to do each day ? Is it three keys by day ? I start by C, F, Bb. But I think that I need at least three days to practice well all these exercises of the three keys (18 exercises).
Instead of working on one or a few scales in each session and then moving on to different ones in the next session, wouldnāt it be preferable to work on just one scale and āmasterā it before moving on to another scale. Pros and cons?
Both approaches have their merits, here are my thoughts:
For beginner students, the priority is to learn all 12 major scales numerically.
Once we see every major scale as 1-2-3-4-5-6-7 we then āmake all keys equalā in the sense that we no longer have to rely on the note names.
This gives us the following benefits:
we can quickly find voicings in any key by learning the voicing numerically
we can quickly visualise common progressions in any key (such as 251s and 1625s)
it helps us visualise patterns, lines, and melodies in all 12 keys
it provides the foundations for extended and altered harmony
I personally found that aiming to get through all 12 keys in each sitting was the most effective and efficient way to achieve the goal of learning the 12 scale numerically.
But thatās not to say this approach is best for everyone.
The other side of the story:
Even the best musicians will revisit the basics such as playing their major scales.
We can always improve on our major scales and how we play them.
There is a potentially infinite number of drills, variations, patterns, and exercises that we can do.
For example, things like:
intervals drills as outlined in the lesson (3rds, 4ths, 5ths, 6ths, 7ths)
diatonic triads within the scale - upwards, downwards, alternating, inversions, etcā¦
We can always improve at this, and so I think that the point of āmasteryā you are referring to is the long term goal, whereas, learning the scales numerically is the short term goal which will then unlock the information we need to progress in jazz harmony.
Finally, I may have digressed there so to summarise the key points:
The practice guides are split into slots of 5 minutes so that we can get through many different exercises and theory areas in 1 sitting.
If it takes us 5 minutes to work out the notes of 1 scale, such as Db Major, then thatās fine and that is time well spent
The next sitting, we should find the notes of the scale quicker, and before long we will be able to get through all 12 scales in the 5 minute slot
Perhaps in the future, come back to the practice plan, and spend the whole 5 minutes working on the different variations outlined above for just one scale.
Let me know if that helps Guy, and if youād like me to elaborate just let me know
Today i was drilling through the jazz plan foundations #1 and the 5th slot (with diatonic chords) is really becoming too easy for me. How can i make the exercice harder or put something else at this slot.
Hereās some ideas to add variety and complexity to that exercise:
Extend the chords to include the 9th, so Cmaj9, Dm9, E-9, Fmaj9, G9 etcā¦ Perhaps play the root with your left hand and 3-5-7-9 in your right hand. Take through all 12 keys.
We could vary the above exercise by playing the right hand in closed position, so for Cmaj9 we would have the root in our left hand, and 7-9-3-5 in our right hand. Continue this up the scale. Take through all 12 keys.
Itās nice to work out the 1625 progression in all 12 keys. Check out this lesson:
@Lyndol also created a great lesson where she takes the 1625 through all 12 keys:
You could also play 2516 which is essentially the same thing just in a different order. The nice thing about this progression is that itās a cycle, and so you can cycle around experimenting with different inversions, extensions, alterations.
Another fun thing to do is experiment with inner voice movement over the major, minor, and dominant chords. Hereās a short lesson where we explore the common moving voice options.
Awesome ! Iāll watch them on the next jazz foundation session ! also what iāve been starting to do is ask my self some harder intervals like: what is the #5 of Cmaj, what is the 13th of Gb, etcā¦
āGuillaumeā
For the ā7th chordsā and ādiatonic chordsā part of the practice, which I also find āeasierā than some other parts, I am currently doing the following: up circle of fifths and back, in thirds up and down, in whole steps up and down, and chromatically up and down, with a fixed click (currently I can do about 60 bpm, I want to get it up to 120). Also I often set myself a pattern of inversions āC first inversion F second inversion Bb third inversion Eb second inversion Ab first inversionā or some such, and again practice at tempo. Itās quite challenging for me!!
The primary chord tones 1-3-5-7 play an important role in the improvised line, and so this kind of exercise is brilliant to help us visualise the different inversions and āpathwaysā we can take.
This exercice feel kind of strange because on the 3rd minor degree we can only add the b9 to the chord, And also the 7th half-dim degree we add the b9 which gives a m7b5(b9) chord
) in each key to create those beautiful 9th chords.
so to summarise the key points:
