Course on Accompanying Singers

I think this would be extremely valuable! Thanks for this!!!

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Great stuff,

I’ll keep everyone updated on progress in this thread Christine :slight_smile:

This would be one of the most important steps in our development as a musician, most of our work is comping either vocal or lead instrumentalist. Please proceed with this great initiative.

this is exciting addition to our journey on learning on PianoGroove. One suggestion I have for a teacher would be to use existing songs (e.g., Misty) in an accompaniment format to complement songs where we learned to play the melody.

I’m really looking forward to this addition

Yes I agree Neil, comping is an art in itself. I have been working on my comping but with a focus on the jazz trio setting. Listening is, of course, the first place to start. And I then find the iRealPro app to be an invaluable aid.

A tutorial from a musician who both sings and plays would give great insight into the intricacies, decisions, and choices that go into a creating an accompaniment behind a singer.

I think that’s a brilliant idea Joel. Virtually all of the jazz standards we have covered have lyrics and the universally popular tunes like Misty would be a great place to start!

Great news everyone, the course on “How To Accompanying Singers” is underway.

Here’s a sneak peek into the upcoming course with Lyndol:


Lyndol is an accomplished singer, pianist, educator, and composer.

Her first course is dedicated to the art of vocal accompaniment and moving forwards, she has the experience and expertise to teach jazz harmony, improvisation, composition and much more.

I’m very excited to have Lyndol onboard with us as a new tutor and her first course will be available around the end of this month.

Let us know what you think :slight_smile:

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This is what I’ve been looking for. I’ll be very interested to watch this course develop.
Cheers,
Scott

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Great to hear that Scott.

I’d estimate the course will be available by the end of next week.

I’ll post updates in this thread.

This looks really useful - looking forward to this too :ok_hand:

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Yes me too James.

Lyndol can give insight from both perspectives - the jazz pianist, and also the jazz singer - which I think is very unique.

Her course will be beneficial for students who want to learn how to accompany themselves, and also for students who want to learn to accompany other people.

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I’m really looking forward to this lesson.

Thanks,
Don

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That’s great to hear Don.

It’s a full course, not just a lesson, all 7 lessons will be published at once.

The lessons in the course by Lyndol are:

  1. Working With Singers - Goals & Expectations

  2. How To Accompany Singers - Melody, Harmony & Bass (“Autumn Leaves” in G Minor)

  3. Adding Fills, Taking Solos & Ending The Tune (“Autumn Leaves” in G Minor)

  4. Uptempo Accompaniment (“Summertime” in D Minor)

  5. Easy Transposition: How To Transpose Songs Quickly

  6. Ballad Accompaniment (“Body & Soul” in Db Major)

  7. Singing & Playing: Tips For Singing Pianists


I’ve been working closely with our new teachers to plan and record the lessons.

Moving forwards, we’ll be publishing entire courses at once. Both this course, and Matt’s Minor Blues Course will be ready around the first week of March.

Both courses will be published with 7 lessons, and the teachers can add more to the courses in future if applicable/necessary.

I’m very excited for both courses and the value and insight that they will add to PianoGroove.

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I agree, it would be fantastic. Thank you Hayden :):smile:

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Hey Everyone,

To thank you all for your input and feedback in this thread, I’ve decided to ‘soft launch’ the first 4 lessons in this course to you guys who are most interested in the content.

Please check out the lessons below which all focus on the tune “Autumn Leaves”. I’d love to hear any additional feedback, ideas or suggestions you may have.

We now have a very solid ‘template’ for accompaniment jazz standard tutorials and Lyndol has done a brilliant job planning and recording the lessons.

The course page has not been published yet, but you can find the first 4 lessons below with full PianoGroove video functionality.

You can also download the chord changes with lyrics here:

Autumn_Leaves_Lyrics.pdf (494.0 KB)

Lesson 1: Working With Singers - Goals & Expectations

Lesson 2: Accompanying Singers: Melody, Harmony & Bass

Lesson 3: Piano Accompaniment Techniques: Adding Fills

Lesson 4: Improvised Solos & Common Jazz Endings

The full course of 7 or 8 lessons will be completed before the end of the month and I will then send the course out to all students via email.

Whilst the course will be launched with 7 lessons, we can also add to the course with more jazz standards in the future :slightly_smiling_face:

Cheers,
Hayden

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Congratulations Hayden !: This course looks fantastic :grinning:

Hi Hayden,
Just had a look at the first three and I am very impressed. Now I would like to know how best to comp this song in a trio setting
Cheers,
Neil

LOVE her !!! Your tutors (including yourself) need a bio page with photos and a couple clips of video performances so we can meet the person and musician

That’s great Natasha… I’m glad to hear you like the course.

The idea is that future jazz standard accompaniment lessons would follow a similar format and style.

Awesome!

Yes that will be my next course Neil, something like:

“Preparing Yourself For Trio Playing & Jazz Bands”

It’s a journey I’ve taken over the last couple of years and so I’m now in a very good position to teach how to students can prepare themselves for this role. Again, it’s a very different role from solo piano and I’m excited to share my insight.

We can certainly use this “Autumn Leaves”, and other medium-up tunes as examples.

Leave that with me, I’ve already started planning it and look forward to recording the course.

I’ll likely get started recording once these 2 courses have been published.


Great minds think alike Lori :wink:

Check this page design for our new teachers:

The page will:

  1. Give some basic information on the teacher
  2. Highlight their videos and audio of their compositions
  3. Show their current city and teaching offering for personal Skype or in-Person lessons
  4. Show their event work offering such as weddings and private events

I see the teacher pages being a strong promotional tool by linking to their personal websites.

This should also act as a nice incentive to become a PianoGroove teacher.

I envisage that our teachers will be supported by the PianoGroove community. We can follow their social accounts for example. Ultimately, I think we can all not only learn from the teachers but also help them with their goals of more exposure and bigger followings.

Exciting! :grinning:

Thanks for the feedback guys… I’ll post further updates right in this thread.

Cheers.

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@LoriNelson - to view the tutor page design, right click on the image above and select “Open Image In New Tab” and it will open the design in a full-screen window.

Screenshot here:

I received a suggestion for the tune “Georgia On My Mind” to be covered from an accompaniment standpoint. You can find solo piano tutorials on the tune here and here.

If anyone has any other suggestions for accompaniment related tunes, please post them in here to keep track and have them all in one place :slight_smile: