The last couple of weeks I’ve been revamping the Jazz Piano Foundations Course and I republished the updated version last night:
The audio and visual quality is now much better than the previous versions and I also added a new lesson on major scale fingerings which was commonly requested by students.
There are a few more lessons to be added to the course, one of them is a more simplified practice planner, as the current practice planner can be a little daunting for students who are brand new to jazz piano. There will also be some more beginner jazz standard arrangements.
I’m recording another course on “Whole Step 251 Drills” from beginner to advanced. This was requested in my last live seminar but I wanted to get the foundations course revamped before working on this.
It’s now top of my to-do-list so expect this new course to land in the next week or so.
I must say (imho) this is the top Jazz Piano site and the only one that has and continues to ignite my interest and brought me to a ton of awareness regarding the Jazz genre…
The resources are vast! Superb and detailed lessons!
Am planning to start right this time and really learn from the start especially in the Foundations course.
The new practice planner is on my to-do-list this week.
You might like to check out this new course which outlines some different ways to drill 251 progressions around all 12 keys:
Some of the exercises are more advanced that the Foundations Course, but my view is that it’s good to expose ourselves to more advanced topics to see what’s coming next.
You might also like my 5-min masterclass videos too, these are intermediate level topics but I try to present them in a manner that is easily accessible to all levels, here’s the course if you haven’t seen it already:
Even if you feel like some of these topics are beyond your current level, just copy what is being played to accustom your ears and fingers to the sounds and shapes of more advanced jazz voicings and arranging techniques.
I will post updates on the new practice planner here. In the meantime definitely check out the links above.
I have just finished the simplified foundations practice planner, you can find it here:
I wanted to provide a completely different approach to what is presented in the more advanced practice guide.
In the simplified version we complete all the drills in the same key before moving onto the next key. This “key-based” approach provides a different framework for working through the foundational theory and it can mixed or alternated with the exercises and drills presented in the more advanced foundations practice guide.
PDF Download
You can download this PDF practice planner which outlines the 6 drills and also contains a circle of fifths diagram showing the major keys and their corresponding key signatures:
In the lesson we work through the 6 drills in all 12 keys and I also reference the first whole step 251 drill towards the end. This lesson has been added to the Foundations Course to provide more guidance into mastering the 251 progression with 3 note voicings:
Other Important Points
It’s very important that you are also working on the arrangements in our beginner jazz arrangements course. This is where we apply the theory in context of actual tunes:
Try to practice all of the keys equally and add “tally marks” to the practice planner so that you are keeping track of the keys you have covered, and that way if you can’t get through all 12 keys in 1 sitting, you know where to start for your next practice session.
You might also like to join Tuomo’s Foundations Bootcamp if you haven’t already: https://community.pianogroove.com/c/classroom/36 - and this will give you some other perspectives and insights on the foundational jazz theory.
If you have any feedback on the new practice planner don’t hesitate to let me know.
Hayden,
I really like the new approach. I viewed the Essentials Practice Guide (Simplified) | Jazz Piano Foundations Course and the following 251 drills. I think the new start to the course should prove much clearer for beginners. Well done!
Wow!
Thanks so much for this update. This feels much more manageable to start. I can see getting good at this and progressing to the original schedule as a next step for me.
Thanks Hayden!
