Yes small world!
As a beginner those kind of meetup groups are the most accessible and welcoming. I’d recommend you start there.
Paris has lots of jam sessions or ‘faire un boeuf‘ as they say ‘en français’. Mostly in jazz clubs with an audience.
Paris is an amazing city for jazz… Enjoy it! 
Good question.
I agree with Lyndol, I think you should move onto some new tunes.
I’d recommend working on medium/up tempo tunes which are good to practice improvisation.
Here’s some tunes that will be frequently called at jam sessions in Paris:
In many of those lessons, I start by playing through with left hand voicings. I’d recommend you do this with all jazz standards you play to familiarise yourself with the rootless voicings, and common progressions played with rootless voicings.
Of course the blues is also very useful. I’d recommend that you keep transcribing from blues records whilst learning the above tunes.
Some of Tuomo’s tutorials could also be interesting for you, here’s a couple which are also commonly called at jam sessions:
Tuomo places a lot of emphasis on numeric harmony, which will give you a deeper understanding of the chord changes and help you to learn, memorise, and remember new tunes.
Pick 2 or 3 of those tunes above
Create a Spotify playlist with lots of recordings of the tune
Listen to the recordings to familiarise yourself with how the tunes are played
Transcribe the melodic ornamentation/phrasing, and the improvisations
It’s always good to find a vocal version to learn the lyrics
Try to memorise the forms, ie. ABAB, ABAC, ABCD, etc…
Keep working on the blues form, many songs played at jam sessions are based on the 12 bar blues form.
Hope this helps! 
Yes, love it! Great action list Hayden. I love doing the Spotify list as a first step.
And continuing to work the blues form - so very important! It’s such a great entry point for playing with other musicians.
Also, Paris is SUCH as great Jazz City. It’s tradition of respecting the Jazz greats of past and present just warms my heart. That’s where I studied jazz formally and find it to be the perfect place to learn the tradition of jazz.
I also wanted to mention that regarding your post about the timing of the left hand whilst right hand improvises; I kept thinking about that for a few days afterward because I started to realize MY left hand needs a bit of work in that space! lol - especially to keep a 3-7 voicing in the LH (rather simpler comping such as root octaves - a huge habit of mine from playing a lot of solo piano)
So I started to key in on a exercise I haven’t done for awhile and thought I’d share with you in case it could be as helpful as it’s been for me.
Playing through the form of a standard at a set tempo BUT rather than full on improvising with the right hand - I run drills instead; playing the appropriate scale with my right hand, whilst comping with the left. I don’t always complete a scale, nor start on it’s one, but rather keep the form and tempo.
It’s easier than improvising (since there are no real creative process happening) so I’m able to focus more on keeping the rhythm with both hands and setting that habit.
I’m also laying the foundation for more mobility in my right hand improvisation when I take it back to that level - which I typically do after a few time through with this exercise. I always find that my right hand dances more through subsequent improvisations when I’ve run these drills first.
If you are interested, I’m happy to explain this in more detail and even record an example. But you might already know about, so please disregard if so.
I am thankful to you @Guillaume for sharing your current practice challenges because it led to me honing in on something I need to work on! So thanks!
FYI - This exercise is something I learned from Steve Browman, a jazz pianist I worked with extensively whilst studying in Paris. So it all comes back full circle. Viva Paris~
Oh that sounds like really interesting drills !
Also it sounds like a real challenge for high speed standards. Also we could also do it with arpeggios right ? I need to try it, this exercice should be really great for virtuosity and hand independance ! Also how can we comp with only the left hand (glad that my schedule can help you in any ways 
)
-Guillaume
Hello everyone, hope you’re having a great monday,
these are my goals for the next week:
Finish my introduction for my arrangement of Tune Up (im almost done, but it took ages to get there)
Play Tune Up in 12 tonality with R+3+7 (+melody)
Make a playlist of “Autumn Leaves”, “Summertime” and “What is this thing called love”
Continue to work on the blues stuffs (minor blues, double-enclosure in standard F blues and transcribing)
Also im going to start altering some notes in my 251s, this week im going play with the b9 !
Also checking this out could be interesting:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36giWR1BSEA&t=918s
This guy gives awesome advices, and demonstrate how we can actually learn standards by ear ! Im going to try this method for the next 3 ones !
Cheers
-Guillaume
Edit: I’ve watched the lesson on the Coltrane changes, these are awesome and facinating harmonics ! i might have to re-watch it but i think im gonna include it in my Tune Up arrangement.
Hi Guillaume,
Looks like a great work out routine. Hope it’s going well.
I checked out that link… that’s a great example and expansion on a subject I wrote about recently; using your voice for transcription
I love how he walks you through EXACTLY how to use your voice in pursuit of deciphering chord progressions; which I do find much harder than melody, by the way, as he points out is true for me. Comforting since it’s something I’ve found when doing Tuomo’s transcription exercises. I can get the melody with a fair amount of ease but then struggle so much with the progressions that I almost want to give up.
This video gave me some good tips and motivation to use on my next progression exercise. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks & Happy Practicing,
Lyndol
PS - One goal for me this week is to use that exercise I mentioned on a list of standards I’ll be playing for my gig this weekend. Going to break them down a bit and work on that left hand rootless comping since I’ll be with my trio. I’ll run scales with my right hand both. Going to try in tempo first and only turn the metronome off if I can’t do it in tempo. Hoping I will already see a difference this weekend. But if not, then I know it’s good mileage towards better expression at some point.
Ok, good evening everybody, this been a while since last post, but i’m back and ready to put everything in again:
I would like to work again on Tune Up, but i feel like its better to move on for now and come back a bit later, i finished my introduction of my arrangement of Tune Up, i’ll try to record it this week, and continue on.
From tomorrow and until sunday i will finish the double enclosure of the F blues, listen to a lot of the 3 standards i wanted to start (“Summertime”,“Autumn Leaves” and “What is this thing called love”), i couldn’t listen to jazz for the past 2 weeks…and just get back to work…
-Guillaume-
Hi Guillaume 
I think it’s a great idea to move onto some new tunes and expand your repertoire.
For “What Is This Thing Called Love”, here are a couple of tutorials you may find helpful:
Of course it’s also important to listen to many versions and transcribe things you like such as the phrasing of the melody, melodic decoration and fills, improvised solos, comping etc…
Have fun working on that tune. It’s a useful one to have in our repertoire.
Hey @Hayden, ty for you great suggestions, i have a question, knowing that i’m gonna start 3 new standards, if i decide to practice jazz repertoire for an 1 hour lets say, should i split my hour in 3 parts of 20m for each standard, or 1 hour on the same standard, and move onto another 1 of the list the next day ?
-Guillaume-
Hi Guillaume,
I’d say definitely split your hour into 3 chunks where you focus on each jazz standard.
20 minutes per standard per day is a good amount of time. Within the space of a few weeks you will feel much more confident with each tune.
It could also be nice to break each 20 minutes into smaller chunks, here’s some ideas:
Spend 5 or 10 minutes just focusing on the ‘head’, ie, the main melody. From listening throughout the day, you will have made note of little things you like and so you can transcribe these during your practice time. This could be melodic phrasing, ornamentation, little fills etc…
Spend 5 or 10 minutes just focusing on improvisation. You could set the iRealPro to 20+ repeats and cycle around and around developing ideas. Try to state a motif or melodic idea, and then develop it to its fullest potential.
Perhaps lay off on improvisation for a few choruses and practice comping with the iRealPro. Then come back in with your improvisation. This is why it’s nice to set the iRealPro to 20+ repeats so you can practice the different roles of the pianist in an ensemble setting.
Spend 5 or 10 minutes transcribing from the solos of your favourite recordings. The key here is to be consistent with your practice. You may not feel like much progress is made within the 5 or 10 minutes, but when you come back to it the next day, you will feel more comfortable playing along with the record. Transcribing is a gradual process and it requires patience.
Ultimately find a routine that you enjoy and one that also gives you a sense of improvement and progression.
Remember to also utilise you time away from the piano, for example listening to the tunes during breakfast or whilst commuting. Or perhaps quizzing yourself on the chord changes whilst away from the piano. If you can sit at the piano and not need the lead sheet in front of you, then you can fully immerse yourself in emulating your favourite recordings.
Hope that helps and enjoy!
Hey @Hayden, i’ve watched the triads tutorial improv video mutiple times, but i don’t really understand what Jovino says by seeing chords as triads, and use them as triads in improvisation. For a simple Cmaj7 chord for exemple, i can see it as a Cmaj triad, but what else ?
Hi Guillaume,
The core premise is that scales are linear, and triads are non-linear.
When we see the chord Cmaj7, one option is to play the C major scale.
However, this approach could make us think in a ‘linear fashion’ and the temptation is to just run up and down the scale which can sometimes sound robotic and not very creative.
However, if we take a triad from the C Major Scale, let’s take the G major triad for example, it contains the 5th, 7th, and 9th of C major.
Using the 3 notes of that G triad, we can create melodic ideas and phrases which are non-linear, ie, not just series of half and whole steps like the C Major Scale. Instead, the triad and its inversions contains 3rd and 4th intervals which can be used to create more interesting melodic contours in our improvisation.
Of course we could combine the G Triad with the essential chord tones of C Major (3rd and 7th) and perhaps also some scalar material, but the idea is that we are using the G triad as the basis of our melodic creativity, instead of just using the C Major scale as the basis of our melodic creativity.
A specific triad can also bring out specific colours over a chord. For example, if we play a D Major Triad over a Cmaj7 chord, we are outlining the chord tones 9, #11, and 13, which gives us Cmaj13#11. But all we are thinking is Dmaj/C. It’s effectively a shortcut.
Check that lesson out, and any further questions let us know 
Jovino also mentioned a few words about non-linear improvisation here:
Also, watch our course on Upper Structure Triads where I explain how this concept is applied from a harmonic standpoint:
Enjoy!
I’ve watched this lesson, and i’m glad i already starting play with alterations in my 251’s on the dominant chord, i already feel really familiar with alterations and i also did start to incorporate US triads on my extended voicing plan so that’s awesome 
, as Steve Job said “you can’t connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking backwards”
@Hayden I have another question concerning improvisation, well it concerne the left hand, what types of voicings should i do when improvising with the right ? I’ve thought about inversions, maybe add some extensions ?
Hi Guillaume
Great question!
The type of voicings we can use in our left hand when improvising largely depends on the context.
When performing solo jazz piano, we should be establishing the basis of the harmony by playing the root for most of the chords in the progression.
We could play ‘left hand shell voicings’ such as root and 7ths, and root and 3rds.
Another nice option could be a ‘left hand stride style’ where we play the root way down in the lower registers and then bring our left hand up to play a rootless voicing.
That’s 2 options for solo piano performance. You could also combine both of these styles.
Left hand accompaniment styles vary based on personal taste. When listening to my favourite solo jazz pianists - Bill Evans, Kieth Jarrett, Barry Harris, Red Garland, Hank Jones - this is what I hear them doing.
My best advice would be to listen and transcribe from the players you want to sound like.
If we are playing with a bass player or the iRealPro app, then the bassline/foundation of the harmony is being covered.
This frees up our left hand to drop the root and explore rootless harmony. We can experiment with interesting inversions, extensions, & alterations such as the voicings we cover in our rootless voicings course:
I hope this helps and remember that there is no ‘set-in-stone’ way to accompany our improvisations.
The key is listening to many different players and find a style that you like the best, and that you would like to sound like. Then study it and transcribe it . That’s my biggest tip! 
Hi all, this is time to get back on the journey, i’ve already started to play a lot again last week, but with Emma’s log, i feel i have to keep posting, so for this week (from 16 to 23 of september) i will be doing:
-learn the bridge of Autumn Leaves and What is this called love, finishing to learn the chord of Summertime, i’ve been focusing on playing melody + shell vocings, my goal was to learn the chord in the first hand.
-Im also practicing chord tones soloing on that tunes (with going up, then going down, then random chord tones in quavers for now) so i wanna keep that going.
-Practicing approach pattern on the blues, i’ve been working a lot on double enclosures, even if double enclosures on the second chord in a single bar still feels hard ( for exemple the F7 right after C-7)
Also i would like to know more about practicing on 2 and 4 with a metronome, should i put my voicings on these beats, and does it works for all tunes ? I’ve watched the lesson on that with Autumn Leaves.
–Guillaume–
PS: Hmm… @Hayden maybe you didn’t see my question above 
Im gonna focus on playing triplets on the blues for this week, then obmit the 2nd triplet, swing feel focus, because my improvisations sounds flat ! So i really need to improve and focus on that area, and explore maybe playing chords on 2 & 4 on the standards im currently learning
Great thread you have here Guillaume. I see you have a good plan about your practices - and short term or long term goals - how’s everything going? All the best. btw nice song pick, I also love Autumn Leaves though I haven’t learned it yet 