@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.
In A Solo Piano 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.
When A Bass Player Is Present:
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 
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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
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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 
Hello everyone… after such a long time, i’m very happy to be back here, i’ve been waiting for this moment for a long time !
Since i haven’t touch a piano key in years, i’m gonna start over from the beginning. I’ve been thinking of where i would to take my playing to, and how can i make that efficient.
My goals are clear:
- On the short term, i want to build a routine of ATLEAST 30 minutes a day of playing, divided between technique and learning standards piano improv.
- Focus on solo piano playing, since i will not have many opportunities to play with a band before a very long time.
So i will need your help to build my routine, how to divide my time to make the most of it !
On the long term:
-I’ve always been fascinated with Bill Evans playing, he brought me into jazz, and i can never get tired of listening to him over and over again, so i would like to make my playing to go towards his style !
So happy to be back here, and i’m listening for your recommandations !
Hey @Guillaume 
Welcome back… It’s been a while!
Check out this seminar on “How & What To Practice”:
This should answer all of your questions on how to structure your practice time, and also the main theory milestones ahead for beginner/early-intermediate jazz piano study.
If you have any further questions after watching the seminar, you can post in the comments section of the seminar page and I’ll be happy to assist.
You might like to check out the “Novice” category of jazz piano lessons. These lessons are the most accessible jazz standard tutorials on the website and so I’d recommend to start here to build out your repertoire of tunes as quickly as possible.
See this thread for more details:
These lessons focus on the essentials of arranging for solo piano performance.
Work through these lessons and once comfortable with the basic arrangements, you can find more advanced lessons on the same tunes by using the website search function.
Please see the search results here for “Bill Evans”:
The 5 pages of search results include lessons and seminars which cover his voicing techniques, analyses of his recordings/arrangements, and also jazz standards arranged in his style.
Some tunes that might interest to you are “Emily” and “Waltz For Debby” that you can find in the search results. Above anything else, choose the tunes and theory topics that interest you the most and work from there.
Likewise pleasure to have you back with us!
Spend a few days going over my recommendations above, and don’t hesitate to ask more questions if something isn’t clear.
Talk soon
So after some days of reflection, thanks to @Hayden , this is what i’ve decided:
-
For the technique block, i want to do 3 blocks of major scales first, to get some technique back, and build more, then for the second, simply practice my triads and the inversions, and for the last, the major 251’s.
-
Now onto standard section, i want to start with “moon river” as in “Novice” category Hayden suggested, i want to build some repertoire but take the time to really internalize the standard, so one standard a month should be ok in my opinion
Later i will of course apply Bill Evans style, but Piano is more like a marathon rather than a sprint, so i have time to get back to it (and Bill is not going anywhere LOL).
A question is popping into my head tho, @Hayden what is your process to really make a standard “your own” ?
Thanks again for the amazing recommandations !
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My pleasure @Guillaume!
That sounds like a good plan.
You might also like to check out the essentials practice guide which covers scales, triads, 7th chords, and the 251 progression.
You can dedicate 15 or 20 minutes per day to this practice plan, starting with as many keys as you can get through, and work up to getting through all 12 keys in 15 minutes.
If you like block chord style then certainly dedicate a daily practice slot to this too. Again 15 minutes is a good amount of time to dedicate to a specific topic if you have an hour practice session for example.
Yes that’s a great place to start.
I recommend to study a few of the novice-level jazz standards simultaneously. Perhaps choose a different key, so you already have “Moon River” in C Major, and I think “My Foolish Heart” in Bb Major would complement your repertoire.
You can also choose a tune from the course: Beginner Standards in Eb - and choose the one that interests you most 
Haha yes we are lucky that Bill Evans’ discography is just a click away on YouTube and Spotify!
That’s a good question.
I find that the best way to make a jazz standard my own is to compile a list of recordings of the tune that I admire in some shape or form.
It could be that I like the melodic phrasing, or perhaps a specific fill or a lick, maybe some passing chords, or even the entire song or improvised solo. Whatever piques my interest, I add it into my playlist for further analysis and easy reference/access.
We then have to listen to our chosen recordings everyday, and gradually dissect them and try to emulate our favourite parts and the things that we want our own playing to sound like.
If we then combine our favourite parts from say 5 or 10 recordings, we then have something that is distinctly our own, based on our personal taste.
Here’s a playlist that I created on the song “My Foolish Heart” which I recommended to you above:
On a related note, I’m planning to add a ‘listening/transcription session’ to each song module in the Novice section which covers exactly what you are asking here.
I will record this in live seminar format (but not a live event) and in each video we will listen to a handful of recordings of the tune in question and explore how to pick little ideas and apply them to our playing.
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Since you were last studying with us @Guillaume - which I think was a few years ago - we have moved all of the ear training exercises from to forum to the main website.
They are now ordered and housed in 4 sections (Novice/Beginner/Intermediate/Advanced) and also include progress tracking as you progress through each exercise.
Watch the featured video here for more information:
Again spend just 15 minutes per day on these exercises, and in the space of a year, your ability to analyse and transcribe from recordings will be ‘a night and day’ difference.
If you have any questions along the way please don’t hesitate to let me know 
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So, i’m having a lot of fun with this New routine, and Moon river, but i’m wondering, how should i memorize the chords, should i learn them like the 1maj to 6 min, to the 4maj, etc, my Guess would be this way instead of Cmaj-Am-Fmaj, maybe to able to find alternative harmony, or to be able to transpose, let me know what you think.
Also, as i am very interested in every aspect of Bill Evans playing, i’ve started to look at Drop chords, however i am building back again my foundations, and as i am remembering all my scales, triads, 7th chords, 2-5-1s, this part of his playing seems a bit a daunting task.
So i would like to focus on something else of his playing to work on, that would Ask a bit less mental energy, maybe block chords, thanks in advance !
Yes that’s exactly the correct approach @Guillaume
We start to get the main benefit from this analysis when we see that many jazz standards have the same or very similar harmonic movement.
The harmony moving to the vi chord and to the IV chord being 2 of the most common harmonic patterns found in jazz standards.
We can also group blocks of related harmony together. For example in bar 9 of Moon River we move to A-7, and the 2 proceeding bars are the 2 and 5 chords.
See below we have B-7b5 to E7 which creates a full 251 in A- and so it’s useful to consider this a ‘unit’ or related block or harmony:
So we could think of the the first 9 bars of Moon River as:
-
1st 4 bars: I to vi to IV to I
-
Bars 4 to 9: IV to I and then 251 into the vi chord (or some people might say “25 of the 6”)
This can further reduce the amount of information that we need to remember because we are grouping related blocks of harmony (usually 25s, 251s, and 36251s etc…) and this makes it much easier to transpose a jazz standard.
For block chords I would suggest using “Fly Me To The Moon” which is the 2nd jazz standard study in the course you are working on. This is a perfect tune for exploring block chords because the melody of the tune has lots of ‘step-wise’ sequences where the melody is simply walking the notes of the scale.
First, learn the basic arrangement of Moon River that’s covered in the Novice level course, and I created a lesson here which delves into block chords, see chapter 4:
It’s totally fine to ‘dip your toes’ in more advanced theory - this is how we progress and broaden our horizons - but just be sure not to neglect the foundations.
By dividing your practice time into 15 minute slots, you can make sure that everyday you are spending one slot on the foundations, by following the “essentials practice guide” for example. Then perhaps have one 15 minute slot per day where you explore some more advanced theory and layer this into your basic arrangement.
That way, every day, you are working on building strong foundations whilst also ‘dipping your toes’ in more advanced theory and experimenting with more advanced techniques.
I also recommend to work through all of the Novice level courses to build our your repertoire, there are currently 9 tunes in there split between 4 courses.
Thanks again Hayden for your precious guidance !
On your advice, i started playing “Fly me to the moon” in parallel of “Moon River”, and i’m learning them with the 3 hand approach before moving onto the arrangements, it’s surely is gonna slow me down on learning more standards fast, but i think it will definitly help me in the future with learning faster, harmonics movements inside the chords, and also consolidate my knowledge on these tunes. So i would like to have your opinion on this way of learning standards, is it worth spending a bit of time, and applying this to my future learnings ?
Cheers, Guillaume
My pleasure @Guillaume
Yes trying to analyse and memorise the numeric harmony can be time consuming to begin with but always try to keep it in the back of your mind when playing through tunes.
Also try adding annotations on your lead sheets in pencil or a coloured pen so that when you play through the tunes reading the chords and melody, you are also constantly reminding yourself of the numeric relationships.
For now focus on the tunes in the Novice section to build out your repertoire of standards as quickly as possible. I’m sure some of the tunes will resonate with you more than others, and so for these ones you can use the website search box to find related, more advanced tutorials.
All of the standards covered in the Novice section are also covered elsewhere on the site, either in dedicated courses, or standalone lessons.
Once you are comfortable with the basic arrangements (3-note spread voicings and clean voice leading) then by all means start to introduce new theory from the more advanced lessons and arrangements. That way you are building on strong foundations.
I hope that helps and have fun!
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So here is a little update, i’m mastering Fly me to the moon and Moon River with 3 hands voicings, and i’ve also almost mastered the basic arrangement of Days of Wine and Roses, i wanted to have your opinion on a little variation on the arrangement Hayden did, playing with the chord tunes, as you did @Hayden .
So here i’m talking about the A section, on the first D7 and Gmin. So essentially here i’m playing witht the chords tones, as you do in your arrangement to make more movement.
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Hey @Guillaume
Yes adding your own melodic embellishments is a great way to personalise the way that we play jazz standards.
After you are comfortable with the basic melody and spread voicings, find a recording that you like for each song you are working on and try to emulate the melodic placement, phrasing, and little ornamentations that are added.
Here’s a playlist that I created for “The Days Of Wine & Roses” on Spotify:
It’s by no means an exhaustive playlist, but contains some recordings of the song that I like.
I use Spotify to search the name of the jazz standard, and then ‘jazz piano’ or ‘solo piano’ and you will find lots of different results - see the screenshot below.
Spend a morning listening through the results and put the ones that you like into a playlist for further listening and study.
I also hosted a seminar here on getting started with transcription, which I think you will find useful. I explain to start with simple things that are within your grasp, and then gradually expand your field of curiosity by analysing more complex ideas, embellishments, and fills…
Spend a little time each day listening to your favourite versions that you have put in the playlist, then try to play along with them and emulate the melodic phrasing and embellishments etc…
I recommend to do this for each jazz standard you are working on.
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So today i was drilling through my “diatonic chords” of the major scales i was studying that day, and i was wondering “how do i know that i’m ready to go one step further with the difficulty, and whats the next step for this kind of drill”, if you can help me figure it out i will be thanksful ! 