Thank youāI look forward to it, Jovino. āZeki
Hi my Name is Luzio, I live in Guatemala. I grew up with a piano in the 70ās but I could never find a good teacher. I stopped playing piano while I travelled but a few years ago I finally judged the yamaha p125 as an affordable digital practice piano that has a tolerable enough sound. Sometimes I still get tired of it but I can plug in the ravenscroft app to get rid of some of the digital loop sound on the yamaha.
I tried many youtube videos for the last 2-3 years and Ive definately improved my understanding but I could never develop a practice routine. I tried one other video internet course and although the teacher is a very good player and had many tips he lacked the structure needed to teach someone at my level and left me frankly uninspired for 6 months, but I found piano groove a few weeks ago through the fills and runs on misty youtube video, and I was familiar with Haydens voice and Jovinos too. I noticed the price was good so I jumped in! I still cannot play a standard all the way through, but after two weeks of piano groove lessons everyday I am getting really close! haha ā¦ even my wife says so. The structure and style of teaching through playing standards is just right for me right now, so I have to say, Thank you!
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Hey @luzioluna 
Welcome to the PianoGroove community!
Here are some courses and resources that I recommend to start with:
1) Jazz Standards & Repertoire (40% of practice time)
Check out the following 3 courses on the tunes āMistyā, āGeorgiaā, and āThe Nearness Of Youā. These courses all start with the most basic voicings, and we gradually add more sophisticated voicings styles and arranging techniques:
These are my newest jazz standard courses and they will help you to understand the many ways that we can interpret a jazz standard. This will help you to think and play creatively and spontaneously, instead of reciting a set arrangement of a jazz standard.
There is a lot of information in these courses and they incorporate more advanced theory which will allow you to see the upcoming theory areas and most importantly how they are applied in context of arranging tunes.
2) Theory Recommendations (40% of practice time)
Check out this seminar which will help you to understand the main theory milestones ahead of you as a beginner jazz student:
This seminar may also be useful to help you map out and structure your practice time:
3) Listening, Ear Training, & Transcription (20% of practice time)
In addition to studying the theory and jazz standards, itās important that you are working on your listening and transcription skills everyday and in time this will allow you to learn directly from your favourite recordings.
Check out the featured video in our Ear Training Section for more information, and aim to complete an ear training exercise each day:
ā 150 Ear Training Exercises
The following seminar will help you to understand the benefits of transcription, and where to start if this is something new to you:
Spend a few weeks to review the information above and just let me know if you have any questions along the way.
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Hola Luzio,
Vas a encontrar un ambiente acĆ” que va a ayudarte mucho en aprender el piano. Todosālos instructores y los estudiantesāson muy amables y listos para ayudarte con cualquiera duda que tienes. Bienvenidos! 
Espero que vas a compartir tu mĆŗsica con nosotros.
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Warm welcome Luzio! You have certinly found the right platform. PianoGroove is the absolute best. You will be playing several standards before you know it! Enjoy your journey!!!
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Hi,
Iām David, and I have now retired from engineering in the communication satellite industry. Four years ago I started playing piano and have had about 3 years of lessons which touched on jazz but did not have enough structure or drills for me. I found PianoGroove on youtube and studied a few of the lessons before signing up. I would like to be able to read and play from jazz standard lead sheets. I play only for myself, and have never played with other musicians. I donāt really listen to much jazz, apart from occasionally the standards (Nat King Cole, Ella Fitzgerald etc).
Hey @David99 - thanks for sharing this introduction and welcome to our community area!
For learning to play from lead sheets I recommend to check out my newest jazz standard courses which Iāve included below. You can study these simultaneously:
These courses will help you to see the process of learning a tune starting with the basic diatonic harmony, then 3-note spread voicings, and then slowly introducing more sophisticated voicings and harmonies as the courses progress.
As you have been playing for 3 years and just touched upon jazz harmony, I imagine that you will start to encounter new theory areas after the first few lessons in each course. Donāt be intimidated by new or unfamiliar theory, instead just copy the demonstrations to start to familiarise yourself with the sounds and shapes of the voicings and harmonies.
Learning to play from lead sheets is a numbers game; the more tunes we learn, the easier it becomes to learn the next ones.
Here are some other beginner-level jazz standard tutorials that I recommend for you:
These tunes will kick start your repertoire.
Also, with the holidays approaching, you might like to dip into our Xmas songs which we have a course on here:
- Jazzy Xmas Songs Course - check out the 1st module which is all beginner level.
I also covered the āChristmas Medleyā in more detail in a recent seminar:
Theory Recommendations
For which theory areas to focus on, check out this seminar:
If you have any questions you can post them on the lesson or seminar pages and that will ping me a notification.
Again welcome and enjoy the lessons!
Hi Hayden,
Thank you for your welcoming e-mail, and suggestions for study.
At the moment I have been concentrating on the Jazz Piano Foundations course and working on the drills, and the standards in the course. I canāt wait to get started on some of your recommendations, but I want to get a good grasp of the foundations first.
Best Regards
David
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Hi Everyone!
Firstā¦Happy Thanksgiving. Iām āthankfulā to be a part of this community and to be dusting off this gift Iāve had since I was a child.
I took lessons from 5 years old until maybe 10. I didnāt learn much of anything from the 2 teachers I had. They also trained me more classical, but my natural inclination was toward Jazz.
Because I had no interest in what I was being taught, I started listening to music I loved and playing what I heard. That is what started a family singing group that I played keyboard for.
Now at 48, Iāve been writing and producing music for 30 years. Thatās good right? Yes! Except Iām tired of not knowing where to go next on the keyboard. I donāt want to have to feel my way around this instrument anymore or depend on other keyboardists to make my own music āprettier.ā
Soā¦no moe square chords for me. Iām ready to pick up where I left off as a child and actually learn this thing. I know it will make me a better musician and singer.
Blessings to all!
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Hey @karenwclark welcome to the community area!
Many students here at PianoGroove - myself included - started with classical piano and so you should find the lessons and courses helpful to make the transition into jazz piano and to gain a deeper and more functional understanding of harmony.
I know I already sent you some recommendations in the lesson comments section so no need to repeat them here.
You might like to take a browse over our āTheory Questionsā & āPractice Inspirationā sections here in the forum which contain a lot of useful information and common questions and answers:
There is also a tonne of information in this thread for new students, where to start with the lessons and courses etcā¦ and so have a browse through some of my replies in this thread.
Again a warm welcome to PianoGroove and I look forward to hearing on your progress!
Talk soon, Hayden
Hi there. My name is James (35, UK) and Iām a relative newbie to the piano world, particularly jazz piano. Many years ago I used to play on my show tunes and pop songs on my dadās keyboard playing just the melody line with chords using the āone finger chordā function. As of May this year, I have purchased a digital piano and removed all assistive technologies to help me play properly. When I started again, I was playing simple triads, reading sheet music and learning some classical and Einaudi songs but, really itās jazz I want to learn. I can play a fairly decent arrangement of Misty, however, this was learned using sheet music. Now Iām a Pianogroove member, I hope to hone my skills with jazz and aspire to be able to play solo jazz piano (lounge, late night, cocktail, slow ballad style jazz) in the future.
Itās a pleasure to be here and I look forward to connecting more with this community.
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Hey @jajw and welcome to the community area!
Thatās great that you are just starting out with jazz piano - you should find our step-by-step courses easy to follow but challenging at the same time.
In addition to studying the theory lessons in our Jazz Piano Foundations course, you might like to check out our āessentials practice guideā which contains 6 drills for each key (scales, triads, 7th chords, and the 3-note 251 progression), hereās the lesson:
This drill can be completed everyday, or every other day, and start by grouping the keys into groups of 2 or 3 and slowly build up to covering all keys in a single practice session.
In addition to the foundational material, I recommend to watch the theory lessons in our Chord Extensions course to expose yourself to some more interesting jazz chord voicings:
Finally, we have a dedicated course on Misty here:
This is a mixed-level course which starts with the basics and then we introduce more advanced theory starting in the second module.
As a new jazz piano student, the theory will be new to you from lesson 3 onwards. My view is that itās a good thing to expose ourselves to more advanced theory to see whatās coming up in the next courses and whatās the result of completing the foundation drills.
Thereās lots of useful information in this thread for beginner students, and where to start with the lessons and courses, and so take a browse though some of my responses above.
Again welcome to PianoGroove and talk soon!
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Hi Hayden,
Thank you very much for the warm welcome and comprehensive starting plan. I am working my way through the lessons as suggested and am loving it all so far.
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Hi,
I originally learnt the accordion, then took classical piano grades, then had a career in IT. Now playing popular songs from 1920ās onwards (shows, films, charts) at birthday/anniversaries etc. In recent years been more attracted to the richer harmony found in some jazz arrangements .
So would like to know more about how it works!. There is no shortage of resources here to delve into. I hope to improve my bossaās, walking bass, improvisation, chord voicings etc etc. Where will I get the time for all this!!
John
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Hi @john17
Welcome to the community area!
Youāre certainly in the right place for learning standards and rich jazz harmonies.
Here are a few suggestions based on your interests:
For Bossa Nova, you might like to check out our Brazilian Grooves Course which provides information on the history and development of the style as well as some Bossa Nova classics:
For walking bass lines, here are a couple of forum threads which reference various lessons that we have on walking bass lines by our different teachers:
You can also use the website search feature, for example:
For improvisation you might like to check out the improvisation module of my course on āCocktail Piano Improvisationā:
For developing our improvisational abilities, itās very important to be regularly transcribing new melodic ideas to ābuild an arsenalā of improvised phrases.
Check out our Licks & Lines Library which contains short melodic ideas from iconic jazz pianists. Choose the ones that you personally like and transcribe them, transpose them, and apply to tunes that you are working on:
For chord voicings, here is a seminar which outlines the main theory milestones for beginner/early intermediate jazz harmony:
And this PDF file links to some of the most important drills for mastering the foundations, chord extensions, rootless voicings and stride, and altered harmony:
- Jazz Voicings Roadmap (383.3 KB)
Another areas of interest could be Upper Structure Triad Voicings:
We have a huge library of lessons and seminars and so I hope this helps to give you some direction John.
If you have any questions donāt hesitate to ask.
Talk soon!
Hey all, I have been with PianoGroove since November and am now getting to the point where I feel comfortable with a few of the jazz standards. Is there a section of the Community where we can share any recordings for feedback please?
If there is, please go easy on me, Iāve only been learning piano for 7 months 
Thank you.
Hey @jajw - congratulations on your progress!
Yes we have the following thread where we can share our recordings:
You can upload audio or video. Audio is a little easier and more lightweight when uploading to the forum. Simply drag your audio file into a message and it will create an embedded audio player.
Yes weāre a very supportive community!
Itās a great idea to record yourself to document your progress and Iāll certainly give you some useful feedback and perhaps some new theory areas that you can explore to enrich your arrangements.
Looking forward!
Hi Hayden,
Thank you very much for the quick reply and for pointing me in the right direction! Iāll share some of my recordings.
Thanks for your support also, Iām working my way through he beginner courses and some of the content is starting to sink in 
Cheers
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Hello all,
My name is Ali and Iāve been improvising on the piano for about ten years. Iāve never had lessons but somewhere on the way I picked up a couple of jazzy/bluesy scales and worked out some chords to go with them. As much as I loved my DIY/playful/intuitive approach to piano I realised Iād benefit a lot from learning some Jazz theory and expanding my repertoire which is why I signed up to this site.
Iāve enjoyed going through the Jazz foundations course and understanding a bit more about what I have been playing all these years and although it hasnāt impacted my improv yet I feel better equipped to start some of the improv courses you have on your site which I am excited about.
Here are two songs that represent the kind of improv I"d like to play, any suggestions on courses to get me there would be welcome
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Hey @AliJ
Welcome to the community area!
Please excuse my late response, I wanted to take a listen to your recordings before repying to you with some suggestions.
Identifying Sounds We Like
Itās great that you have a specific style of improvisation that you are aiming towards, and in particular you have identified specific recordings where you think to yourself āWow Iād love my improv to sound like thatā. Thatās the first step to taking āyour soundā in a specific direction.
Have you ever tried transcribing parts of these solos?
This the best approach to learn improvisation ā¦ more on this below.
Alice Coltrane - Turiya And Ramakrishna
What a groovy recording - thanks for sharing!
Skimming through the recording āAlice Coltrane - Turiya And Ramakrishnaā, most of the melodic ideas are based on the Eb minor blues scale: blues licks, repeating motifs, bluesy inflections etcā¦
The beauty is not just which notes of the scale are being played, but also how the notes of scale are being played (phrasing/accents/attack) - which is of equal or sometimes more importance than the actual notes being played. Thatās the important stuff that you will learn by transcribing, emulating, and playing along with the recording.
Ear Training Exercises
If you are new to transcription, we have a step-by-step ear training program here:
Watch the featured video on the ear training homepage to understand how to work through the exercises.
These exercises will teach you how to recognise intervals, bass notes, and chord qualities so that you can start to dissect the solo.
Understand that any melody line or improvised solo, is simply a series of intervals and so interval training and recognition should be a top priority for you. All 50 beginner exercises focus on this.
Perhaps start with a short section of the recording that you like best, maybe 10 or 15 seconds of it, and than gradually work up to analysing larger segments of the solo.
Or you could just start with the first 20 seconds of the recording which contains a few interesting melodic ideas, and go from there.
Transcription Software
Iād recommend the software Transcribe! which will help you identify the melodies, the harmonies, the bass notes and bass lines, etcā¦
and here is a seminar where I demonstrate the features and functionalities of the Transcribe software:
Transposing Melodic Ideas
Once you can emulate some of the melodic ideas and phrases, the next step is to transpose them to different keys and apply them in other settings ie. jazz standards, blues forms, or anything else you are working on.
Improv Courses
I created a step-by-step course on cocktail piano improvisation which is different to the style of improvisation in your recording, but none-the-less I feel that itās important that you understand some of the most common building blocks of improvised solos which are:
- chord tones
- approach patterns & enclosures
- arpeggios
- altered tones
- blues scales
You can find the improvisation module in this course:
I hope that helps Ali and have fun working on this stuff!