Welcome Manuel!
Thatās awesome that you have played the flamenco guitar - Iām sure it will help you with your study of jazz piano.
I think you will enjoy this course:
We talk about alterations and āupper structure triadsāā¦ beautiful colourful voicings with rich textures. I think you will like exploring these sounds.
I would also recommend checking out this course on Chord Substitution:
Enjoy the lessons, and if I can be of further assistance just let me know.
Hi, my name is Charles Hill (no relation although my father is an Old Mancunian and my grandfather was General Manager of Ringway Airport, now Manchester International - so we share some common ancestral roots). I started learning the piano at 8 years old but gave up in my teens as sport took over my life and was far more interesting - at the time! After some further education and diverse activities I joined the Royal Air force and had a full career lasting 31 years. During that time ( in my ,thirties) I was lucky enough to have an overseas posting which meant I was able to rekindle my interest in the piano and reach a reasonable standard playing classical pieces again. Unfortunately I was unable to continue due to other commitments and the piano gathered dust again. On retiring from the RAF in 2011, my wife and I moved to France and began a new life. I now teach English as a foreign language ( part-time) and my wife cleans swimming pools during the summer months. Finally in June this year, after several months of free lessons with Piano Groove, I joined and hope to achieve my ambition of playing jazz piano. At first it was very difficult - I was used to two staves and the strict discipline of classical music. I am really enjoying your course and love the freedom of jazz in choosing certain chords and adapting the melody to suit a particular interpretation. I would like to become an accomplished jazz pianist and would like to thank you for providing an excellent means to achieve this ambition. I am now really āhookedā and wish you and your team every success for the future.
Charles Hill
Thanks for the intro Charles, Iām always intrigued by the diversity of our studentsā careers, occupations, and disciplines.
Itās an honour to have created the PianoGroove platform/community where we can all share the common pursuit of mastering the language of jazz piano. It has truly been an honour and Iām excited for the future of the community area.
Yes, I can relate to that very difficult first step.
From our classical education, we are used to 2 staves with lots of information on exactly which notes to play and how to play them.
We are then presented with the 1 stave lead sheet, which initially appears to be lacking in information but in fact, the lack of information provides the āroomā or āspaceā for almost infinite interpretation.
My main advice Charles is just to work through the jazz standard tutorials. The more of them you learn, the more you will understand about the options available to you.
The jazz standards were the primary vehicle I used to become proficient in jazz harmony. Each one containing its own beauties to be discovered. And then going back to old standards I learnt years ago, each time I then realise there is still more to discover within the same single stave. Itās fascinating.
Thatās a very realistic goal and anything I can do to help just let me know.
Likewise, Charles, wishing you every success with your jazz piano journey.
Keep having fun and relax into this new style 
Hi, Hayden and folks
My name is Toshihiro. I live in a town 50 miles south of Tokyo, Japan.
Itās facing the Pacific Ocean, and has a relatively mild climate throughout the year.
My first language is Japanese, not English. I wish you donāt have any diffuclties
in understanding my English.
Itās almost 3 years since I started learning Jazz piano. Last year, I bought
Casio PX 560M. A terrific electric piano. It just fits into a small room of my apartment, where I live with my wife.
This year, I made a huge dicovery. That is the āreharmonizationā is one of the essential techniques and powerful tool for a Jazz musician. A tune with a simple chord progression can be turned into a beatiful piece of music by reharmonizing it. Wouldnāt it be nice to master it ?
So, I reharmonized 1-1-4-4m-1-5-1-1 chord progression.
Here is the You Tube video of my doing it.
Here is the transcription with chord analysis if you are interested in it.
Thank you.
Hi Toshihiro 
Thanks for the introduction and for sharing that beautiful progression. I have subscribed to your YouTube channel.
I love your rehmonisations, and your right-hand melodies have a lovely smooth/cool jazz vibe. Itās really beautiful.
Yes i can see from your transcription that you have a good understanding of this.
By adding those additional ii-V progressions, you are enhancing the harmony and creating that lovely jazzy sound.
Your performance is really nice to listen to.
No problems at all understanding your English Toshihiro. It all makes perfect sense.
I always find it fascinating to hear where our students are from, and so thanks for sharing this. Iād love to visit Tokyo one day!
We have a good number of students from Japan, and the website has always been popular with Japanese students which is awesome.
It sounds like you are making very good progress in 3 years.
I found it took me around 2 years to get basic confidence playing jazz piano. After 2 years, I could play the 251s, have a basic understanding on interpreting lead sheets, and was starting to explore more interesting extended and altered harmonies.
Learning jazz truly is a lifelong pursuit. I just enjoy getting a little bit better each day when I sit down at the piano. Itās a very gradual process, but also a very rewarding one 
Yes I have played on some Casio electric keyboards and they are always nice to play on.
I have a Roland RD700 NX at my home in Manchester, and at PianoGrooveās recording studio in Seattle we have a Roland FP50 which is very lightweight so itās easy to carry and move around!
I think it would be nice to create a thread on the instruments we all use.
Leave this with me and I will get something going in the Software/Setup section of our forum.
Thinking about it, @LoriNelson - created this wonderful thread a while ago which a few of us shared our piano spaces:
Cheers!
Hayden
Very nice. Thank you for sharing.
I like to thank you for all the comments you have made for my introduction. Especially, I am very happy that you like my play and its style. Itās the result of what I have been doing for these 3 years. Now, I feel more confident.
As you mentioned, Jazz piano is lifelong work. I will keep learning harmonies, rhythms, and melodies, in addition to reharmonization, to develop my own style.
Thank you.
Youāre welcome, Lori. When Silver Sam the Handsome Man climbed up there, didnāt he hit or knock down any items on top of the piano ?
Surprisingly no, but he walks on the piano keys when he thinks I should stop playing the piano because he wants attention. 
Yes it was a pleasure to hear you play Toshihiroā¦ thanks again for sharing.
Congratulations that you are feeling more confident with your playingā¦ that must be a great feeling!
Yes, thatās right.
I found that it took the pressure off once I realised and understood that learning jazz piano is something I will be doing for the rest of my life.
Progress is often very slow when learning new harmonies, new progressions, new tunes etcā¦ and this can be offputting for new students.
Focused, daily practice is the key. Each day just getting a little bit better, and within the space o,f 6 months you will see big improvements.
There are so many amazing records to listen to, and take inspiration from.
The recordings and players that you listen to is what shapes your own style, or your āown soundā.
If you listen and transcribe from a recording, it might take years for those ideas to show up in your improvisations. I like to look at listening/transcribing as a āmusical investmentā that I am making for the future
Listen to jazz recordings every spare moment you have. This is such an important part of our development as students of jazz piano. Any opportunity you have to listen, do it!
Get into the habit of transcribing every day, perhaps just a short part of a melody, a comping rhythm, a 251 line, anything that piques your interest on the records you are listening to.
Try and stick to at least 15 minutes of transcription work per day, and I guarantee you will see big results.
Ok, I keep those three advices in mind. Currently, I am using āTranscribe!ā to transcribe when I come across phrases I like to play. Thank you.
Hi Toshihiro,
Welcome and if you hadnāt of mentioned it, your English is as if you studied English at Oxford University 
Itās perfect or as we say āspot onā
Yes it sounds like you are on the right path Toshihiro.
A little transcription each day will do wonders for your playing.
Anything you transcribe, also transpose it around all 12 keys as a priority.
Hi, Dan
It is very kind of you to make such a nice remark about my English.
I guess I was just worrying too much.
By the way, I didnāt know the words āspot onā, which means perfect.
Now, I like to thank you for the free mini-English lesson !
Hi,
Iām Patrice and I live in Boston, Massachusetts. I am just getting back into piano after a verrrrry long break. I took classical lessons from age 5 to 15. I learned almost nothing about theory and chords. I also played alto sax for about 4 years and viola for 1 year during that time.
A couple months ago and after a long while (too many years to say!), I started taking lessons with a teacher who is very jazz focused. My lessons so far are similar in direction to whatās on this site. but with no disrespect to my teacher intended, this is much better!
I love the structure this will provide. Iām very eager to methodically progress through the lessons (and practice) so I learn what I should have done so many years ago. Thanks so much for providing this terrific format!
Best,
Patrice
Hey Patrice
Welcome to the PianoGroove Community!
Like many of us here, we have at some point in our lives taken a hiatus from our musical studies.
Whether it be for work, academic, or family commitments, youāre certainly not alone there.
Thatās very similar to my early music education. I studied with a private teacher throughout my childhood.
This classical piano study equiped me with fairly good sight reading, and also general piano technique, but similar to yourself, I had a no understanding of harmony.
I could play lots of nice classical repertoire, but I had very little insight into how the chords were functioning from a harmonic standpoint.
Firstly, welcome to the world of jazz! Itās such a wonderful genre to explore on the piano.
I wouldnāt recommend that you completely rule out the prospect of studying in person. It can bring great benefits. Everyone has their own perspectives on learning jazz, and the more of these that you are exposed to will ultimately broaden your own understanding and perspectives on this art form.
I have some ideas in the pipeline to introduce real-time teaching where students can ask questions whilst myself and other teachers are sat at the piano, so we can feedback directly as if it was an in-person lesson. More to be announced on this soon.
An interesting thing with PianoGroove, is that the beginner/intermediate lessons closely document my own journey in mastering this art form, and so Iām very much teaching from a beginnerās point of view.
I think this works well, and makes the lessons accessible to all who have the desire to learn.
The pleasure is all mine Patrice.
Iām always available for additional guidance or recommendations should you need it, so you can post questions in the forum, or email me directly.
Enjoy the lessons and learning materials and I look forward to hearing about your progress 
Hayden
Hey all!
Pleased to meet you all, hope to have some nice musical exchanges with all of you, I just became a member so will dive deeper into all of the site in the coming weeks. To introduce myself and what brought me here;
Iām Matthijs from Amsterdam. 30 years old, been playing piano on and off (mostly on) since my 8th birthday. Added guitar on my 16th and can sing a bit as well, but my main instrument would be the piano. Had a very classical training and combined with lots of practicing hours Iāve come to quite a good level (Iād say Chopin first Ballade is the most technical/difficult piece Iāve played). Can play most pieces immediately from sight, overall technique is good. However, learning improvisation and jazz has been quite a struggle, because my classical piano teacher didnāt teach me anything on theory and improvising. Scales were for technique only. Since my 16th or so, I started playing at events/auction homes etc and gradually I became more interested in jazz, because it often better fitted the occassion I was playing. But mostly because I started to love the genre in itself as well. Mainly I just played transcribed jazz music from sheet, however learning more about the genre I had a growing desire to become able to just sit behind the piano and play whatever was in my head. Because there often is a lot in my head, but the fingers wonāt get it out. So during my 20ās, next to full-time (non-musical) study & work, I did two one-year educations, among others hoping to learn this a bit more. One education was on composition/arranging/improvisation/song-writing (the end project was composing a full score for an entire orchestra). The other education was more on sound production/design, so the studio & recording. Although these educations were very enriching and I now have acquired several extra skills, regarding improvisation it was still a bit broad, so that currently Iām still not satisfied at all with my improvising skills. My improvisaition skills are limited to some simple blues, major/minor scale improvisation with a bit of 2-5-1, but thatās about it. I therefore started with private lessons at the beginning of this year, but there wasnāt really a good match with the teacher. The teacher had a very technical approach (you canāt do this and you canāt do that) and was lacking structure. Next to that it can be hard to fit live lessons next to a full-time job. Therefore Iām now hoping to find my luck on Pianogroove, until now I very much like the structured approach so far. The plan is to this time try to stick to a method from beginning to end. In the end Iām really hoping to come to a level that I will be able to play whatās in my head, where it doesnāt always need to be jazz but can also be more poppy/classical or whatever type of music. I then would like to combine my piano skills with the other instruments and recording/composing skills, hoping to build and record some nice pieces of music. If I could get some general tips on which courses (or in which order) could fit me well, it would be very nice. So Iāll see how it goes, but hope to learn from you all.
Cheers, Matthijs
Sounds like you have a lot of musical experience under your belt. Your time spent playing classical music will be a great help with finger strength and dexterity.
Itās also great that youāre a multi-instrumentalist. We have lots of guitarists who also watch our piano lessons, and so I believe there is a lot of transferable information between the 2 instruments.
Your singing skills will certainly be an asset to you as you start to develop your improvisation.
Play a simple 251 progression, or 2516/1625 progression so that you have a cyclical progression.
Try and sing a line over the top.
If you can sing it, you can play it. Simply match the keys to the pitches that your voice is singing.
Many times as students, itās difficult for us to sing an improvised melody. If this case, the solution is to listen to LOTS of jazz, emulate the recordings, sing parts of the solos etcā¦ and this gets the music, the rhythms, and the phrasing inside of our bodies and our minds.
Itās a funny predicament because many students (myself included at one point) try to improvise jazz music when we have not spent the time to truly listen to the music we are trying to play!!
Imagine trying to paint an impressionist painting, without first looking at, and studying the work of the great impressionist artists. For sure you would be able to paint something, but without first studying the best artists, your perspective would be limited. I feel that the same is true for all of the arts, you must first study and immerse yourself in what has come before you.
I think thatās a nice analogy with the painting and it highlights how important listening and transcription is to develop as an aspiring jazz musician.
There is a concept/view concerning improvisation, and that is that the piano is not really the instrument, instead, you are the instrument. The piano is just a mass of wood, metal, and/or plastic, which we use as a āvehicleā to express the sounds we are hearing in our head.
And so how do we get the sounds in our head in the first place?..
Listening and transcription is the key.
If you are new to transcription, start by transcribing 251 lines. The 251 is the most common progression in jazz music, and so you will get the āmost mileageā out of your transcribed material. The first examples in this course are beginner-focused, and then as the course progresses, we look at transcribing longer sections of a solo:
Check out the last lesson in this course and you will see the process that I follow to absorb the styles and nuances of the players I like. This is the great thing about transcription Matthijs, you are in complete control of the direction of your sound. You just need to put the hours in to listen and transcribe:
This course does not address transcription, but the idea is that it will give you some insight into improvised melodic ideas, how to structure your improvisations, and bits of general guidance and advice:
This is a beginner-focused course, so it starts with very simple analysis and examples, but the latter half of the course contains some very important concepts that you will hear in many improvised jazz solos:
I hope this helps give you some direction, and any questions weāre always happy to help.
Wellcome @matthijs @patrice @toshihiro859997 some great advice and this last post for matthijs which can speak to lot of people and me firstly too 
the hard point is we have a lot of things to learn, even for such a good classical musician like you matthijs
And i think some basics must be mastered too , to be able to free our right hand ,one of the most important is the rootless chords and it is great covered here in the beginner course, but triads scales too.
I have create a topic where we could post our progress and give us some easy challenge to keep us improving all days. Please i really appreciate if i not stay alone ā¦ Lets create a practice group! Waiting you fellow musicians ! 
