Introduce Yourself To The PianoGroove Community! 🌎

General Discussion
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Thank you for the welcome Scott, yes I am sure there is much to learn, and experience here and already committed to daily practice again, and as Gene Harris said in an interview, we develop our own genre as time goes by (feel a song coming on) Everything we practice and play goes into the memory banks, and comes out in our playing naturally. Anyways, once again thanks, and take care. Neil

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Hi Lizzy :wave:t2:

Welcome to PianoGroove and thanks for sharing all of this.

I think it’s wonderful that you have played by ear for so many years. For many of us, learning to play by ear and learning directly from recordings is challenging but it’s a very important part of learning jazz so it’s great that you have experience here.

If you’re looking to understand more about jazz harmony, and the theory behind chords and progressions, then you are certainly in the right place. In particular I think you will enjoy the following syllabuses where I break down a big chunk of jazz harmony:

The 251 Syllabus:

Chord Voicings Syllabuses:

Take a read over the “Learning Paths” to get a ‘birds-eye-view’ of the topics we cover in those lessons and courses.

Your aspirations to accompany a singer:

For this goal I would recommend checking out Lyndol’s courses on vocal accompaniment. Lyndol explains the art of vocal accompaniment from the perspective of both the singer and the jazz pianist and her lessons are full of useful insights.

Here’s is the vocal accompaniment syllabuses:

We also have a course on “Playing With Other Musicians” which I think you will enjoy, check that out here:

I hope the above helps Lizzy. Have fun working through the lessons and if you have any questions with the material don’t hesitate to ask.

Cheers,
Hayden

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Welcome Neil :wave:

I know we had a quick chat over email and I will repost some of my recommendations here in case they will be of interest to other students.

I’m also a big fan of George Shearing. We have many lessons on Block Chords which are characteristic of Shearing’s style.

Block Chords Course: Block Chords & Drop 2 | PianoGroove.com - there are many theory lessons where we explore the concepts of block chords, and then jazz standard lessons where we apply the theory in context of tunes.

Harmonising Step Wise Melodies: Harmonising Step Wise Melodies | 4-Way Close, Drop 2 Voicings, & Passing Chords - in this lesson we explore the different options for harmonising step wise melodies with block chords and passing chord.

Barry Harris Voicings: Barry Harris Voicings Concept - Masterclass | PianoGroove.com - this is a more advance lesson where Tuomo provides some advanced application of block chords.

The lesson on “Harmonising Step Wise Melodies” would be a nice place to start, and also the other lessons in my masterclass series cover some interesting concepts: "5 Minute Masterclass" Jazz Piano Tutorials | PianoGroove.com

Enjoy the lessons and look forward to hearing on your progress :sunglasses:

Cheers,
Hayden

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Hello,

My name is Maria. I’m from Austin, Texas. I’d consider myself an Intermediate piano player (learned by ear). I’ve played for most of my life, but it’s been mostly classical music. I don’t know much music theory and am not familiar with jazz/improvisational style of playing. I’m hoping this class will help me become a more knowledgeable, well rounded player!

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Welcome Maria.

You’ve come to the right place. There’s a friendly and welcoming community here. Hayden, along with the other instructors, offers a very straightforward path to learning theory and then using that knowledge to improvise over standards. There’s much to discover and enjoy here.

(On a side note, Austin is a beautiful city, and it’s nice to see a Texan here. Years ago, I got my M.A. in English at Texas Tech and taught at Amarillo College for 12 years.)

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Welcome Maria! I know you will enjoy your journey with PianoGroove. In my opinion, this is the best online jazz piano site. So, you have chosen wisely! There is so much to learn. Have fun!!!

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Welcome @maria :wave:

Many of our students - including myself - have studied classical piano and so the lessons are well suited to those coming from a classical background.

Take a browse through our syllabus pages: www.pianogroove.com/syllabuses - and if there are any particular topics that you are interested in, let me know and I can point you towards certain lessons and courses.

You can find many common jazz questions in our Theory Q&A section: https://community.pianogroove.com/c/theory/11 - it might be nice to peruse the threads as there are lots of useful discussions and insights for new jazz students.

Stay safe and enjoy the lessons!

Hayden

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I couldn’t agree more! @Celia -

Welcome! Maria, Lizzy, Neil, Rem, Brett , Charles, lordanis, Jacobs :blush: - You’ve made the perfect choice :blush: Looking forward to witness your piano journey… Take care.

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Hi Hayden & Team

I’ve just joined and am delighted to have found PainoGroove !

I’m Ken, 51, Scottish originally but living in Yorkshire, UK with my wife and two teenage daughters. Following Hayden’s suggested headings…

Career
This is on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/ken-beaty-b4969066/) if anyone is interested in the full CV ! Basically; Theoretical Physics Degree, professional ACMA accounting qualification with Shell Group, 20 year career in Private Equity investing, set up as independent company chairman in 2014 and have been lucky enough to chair the boards of some great UK businesses and charities in the last 6 years.

Of interest, might be a role I have just now as Chair of the Leeds International Piano Competition (https://www.leedspiano.com), one of the World’s leading music competitions. All classical virtuoso though - not a jazz chord in sight !

Musical Background
Piano lessons age 6-16, to Grade V (piano teacher died - eeek! - while studying for Grade VI so never sat the exam…). Hated practice but loved “noodling around” on the piano working out piano lines from songs on the radio (wore out many “REW…” buttons on cassette players…) and randomly improvising. Closest I came to jazz piano was working out the theme tune to Barry Norman’s Film '86 TV programme (Billy Taylor’s “I Wonder What it would feel like…” - bit I didn’t know that at the time - pre internet !) by ear. I don’t think I ever got the chords quite right but I played a passing representation which got people tapping along and smiling, and became my “party piece” for a while if I ever sat at a piano in public - ah halcyon days…

Played keyboards in a small performing band (pop and rock covers) at Uni. Restarted piano lessons about 10 years ago. Threw myself into learning various Grieg, Debussy and the odd Chopin prelude and Beethoven sonata movement if I was feeling ambitious. Got slightly bored though as once I knew the notes well enough (usually memorised - I seem to have an “ear”) I would lose interest in refining the dynamics, phrasing, etc and want to move on to the next piece. I think my teacher despaired !

Have also sung in choirs all my life from church to school to Uni to everywhere I have worked since. Love it - feeds my soul. Currently sing with Leeds Festival Chorus (www.leedsfestivalchorus.co.uk) when Covid-19 restrictions allow…

I am one of those people who rarely has a waking moment when there is not a tune floating around in my head - a curse or a blessing - I don’t know !

Piano Goals
First and foremost I just want to start playing again (haven’t played regularly for about 5 years). I have always gravitated to a jazz style of playing but never felt able to take it further than “fiddling around” with improvising whatever RH melody is in my head at the time to some chords I make up which seem to sound decent. While fun, the lack of structure or progression means I just drift from one 20min “fiddling around” session to the next. I am really hoping then that this structured programme can help me build a knowledge base and some proper technique and structure for jazz style playing.

I love small ensemble music (I sing also in small ensemble choirs and loved the band when I played at Uni) and actually would LOVE to join a small jazz ensemble some time. Clearly a long term (!) goal but “every journey of 1000miles starts with a first step…”.

Musical Influences
I must confess to not being a Jazz listener to date (shame on me I know…). The closest I have come to jazz is Sting’s solo albums in the mid 90’s, Pat Methany Group (Still Life Talking is etched in my brain forever), and Jamie Cullum on Radio 2 !

I generally listen to prog rock/metal (love the complexity, irregular time signatures, key changes and “chops”), some classical (mainly Bach and the British choral repertoire) plus some left field stuff (eg currently listening to The Goat Rodeo Sessions - amazing innovative ensemble playing - jazz style ? and Olivia Chaney’s heart melting vocals on her Shelter Album).

Sorry - didn’t mean to bore anyone with all this !

Can’t wait to get started now… :slight_smile:

Thanks for having me.

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Welcome Ken,

You’ll find that you made a great choice with PianoGroove. The lessons are logically laid out and clearly presented, both for beginners and for those with your musical background. The community is a friendly place to share what you’re doing and/or listening to, and the instructors take an active part, answering questions and offering supplemental materials and activities. And there’s a nice collection of lead sheets and transcriptions to keep you busy at whatever level you are.

You “confess to not being a Jazz listener to date.” There’s no shame in that (well, maybe there is :sunglasses:), but you’ll quickly learn that if you really want to make any progress beyond the lessons, you’re going to have to start listening. You’ll start hearing how what you’re studying is applied, and with time you’ll start picking up ideas to apply to your own playing. (This is a slow process, at least it is for me, but it pays off.)

By the way, what piano/keyboard(s) do you play? It’s not important, but I’m always curious.

Looking forward to hear how you’re getting on.

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Welcome to the community Ken!

You have an impressive background. You should pick up on things quickly. I ditto everything Ken said about PianoGroove. It is a top notch site with great instructors.
There is a wide variety of topics and tunes for you to explore. Have fun!

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Thanks Scott.

Perhaps you could give me one or two suggestions to start my jazz piano listening experience ? I use Spotify so can hopefully pick up anything easily on that. I’m very keen to start my jazz piano listening education ASAP :musical_score: :notes: :slightly_smiling_face:

re Instruments, I am VERY fortunate to own a Steinway Model B grand which I have had for about 10 years. It was played very regularly during the first c5 years of its life but has sat far too idle in the last c5 years. Of course my playing is nowhere near worthy of the sheer quality of that instrument… but the privilege of being able to play such a wonderful thing is not lost on me and the utter beauty of the sound it creates, and the dynamic range is just wonderful.

I also have a newly acquired Roland RD 2000 keyboard set up in my home office here so that I can grab 10mins practice/playing in between Zoom video conferences during the week ! Really just getting to know this instrument at the moment but first impressions are great and the variety of sounds/layering, etc is great fun. Still trying to work out which of the (many !) piano sounds this instrument can create will be best for my jazz learning journey.

Many thanks for any initial listening suggestions…

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Thanks Celia :+1: :slightly_smiling_face:

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Ken,

Thanks for responding.

What to listen to is very subjective and tied , at times, to what you’re currently working on. Right now, I’m very high on Clare Fischer, someone I recently discovered. (See my recent “What Record Are You Listening To Today?” entry.) I’m so taken by his harmonic sense and all the inner movement of his voicings.

You are, indeed, fortunate to have that Steinway and somewhere you can use it. I’m in a condo where it’s headphones for me. I also have the Roland RD 2000. It’s a joy. Great touch. After about a year, I still fiddle around with which piano sounds best with the song I’m working on. All have their place. Try playing with the Aco 1, 3, 5, 7, and 8 settings. The default Vintage is a pretty true Rhodes sound.

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Thanks Scott. Will check out CF on Spotify and also these RD 2000 piano and Rhodes sound suggestions. Thanks ! :+1:

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Wow. Have enjoyed reading that. Welcome Ken! Oh you’re surely going to love the lessons, courses, 5 minute masterclasses , the community, the brilliant instructors - etc. This is an AH-mazing jazz piano education site - you sure will super enjoy it! :blush:

Looking forward to witness your jazz musical journey! Take care and to your family too!

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Thanks Kristeta :slightly_smiling_face:

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Welcome @KenB - and thanks for sharing all of this. I’m originally from North Manchester so just a short drive up to Leeds.

I’m familiar with the Leeds International Piano Competition but have not yet managed to attend. What an exciting project to be part of! :sunglasses:

Anyhow onto jazz music:

As @scott1 mentioned, listening is a very important aspect of our development as jazz musicians. Every spare minute you have in the day, try to get into the habit of listening.

Similarly, I fell down the trap of not listening to enough jazz (both live and recorded) in the early days of my jazz education. I can say with absolute certainly that regular listening and transcription is a vital component to accelerate our understanding and comprehension of what makes jazz music what it is.

Check out these 2 videos where we discuss the importance of listening and transcription:

Sources of recordings:

@TactfulCactus created 2 wonderful Spotify playlists, you can see them in this thread below.

I see you are a Spotify user and so I’d recommend downloading these playlists into your Spotify account.

Perhaps start with the “Ted Gioia’s Jazz Standard Playlist” which contains many of the most common and popular tunes in the jazz standard repertoire.

Christian (@TactfulCactus) has kindly and carefully compiled the playlist containing the exact versions referenced in Ted Gioia’s book. There is a really nice selection of recordings from many differently players and instruments.

My recommendation would be to browse through the entire playlist - also utilising time when you are driving or cooking to casually listen in the background - and make note of the songs you like, and also the players that you like the sound of.

We also have a lot of recordings in our “What Are You Listening To Today” thread which contains submissions from our students and teachers:

Take a browse through and you are sure to find some recordings and artists that you like.

Transcription & Ear Training

After watching the 2 videos referenced above you will have heard the emphasis on listening and transcription.

@Tuomo has created a selection of ear training exercises and transcription studies in this area of the forum:

https://community.pianogroove.com/c/improvisation-exercises

Whilst it’s important to learn the theory behind chords, voicings, and progressions etc… , it’s also important to be consistently working on our listening skills by working out melodies and chords using just our ears.

I’d recommend that you start with the beginner and intermeidiate ear training exercises, and this will equip you with the skill you need to start learning directly from your favourite recordings.

Every time that you sit down at the piano, spend a little time on one of these exercises. The answers can be downloaded in PDF format but try to refrain from checking until you have really given the exercise a good attempt.

When we have developed our ears to a point that we can pick up licks, lines, vocings, and fills, directly from our favourite recordings, it is a very liberating a rewarding place to be. So spend some time on those exercises!! :grinning:

Aspirations to play in a jazz band:

This is a very realistic goal Ken, but I would say it is a short to medium term goal just to give you an idea of timescales.

The most important step would be to watch a LOT of live jazz, here’s a link containing many of the jazz spots in Leeds where you can find jazz jams and other events:

As well as listening to the music, make note of the common tunes that are played and learn these as a priority.

Most importantly, analyse the stage etiquette and how the musicians are interacting with each other during performance. Often this is just very subtle visual cues to pass solos around the room, or to indicate when to finish the tune, but it is very important to understand these cues as a performer - particularly if you want to play at a jam session where you will be playing with people that likely you have never performed with before.

Finally, guidance on our courses and syllabuses:

If there are any topics you are particularly interested in, let me know and I will point you towards certain areas of the lesson library.

I’d recommend to peruse our syllabus pages and look over the “Learning Path” sections which give a nice ‘birds-eye-view’ on the progression through the topics. Here’s our syllabus index:

We also have practice planners on our first 4 jazz courses. These courses contain a sizeable chunk of beginner/intermediate jazz theory and once you have completed these courses, and the jazz standard studies within them, you will be feeling much more confident with jazz harmony and reading and interpreting lead sheets.

Here’s the section of the forum which contains the PDF planners and also discussion threads with additional info and guidance from myself and our other students:

I hope all this helps to give you some initial direction Ken and here to help should you have any questions with the materials.

Cheers,
Hayden

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Warm welcome @KenB
Enjoy the journey !!

ps i try to find the Billy Taylor’s “I Wonder What it would feel like…” google search without success

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Thanks Pierrot

Apologies re song title: It is of course “I wish I knew how it would feel to be free”. There are various YouTube videos of it, etc. It is a simple tune but a real toe-tapper :slight_smile:

PS - It’s also on p195 of The Real Book (sixth ed) if you have it.

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