Introduce Yourself To The PianoGroove Community! šŸŒŽ

General Discussion
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Welcome @seniortrevorfarrell4 :wave:

It sounds like you are in the right place for learning jazz standards and tunes form the Great American Songbook.

Here are the courses and resources that I would recommend for you:

Vocal Piano Courses

We have a couple of vocal piano courses taught by Lyndol which address vocal accompaniment and also some vocal exercises:

Vocal Seminars

You might like to check out these vocal themed seminars, there are 13 of them in total which delve deeper into different vocal topics:

Gospel Vocal Course

We have a gospel blues course taught by Davell which covers some interesting accompaniment principles. The final lesson of the course shows the live accompaniment of a gospel singer. Check that course out here:

Vocal Accompaniment Forum Section

You can find lots of articles and related lessons here on vocal accompaniment:

We are soon building out a new subcategory for vocal-play-a-long tracks. Itā€™s been on my to-do-list for some time and I will get around to that shortly.

Other Resources

In addition to the vocal lessons, here are our index pages so that you can browse the rest of the courses and lessons on the website:

Let me know if I can help further and enjoy the lessons.

Cheers,
Hayden

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Hi Everyone,

I am Becky Kilburn. I just joined November 26, 2021. I live in Ashland, Oregon. I have been exploring jazz piano in bits and spurts for many years but now I want to really focus on developing my skills and repertoire for my own enjoyment, to play for friends, and possibly to form an ensemble.

As a kid, I took private classical piano lessons for 12 years. My educational and work background was in math, physics, information systems, business, and teaching. I am retired now but not from life. I recently completed an online general professional music certificate at Berklee College of Music in Boston. I have accompainied singers and played in big bands and jazz bands. I am currently a member of Open Studio and Jazz Piano School websites as well.

I am excited to continue my studies with PianoGroove.

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474

Welcome Becky @beckykilburn

Youā€™ve a solid background and will find that there is something here for everyone, at whatever level. The instructors are friendly, responsive, and open. The community is a great place to ask questions and share your ideas and your playing. Iā€™ve been here for over two years, and I still find something of interest every time I log on.

Like you, I am retired. I also live in Oregon, in Portland. I tried to work with Open Studio for a while, but I never found their approach very useful in comparison to that of PianoGroove. Then again, such things are subjective.

At any rate, again, welcome! We look forward to hearing from you.

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@220611, ā€œTenderly in Cā€ by Walter Gross, Jazz Ballad

Hi guys,

I joined the PianoGroove group 2 weeks ago and at last Iā€™d like to introduce myself.

I waited a bit because I wanted to learn a new tune ā€œTenderlyā€ as this tune was the reason Iā€™m actually here, link below the post.

I found PianoGrove channel while viewing different tutorials on YouTube and I liked Haydenā€™s way of teaching jazz.

Iā€™m pretty newbie for piano and especially for jazz piano playing.

Iā€™m 59 y.o. medical doctor from Poland.

I graduated from medical school in 1988 so itā€™s already 34 years since Iā€™ve been working as a radiologist, now in my own private clinic.

Nine month ago I came up with the idea to start playing piano, so joined a few piano teaching groups for basics, but mostly I tried to follow YouTube piano jazz players.
Tony Winston was my favorite piano teacher on YouTube.

I also joined the Piano With Jonny group, not too jazzy for my needs and lastly even Open Jazz Studio but needed something different and suppose I found it hereā€‹:grinning::+1:

In my school years I played guitar with simple chords, and occasionally piano with the melody line in the right hand and sometimes some basic chords in the left one, of course, if the piano was somewhere available (Poland wasnā€™t then on the right side of the iron curtain, so people were rather poor and the piano wasnā€™t available for the average family).

I never learnt how to play any instrument with a teacher. Everything I played was played by ear.

Then more then 40 years long break from playing.

Now Iā€™m able to read notes, but not too much, rather treble clef and very hardly bass clef.

Lead sheets if available are also ok for me to learn a melody, but still need to transpose the music to basic keys.

So enjoy my music and have a good weekend.

Happy practicingā€‹:grinning::+1:

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476

Hi Walter and welcome aboard!

Based on your background and interests, I think youā€™ve come to the right place, and I expect youā€™ll get a lot out of your PG membership.

My 2 centsā€“keep working on learning to read music until you can sight-read easy tunes (LH+RH; slow tempo) comfortably. But, at the same time, keep working on lead sheets and Haydenā€™s lessons on chords and progressions; that will probably be more rewarding in the short term, and also more empowering in the long term.

I thought your version of Tenderly was great; look forward to hearing more.

Greg

P.S. You might enjoy reading through the Practice Inspiration thread to hear other students share their music; in fact, you might want to cross-post your YT link there.

P.P.S. Tom Spruill (7notemode) has a nice version of Tenderly on his YT channel, along with a tutorial. Something to aspire to.

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477

Welcome to PianoGroove @Zbigniew

You might like to check out the Website Tour course which explains the features and functionality of the website:

You will be receiving a series of automated emails from me which also show you around the website. If you have any questions you can reply directly to these emails or post any questions here in the forum. The latter is better with theory questions so that you can receive answers and insights from all of the teachers and students.

Here are a few other useful things that i send to our students who are new to jazz piano:

Essential Theory For Beginners

Check out my Voicings For Beginners Seminar that I hosted in January : Jazz Piano Voicings For Beginners & Beyond - this covers the ā€œessential jazz theoryā€ and the main milestones ahead. I demonstrate the drills and exercises in the 4 courses mentioned below.

Here is the PDF file for you which contains links to each of the drills I mention:

You can study multiple courses at once , so Iā€™d recommend studying the following theory courses together:

Much of the theory is interrelated and it will give you more of a sense of progression when you see how the foundational material is applied and developed in the next courses.

Each of these courses contains practice modules where I cover drills and exercises in all 12 keys. You can study these on a modular basis, perhaps one day on each, or allocate days to suit your current level.

The main thing is to progress onto the more advanced lessons so that you are constantly learning and exposing yourself to new theory.

Jazz Standards

Try to learn at least 1 or 2 new jazz standards per month and remember that you will forget some of them on the way. The more tunes we learn the easier the next ones become to learn. Itā€™s very much a numbers game.

You might like to watch this new course on ā€œGeorgia On My Mindā€ which will allow to see the many steps to learning and internalising a new tune and arranging a tune in different styles:

I think it will be a good fit for you based on watching your Tenderly video above. Beautiful performance of Tenderly by the way :clap: I enjoyed listening to it

As @gregb mentioned take a good browse around the forum as there is lots of wonderful information and inspiration.

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478

Youā€™re going to love it here at PianoGroove. Hayden and company have laid out an incredible path to learning jazz piano. I donā€™t think thereā€™s a better foundations course available anywhere on the web! (Iā€™ve checked out a few.) Once youā€™re reasonably comfortable with that foundation, you can take your playing in whatever direction you like. Iā€™ve been here over three years, and it remains a valuable daily resource and source of inspiration. Have fun! :musical_keyboard:

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479

Welcome to the community! You did such a nice job on Tenderly. If you love ballads as I do, Hayden is the best! In my opinion, this is the best online course for jazz. I have been a member for several years and continue to learn and grow. Have fun and enjoy your journey. BTWā€¦I spent nearly a year in Poland some 25 years ago on business. I loved your country and would love to return some time.

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480

Thx Greg for your kind response.
Itā€™s really a nice place so I suppose I learn a lot hereā€‹:grinning::+1:

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Thx Hayden,
I realize I need to learn a lot to play better and suppose I found the right place at last.
ā€œGeorgia on my mindā€ was actually the next to learn tune for me so everything is on the right way.
This time Iā€™m not going to change a key yet, though itā€™s a lot easier to think and play in the key of C, bluesy tunes especially, playing in different keys is a very challenging thing for me now, even though I know the rules of circle of fifths.

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Thx Celia for your kind wordsā€‹:grinning::+1:

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Not sure where the posting link is, so please move if necessary. Introducing myself: Long LONG time jazz fan, especially big band. Took up sax as an adult. Played at my daughterā€™s wedding then hung it up. After I retired started on piano a few years ago. Been bouncing around courses looking for the right fit. I like the YouTube videos on PG so weā€™re giving it a shot. Few lessons Iā€™ve skimmed so far seem very tight. Going to try to force myself to follow the curriculum, even as review, to see if we can finally cross the divide & play from withinā€¦ Favs include Mingus, late Ellington (Far East Suite), McCoy Tyner, Cedar Walton (Fantasy in D), Oliver Nelson (Stolen Moments), Phil Woods (I Remember Bird) , Bill Evans (Waltz for Debbie)ā€¦ Play for myself, weak on time but I get caught up in beautiful melodiesā€¦

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BTW one of my other favs is Mingusā€™ ā€œCeliaā€ā€¦ see Mingus Big band '93

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Hello, PianoGroove Community. Iā€™m Peter, from Ontario, Canada, living about an hourā€™s drive west of Toronto. Iā€™m 64-years-old. Upon retirement in March of 2019, I resolved to tackle a lifelong dream: to learn to play piano.

Professional Background: I did my time in military service, several stints of college-level training, but spent the bulk of my career working in various aspects of information technology, ending as an ETL (Extract-Transform-Load) developer.

Musical Background: Iā€™ve had no formal music training. I began self-study of piano at age 62, and, due to the COVID pandemic, have remained self taught, now working at the Level 4 of the Royal Conservatory of Music piano syllabus (classical piano). I feel Iā€™ve now built a sufficient foundational skill set to tackle jazz.

Instruments: I experimented with several brands, but now I own a Yamaha CVP-809 digital piano. This instrument has a wonderful feel, and so many features Iā€™ve yet to discover them all. The software is a bit glitchyā€”sometimes the power must be cycled to bring the voices back into alignmentā€”but I highly recommend Yamaha digital pianos, especially for beginners.

Favourite Jazz Musicians

  • Oscar Peterson
  • Beegie Adair
  • Jeff Goldblum
  • Norah Jones
  • Dave Brubeck
  • Diana Krall
  • Joey Alexander
  • Nat King Cole

Current Musical Goals & Aspirations: Iā€™ve always enjoyed the jazz standards, the Great American Songbook. Iā€™d like to build a repertoire of these wonderful songs, both as piano solos and as accompaniment. The main goal is to be able to play from a lead sheet, and to achieve some skill at the magic of comping.

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486

Welcome Peter!

I know you will enjoy your journey with Piano Groove! In my opinion, there is no better place to build your jazz skills and knowledge.

I share your interest in artists. If you havenā€™t already looked, Hayden has presented some great live seminars on Beegie Adair which can be watched many times over! She is a favorite of many of us here at Piano Groove. He is doing some on Eddie Higgins too. You might like his style as well as there are some similarities.

Againā€¦a warm welcome!

487

Thank you for the welcome, celia. And for the Eddie Higgins recommendation; Iā€™m listening to his 1992 album, By Request, right now. very nice.

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Welcome to the PianoGroove Community Peter.

It sounds like you are in the right place to accomplish your goals. Here are some useful links to help get you started:

Building Your Repertoire Of Tunes:

Iā€™d recommend to start with this course on Bluesy Stride Piano For Beginners which will allow to see the many steps to learning a new jazz tune:

Next I think you will enjoy the following beginner jazz standards. You can study mutiple tunes at once and this will help to jump start your repertoire:

Check out this lesson on common jazz forms which will help you to understand and memorise the structure of the songs you are learning.

How To Approach The Theory

Here is a seminar that I hosted in Januray which covers the main theory milestones for new jazz piano students. You should find the advice and guidance in the seminar useful and I have attached the PDF handout for you which contains links to each of the drills I mention.

Take a look over the lessons and seminars above, and if you have any questions Iā€™m here to help.

489

Hi Ian,
I just saw your post today, 5th August 2022.
Are you still a member of Pianogroove ?

490

Hi everybody,

My name is Serge LEJEUNE, french expatriate in Poland, and living in KrakĆ³w since 20 years.

I studied the piano for 4 years when I was young.(from 8 to12 years old), classical piano.

I played in a new-orleans jazz band for 4 years during my graduate studies, but not as a pianistā€¦!! (playing bass, trombone, and banjo, according to the needs of the orchestra).

I recently decided to come back to piano jazz for my personal pleasure.

I discovered ā€œPianoGrooveā€ thanks to the free lessons on the internet, and I really appreciated the proposed method.

One of my challenges today is to regain some agility in my fingers.

It should be noticed that I turned 82 this yearā€¦!!

But itā€™s never too late to progress and have fun, isnā€™t itā€¦!!!

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491

Hey @Jordu - welcome to the PianoGroove Community.

Thatā€™s wonderful that you have returned to jazz - welcome back!

I would recommend to jump straight into learning some of the arrangements to warm up your fingers to jazz harmony.

Here are a few beginner jazz standard lessons which will help you to clearly visualise the voice leading of 7ths falling to 3rds in 251 progressions. These may be to simple for you depending on your level, you can be the judge:

and here are 2 of my favourite jazz standards which are intermediate level and incorporate more advanced arranging principles and techniques:

You might also like to check out the Xmas jazz piano course with the Xmas/holiday season in the not too distant future:

This course starts with beginner lessons and then covers some more advanced arrangements.

Take a browse through the lessons above for something that is a good fit for you. There is also lots of theory information and guidance if you scroll up in this thread.

Let me know if you have any questions and enjoy the lessons!