Exercises:
I’ve been alternating between the foundations practice planner and extended chords & voicings practice planner on a daily basis.
I’m finding major scales challenging when playing with both hands simultaneously. Perhaps I should concentrate on a single key for an extended period before switching.
In the extended voicings exercises, I tend to skip the Herbie Hancock, Kenny Barron, and So What voicings, primarily working on basic extensions.
Today, I composed a short “etude” exclusively using Herbie, Kenny, and SW voicings to learn how to use them.
Considering major scales, yes, staying with one or two keys for a longer time is very helpful; I would recommend to take two keys that have different fingering, for exmample C major and F major, play them very slow at first, until the fingering for both hands becomes effortless, then increase tempo little by little. Then, when you really feel like you can play them (hands together) without having to think about the fingerings, move to next two.
Good thing about major scales is, once you learn C major really well, the same fingering applies to several other scales, G, D, A, E, B, as well as several minor keys as well!
Thanks for the tips. I think I really need to try to focus on only two scales at a time. It makes sense to do exactly what you said, and choose scales with different fingerings.
Once I have mastered the basic versions of the scales, do you think it is beneficial to practice scales with different interval patterns? Or what kind of exercises do you recommend?
After learning basic scales, there are many ways you can go forward; I recommend to move to Hanon book, and start going through first 20 exercises, then do them in different keys.
Remember when practicing scales:
Goal for learning scales is to be familiar and fluent with all keys, as well as have some technique development.
Best way to learn both of those things is jazz language; chord tones and melodic patterns that not only teach you about the keys and technique, can also be directly applied to you improvisation.
Here are some pages/videos on the subject of chord tones and jazz language:
Yes, I have heard of Hanon. I found a website with the 20 Hanon exercises you mentioned. I’ll have to try them out once I’ve learned the scales in all the keys. Thanks for the links to the tutorial and seminars on jazz language and chord tones. I’ll definitely watch them at some point.
I have been focusing on practicing the C and F major scales the past few days. Both hands work fine separately, but the muscle memory is not yet there when playing with both hands together. At the same time, I have been practicing arpeggios in the keys of C and F.
In terms of chords, I have done the following exercises:
major 251’s with type A, type B and closed voicings in the right hand (ii-9 - V13 - Imaj9)
major 251’s starting with so what and kenny barron voicings
For the reharmonization challenge, I have started working on a version of the song “Can’t Help Falling in Love”. It has a beautiful melody that seems to offer many possibilities for reharmonization.
I have been trying to listen to as much jazz music as possible. It is great that because I haven’t listened to much jazz music before, a whole treasure trove has opened up to me that I was not aware of. There is jazz music outside of Take Five song. My most inspiring discovery lately has been Keith Jarrett’s Standards Vol. 1 album. Incredible piano playing, but what was really amazing was the trio’s playing together. I read that they didn’t practice the songs at all before going into the studio. The result of two and a half days in the studio was three albums of music.
I completed the April reharmonization challenge. My piano playing wasn’t great, but anyway the goal was to learn reharmonization. Playing with accompaniment was challenging. In some places, I noticed that I always play the chords on the downbeats. This quickly gives the song a tango-like feel, and I don’t mean that in a good way.
I have continued to practice the C and F major scales. They are starting to go better, both hands together as well. I was thinking of moving on to the G and Bb scales next. I will keep the C and F scales for maintenance practice. I made myself a note of the 20 Hanon exercises that I have been using to add variety to the scales. I have continued to do the same harmony exercises (ii-9 - V13 - Imaj9) with different voicings.
I’ve been expanding my scale practice and am currently studying the C, G, D, F, and Bb major scales. The scales in the C → G → D direction feel a lot easier because the fingering is the same as in the C scale. Bb, on the other hand, is completely different from F.
I watched Hayden’s seminar “Sus Chords for Beginners” as a recording and am trying to apply what I learned in this month’s community challenge (Jazz ballad).
In addition, I made a short jazz etude inspired by Tuomo Bud Powell’s post. I used the chords from “Georgia” as a base, and I created a melody inspired by Bud’s song “Celia”. I used iRealPro for the backing tracks. I can only say that playing with “swing” is really difficult.
A nice tune for applying sus chords is “I Fall In Love To Easily”.
It contains many dominant chords with the root in the melody for which the sus13 voicing works perfectly. I find that this voicing opens up lots of inner voice possibilities, in particular the ‘sus to altered dominant’ movement. It’s a short tune too, just 16 bars long!
I covered it in a tutorial some time ago that you can find here:
And more recently in a seminar which you can find here:
Thanks a lot for the tips! I hadn’t decided yet which jazz ballad to arrange for the challenge, but I Fall In Love Too Easily seems like a great fit for this purpose. I’ll have to check out that tutorial and seminar. The Sus to altered chord progression sounds really cool. I haven’t been able to identify what’s happening there before, but now I might be getting a bit of a grasp on it.
You mentioned in the end of your post, that playing with swing is difficult, and I just wanted to give my thoughts on the swing feel:
You played your 8th notes in a very triplet-oriented, but I have found that 8th notes in jazz are actually a little different.
Although jazz is grounded in triplet-feel, when it comes to soloing (especially from the 1940’s on), the swinging 8th notes can be pretty much straight, and accenting makes the swing.
For example, if you listen carefully, in ‘Celia’ all the notes are pretty much straight, but the accenting creates the swing feel.
Here’s another example of great swinging 8th notes, check out the sax solo!
You’re definitely right. It’s really hard to figure out why my playing sounds wrong and doesn’t swing. Part of it is of course due to my technical shortcomings. I analyzed a small section of Bud Powell’s playing on the song Celia. And you know what, it’s exactly as you said. Bud really plays his eighth notes rhythmically somewhere between straight eighths and triplet eighths. I took a screenshot from Logic that shows this clearly. Maybe I should make myself a custom Bud-o-meter ™ metronome that I can use to learn to swing like him.
Then there’s the accentuation of the notes. That feels completely backwards and totally different from what I’m used to.
Easy and fun way to learn to phrase correctly is just listening a lot, I have noticed that just by listening and imitating we can learn these things naturally, and that combined with practice will show results pretty quickly.
My practice has been progressing well. I created a cheat sheet for myself as a memory aid for piano practice. I compiled it from the practice schedules of the Fundamentals and Extended Voicing courses. Sometimes I forget how to play ii-9 to V13 to Imaj7, etc.
In scla practice I have progressed to three accidentals in major scales. I still only play minor scales and Dorian mode with my right hand.
Somehow, I feel like I’ve been focusing a lot on studying jazz harmony, maybe even too much. Studying jazz harmony is exciting because there’s so much new to learn. I’m thinking of focusing on playing songs in June, instead of learning new chords and voicings, and working more on rhythm and improving the independence of my left and right hands. Practice June 2024v2.pdf (40.3 KB)
Alright, time for another practice update! I’ve been simplifying my practice even more lately. It’s all about back to basics. Major scales are starting to feel more comfortable in all keys (both hands together, 2 octaves). For chord practice, I’ve been patiently working through four-note chords in all keys and inversions. I’m definitely seeing progress there too. The tunes I’m currently working on are: Beautiful Love, Georgia, Over the Rainbow, and All the Things You Are.
Lately, there has been only a limited amount of time available for practice. So, I’ve continued on the same path, grinding through the basics. Why fix it if it ain’t broken? Basic scales and basic chords. Sometimes it gets tedious, but on the other hand, it feels like you can discover new aspects of even the most basic chords when you play around with them enough. I’ve noticed that I can already find chord extensions a bit faster now that I’ve practiced basic chords slowly and thoroughly. At first, it felt strange when I named them out loud, like “this is Cmaj7, this is Dm7, then comes Em7,” and so on. But this seems to help with chord recognition.
I recorded a short clip of my playing (Beautiful Love). It’s like a diary entry, so I can track my progress.
The counterpoint melodies, contrary motion, and other nuances that you add in your left hand sound really great. It adds a lot of interest and texture to your arrangement.
Also glad to hear that finding chord extensions is coming along faster - keep up the great work and thanks for sharing!
It’s been a while since my last practice diary entry. My practice routine has become simpler and simpler. I noticed that there is still so much to improve in the basics, that I have taken a few steps back. I’ve been reviewing just basic chords in all inversions, scales, arpeggios, etc. I’ve been paying special attention to accurate rhythm and keeping the tempo. It’s funny to notice how much there is to practice in basic chords to really get them into muscle memory and not just know them in theory. At the same time, new depths begin to emerge from them. Creativity begins to blossom when, for example, you choose two chords (e.g. Cmaj7, Fmaj7), set the drum machine to beat and just start making variations.
I have been practicing basic chord progressions in different keys, (II V I, I VI II V etc.). Somehow my eyes and ears have been opened with this training and I have happily noticed that this has been very helpful in understanding and learning songs. The structure of songs becomes clearer when I recognize the smaller structural components. NSACIAFBI may seem like a random string of letters, but NSA, CIA, FBI is easy to remember.
Many sources have recommended that playing together is a fun way to learn to play jazz. Well, I dared to go to a jazz ensemble course at the local adult education centre beginning in early autumn and it has been really fun. We play evergreens and jazz standards with a variable line-up. Comping with the band has brought a whole new dimension to this hobby.
I’ve been thinking about starting to take jazz piano lessons, maybe online. The only difficulty is finding a teacher. What kind of experiences do you have with jazz piano lessons/teachers?
Ultimately jazz theory and harmony theory takes time to learn and can seem endless. I created PianoGroove to balance theory and jazz standard studies so that students can have fun performing and playing songs whilst also learning theory.
The irony is that the more theory we learn, the more we realise there is to learn and so it is ongoing in that sense; a lifelong journey exploring music.
@Tuomo offers private classes on Zoom which could help to give you some more specific direction to meet your goals.
You can see more here:
Tuomo is familiar with the entire PianoGroove library and so he can suggest specific courses and advice to help you achieve your goals.
If you’d like to play with other musicians in a jam/ensemble setting, Tuomo would be a great mentor for helping you achieve this goal. His email is listed on the page linked above.
I believe you are both on the same time zone too which would make scheduling easy.
I often send students to Tuomo who request private lessons, and they are always delighted with the sessions from the feedback I receive.
I analyzed a small section of Bud Powell’s playing on the song Celia. And you know what, it’s exactly as you said. Bud really plays his eighth notes rhythmically somewhere between straight eighths and triplet eighths. I took a screenshot from Logic that shows this clearly. Maybe I should make myself a custom Bud-o-meter ™ metronome that I can use to learn to swing like him. 
