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Practice Inspiration
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Nicely done @jose2. And don’t apologize for the background noise. To me, it creates a cocktail bar vibe that goes well with what you’re playing.

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As I mentioned on the Misty post, I’ve also been working on a solo piano version for Georgia based on the bluesy stride piano course, however I implemented many of the topics covered on the improvisation portion of the Cocktail piano course. Here’s a recording of a run I decided to do today for the tune. Similar to the Misty recording, this was on the spot as well so there may be some short pauses during the solo section while I came up with something to play :sweat_smile:

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Wonderful
 that’s all I can say. Greetings Cornelius

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Sounds great, Jose! You’re a real pro!

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Happy New Year All!!

I learned “Tune Up” today. Still a work in progress, but I’m getting there. Those Kenny Barron voicings will present an issue for me because my hands are so small. But thankfully there’s a work around for people who can’t reach as far as others with longer fingers.

All feedback is welcomed!

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Hey @karenwclark :wave:

Sorry for the late reply here and nice job with “Tune Up”.

You’ve nailed the chord changes and I see that you’re not looking at the lead sheet or transcription whilst playing - which is great and a very good habit to get into.

As a new jazz piano student it’s important that we are always visualising the chord tones, and in particular visualising the 7ths falling to 3rds in the 251s. This movement is the foundation of jazz harmony and as you learn more tunes this will become more natural.

I’d say you’re ready to start learning your next jazz standards, here are a few recommendations:

The above 3 links are jazz standard courses with multiple lessons on the same tune. Pick the one that interests you most or even work on them all simultaneously.

Also remember that we can always come back and revisit the jazz standards that we have studied previously. For now, definitely focus on expanding your repertoire and exposing yourself to 251s in different keys and different harmonic situations.

p.s. when sharing a video file here in the forum, try to keep the file size as small as possible - as the forum is not designed to handle large files which results in the video freezing.

We can reduce the size of our videos by searching “video compressor” on Google and many sites allow you to upload the video, they compress it into a smaller size, and then you download it again.

Alternatively we can upload audio files which are generally much smaller than videos in terms of file size.

Anyhow, thanks again for sharing and keep up the pace with learning new tunes!

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Hi all,

Great to be part of this community and I look forward to learning more over the coming years. Please check out my latest recording of The Nearness of You as taught by Hayden in the beginner courses. I would gladly welcome your feedback and advice please. I have been playing piano since June of last year but have only really been learning Jazz theory and standards since November.

Many thanks,
James

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Hi @jajw :wave:

Thanks for sharing this - I’ve created a short video with some feedback and suggestions:

Related Lessons

A related lesson is the arpeggio technique that I demonstrate, you can find a dedicated lesson on that here:

This is lesson 4.1 in the course on "Nearness Of You - Ballad Voicings, Fills & Runs " which you can find here:

This course is mixed level and so you will definitely find it challenging from module 3 onwards. It will expose you to lots of new theory areas from our other beginner/intermediate courses. I recommend to try to avoid using the transcriptions where possible and instead focus on visualising the chord tones, extensions, alterations etc
 on the piano.

Nearness Of You Playlist

Here’s a playlist that I compiled of my favourite recordings of “The Nearness Of You”:

If you’re a Spotify user you can save the playlist to your account, rearrange/remove the songs based on your taste, add new songs to that playlist that you discover etc


Try to spend as much time as possible listening to the recordings and trying to pick little things out and apply them to your arrangements. Start simple with melodic decorations and embellishments and gradually expand your field of curiosity.

Upper Structure Triads

Finally, I recommend that you study Upper Structure Triad theory and I think this will add some nice colours, textures, and tensions to your playing. I touch upon this in the video above. Here are a few lessons on Upper Structure Triads:

I hope that helps James - and again congratulations on your progress!

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Hi Hayden,

Thank you so much for taking the time to create such a personalised reply and for the feedback. It’s really unexpected to have this level of service and support. The information shared is incredibly valuable and I will be sure to work with the resources you have shared to enhance my playing and then will re-record a new version :smile:.

Thank you so much again - it’s really appreciated!

James

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Hi All! Here is my attempt of Hayden’s reharmonisation of Happy Birthday recently shared in the community forums. This was take #121 so it’s still a way off being perfect - I hope you enjoy.

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Moved into our new house in the SF Bay area a few weeks ago and am enjoying a new acoustic piano!

Here’s a version of ATTYA.

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“Why did I choose you” was my ear training exercise for the past three weeks. I like this tune very much as played by George Shearing and Neil Swainson. I didn®t download any transcription. It was an attempt on my own to find the right notes, chords and tempo. Playing in a small band with this beautiful bass player as a sideman was some kind of a struggle at the beginning. After many repetitions I

finally accomplished.

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Thanks for sharing this @cornelius.moser and great job emulating the phrasing and feel of George Shearing’s melodies.

Are you using the stemroller app to isolate the bass? Your playing fits beautifully with the bass player
 it sounds like you are both in the studio together! Very nicely played :sunglasses: :clap:

This is exactly the kind of ear training/transcription work that will take your improvisation skills to the next level. Congratulations on completing this project and thanks for sharing it with the community - I’m sure it will be an inspiration to others!

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Yes indeed I used the stemroller app to isolate the bass. I really recommend to use this app if the original is of good quality like the one of George Shearing. It would probably not work with recordings of Bill Evans playing in a club with backround noise and low volume of the bass. The app has only one command which leads one result. Any editing is not possible. That helps to take it easy. Importing the stems into “transcribe app” offers adjustments like pitch and tempo for transcription. Stemroller is open source and free.

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Haven’t shared anything here since early March when I posted a version of ATTYA played on a new piano.

Coincidentally, I recorded a very different version of the same tune last week for another site and thought I would share again.

Piano looks the same but now there’s some art up on the walls. This is also a solo version but is played in 7. Still need to work on phrasing.

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Beautiful :sunglasses: always wondering how your piano solo is such solid and sure 
 bravo
love this version much more. Understand you about phrasing 
 but so much going harmony speed 
 maybe at slower tempo to be focused on phrasing ?

wonderful piano in btw :star_struck:

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Hey Pierre great to hear from you–I haven’t been around much lately on PG, but I’m still playing a lot. My comment about phrasing is related to the challenges of playing in 7. There’s an underlying clave of half note, half note, quarter note dot, quarter note dot, that I try and internalize and think about constantly when playing in 7. That helps to keep the meter where it should be, and also provides guidepost for phrasing. However, I find myself playing a limited number of phrase rhythm patterns in the RH. By contrast when playing in 4 (or 3) it’s much easier for me to be creative with patterns that extend across the barlines. Not in 7, so I need more practice!

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I missed the last (maybe the two last) community challenges and thought I would share a recent recording I made that was a fun open studio project. Two of the OS instructors, Bob DeBoo and Kaleb Kirby, put together an mp4 backing track every month and invite students to play “with them”. A few students figured out how to combine the videos and I followed their advice. Here’s my (and Bob and Kaleb’s) version of Tenor Madness.

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My attempt at Misty - I tried to incorporate a variety of standard ballad style along with a stride style.

Hope you enjoy.

I’d gladly welcome any feedback please.

Thanks.
James

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Thanks for sharing @jajw :clap:

Your arrangement sounds great and I like how you fill the space when the melody rests and during the turnarounds. Your melodic embellishments work really nicely to enhance the melody and create a more personalised arrangement. Nice job!

One suggestion could be to experiment with octave melody lines to create a bigger sound - this works well for the repeating A sections of the tune. Here’s a lesson on this topic:

When I’m playing this tune I like to play single note melody lines (with melodic decoration and embellishment) and then contrast this by playing the melody in octaves; often with the chord tones in between.

The octave melody technique allows us to command a wider range of the keyboard which creates a bigger and more textured sound and works great for solo piano.

Keep in mind that when we play the melody in octaves, we lose some of the ability to add intricate melodic decoration such as the grace notes and chromaticism that you are already using in your arrangement, so I’m always mindful to achieve a balance between these 2 styles of interpreting the melody.

If you check out the lesson above I explain this in more detail and show the different steps to get this style under our fingers. Start just with the octave melody, and then once you are comfortable with that try to add the chord tones in between your right hand octaves and play this over the stride left hand.

I hope that helps James and have fun experimenting with this!