Sorry for the late reply here and nice job with âTune Upâ.
Youâve nailed the chord changes and I see that youâre 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 itâs 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.
Iâd say youâre 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 âvideo compressorâ 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!
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.
Thanks for sharing this - Iâve 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
Hereâs a playlist that I compiled of my favourite recordings of âThe Nearness Of Youâ:
If youâre 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 etcâŠ
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:
Thank you so much for taking the time to create such a personalised reply and for the feedback. Itâs 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 .
Thank you so much again - itâs really appreciated!
Hi All! Here is my attempt of Haydenâs reharmonisation of Happy Birthday recently shared in the community forums. This was take #121 so itâs still a way off being perfect - I hope you enjoy.
âWhy did I choose youâ 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 didnÂŽt 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
Thanks for sharing this @cornelius.moser and great job emulating the phrasing and feel of George Shearingâs 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
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 - Iâm sure it will be an inspiration to others!
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 âtranscribe appâ offers adjustments like pitch and tempo for transcription. Stemroller is open source and free.
Beautiful 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 ?
Hey Pierre great to hear from youâI havenât been around much lately on PG, but Iâm still playing a lot. My comment about phrasing is related to the challenges of playing in 7. Thereâs 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) itâs much easier for me to be creative with patterns that extend across the barlines. Not in 7, so I need more practice!
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 âwith themâ. A few students figured out how to combine the videos and I followed their advice. Hereâs my (and Bob and Kalebâs) version of Tenor Madness.
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