JAZZ PIANO LESSON

Mission Statement:

To Teach, in their home, on their own piano/keyboard , anywhere in the world, students how to play jazz piano, through a Non Traditional approach which emphasizes Musical Concepts , not notes. We do this through the thorough understanding of chord construction, jazz voicings, and arranging techniques. Students can then enjoy the lifelong pleasure that playing piano brings!

Have you ever overheard yourself saying any of the following:

· “ Oh, I only play when no one’s around.”
· “ Well, I took lessons when I was a kid, but now I can’t play a note.”
· “ Well, I can read music and everything, but it takes me forever to learn new songs”
· “ I can really play the guitar well, but I sit down at the piano and just struggle.”
· “ I just want to be able to play songs I like, you know?”

I’ve figured out a few things:
· The traditional methods of teaching piano don’t work for everyone.
· Adults learn differently from children.
· Learning to play classical music on the piano does not satisfy students who are Interested in jazz or popular music.
· Scales won’t teach you songs.

RESCUE YOURSELF AND YOUR PIANO FROM LONELINESS. TRY ME OUT.

Two things your should know:

I have a revolutionary new way of teaching the piano to adults. You will learn more in one lesson than you learned in years of lessons as a kid. You will play songs, probably within a month.

It Doesn’t matter where you are. I teach students everywhere – on the phone.

All you need is a piano or keyboard, and a headset or speaker-phone. The rest is up to me.


Learning Musical Concepts

When we learn concepts, we attain and RETAIN knowledge! True Understanding of a concept is knowledge. Knowledge is lifelong, you don’t forget it! Let me give you an example: Most all of you understand the concept of “ addition”. You don’t have to “ add” everyday to be able to add a year from now. You have mastered the “ concept” or “ theory” behind addition. The same applies to learning to play the piano.

If you understand the “ concepts” of chord construction you can apply them at anytime. Let me give you an example: Take an “ augmented” chord for instance. “Augmented” means raise the 5th a half step, and is indicated by a “ +” sign in a chord symbol. Once you have knowledge of this you can play any augmented chord. You can play Bb + today or 20 years from now! The speed at which you can readily see that chord on the piano will depend on how much you practice, but you will always understand the “ concept” of an augmented chord.

This is the key to learning to play the piano. Learn 2 or 3 “ concepts” every week and apply them in songs so they become second nature , all the while playing beautiful music! It’s really that simple.
SPECIFIC CONCEPTS YOU WILL LEARN!

Here are but a few concepts need to play the piano with “ understanding” knowledge, not “ rote memory”

Augmented
Minor
Sus 4
Major
Diminished
Circle of 5ths ( chord movement )
Tetra Chords
Closed Position Chords
Open Position Chords
Tertian Series Chord Construction
I, vi, ii, V7 , I progression
7 diatonic triads in any respective key
7 diatonic 7th chords in any respective key
iii for I Chord Substitution
vi for I Chord Substitution

All but a few of these “concepts” are ever discussed in “ classical” lessons, let alone practically applied in songs! However, if you are “ in the know”, or understand the “ concept” of the “ Circle of 5ths”, for example, you will be astonished at how many times it is used in popular music as well as Classical music, in fact it is the single most pervasive harmonic tool in WESTERN CIVILIZATION MUSIC. Knowledge of this harmonic progression will expedite your ability to memorize 10 fold! What a shame most students couldn’t even tell you anything about it.


Traditional or Classical Lessons

Let’s look at how piano is traditionally taught and why we as educators must change the way we teach piano.

The typical piano student learns notes on the staff and begins to play repertoire after a certain period of time. But, by the time this student is playing 2 o3 notes simultaneously, they have either lost interest or given up in frustration. If, on the other hand the student were taught all of his or her Triads in the first month, they could be playing from a lead sheet in just 3 - 4 weeks. This is a very realistic goal for a precocious 10 or 12 year old. Adults would learn all their triads in the very first lesson if they have played at all in previous years!

Now, with 30 –60 chords under their belts, the student is playing, at times, 4 notes simultaneously, the triad in the left hand and the melody in the right. But more important than the relative BIG sound , is the fact that the student is learning the theory of how chords are constructed. This gives them “LIFELONG” knowledge that will never change. As I ask my students, “ How many chords do you need to play the piano, 500, 200 a 100?” . No, when you master 60 to 90 chords you’ve just about got them all!

It truly amazes me the number of students who come to me after 3, 4, even 6 years of lessons and don’t even know how to construct all of the basic triads. These chords are the foundation of all music. But, on the other hand, if you are only being taught notes on a staff and century old repertoire, then what need would you have to teach CHORDS?

“ MUSIC, THE INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE”

I’m sure you have probably heard this statement once or twice before. To me, this statement means music speaks to, and touches the emotions of all cultures and peoples. Music is such a powerful vehicle for touching and healing individuals and all of humanity that it deserves to be presented and taught in the most thorough and expeditious way possible so that the maximum amount of people can enjoy the benefits of a lifetime of making music. And in so learning, can improve the quality of life for all of us!

To help understand music as a language, it may help to compare it to, for instance, a spoken language like English. By making a comparison of the language of music to the language of English, I hope to illuminate the need for studying jazz/pop piano, specifically chords and their functions.

There are 26 letters in the English alphabet, there are 7 different letters in the musical alphabet, a,b,c,d,e,f,and g. Words are made up of combinations of letters, and so too, chords are made up of combinations of letters or notes. However, in classical music you read notes on a staff and rarely are taught to “ see” the notes as organized letters, or components of a chord. In jazz you are taught from the beginning to see multiple notes as making up a uniquely named chord. So while the classical player would see the notes C, E, G as separate notes broken up, the jazz player would immediately see them as a C major chord. So, who is going to “speak” the language quicker and more fluently, with better retention, the student who knows the alphabet or the student who knows the words! Language is words. And the words in the musical language are called chords. The good news is that while the English language has tens of thousands of words, the musical language has less than 200 “ words/chords”. Even better is that those 200 chords are variations on about 20 different “chord types”.

song writing tips

http://www.easyleadguitar.com/images/common_chord_progressions.gif
Writing music is 90% intuition and emotion and 10% mathematics. You don't have to know the math side of it to be a great songwriter, that's for sure. But knowing the logic behind what chords go well together to express your emotions musically can make even an average guitar player a better writer and it can make a good songwriter great!
So you will probably find this lesson interesting if you are just getting into writing your own songs. And if you already write your own music you may still find this interesting as it might explain what it is you already know intuitively but never really understood.
Pick a key
You will have to start somewhere and you should start to learn what key and vocal range works best for your voice. For our example we will stick with the key of C to keep it simple.
If you read the lesson on finding the chords for a given scale, then you know that right off the bat you could choose to work with only chords built around the major triad. That means you would work with major and minor chords (don't bother with the diminished chord as it sounds a bit odd - unless you are a jazz fan).
The first thing you should know is that the most basic musical progression in rock music is 1-4-5. That means that you start and finish at the root chord (C) in this case and in between you play the 4th (F) and 5th (G) chords. Millions of dollars have been made using only three chords. It's amazing the infinite possibilities that exist using only those three chords.
Here is a chart that shows some very common chord progressions that you can use to start building songs right away.

Of course this chart only shows the chord progressions in the keys of C and D whereas you can use any of the twelve chromatic keys to vary these combinations. The thing to note is that the fifth (V) is almost always used as a turnaround point in songs because it heightens emotion and sets up melody to resolve or return back to the root.
These chords are all based the on the major triad of the first, third and fifth degrees of the scale (includes major and minor chords). But here is a twist for you.
When you start to write a song, remember that you don't have to rely solely on major or minor chords to create great chord progressions. You can substitute these with sevenths, ninths, or suspended chords to name a few. In fact that is what jazz guitarists do all the time. And you shouldn't rely on rules steadfastly only as a starting point from which to venture.
Here is an example of the kinds of substitutions that you can introduce to your songwriting.

And this is only introducing sevenths. You could add suspended chords or minor sevenths. The list is endless. But notice that the root notes remain constant in the sense that the 1-4-5 combinations are never too far away even though they may have been changed to sevenths or suspended chords.
If you remember only the 1-4-5 combination or the 1-6-4-5 combination and its derivatives you will be amazed at the possibilities that are at your fingertips when writing songs.

1. IntroductionHere is where everyone should start, beginners or advanced players alike. An introduction to the music course by the instructor, a brief summary of what will be covered, advice on following the music theory lessons, etc...
2. About DiagramsAn explanation of the diagrams used throughout the music course. These diagrams are primarily for the guitar, but will work just fine for bass players also. Almost all of the graphic diagrams on the site follow this example...
3. Stringing 1This is the first lesson on stringing your guitar. I got kind of side-tracked while writing this lesson and it ended up being more about the use of stringlocks and why you should steer clear of these useless little gadgets...
4. Stringing 2This is the second lesson on stringing up your guitar. In this lesson you'll learn how to string your guitar properly using some techniques to make it hold tune better, lessening the need for those pesky string locks...
5. Guitar TuningThis is a lesson on tuning your guitar properly. Some of the things discussed in this lesson are A440 reference notes, the tools used for creating reference notes, tuning history, comparative tuning methods and more...
6. The ChromaticsThis lesson is on the chromatics, which are often called the chromatic scale. The chromatics are not really a scale but rather all twelve notes in any given octave. Click the more button for information on the chromatics...