| LearnJazzPiano.com archives: I need some Help! | |
| Louis_881 -- 10/03/2004, 21:52:50 -- #7699 | |
| I have a huge problem, pretty much all my time performing piano has been with ensembles of many different genres and I have always accompanied people not taken on the role as the "front Man." When someone asked me to play at their restaurant by myself i was shocked and I realised I was lacking a huge part of my musicianship. Can someone please point me to an area of this site in which it could help me be able to play solo. or even better give me some tips in which can help me get a grasp of the concept? | |
| Seaside_Lee -- 10/04/2004, 03:57:05 -- #7703 | |
| Hi Louis I have been learning to play solo piano by ear at a website called "www.pianomagic.com" which is very cool and within a year I can play lots and lots of songs...its probably, just what you need. If you can already play it should help your solo piano playing in next to no time :-) Jazz piano, however?...is proving to be a little beyond my tiny little brain at the moment...grrr! but, every day I strive to get it (one fine day I know I will!) I do my scales and play-a-long to "Aebersolds" almost every day in my bid to get there. regards Lee | |
| Scot -- 10/04/2004, 05:26:03 -- #7704 | |
| There's really only one way to learn solo piano: play and practice a lot. My solo chops weren't all that good until I got a gig in Aspen where I played seven nights a week for two years. After that my solo chops were pretty good. One of the best ways to make you solo piano chops better is to listen to a lot of solo piano recordings. The Maybeck Recital hall recordings from Concord Jazz are very very good. After you listen to some solo piano music for an hour or so, go to your own piano and record yourself playing a song. When you are done, listen to what you just recorded very carefully. If you've been listening to the greats play solo piano, then the differences in what you are doing and what they are doing will be obvious, and all you need to do adjust your playing so it sounds better, record the song again, and repeat the process several times. EVERYONE should record their practice sessions and their gigs and then review their own playing afterwards. Heck, I don't do it enough. But my brother, one of the top sax players in the Northwest, records all of his gigs and practice sessions. Then he analyzes what he did. This is probably why is at the top of the A-List for sax and various woodwinds at the moment. Anyway, if you want to get better at solo jazz piano, record, listen, analyze, and record again. It's the only way. | |
| marksdg -- 10/04/2004, 07:43:29 -- #7707 | |
| Louis_881, I have learning to play solo for the last year, and the main thing you are going to have to do is decide how you are going to use your two hands. I personally found in listening to solo recordings that a lot of very good pianists don't do solo in a style that I like. They often tend to add too much embellishment, and not keep a smooth comfortable sound. I personally really like Gene Harris' Maybeck recording. The main thing you will have to do is decide what to do with your left hand, and which style is appropriate for which pieces. My list of left hand options is: Walking Base Stride (I like to do a slow stride on Ballads, like 'Round Midnight) Comping Regular Chords on all 4 beats (Like guitar strumming) Repeated base lines (common in latin or boogie) Arpeggios (on Ballads) Some things get mixed together,for example in Mark Levine's book he recommends mixing stride with regular chords on 4 beats sometimes. Sometimes it can be cool to go into a boogie base hand for one chorus in the middle of a solo when you have been walking. On Gene Harris' recording on Lu's Blues he does an 8 bar blues that has regular chords on all 4 beats (actually skipping beat 4) for the first 4 bars and walking base on the last 4 bars. Some people think that solo piano, because you have much more freedom, should be used as a means of taking much more rhythmic and harmonic liscence. My recommendation is to go for a smooth sound. | |
| docz -- 10/04/2004, 13:15:54 -- #7721 | |
| I would also concentrate on melodies. I believe that one of your main tasks as a solo pianist is to deliver the melody to the audience. The bass and chord structures come in second. If you can play the melody with grace and feeling, you will do well. At least that works for me. I practice melodies until I can play them in all differen't styles, keys, tempos etc. Then I add the chord structure and bassline. I believe in this method because the melody is the one thing you can't really "cheat" on. The bass and chord structure can be changed almost as you please, but if you change the melody too much, no one will recognize the song anymore. Doc-Z | |
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