scary, i feel like i'm walking out on stage without my pants on.

i'm scot, and i put learnjazzpiano.com up in 1996 because i had a lot of time on my hands. i lived in aspen at the time- played music at the ritz every night, skied or went mountain biking every day dependingon the season.

my professional experience started in 1989 and since then, due to house gigs overseas and in the states, i've had over 2500 nights on stage. that's a lot of playing!  

so, all that stage playing, the real school of music, helped my fingers know the keyboard and made my playing "smooth".  however, during that time i really didn't practice the kinds of things i needed to in order to get >really< good.

for the past two years i've been putting a lot of time into the things i missed back then and i feel my playing has really started to expand.  hopefully the people who i play with and the people who listen to my music feel the same way!

anyway, playing and composing music is one of the things i get up for in the morning.  too bad money is such an issue, eh?  it would be nice to put out a real cd, set up a tour, go back to asia and play some concerts, but these things will happen at some point in time.

these days my electronic gear includes a yamaha s90, an edirol pcr50, and a roland jv2080.  on accoustic gigs i prefer a 9' steinway, but usually get stuck with some out of tune bar piano with several keys stuck to the strings because of  a beer someone spilled a few weeks before.

well, i think that covers the basics for now :)
There are no comments, leave a comment.
Please sign in to post.

Are you in the Pacific Northwest looking for a jazz jam? Check out our weekly Bellingham Jazz Jam!


Jazz Piano Notebook Series
Scot Ranney's Jazz Piano Notebook, Volume 1 - jazz piano tricks of the trade

Volume 1 of this educational jazz piano book contains 15 jazz piano exercises, tricks, and other interesting jazz piano techniques, voicings, grooves, and ideas Scot Ranney has picked up over decades of playing on stage.

Being a pro jazz pianist requires good ears, experience, and a bag of tricks that create the kinds of sounds people expect to hear from a jazz pianist. The entries in this book will give you some of those tricks.

buy pdf version - buy coil binding version - videos

Scot Ranney's Jazz Piano Notebook, Volume 2 - jazz piano tricks of the trade you can use today
"Latinesque"

Volume 2 has 14 jazz piano exercises and tricks of the trade, and quite a bit of it is Calypso jazz piano related material, including some Monty Alexander and Michel Camilo style grooves. Jazz piano education is through the ears, and books like this help connect what you're hearing to what you want to play.

buy pdf version - buy coil binding version

Tim Richards' Jazz Piano Notebook - jazz piano tricks of the trade

Volume 3 contains 12 jazz piano exercises and explorations by the acclaimed jazz piano educator, pianist, author, and recording artist Tim Richards.

Tim wrote the well known "Exploring Jazz Piano" and "Improvising Blues Piano" books and has several others to his name.

Tim has a new book out Beginning Jazz Piano (Pts 1 and 2)

Many of Tim's books now come with free access to interactive sheet music ONLINE, which permits slowing down of the backing and performance tracks, as well as the option to loop passages for practice purposes.

Tim now also has online VIDEO courses for his books, including Beginning Jazz Piano, Improvising Blues Piano and Exploring Jazz Piano Vol 1:

buy pdf version Tim Richards' Jazz Piano Notebook Volume 3 -

Jeff Brent's Jazz Piano Notebook - jazz piano tricks of the trade

Volume 4 is by Jeff Brent, a jazz pianist, composer, teacher, and author of "Modalogy" and other acclaimed jazz theory and education books. In this book Jeff shares detailed analysis of transcriptions of live performances. He covers everything from the shape of the songs to the tricks and licks he uses in improvised lines to the ideas behind his lush chord voicings.

buy pdf version - buy coil binding version

Most Recent Discussions
Great Resource for Jazz Pianists
Scale in Calderazzo solo
analyzing Someone To Watch Over Me
Site updates
Korg SV-1 vs Nord Electro
Brad Brad Mehldau's independant left hand
more...
Articles

Piano for Adoption Scam
Aprender Jazz en Piano
BEWARE: FREE BABY GRAND PIANO SCAM
Oh Tannenbaum for Jazz Piano
Volume 5 of the "Jazz Piano Notebook Series" is Available!
LearnJazzPiano.com File Downloads News
more...

Top Sheetmusic Picks

Jazzy Christmas Arrangements
Cocktail Piano
Best Songs Ever, 6th Edition
Christmas Medley
Moana Songbook
Late Night Jazz Piano

Jazz piano education is cool.

be the main character in your own story

Rock on. Follow your passion.

Sign In

privacy policy • terms of service • about • 50,655 messages 63,069 accounts 57,329 logins
LearnJazzPiano.com Copyright © 1995-2026 by Scot Ranney • website software and design by scot's scripts
LearnJazzPiano.com is For Sale - Serious Inquiries Only
▲