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Help and suggestions needed.

hello, i've been playing the piano by ear for about 17years. i'm 25 years old. i was tought the basics of chords by my father who is a pianist. he is a purist, and does not believe in rootless chords, slash chords and suspended and all those "new" chords. it's easy for him cause he can reach a full 12th on the piano, his hands are huge! i can only reach a decim. my brother who is a pop/rock pianist tought me a lot of things found in popular music, in the styles of billy joel and elton john. and i find myself in a place between the two. i feel i play straigh blues pretty good, i can play it in all keys with good improve. my left hand i feel does not perform as well as my right, which i feel really tackles the comping and soloing of blues/rock styles well. and now i really want to learn how to play all the great jazz and swing tunes. i want to learn stuff like round midnight, autum leaves, the entertainer, one for my baby. and so on. i can't afford to go to a teacher, and there is no jazz scene where i live so there aren't any real musicians to talk to here. i was thrilled when i found this site, but some of things here isn't that easy to understand for me, i'm not that "hip" to the altered voicings of chords, and i really can't articulate big chords like eb7#13 well(only an example). is there any place where i can find like a "chord dictionary" with different voicings and stuff? i'm not that good at reading notation, in the g clef it is ok, i can read from low a to about high f, but beyond that it gets confusing. and with the f clef i'm walking lost in the woods. this is also something i would like to improve, but that is another issue. i don't know anything about scales, up until recently the only scale i new about was the major scale, i never heard of any others. i always improvise over chords, and i once played with a guitarist who said "that mixolydian solo was great!" and i still don't really know what he was talking about, i just played, like i always do.
i do know some music theory, like the circle of fifths, and that a dm7 leads to a g7 which leads to a c and so on. is that what you call 2 5 1? i play all chords with root unless otherwise noted with a slash, but i understand that if i want to get serious into jazz, i need to learn the rootless system. so anyone know of where i can get som serious reading done on this subject?
i do play some jazz songs, i know "over the rainbow" which i learned off a "learn to play jazz piano" software once, whih was a demo with that and some other songs. that software showed a keyboard and blue dots on the keys played. which was great because i didn't know any notes back then.

anyone have any hints on how i can really get the hang of this?

(sorry for the long post, i'm not english so there may be some weird sentences there... :) )

anyway thanks in advance..

doc-z

by docz on 03/19/2004, 14:47

There are 6 comments, leave a comment.

welcome, doc-z, to learnjazzpiano.
here you will find a treasure in jazz stuff.
i invite you to "rooms" "albetan's area" there are some points of interest for beginners. in "files list" there are good lessons for introducing yourself into the jazz world.

LJP Like

by albetan on 03/19/2004, 14:56

check out my article in barry's bar on harmonising a major scale and that should help you to understand where chords come from.

barry

LJP Like

by Barry on 03/20/2004, 05:41

docz: what's your number 1 question? your post above has soo much stuff in it, why not break it down in the "most important" thing you are thinking of right now.

you can't learn it all at once. you take it piece by piece and soon the pieces start coming together, so what's the first piece of this jazz piano puzzle you want to tackle?

If I'm not back in 24 hours, call the president.

Scot is available for skype jazz piano lessons (and google hangouts, phone call, etc...)
Use the contact link at the top of the page.

LJP Like

by Scot Ranney on 03/21/2004, 09:05

hi, again, i do realize that my message was rather "all-over-the-place". the most important thing, or the essence of what i want to learn right now, is probably, the "fat" chords. i want to know exactly how to do the correct voicings of big chords like bb-b9-13 and so on. maybe find a chart over them all, so that i may practice them. and i want to learn how to play good bass with my left, maybe find some good learning examples. that's what i am really trying to figure out first. then later on i want to practice scales and improv, but that is further on up the road.

thank you,

docz

ps.
songs i want to learn is:

autumn leaves
one for my baby
ain't misbehavin'
round midnight

LJP Like

by docz on 03/21/2004, 16:08

well, if you are getting started, autumn leaves is a great tune to get things rolling on.

the way we learn "fat" chords is by experience, mostly. i don't know of anyone who practiced them in a book and then used them on stage. learn the 2-5-1 exercises and 2-5-1 scale exercises in the basics lesson page.

once you have those down solid, then start making variations on them. add different notes, change notes, etc, then learn them in all keys. don't read them off paper- just learn them by sound. you'll get further faster that way.

If I'm not back in 24 hours, call the president.

Scot is available for skype jazz piano lessons (and google hangouts, phone call, etc...)
Use the contact link at the top of the page.

LJP Like

by Scot Ranney on 03/21/2004, 18:23

i see you like to learn fat chords...
go to albetan's area en download a file "harmonic voicings". there you will learn the most used chord voicings in jazz.
good luck.

LJP Like

by albetan on 03/22/2004, 07:22

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Help and suggestions needed.

There are 6 comments, leave a comment.

by albetan on 03/19/2004, 14:56

by Barry on 03/20/2004, 05:41

by Scot Ranney on 03/21/2004, 09:05

by docz on 03/21/2004, 16:08

by Scot Ranney on 03/21/2004, 18:23

by albetan on 03/22/2004, 07:22

Reply to Thread

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Jazz piano education is cool.

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Help and suggestions needed.

There are 6 comments, leave a comment.

by albetan on 03/19/2004, 14:56

by Barry on 03/20/2004, 05:41

by Scot Ranney on 03/21/2004, 09:05

by docz on 03/21/2004, 16:08

by Scot Ranney on 03/21/2004, 18:23

by albetan on 03/22/2004, 07:22

Reply to Thread

Jazz Piano Notebook Series

"Latinesque"

LJP Jazz Piano Blogs

Most Recent Discussions

Articles

Top Sheetmusic Picks

Jazz piano education is cool.

Rock on. Follow your passion.

Sign In