LearnGospelMusic.com Community

Style => Jazz => Topic started by: T-Block on September 11, 2008, 09:49:43 AM

Title: My first jazz piano lesson
Post by: T-Block on September 11, 2008, 09:49:43 AM
Here is a little bit of what I learned in my first lesson:

Sheet music symbols

^7 = Major 7th  *^represents a little triangle
-7 = minor 7th
o/ = half diminished or m7 (b5)  *o/ represents a cirle with a line through it               


1-7-3-5 voicing

What ur gonna do here is play 7th chords using on the notes of the major scale.  The way that u play is your LH will be playing 1-7 while ur RH plays 3-5 of each 7th chord. Example in the key of C:

I^7 = C-B / E-G  *C^7, CM7, C major 7th
II-7 = D-C / F-A  *D-7, Dm7, D minor 7th
III-7 = E-D / G-B  *E-7, Em7, E minor 7th
IV^7 = F-E / A-C  *F^7, FM7, F major 7th
V7 = G-F / B-D  *G7, G dominant 7th
VI-7 = A-G / C-E  *A-7, Am7, A minor 7th
VIIo/7 = B-A / D-F  *Bo/7, Bm7 (b5), B half-diminished 7th

Practice that going up and coming down the C major scale.  After that, take it up through all the other keys.


II-7 to V7 progression

This technique utilizes the 1-7-3-5 voicing learned above into some 2-5 progressions.  Example in the key of C:

II-7 = D-C / F-A 
V7 = G-B / F-A

After that, ur gonna move down a whole step and repeat the above process.  So, after the key of C, u would go to the Key of Bb and play a II-7  V7 progression in Bb.  Here is the entire list to practice:

Cycle #1

D-C / F-A  *II-7 to V7 in C
G-B / F-A

C-Bb / Eb-G  *II-7 to V7 in Bb
F-A / Eb-G

Bb-Ab / Db-F  *II-7 to V7 in Ab
Eb-G / Db-F

Ab-Gb / Cb-Eb or G#-F# / B-D#  *II-7 to V7 in Gb/F#
Db-F / Cb-Eb or C#-E# / B-D#

F#-E / A-C#  *II-7 to V7 in E
B-D# / A-C#

E-D / G-B  *II-7 to V7 in D
A-C# / G-B


Cycle #2

D#-C# / F#-A# or Eb-Db / Gb-Bb  *II-7 to V7 in C#/Db
G#-B# / F#-A# or Ab-C / Gb-Bb

C#-B / E-G# or Db-Cb / Fb-Ab  *II-7 to V7 in B/Cb
F#-A# / E-G# or Gb-Bb / Fb-Ab

B-A / D-F#  *II-7 to V7 in A
E-G# / D-F#

A-G / C-E  *II-7 to V7 in G
D-F# / C-E

G-F / Bb-D  *II-7 to V7 in F
C-E / Bb-D

F-Eb / Ab-C  *II-7 to V7 in Eb
Bb-D / Ab-C
Title: Re: My first jazz piano lesson
Post by: 4hisglory on September 11, 2008, 04:39:09 PM
Nice. :)
Title: Re: My first jazz piano lesson
Post by: Fenix on October 10, 2008, 02:59:00 PM
Yeah i heard jazz musicians do not use the right hand to play roots and such. Very nice.
Title: Re: My first jazz piano lesson
Post by: nickk on August 10, 2010, 04:59:19 PM
Any updates to this topic?
Title: Re: My first jazz piano lesson
Post by: bug on April 23, 2011, 01:36:19 PM
This is very nice. I learned how to make Jazz notation clearer and easier to understand using the computer typewriter keyboard. As you know we are forced to work with the technology that we are given. The typewriter keyboard although quite expressive as a machine for communicating words or text leaves a great deal to be desired so far as communicating music symbols and sound. Maybe one day the technology will catch up with us musicians. That will be a great day. I look forward to living long enough to see it.