Two beginning jazz piano voicings learn jazz standards. These lefthand voicings were largely pioneered in the 1950s by jazz pianists such as bill evans. Actually, i share how i initially became interested in learning about jazz continue reading welcome. Every scale determines a key,that is an harmonic combunation of tones. This is an short encyclopedia with 12 voicings for most of the chords jazz pianists are likely to encounter. The basic approach is to take the third and sixth voicings aka fourway close and drop the second from top tone down an octave. Take your music theory and keyboard skills to the next level as lynda arnold shows some useful ways to play a simple chord progression with two hands, with varying voicings, rhythms and patterns. Beginning jazz improvisation patterns, sample solos, guide tones. The i iv v chords are all related through the circle of 5ths which creates a natural sense of tension and release in. The voicings are typically comprised of 4 notes, usually excluding the root. Play black gospel worship music on the piano using chord.
Therefore, he needs two different types of voicings. Obviously, if we are playing a 9th or th chord, all within the left hand, and not spanning more than an octave, then we must omit. This book is my sixth piano book related to playing from fake books and improvising at the piano. When you improvise on this song you have to use basically the c minor scale when you are in c minor key and eb scale when you are in eb key. These left hand chord voicings frequently do not include the root of the chord since playing the root is generally reserved for the bass player unless the pianist is playing in a solo piano context. Left hand rootless voicings are closely associated with the piano style of pianist bill evans 19291980. Learn over 60 new voicings, chords, progressions, and fancy arrangements to playing worship music. When you become an accomplished pattern player and you would like to play solo piano, no singing or other instruments, you will be able to insert the melody back into your patterns and maintain full, rich arrangements. The lessons are further subdivided into modules covering specific aspects of jazz. Voicing is the process of changing the quality of the tone that the piano produces. Twohand piano voicings are essential for jazz pianists when comping behind melodists and soloists. Of course much of this can be linked to chopin and ravel demonstrating bills love of the classics and his intergration of their music into his own. Encyclopedia of twohand jazz piano voicings learn jazz. Open voicings with broken chords and passing notes all musical examples used taken from jazz piano handbook alfred publishing and used with permission.
In this video i show you 5 jazz piano comping patterns which will work over a c minor 7 chord. This book will allow you to explore some fundamental chordvoicings. This book takes many of the ideas i put forward in how to speed read piano. Many guitarists are already familiar with the sound of these voicings as many of the basic seventh chord grips on guitar are drop 2. This pdf serves as a compliment to a free lesson that i created emphasizing the rewards of. If youre interested, you can watch left hand piano technique, part 2 by clicking here. Practice playing perpetual motion exercises begining with quarter notes, eight notes. Fourths piano voicings earl macdonald composer, jazz. Jazz piano basics dan davey tensions are non chord tones that are added to a chord to change the colortexture of the chord.
Recheck your foundation iiiiiiiiiii our gaps as a piano player iiiiiiiiiii. Any time youre faced with playing straight chords or even playing melodies from a fake book which pretty much just gives the chord names, youre left to your own resources to. These are great additional resources to get and study too. This handout is the second in a twopart series of reference voicings for the jazz pianist. Piano chord voicings for jazz combo the pianist has a few functions in a jazz combo. Basic left hand jazz piano voicings on a single page, all keys.
Voicings without root playing with bass player the chords above are identical to the voicings created in step 2, except the root has been omitted at the bottom and the 5th or 9th has been added on top. These advanced chords are usually played with the left hand but arent exclusive to the left hand. Basic rootless piano voicings by chris fitzgerald ex. Buy patterns, scales modes for jazz guitar sheet music for guitar. Common patterns page 64 practice realizing common melodic patterns. One of the most important tools for your piano playing bag of tricks is a good supply of lefthand accompaniment patterns. All of these are chord tones ct, and therefore, these are not tensions. The newest jazz piano chords pdf that i recently made available features those piano chords and voicings that i used during an eight bar segment of a piano video tutorial i created which focuses on the classic harold arlen tune paper moon. Pdf jazz piano voicings for the non pianist download. Voicing is an important step in piano care and maintenance, and one that is often overlooked. By holly day, jerry kovarksy, blake neely, david pearl, michael pilhofer. Learn common voicings that allow you to move some of the notes from the right hand to the left. For our beginners, this will be the 25 of the chord, but in advanced voicings, can include any number of tones or structures.
But a melody and so an improvisation is based above all on chord besides on key. How to play from a fake book without gettin the blues. The piano is the ideal instrument to help you to get an overview of harmonic structures and as such, is an important aid even for nonpianists. The main scales of western music are major and minor scales. These piano comping practice tips are meant to give you specific exercises to practices that will improve your harmonic understanding and help you learn the chords to a bunch of jazz tunes. Get ebooks the jazz piano book on pdf, epub, tuebl, mobi and audiobook for free. First, he comps for, and interacts with, other players as they solo. Bill evans, barry harris, oscar peterson, kenny barron. Whatever chord or voicing of the chord you were using is still fine.
With this goal in mind, the simple and clearly structured exercises in voicing concepts help the student learn to improvise goodsounding voicings in typical as well as complex harmonic progressions of. Great lefthand accompaniment patterns for the piano or. Jazz piano techniques, rhythms and voicings youtube. While there are many excellent resources available that offer excellent instruction in jazz theory and chord voicing, very few present these topics in context.
Using a really simple left hand technique can create lots of rhythmic oprtions in your playing. When i coach upandcoming producers in piano technique, they often want to explore ways to play through chord progressions with two hands. Each of the below jazz piano lessons introduces a particular concept found in jazz. Going from theory to practical application is often a giant leap for students. Encyclopedia of lefthand jazz piano voicings learn jazz. Many piano players incorrectly assume how a piano sounds now is just the way it is. Many people begin by playing by ear letting their inner musical ear guide their choice of notes and rhythms. Be able to open any fake book or sheet music with chord symbols and play a tune. Jazz piano lessons exercises, etudes and patterns youtube. These progressions feature various voicings and techniques, including tritone substitution, the.
There are more than 1 million books that have been enjoyed by people from all over the world. This type of odd grouping with your 8th notes is a great way to create interest and. Note that scale degrees 10 is the same as 3, 12 the same as 5, 14 the same as 7, and 15 the same as and root. The outcome is an exploration of different approaches to developing confidence and aptitude in solo jazz piano performance. How to comp on piano like a pro making music magazine. What i call advanced chords, are chords that use beautiful colors like 9ths, 11ths and ths, but are fully contained within an octave span. Let me give you a few quick examples to show you how to comp on piano like a pro. As well as explaining the underlying idea, i give examples of how the theory applies in practice.
An arranging technique used when voicing for four horns. Triads will more than likely be the first types of chords you. Jazz pianists in the decades prior to the 1950s generally played more block chords andor shell voicings like roots and 7ths and put the root in their voicings most of the time. In this instructional jazz series well discuss topics including scales, voicings, modalism, pentatonics. Drop 2 is a technique that many arrangers use to spread out chords played by an ensemble. For voicings with the 7th on the bottom followed by the 3rd, add the 5th on. This is a hitormiss process that most jazz players before 1965 had to use to learn their trade. Play any song on the piano or keyboard byear today. Jazz pianists typically play these voicings when comping within a rhythm section, accompanying a soloist. In this lesson we will explore some useful voicings, patterns, and rhythmic ideas for right hand comping over the 12 bar blues.
From fancy inversions of the ninth chord to the secret quartal chord which sounds very very smooth, youll learn how to replace all of your basic triads and 3fingered chords with fullsounding 9ths, 11ths, ths, and altered chords. Most lessons come with downloadable pdfs containing the chord notation in all 12 keys. In a jazz setting, the pianists left hand is often used for comping i. Drop 2 piano voicings are a sophisticated way of voicing chords and can be heard in the playing of virtually all of the jazz piano greats. Free jazz piano lessons everything you need to know. Jazz piano voicings and comping techniques to your students. The reel score, llc services original music composition.
Always update books hourly, if not looking, search in the book search column. Voicings on the piano left hand lh consistently plays the 37th of the chord, along with additional notes as necessary. Triads lesson supplement the triad is the basic building block of many different types of chord. Drop 2 voicings bebop, hard bop, contemporary jazz. Pdf documents print fine, but staff lines and other elements may appear slightly altered on screen in. Piano comping practice tips cocktail piano lessons. Notice that the only differences between these scales relate to alterations of the 3rd and 7th scale degrees, as all other degrees are common to. I know its been a personal passion of mine for years. As well as the creation of accompaniment patterns for solo jazz piano performance, outcomes of this project include a greater descriptive understanding of the process of. Chordvoicings and voiceleading are the primary tools you need to play standard tunes choosing chordvoicings so that the individual notes voices move as little as possible from lead sheets. It is my hope that this site serves as a nice compliment to your passion for learning more about the wonderful world of jazz piano voicings.