Learning some funk scales is a great way to start practicing improvisation. And the great thing about funk tunes is that they often use only a few repetitive chords, which means you can generate a lot of improvisation material from just a few scales. In this article we’ll focus on three funk scales that you…
In Part 1 of our article on tritone substitutions we discussed the tritone interval, the tritone substitution, and the theory behind why tritone substitution works. Here in Part 2 of our discussion on tritone substitution we will go through some specific examples of how tritone substitution works in practice and discuss some ideas for improvisation.…
In this article we’re going to take a look at three piano comping practice tips. 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. Before we begin consider this: As pianists we…
The tritone is a very common device used in the jazz and Great American Songbook repertoire. It’s responsible for some of those very interesting, authentic jazz harmony sounds that sets jazz apart from other genres. But although the tritone (also known as the tritone substitution) is common in jazz and cocktail music it is often…
In this article we’re going to be discussing some tips for playing rock piano chords, an essential skill that is needed for all rock pianists. Knowing your rock piano chords helps you to quickly learn songs, transpose songs to new keys, write your own tunes, and find different “spellings” for the same chord. I’ll show…
Previously we discussed 3 tips for building rock piano chords and playing these chords in various ways. Learning all 12 major and minor triads, inversions, and being able to double certain notes are critical first steps in playing rock piano chords. But once you’ve got that down, check out three more tips we have in…
Michael Jackson’s music is some of the most classic pop/rock music of all-time, so we wanted to feature this Human Nature tutorial because so many students have been interested in Michael Jackson tunes. Human Nature is a particularly great tune to explore because of the beautiful, lush left hand chords as well as the classic right-hand…
Transposition is an essential rock piano skill, and a skill that every musician should practice. Transposition refers to the ability to quickly diagnose a piece of music (i.e., a melody, a chord progression) and play it in a different key. Why might transposition be so essential to a musician? Consider a very frequent, real-music experience:…
In this article we will discuss some specific rock piano tips that you can use in your playing right away. These rock piano tips are meant as a companion offering to our popular lesson “11 Rock Piano Technique Tips.” The tips offered below are just some of the tricks of the trade of every great…
In this article we’re going to investigate a classic James Taylor tune, “Your Smiling Face.” This is a great tune to learn for a number of reasons. First it has some great, challenging, and dense chords and voicings. Second, it’s a tune that works in a full band setting or solo piano. Thirdly, people recognize…
In this article we’re going to talk about an important but somewhat neglected topic in jazz and rock music – how to play a minor blues. The minor blues form is similar to the major blues form but also has some very important differences. It’s not just simply a matter of changing all the dominant…
We all aspire to be blues and jazz masters at the piano, but there are some easy blues piano tricks that every pianist should know which can instantly give your playing that authentic blues sound. The masters – pianists like Wynton Kelly, Oscar Peterson, Otis Spann, Dr. John, etc. – all knew how to use…
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