December 12, 2024

About this postIn this post, I provide exercises intended to help you play blues and jazz music with a classic swing feel and understand how to interpret regular eighth notes as swung eighth notes.Swing Feel and Swung Eighth NotesMost teachers explain to their students (correctly) that swung eighth notes are based on triplets, which is

Read More

November 24, 2024

In this post, I discuss the pros and cons of jazz piano lessons with a real person. I have been teaching contemporary keyboard lessons at Columbia College Chicago for many years, both in person and online. I can tell you from my experience that they can be very beneficial. Some will benefit more than others from private

Read More

November 22, 2024

A Tatum Run that’s fun and easy to playArt Tatum is known for his incredible virtuosity. His runs are dazzling. However, there’s a secret to them. There is a direct correlation between how easy it is to move around the keyboard and his note choices. In other words, with the correct fingering, they’re quite easy

Read More

November 21, 2024

I struggled with the answer to this question for many years until I finally took the time to study the runs and licks of virtuoso jazz pianists like Oscar Peterson, Tatum, and Teddy Wilson. My findings clearly indicated that they all prefer to play their favorite runs and licks in specific keys.   For this reason,

Read More

November 18, 2024

About this runThis is my favorite jazz piano run for a C7, F7, and G7 chord. It just feels great when played over those chords. It’s one of those devices Oscar Peterson or Teddy Willson liked to play. It sounds very impressive but is actually quite easy to play at even very fast speeds.See me

Read More

November 13, 2024

What you will learnIn this post, you will discover a great way of improvising and comping over a jazz cadence in minor more easily.If there is one chord progression a jazz musician wants to master, it is undoubtedly the jazz cadence in all minor and major keys. What’s the big idea?The idea is to use the

Read More