Bonus

4 hours of practice: No Grinding.

Top 5 tips for practicing any musical instrument
​

1. Have everything organized before you begin. Materials ready at hand. 
2. Listen to the music you are learning to play. Mark your scores.
3. Record yourself as you go along. Always know why you are repeating a passage in practice.
4. Warm-up
5. Auxiliary studies hold the keys to your eventual success: ear training, theory, sight-reading, score analysis. 
6. Bonus tip: Find a supportive enthusiastic group of fellow students to hang with, either in person or on-line. 

Playing

• Repertoire retention: Review a piece each practice from your list.
• Lesson assignments

Listening to Jazz 

• Form analysis: Who, what, when questions.
• Instrumentation: What, what, when questions
• “What’s going on here?”
• Watch Youtube videos of Jazz Transcriptions
• Suggested materials: How to Listen to Jazz by Ted Gioia

Ear training

• Transcribing licks. A lick a day transposed into different keys.
• Transposing exercise
• C jam blues in 12 keys
• Autumn leaves learn it in another key. Try in the key of F. By ear, or by writing it out.
• Suggested materials: Perfect ear App or Music Theory Pro

Jazz History

• Reading jazz history and checking out the recordings on YouTube. Each month study a different decade of jazz. Research a jazz history outline online and head for YouTube. See also Jazz History by Ted Gioia.
• Watch Youtube videos of Jazz Transcriptions

General and Jazz Specific Theory

• Key signatures, intervals, transposition, scale/chord construction.
• Suggested materials: Music Theory Pro for drills, Alfred’s essential music theory is good as are the RCM theory books. But it all depends on where you are starting at. You can ask me for a recommendation based on my assessment.

Jazz Sight reading

• Piano music: play simple stuff, use a slow metronome.
• Lead sheets
• Chording
• Suggested materials: Your fake book: open and play. Or RCM sight reading books. Again, it all depends on where you are starting at. You can ask me for a recommendation based on my assessment.

 Piano Technique

• Major scales
• Bebop scales
• Broken 7th chords: Major 7, dominant 7, minor 7, minor 7b5, diminished 7th in 12 keys. Play a maximum of 2 keys a day. SLOW IS FINE.
• I play classical piano music to keep my hands in some kind of shape. You might benefit from this as well. Or, you could play written jazz arrangements for piano. The idea is to keep the hands alive, as jazz piano study is brutal on piano techniques because we spend so much time play single note lines and left hand chords. 

If you would like some help, call me. 

​David
​

Who know hundreds of tunes, in the right keys, at the correct tempo? He never complains, is ready day and night? Doesn't drag or get lost? 

Mr. Sunny Bass

Someday I hope to buy him lunch, a small gesture for all the get help he has been to my students. 

​David

Poland is a long way to travel to learn with American Jazz Masters Dena DeRose, Miguel Zenon, Aaron Goldberg, Mike Moreno, Ali Jackson, and Luques Curtis.

​It was worth every penny for such a transformational experience. Bonus, a beautiful country and people too.

Aaron Goldberg, pianist, was our ensemble leader for the week.

But first.

About seven years ago I first attended the Jamie Aebersold Jazz Workshop in Louisville Kentucky as a drummer. I was green but pumped. I was pulled out of the workshop on day one and sent to a room where two instructors waited. Bassist Bob Sinicrope started drilling me with questions. Who are you? Why are you here? Very direct.

I explained I was a piano teacher and musician from Toronto who now played the drums. I had attended Berklee College of Music back in the day… He cut me off. “Who did you study with?”

Ah, Ray Santisi.
“Ray Santisi, I’m his bass player!” We were instant friends.
Which brings me back to Poland and Aaron Goldberg.

After hearing us all play we were put into groups and assigned rooms to report to. A bunch of us showed up, nervously eying each other. Language was an issue. There were 5 Poles, 2 Russian teenager wunderkinds, 1 Chinese Rock Star, and 1 Canadian old guy. We all noticed the room was devoid of music stands.

Aaron walks in. He was a student of Bob Sinicrope! He calls the first tune: Body and Soul. No music. We sing as a group the bass line of the song after much discussion and negotiation. We get it. Then the singer, in halting English, explains it’s in the wrong key. Aaron gives us a new tonic note and low and behold we sing the bass line in a new key. He counts us in. Away we go. I’m glad I’m a drummer that day.

At the concerts during the week, we are the only group playing without music. We play with intensity and conviction born from pure terror. We nail it.

Aaron buys us a bottle of Bison Vodka at weeks end and salutes us all. 
​
Thank you Aaron for valuable insights and the vodka.

​David

Memorize these tunes as your first priority using the method below. This method is based on the wise words of Louis Armstrong and experience of Lenny Tristano. I credit the singing of the chord roots to my week of study with Aaron Goldberg of Yes Trio. What a great insight Aaron presented. 
 
Autumn Leaves https://youtu.be/tguu4m38U78    Key of Gm
Take the A train https://youtu.be/D6mFGy4g_n8     Key of C
Blue Monk https://youtu.be/_40V2lcxM7k             Key of Bb
Satin Doll https://youtu.be/Gj42JotNUko                Key of C
Blue Bossa https://youtu.be/U7eOs5lERww    Key of C minor
C jam Blues https://youtu.be/16UIKglJ56w             Key of C

1. Listen to the recordings over and over until you can confidently sing the melodies.
2. Learn the melodies of the tunes by ear.
3. Learn to sing the roots of the bass lines. See Below. Be sure to sing in key and in time. You can use a fake book here to finish what I’ve started. Add your own turn arounds.
4. Put the melodies over the bass roots. Close the fake book.
5. Learn the Jazz chords and put them under the melody.
6. Play from memory everyday until they are solid.
7. Now you can learn to improvise and play jazz.

​Benefits?

• You head is no longer in the book.
• You can play with the recordings.
• You can jam with some confidence.

Because you learned the melodies by ear, you will have absorbed the feel, swing, and articulations of jazz. Other beginners will be envious.
 
David

How do I become a great pianist?

An honest question if a tiny bit naïve.

If you are in a great hurry, it is going to be difficult. If you are looking for a “hack” or some shortcut, I don’t know any.

But musicians for centuries have followed a pretty standard set of practices on the road to proficiency.

1. Humility is good. Trying to reinvent the wheel on your own might make you an artist in the end, but it won’t make you a pianist.
2. Patience is required. Learning to play the piano is a physical skill. It takes time. Though the ten-thousand-hour rule has been debunked, it is a good metaphor.
3. Listen to piano music. Through listening, study, and reflection we raise our level of sophistication which is needed to play well. Student's listening experience is often as a music fan, not as a musician. We musicians listen with intent. Starting with the question, “what is going on here?”
4. Find a teacher who has travelled the road you aspire to experience.
5. Learn to practice. Become a student of practice. Read books, watch videos, read blogs, take courses on how to practice. 

I'm available to help and encourage you on your journey. Just call me. 

David

​

1. Listen to jazz. Really. A lot of jazz. Listening is practicing. Why? You will need to recognize when you are doing it right. Listen like a musician. I’ve other blogs on how to listen. There are courses online available from great sources. Like the audio lecture series "Elements of Jazz"
2. Memorize 3 tunes: a blues, a ballad, a standard. This is where you will apply your growing knowledge.
3. Learn the basic building blocks of Jazz: the major scales for these 3 tunes, the jazz chords played broken through the inversions. There are a couple of other things as well, but we will save them for later.
4. Mess with the melody. (Advice from Louis Armstrong: memorize the melody, mess with it, then mess with the mess). Listen to how the greats, “interpreted” the melodies on the ballad and standard. Imitate.
5. Learn to play your instrument to the same level as the jazz solos you aspire to create.
6. Isolate a short phrase, three maybe four notes, within a jazz solo you like on YouTube. Listen to it over and over and over until you can sing it. Then find it on your instrument. “Licks” you learn this way you will make your own. “Licks” you read will have to be memorized. I will show you how to transpose these licks onto the other chords of your three pieces.
7. Study the solos of other musicians on YouTube. Type in “Autumn Leaves Transcription” for example and see what pops up. I wish we had that when I was a kid. Find multiple instances of your three pieces.
8. Forget all the fancy stuff you see online until you can play 12 bars on the blues without getting lost. Then 8 measures on the other 2 standards.
9. At some point you will need to study music theory in depth. High level jazz is theory played live in real time at high speed.
10. At some point you will need to study ear training. It’s hard to play what you can’t hear.

I can help you with each of these 10 points.

Call me

​David 

If you are feeling stale, try the following exercises.

1. Transpose all or some of your repertoire into other keys. Which keys? The ones you will find on recordings. I recently learned to play Cherokee in 12 keys, no kidding.
2. Sing the roots for the chord progressions from your repertoire, then transpose the progressions into another key. Strive to be in time and on pitch.
3. Play transcriptions from YouTube of your current repertoire. Notice whether they are plays scales, broken chords, enclosures, or blues licks.
4. Play along with master jazz musicians on recordings.
5. Renew your knowledge of key signatures, the circle of 5ths and intervals from a theory textbook.

David

1. Spend some time exploring the history of jazz. Here is a good place to start. The great courses can be found on https://www.audible.ca/ for $14.00. https://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/elements-of-jazz-from-cakewalks-to-fusion.html 
2. Another exercise, listen to 3 different versions of a piece in your repertoire by 3 artists. Listen enough to each performance until you can sing along and mimic the performance of the melody on the piano. 
3. Someday my prince will come with Miles Davis: see attached listening sheet.
4. General piano skills. For sight reading try this. First page is free. https://www.musicnotes.com/search/go?w=Thanks+for+the+memory&from=header 
5. Play a chorus or two with Red Garland on C jam blues.
6. Functional jazz Skills

• voicings
• scales
• chords systems
• sight reading chords
• Repertoire

​Have Fun, see you in September. 

David

1. Listen to a classic piece of jazz to get in the mood.
2. Warm up with scales, jazz chords both solid and broken, and for advanced players arpeggios, All in a logical and thoughtful manner. Don’t rush through this step. Use a metronome.
3. Practice a jazz etude from a jazz theory book or YouTube video.
4. Play over a feel-good piece of your repertoire before getting down to the difficult work. Remind yourself of your progress to date.
5. Practice transposing a simple lick into as many keys as you know.
6. Spend a little time analysing a jazz standard, mark the form and the ii-V progressions, noting which keys they relate to.
7. Pick a tune from your repertoire to focus on. Play the melody with a recording, trying to mimic what you hear. Better yet learn a melody by ear.
8. Play through the broken chords on each chord of the piece.
9. Practice the scales associated with each chord.
10. Mimic the recording again.
11. Practice comping the chords first with a metronome, then with the recording. Transpose as needed.
12. Listen to some more jazz.
13. Sight read chord progressions from your fake book.
14. Finish up playing some completed repertoire to keep it fresh. Record this portion of practice and listen back.
15. Don’t follow this list in order, bounce around.

Have Fun,
​
David Story
 
 

Ear training gives you the ability to conceptualise what you hear, nothing more. There are countless phone apps, YouTube videos, and social media hustlers, and books promising results in short order. Unless you are in possession of perfect pitch and deep prior experiences listening to music, this will take some time. I am 48 years in. I am still working on it.

Ear Training for Jazz Musicians

1. The ability to hear the form of the piece so that you do not get lost.
2. The ability to recognize which instrument is playing what.
3. The ability to hear intervals, chord qualities, scale qualities when listening to music.
4. The ability to count rests.
5. The ability to follow a chord progression.
6. The ability to imitate short “licks” you hear in a solo.
7. The ability to control your tone and dynamics in relationship to what is going on around you in the band.
8. The ability to practice solfege
9. The ability to internally hear and then execute beautiful tonal balance and articulations.
10. The ability to remember songs. This is closely aligned with music theory.
11. The ability to hold a tempo steady in the middle of a performance.

1. Listen attentively to music. A lot. Ask yourself, "what is going on here?"
2. Listen to a particular solo or piece of a solo until you can sing it. Then find it on your instrument.
3. Sing intervals.
4. Sing broken chords
5. Sing the bass roots of your pieces in time and on pitch.
6. Listen to more music.
7. Record yourself, listen back.
8. Record yourself playing scales with the metronome. Listen back.
9. Record your next band practice, listen back.
10. Sing everything you learn in your theory studies. 

David

Here is how it works. Swing jazz at slow and moderate tempi plays 8th pair long short with the accent on the short side or upbeat side. 

The four videos below can be used various ways. Namely scales and jazz melodic patterns as found in the music of the Bebop era. Swing melodies work well too. 

Have fun. 

If you need help, contact me, I consult video Skype or Zoom. 

​David

My go to podcasts. I listen in the car on my way to classes. One reason I bounce through the door on arrival. 

• Drummers Resource by Nick Ruffini 500+ podcasts, I've listened to them all. Many more than once. My favs? Michael Carvin #55 and #159 How to practice. Benny Greb #52 How to practice: funny and informative. His description of his one hour practice technique is priceless. Kenny Washington #204 Explores his deep knowledge of jazz history. And finally the irrepressible John Ramsay #254 "approaching music as a lifelong endeavour".  Find it all here:               http://www.drummersresource.com/podcasts/
• You'll hear it by Open studio "Jazz musicians Peter Martin & Adam Maness give you daily tips on how to develop as a jazz player. Listen for a combo of actionable advice and occasional humor"  I met Peter a couple of years while attending the Roma Summer Jazz Workshop, he was teaching piano. Great guy, knows what he is doing. Some of my favorite episodes are the episodes on how to learn, how to practice, how to improve your ears. Searchable here: https://www.openstudionetwork.com/podcast/ 
• "Crushing Classical podcast is an ongoing series of provocative interviews with musicians who are pioneering a new path in the classical music genre." Fireside chat #40 explores the relationship between behaviour and goal attainment. Helpful advice and stories for us all. 

Best, 

David Story

1. Having an identifiable sound in the tonal quality of your playing.
   
2. The speed, evenness, and clarity of execution in your technique.
   
3. The ability to play with consistently accurate time and feeling of pulse.
   
4. Your choice of tonal material in improvisation.
   
5. The spirit and drive of your playing. The emotional feeling and vitality comes from your conviction of rhythm and pulse.
   
6. The melodiousness of your lyricism.
   
7. The depth and variety of your repertoire.
   
8. Your ability to navigate,with integrity, a wide range of repertoire (vehicles) without losing effectiveness.
   
9. The quality of your inventiveness, creativity, originality which demonstrates your innovation.
   

Found on pages 77 & 78

I highly recommend this book to all my Jazz students. 

Cheers,

David

Many Students learn to play blues scales in the normal course of learning an instrument. The question often arises: What do I do with them?

Nothing, unless you want to learn to play the blues. To use the blues scales a student needs to listen to and enjoy blues music! Otherwise they have just learned some interesting sounds from an unknown language! Similar to learning a few words in a language you have never heard or will ever experience. A wasted exercise.

On the other hand let's explore some options on learning a new type of music.

1. Head for YouTube and search "Blues Piano"
2. Explore this list: In a bluemood: A personal listing of great blues pianists.
3. Watch "The Blues" By Martin Scorsese. A great place to get an overview on the subject.
4. Go to a blues club.
5. Sightread some music from a blues piano book.
6. Take some lessons.

Cheers,

David Story

Gary Burton, jazz musician extraordinaire and master teacher is giving a free course on line this month. 
I'm taking it. I've watched the introductory videos tonight. Tomorrow I will submit the assignments for peer review. I will also have an opportunity to assess fellow students as they will have of me. It should be interesting.  

First main points:

Improvisation is like language. It has a vocabulary which is sounds (chords and scales). A grammar, which is a harmonic progression and your ability to follow it in a logical fashion. And finally, a there is the content. Namely your ability to develop a story, in sound, in real time.

Second main point:

Sounding like a jazz musician through memorising licks is similar to memorising French phrases and heading to Paris. You may sound temporarily like a Frenchman, but it won't take long before your inability to converse becomes obvious. 

Good point.

I look forward to taking this up tomorrow in class with my students. 

Cheers, 

David Story

Sonny's Thumbs

In honour of Sonny Stitt who showed me this as a kid I present the following. Sonny learned them from Bud Powell. 

1. Right hand plays the melody
2. Left hand comps the Be-bop shells of Root/7th, or Root/3rd. Select the more dissonant choice.
3. For a complete PDF file of the left hand chords, click on this sentence. 

Have fun.

Check this out.

Bud Powell's Anthropology He plays the head in two hands an octave apart. One of my Berklee teachers, Dean Earl, had me play Charlie Parker Solos like that. During the solo Powell comps lightly in the left hand using what appears to be Sonny's thumbs.  

Glossary:

• Comp, short for accompany. Playing the chords in a rhythmic fashion. Have a listen to a jazz piano trio of drums, bass, and piano. Notice that in classic jazz the notes of the pianist tend to fall on one of the four limbs of the drummer. Notice that some chords are held, some are short. Very few chords are played on the beat.
• Sonny Stitt, American Jazz Saxophonist.
• BeBop, a style of jazz developed in the 1940's. Characterized by complex dissonant angular playing. Many of the tunes are contrafacts, that is, new tunes written the chord changes of pop tunes of the time. See Ornithology based on How High The Moon.
• 3rd/7th Cmaj7 is C, E, G, B. C is the root, E is the third, G is the 5th, B is the 7th, based on the idea of counting from the root up. C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C. The root is always the name of the chord. So, G7 has G as it's root.
• Dissonance is a sound of 2 more notes sounded together that feel that they need to move. i.e. C with B above feels like the B wants to move to C. Consonance on the other hand feels at rest. Jazz harmony is dissonant.
• Call me for lessons. :-)

Cheers,


David

Here is a modest short piece of boogie woogie fun. 

Performance notes:

1. Play very steady, steady enough to dance to.
2. Both hands should be of equal loudness.
3. Accent the black keys in the left hand. This will make it funky. How do you know if you are playing "funky?" Is your mother dancing?
4. The 5th finger of the right hand plays the top note of each chord.

Click on the photo to download. Have fun,

David