Jazz Piano 101: How I learned to play jazz piano

Sonny's Thumbs

As a teenager I had the privilege of having a piano lesson with Sonny Stitt. My teacher, Bernie Senesky, introduced him to me in a Toronto jazz bar. Upon learning I was a piano student he excitedly invited me up to the piano where he began to demonstrate how his friend Bub Powell played bebop chord voicings.
Here is what he showed me: Your right-hand plays the melody or solos while your left-hand comps the Be-bop shells of Root/seventh, or Root/third. Given the typical manner of jazz chord progressions, the left hand will often alternate between the two forms. For a complete PDF file of the left hand chords, click on this sentence. 

Dean Earl
The second great lesson came from my beloved Berklee piano teacher Dean Earl. He told me to play Charlie Parker solos simultaneously in both hands two octaves apart. This was an exercise to keep my left hand sharp. Years later it also gave me competency to solo in the left hand. You can see Bud Powell play Anthropology this way. During the solo Powell comps lightly in the left-hand using Sonny's thumbs.  

Below are links to videos connected to this lesson. 

Cheers,

David
Revised May 2024

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Dean Earl aka "Dino"

Sonny Stitt and Bud Powell Complete Album Click Here.

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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 is a style of jazz developed in the 1940's that is 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 which is based on How High The Moon.
• 3rd/7th Cmaj7 is C, E, G, B where 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. :-)