This is a Chick Corea tune that is haunting and spare. The modal changes interest me the most with this song. His duo with Burton on vibes is amazing. I play it out of time and without swing to maximize the feel, but it is improvised. If I were to do this over, I would not do this as slow and would put more energy into it, but I was thinking “tranquil” at the time.

Here’s an example of the Bill Susman teaching jazz piano from his collection of piano instructional videos. This is from his Holiday Collection – jazz arrangements of 12 great Christmas songs. wowzak.com

Petrucciani plays caravan

This Hancock tune is usually played in a restrained, laid back style, ie with a “west coast cool jazz” feel. The brilliant and unusual chord changes give this piece a floating feeling that does away with the usual dynamic arcs of tension and resolution found in more traditional “I-VI-II-VI” type jazz compositions. In order to make it sound a little bit different, I decided to play it slightly uptempo and to play the changes as if it called for the same dynamic rise and fall of more traditional tunes, even when that is not what the chords changes are calling for, at least from my perspective. Something else I try to do in order to switch it up a bit is to vary my comping between light and dense voicings. I play two or three notes that imply a chord without explicitly stating it, or I try to go really dense, with lots of color tones to obscure the underlying chord. That is pretty much what I was thinking when I played this piece.

I’ve acquired a liking for music that use piano’s in the song’s but I have had a hard time pinpointing artists or songs when searching for similar stuff that I know. Anyone know a good way to search online or have suggestions? I’m not into Bach or Mozart, jazz or blues. I like piano in rock songs or modern type classical and in some punk or Emo stuff. I enjoy songs similar to the song in Twilight, Bella’s Lullaby.

Thanks in advance!
Also the song by Mae, called (Sun). The piano jam I like starts at around the 4:08 mark in the 5 minute song.
Also the song by Mae, called (Sun). The piano jam I like starts at around the 4:08 mark in the 5 minute song.

www.billytaylorjazz.net presents a unique Jazz piano duo

Can we understand this through theory. I was struggling with this last night. You are playing in two different ranges (let’s keep it simple and restrict it to a 4 octave keyboard). So, how do you know when 2 or more notes in those ranges will sound harmonious played together, so when you are improvising, you can just jam? By the way, this isn’t just a question about Jazz. It is relevant to Piano theory, regardless of what you do with it, including Classical. Your thoughts?
So lets assume the key of C. If you play 2 or more notes that fall within chords in this key your are golden right?
Well, the harmonious notes seem to fall into chords that are seperated into 2 or more different octaves. Like Trans-octave chords. Good term?

Can we understand this through theory. I was struggling with this last night. You are playing in two different ranges (let’s keep it simple and restrict it to a 4 octave keyboard). So, how do you know when 2 or more notes in those ranges will sound harmonious played together, so when you are improvising, you can just jam? By the way, this isn’t just a question about Jazz. It is relevant to Piano theory, regardless of what you do with it, including Classical. Your thoughts?
So lets assume the key of C. If you play 2 or more notes that fall within chords in this key your are golden right?
Well, the harmonious notes seem to fall into chords that are seperated into 2 or more different octaves. Like Trans-octave chords. Good term?

Visit www.HearandPlayJazz.com for more… Are You “One Dimensional?” Who wants to be stuck playing the same chords and songs over and over again? I’m sure nobody… if they can help it. No one wants to be labeled by others as “one-dimensional”. And to be honest, knowing only one style of music is pretty boring. And as a musician, excitement and unpredictability is the name of the game! I mean, adding even just one style of music to your playing, especially one as vibrant as jazz, will have an exponential effect on you, forever. Heck, just being able to understand jazz will ignite your creative side and allow you to accelerate your improvisational skills that can be used to instill your own personal touch in literally everything you play… regardless of the genre. So without further ado… Visit http for more…

I just threw together some ideas that I use for playing boogie woogie. Maybe someone will learn something.