A Philosophical

Approach to Jazz Piano

By Daniel Bennett
 A Philosophical
Approach to Jazz Piano

By

Daniel Bennett
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 Table of Contents

Author’s Note
Introduction
Chapter 1 – Playing For a Purpose
Chapter 2 – Getting a Feel for the Jazz Medium
Chapter 3 – Learning Pieces Quickly
Chapter 4 – Transitioning Towards a Jazz Frame of Mind
Chapter 5 – Listening to Jazz, Not Hearing Jazz
Chapter 6 – Jazz Chords and Their Tonal Qualities
Chapter 7 – Thought Processes Whilst Playing
Chapter 8 – Note Value Awareness
Chapter 9 – The Art of Improvising From Within
Chapter 10 – Analyses of Sample Improvisations
Chapter 11 – Final Thoughts
A note from the author:

In writing this book, I wanted to share my own

developmental understanding of the jazz piano idiom with
the reader. Experiences both in teaching and playing
publicly, along with a lifelong passion for Jazz and private
study, have provided me, if I may be so bold, with enough
know-how to attempt a book in the field.

Naturally, with music being subjective, there is not

always a clear dividing line between what is right/good and
wrong/bad. Being acutely aware of this fact, I have
attempted to include either both sides of the line or
mention its existence so that the reader may come to his or
her own opinion on the matter. This book is by no means
to be interpreted as selfless promotion or an effort to
promote my own opinions.

At no point during the writing of this text did I

ever feel the need to expound what might be considered a
sense of superiority to the benefit of the title of Jazz
Pianist. I was very aware that some readers may well be
sensitive to such matters; the differences between a classical
and jazz pianist, for example. At no point have I ever nor
shall I ever consider a jazz pianist to be a more superior
player to any other kind of pianist. All that can be said is
that, to play jazz, one must have a very good knowledge of
the piano, its chords and its scales, as well as good finger
technique and precision simply because no music is
available to read and 99% of what a jazz pianist plays is
improvised; a classical pianist follows the music and its
instructions, never really needing to modify passages or
enhance chords whenever the feeling takes them.

This can be understood to mean that, to be a jazz

pianist, one needn’t be able to read music. I disapprove of
this notion and believe that sight-reading is utterly
invaluable to any kind of musician. I would further like to
reinforce that I strongly feel a background in classical piano
is incredibly beneficial, but not compulsory, to the aspiring
jazz pianist. Such matters are discussed on occasion
throughout this book.
 I hope the reader will garner a lot of ‘thoughtful’
insights into the jazz idiom since that is the purpose of my
writing this book. Philosophical approaches in any field
can provide a greater learning experience and help to
understand a subject much more; not only learning its
content, facts and figures, but going deeper within the
fabric of its structure to understand the how’s and why’s.

In reading this book away from the piano, as I

recommend it, you will come to realise how jazz comes
from the inside; from the heart and ‘emotional centre’ of
the brain, rather than the eyes, sight-reading and the fingers
following instructions. Being away from the piano and
internalising what I discuss, you will have a new
appreciation for the piano and how to play it in the jazz
idiom when you sit at it for the first time. It does not,
however, deter from the age-old adage: practice makes
perfect. I wish you great success in your piano and jazz
piano studies.

The author.
Introduction

Before writing any book about a specialised subject,

one is well advised to research the subject material already
in existence to see if the idea is even worthwhile. If there
is lots of literature already available on the subject, perhaps
even if a lot of it is written by well-established individuals
with much more experience, try to find something in
particular to focus on or use your different writing and
teaching style, and go for it.

This book is that result.

A broken student/teacher relationship is the failure

of any foundation upon which the student wishes to build
knowledge, so I feel duty-bound in establishing one basic
rule between you and I so that this book is read and
internalised more successfully.
 My part: My style is frank yet conversational. My
points are deep yet understandable. My structure is varied
yet logical.

Your part: A foundational knowledge of the piano.

Genuine interest in the Jazz subject. Dedication to practice
away from the book.

I shall now briefly elaborate on the purpose of

writing this book.

Every book I have found on the subject is heavy-

going. They are excellently written with excellent examples
and you will learn a lot from them. What I did conclude,
however, was that they are not for bedtime reading. You
must be sat at your piano, you must memorise complicated
tables and chord progressions or you must make notes on
the page to try to comprehend what is written.

This is all excellent and I am not in any way

suggesting that such books not be studied; I’ve studied a
fair few of them myself over time. My point is that they
are study books for jazz students wishing to practice hard
and learn deep at the piano.

My book is not about that.

In fact, I hope you are seated away from your

piano. A piano should not be within arm’s reach; only your
internal piano should be made available for your reading
sessions.

It’s a good ideology, the ‘internal piano’, because it

represents not only the basic idea of imagining a piano’s
keyboard in your head so that, should I suggest a chord
such as F7, you will see the notes of F, A, C and Eb; but to
take this idea further, it also represents the more
philosophical notion that you do not need to be at a piano
in order to improve or learn, emotionally. In other words,
you could learn a song, chord progression or melody in
your mind – even all three together - then transfer them to
the piano and play them well, with meaning and good
expression, the moment you sit down. You could feel a
piece of music through your emotional centre and then
recreate that at the piano. This leads me on to my next
introductory point: the mind before the piano.

In the last paragraph, I said that it should be

possible to learn something on your internal piano through
memory, mental visualisation and emotion and then
reproduce it on the piano… with expression. This is
interesting. Emotion is linked to all music; the listener and
the performer. Granted, the performer knows more than
the average listener in terms of musical and keyboard
theory, but both respond the same way when hearing
particular sounds. Think of a film; the music obliges you
to feel a certain way: sad, lonely, full of love, happy, silly,
etc. This is only possible when music is passing through
the ‘emotional centre’ of the brain.

As a musician, especially in jazz improvisation, you

must have a conscious awareness of this emotional centre.
Why? Because anybody can play the piano; anybody can
memorise a few notes, understand a few principles, work
out some simple fingering techniques and they’re away. But
you, as a future purposeful jazz pianist, are beyond that.
 You know your scales and fingering, you know
maybe a dozen or more songs well (from the Great
American Song Book, for example), you can even perhaps
improvise a little, but all this doesn’t mean anything if it is
not played with emotion or with a purpose.

Going back a few paragraphs, I said you should

play from your internal piano onto the real piano, albeit via
the emotional centre. That is true. Your job is to be so
aware of this emotional ‘feed’ that, no matter what you
play, it shall be true, honest, purposeful and last but not
least, emotional.

How do you feel about that way of thinking?

Perhaps read it again. Sure, I can spend pages and pages
throwing jazzy 13th voicings at you, analyse tri-tone
substitutions and chord extension inversions and modal
scales, but what would be the point? What use is a loaded
gun if the holder does not know where the trigger is?
How does a man fish successfully despite having the best
line and bait when he doesn’t even know how to cast the
rod? I could give comparative examples all day, but I hope
you get my point.

If not, I am saying that it is all well and good

knowing all major and minor scales in both hands, at speed,
with your eyes closed. It’s great to play arpeggios in 6
different chord types; I’ll even give you a cookie if you can
play the blues scale in all 12 keys, but in the end, so what?
What does it all mean if you can’t play with emotion? With
a purpose?

Think about that and then read on to the first

chapter.
 CHAPTER 1 – Playing For a Purpose

Franz Liszt, the greatest virtuoso of the 19th

Century and incomparably of all time, used to give free
master classes at his home in Weimar, Germany, amongst
other places. Many diaries are available of his students’
sessions with him so quite a lot can be garnered right from
the great horse’s mouth.

Of all the lessons in which I have partaken

posthumously, the one which stands tallest is that of
playing for a purpose. There were certain pieces he did not
allow his students to play, no matter how brilliant they
were, because he knew they were not mature enough,
pianistically-speaking, to tackle them. It did not matter
how fast they could play or how well they could sight-read;
they were simply not ready to play a piece well enough
through their emotional centre to do it justice. Such pieces
ranged from Beethoven and Chopin to Liszt’s own works.

You may question why I begin with a ‘Classical’

pianist in a book about jazz, but that highlights exactly why
my approach and method is different to others: this is a
book about the philosophy of playing well and,
unfortunately, jazz piano does not provide mental or
physical opportunities required to actually play it! In other
words, you don’t learn major and minor scales or fingering
in jazz; you need to know all that already and that usually
comes from a Classical background as I mentioned in the
Author’s Note at the beginning of the book.

Having a Classical piano background helps

tremendously with fingering and dexterity. It also
introduces you to the keyboard as a whole and helps you
familiarise yourself with dynamics, different sounds and
left/right hand independence. These are things you can’t
learn in jazz since it is primarily improvised with no sheet
music to follow, so your knowledge and skills need to come
from somewhere else first.

Once you have acquired a certain level of

proficiency, you can then begin to approach pieces of
music and decide if they are something worth playing. Of
course, choosing the pieces of music which you feel you
can play for a purpose, with expression, is one thing; the
second thing is actually playing them using the right
techniques and embellishments to really touch your
audience. Such topics shall be discussed at length later in
the book.

On the assumption that you feel a little bit

disconnected with what I am writing about, let me take you
through an example from my own life. I feel that being
open about my own experiences will give you something
with which to compare your own experiences so that you
can better understand what I am talking about.

There is one song which is special to me which I

shall use in this example: Misty (1). It is my grandfather’s
favourite song. I have memories of learning the key of E
flat on his piano with this song. I remember learning the
connections between E flat and C minor, the relative
minor. I learnt that the blues scale from the relative minor
could be used over its counterpart with excellent effect so I
knew how to enhance many other songs (play F blues over
A flat, or G blues scale over B flat) thanks to this song.
 When I was living in Budapest in 2011, I played the
grand piano in the Alexandra book shop café which is
upstairs towards the back of the building in a grand hall; a
truly exquisite place with a painted art ceiling. The first
song I ever played in Hungary? Misty. Why? There were
between 50-60 people in that café in the great city of
Budapest. Just up the road was Franz Liszt’s home (now a
museum and concert hall). I was playing for a friend who
had asked the current pianist if I may play a song for her; I
ended up playing for half an hour (with the proud
permission of the resident pianist, of course). I chose
Misty as my first song for a reason. I had the greatest of
purposes to play it so I played it well. I got a round of
applause after my impromptu set and was spoken to after
playing by a few guests who could speak English; all things
the resident pianist told me had not happened to him.

Is it because I could play faster? No. Maybe

because I knew more chords than him? No. Surely
because I had greater facility in general at the piano? No.
 I merely had a purpose and that purpose shone
through greater than any skill I had. In fact, I didn’t play
fast at all. Sure, as I mentioned above with the gunman
and the fisherman, I already had some quality gunpowder
and my fishing tackle was the best of its kind, but I knew
how to pull that trigger having aimed my viewfinder and I
knew exactly how to cast my rod into the water to get
perfect positioning for the best and biggest fish. Merely
having the equipment or, in our case, technical ability, does
not stand for everything in being a great performer. I’ve
left the odd piano bar because the piano player just showed
off his speed and fingerwork without actually playing
anything and I just couldn’t stand it. I wonder if some
pianists knew that there were other people in the same
room, but I digress.

Taking this idea to the next level, there is the

question oft asked to me: “I can play but I don’t know
how to express myself on the piano, even when I have the
perfect pieces to play!” Fear not. Throughout this book, I
will purposefully (see what I did there?) be highlighting a
lot of techniques and ideas for the reader to implement
into his or her own playing. In other words, I’ll give you
some good gunpowder and fishing tackle and show you
how to pull the trigger and cast far.

Having the ability to play something should not be

your yard-post for increasing your repertoire. There are a
few songs I would like to play but, at the time of writing, I
don’t feel ready to play them well and do them justice when
I perform. A lot of readers will raise an eyebrow at that
last comment but only if they truly do not understand the
value of having a purpose for playing a piece.

One song off the top of my head that I do not feel

ready to play yet is Caravan, the reason being quite simple:
having seen and heard Oscar Peterson play it live on film, I
think I should leave it alone for the next 20 odd years! At
least I personally won’t be learning that piece until I can
truly tear it up like he did so effortlessly at Montreux in
1976 (available online).

It’s a special melody and could be played to sound

equally brilliant by another, but until that moment when I
can play it well, for the right reasons, it shall sit on the
sidelines. He truly understood what that song was about.
The same can be said for Bill Evans and his version of On
Green Dolphin Street and Some Day My Prince Will
Come. Those few will stay out my repertoire for quite a
while, even though I could learn them quickly.

A further reason I have begun this book with a

chapter on playing for a purpose is because it is very much
the first thing you will think about when actually sitting at a
piano; in fact, as you are walking towards, or even better,
when you are not even sat at it. What is my purpose in
playing this?

In playing the piano without music, especially in

jazz, a lot of what you actually play on the piano has in
some way already been played or discovered from within.
You can only find a purpose if you think about it; a
purpose cannot be found when sitting at the piano working
out nice chords or melodic ideas. When going about your
daily business, give much thought as a jazz pianist to what
sounds you like the most. Being an honest player is
fundamental to being an excellent jazz pianist; not speed.

Consider your favourite chord types, your favourite

musicians and what kinds of sounds and rhythms they use.
As you live and gain experiences, try to connect a musical
idea to a situation or, at the very least, associate a song that
you hear during a particular moment and analyse its
musical content in terms of tonal qualities and emotional
feed. By doing this, you will develop mentally in such a
way that you will come to play your own jazz piano ideas
with much more purpose simply because you will have
given so much thought and analytical time to what you like
the most, to what touches you, to what drives you to play
the piano in such a way; your playing will automatically
become honest and purposeful, thus your overall ability
will improve, all without even being sat at your piano
practicing monotonous finger exercises.

Playing for a purpose also incorporates the idea of

creating certain sounds in songs already in your repertoire.
You must ask yourself questions about your environment
and respond to them musically. What would be the
purpose in playing soft, lush, romantic chords if your
listeners happen to be primarily 30-something males with a
few beers in a pub? It would not be appropriate. They
would probably miss the whole point entirely of such
brilliant sounds and consider what you are playing as ‘girly’
or ‘soppy’.

Such chords, however, would go down well at a

Sunday Lunch event with over 50s who are more familiar
with the music and appreciate, whilst not understanding the
theoretical and/or technical reasons as to why, the ‘nice
sounds’ you’re creating. Conversely, these listeners may not
appreciate hard blues sounds and rapid stride piano styles
so much like the men in the bar would.

Question the structure of your songs. You may be

asked to play some Gershwin, or some Show Tunes. Why
begin with an unknown piece from a lesser-known musical?
The listeners will probably think that you did not listen to
them and will pay a lot less attention to what you are
playing, perhaps even being a little offended that you
appeared to take on-board their request and then played
something completely different!

Rather, begin with title tunes from Les Misérables,

Cats or My Fair lady, playing lesser-known tunes in medley
form so listeners, already hooked, will not mind so much if
they don’t know what you’re playing but simply assume it’s
still part of the requested category. The same goes for
requests by popular songwriters; play the common ones
first and get the listeners on-board aurally.

The final level of detail regards the individual keys

themselves and the fingers that play them. A purposeful
player will have great control over his fingers individually
with no technical feat, or at least very few, beyond his
abilities. Put another way, he will play within his ever-
growing ability at all times.

What is meant by this is that, every note played,

whether part of a chord or part of an improvised line, was
played for a purpose. It was not played ‘because it was
next in line’ or ‘because it was within finger reach from the
current position’, or even worse, ‘because it was easier to
play than that note’. Each note must be acknowledged
internally by the purposeful player. When an F is played, it
must be known what value that note has in the key it is
being played in and/or against the chord that happens to
be passing at that moment.

F, in the key of E flat, is the 9th. It would be the

5th in B flat, the 13th in A flat, the minor in D, etc (2). In
a later chapter, I shall expand upon the principle I have
entitled ‘Note Value Awareness’, but for now, knowing how
a particular note will sound against a particular chord is
part and parcel of the purposeful jazz pianist.

It is interesting to consider a note not only as one

sound, a C for example, or that C being the 9th of B flat or
the flattened 5th of F sharp; it is also a volumetric note. It
comes with its own dynamics and character, just like the
other 11 notes within every octave.

This C could be played softly, as a passing note,

repetitively, loudly, in a prolonged manner as the chords
pass by or as the centre of a trill-type ornamental technique
(3). Choosing how the note in question is played comes
down to knowing its purpose in the song or improvised
line.

However, I do not encourage you to think about

every single note because you couldn’t possibly process so
many notes in such an analytical manner; you’d never end
up playing more than 3 notes in a bar for fear of
‘incorrectly’ playing a note! I am highlighting the fact that
knowledge of note values within phrases is of great, useful
importance and anticipating as much as possible, whilst
connecting an emotion and purpose to playing in general,
will enhance your overall sound beyond what you would
have thought possible from yourself at this stage.

An in situ example of the above is when I played

The Nearness of You (4) in yet another restaurant in
Budapest. There were more elderly customers than young
so I purposefully played more lush chords than harder
blues sounds, simply to maintain a pleasantly soft, some
might say elegant atmosphere.
 In this particular song, played in the key of F
major, the note C is marvellous because of its note values
in the chord progressions. It begins as the 5th in F Maj7,
the 1st in Cm7, the 5th again in F13 (b9), the 9th in B flat
and a dissonant Major 7th in C#dim but resolves into the
minor of Am7, the dominant 7th in D7 (b9), the 11th in
Gm7 and again the 1st in the Caug7 (b9) before the song
starts again (5).

I modified the dynamics, the speed, the timing of

this note, all showing a good level of control and musical
understanding. On a sub-conscious level, the listeners were
reacting positively not because they understood the theory
of what I was doing but because I was playing for a
purpose and that purpose was their own expectation of
what good music sounds like.

To conclude, we can say that the first step in

becoming a good jazz pianist is to become a ‘Purposeful
Pianist’, a term that I have been using and shall continue to
use throughout this book.
 The next level of discussion may involve choosing
pieces which work for you on a personal level. Ask
yourself questions such as “Do I enjoy this piece
personally?” “Do I have a personal connection or reason
to play this piece?” “Have I experienced in my own life
what this song’s lyric represents?”

Stop and ask yourself the most important question

of all: “Do I want to play this piece to show off or
because of something deeper which does not involve
ability, but emotion, connection and… purpose?”
Hopefully you will answer such questions honestly to get
the best out of yourself at the piano.

Play with happiness and honesty and listeners will

enjoy happily and honestly. You would be amazed how
many piano players, both unknowns and on the world
stage, think they know what the listener wants all the time,
as if it is a fixed response, a global standard, no matter the
age, location, duration or atmosphere and environment of
their performance. Don’t be one of them, be one of you.
Difference is what identifies you from the rest.

Perhaps spend a little time at your piano after

reading each chapter to see if anything has settled in your
mind from each previous reading session. Maybe you will
go to the piano and realise that all those scales you can play
really first are completely useless if you don’t play them for
a purpose other than “I can play first scales, listen to me”.
Maybe you will play your favourite song but this time
consider the lyric, the value each note has in the song. You
may give more regard to speed, finger control or space; you
may even change its style completely because you were not
playing it how you play it, but how someone else was
playing it, so it always sounded unnatural?

Just to finish with an example, I once had a student

who amazed me with the way he could play a walking bass
so fluently with his left hand and play blues scales (only
blues scales) so quickly with his right hand. He was
stunned to silence as if a lightning bolt had struck him
down from the heavens when I said “That was really great,
but you told me on the phone that you can play the piano
quite well?”

After a little altercation, he finally realised the value

of each note in the blues scale and, after about 4 sessions
together, his playing exploded into passionate blues and he
couldn’t thank me enough. He used space, he played each
note for a purpose and shared blue scales, interesting notes
and licks with block chords and silence, all things he had
never considered before (6).

Perhaps take that little anecdote on board and now

go and have a little piano session, but be sure to not read
the book when sat at the piano because you must develop
your internal piano which means not looking at a real
piano.
 CHAPTER 2 – Getting a Feel for the
Jazz Medium

Jazz is a vast spectrum of sounds and rhythms. In

all honesty, I personally don’t like them all. It’s like a
rainbow; who likes all the colours within? My favourite
colour is blue. My favourite jazz rhythm is gentle swing
rather than be-bop. My least favourite colour is Green.
My least favourite jazz rhythm is the modern one which I
can’t really put a name to. It’s something like gentle rock, a
bit of funkiness but done on a brush kit to make it softer
and qualify it, wrongly in my own opinion, as jazz. We are
all different, and such is the world.

But it can’t be denied that certain rhythms and

sounds, instruments and chords, skill sets and riffs are
absolutely, undeniably Jazzy, no matter where you come
from or what musical tastes you have. If you love heavy
metal and screaming punk rock music with 3 chords (at the
most) and insanely loud drumming, you will be able to
recognise Jazz from such identifiable traits as: the brush
kit, ‘lush’ or bluesy jazz chords on a piano, the walking bass
line of a double bass, blues notes, the swing rhythm, etc.
They are undeniably ‘Jazz’.

Naturally, many people have come to combine

rhythms and instruments. You could have a group
somewhere from New Delhi playing blues scales on a Sitar
on top of a Bossa Nova rhythm with the chord
progressions of a popular Indian tune whilst enjoying the
occasional improvisation from a saxophone! The list of
possibilities is quite endless. For the purpose of this book,
however, we will assume that ‘Jazz’ means the typical music
from the 20’s to the 50’s with a repertoire from the Great
American Song Book, played by common Jazz Trio
instruments over chord types which are truly jazzy: 13th,
9th, #11th, etc. If I don’t clamp down on a particular
style, this book will be too open to interpretation and I
don’t want that to be the case.

Now we are all on the same page (no pun

intended), allow me to introduce you to some names of
Jazz Piano. This is the first stage in learning about the
world of jazz and its favourite instrument: the piano. By
listening to what already exists, you will be better prepared
and informed to discover or create your own style.

The names listed are in no special order and are

only biased in the sense that I start with Oscar Peterson,
but I shall do my best to qualify why that is so under his
name. Every other name is purely through a process of
asking myself who I can think of next and are not listed in
terms of who I think is better. It is therefore, after Oscar
Peterson, an unbiased liszt!

Oscar Peterson, a large percentage would agree, is

the pinnacle of jazz piano ‘ability’. Despite playing with
dazzling precision and speed, often with both hands
simultaneously playing the same impossibly-brilliant
improvised lines in unison with such power and exactitude,
he had a beautifully soft touch too, could control his
fingers across all speed and dynamic ranges to produce the
most tear-jerkingly beautiful sounds and knew his chords, it
seemed, like nobody else.
 His repertoire was unimaginably immense. His
variations on themes were endless and never repetitive.
Under his sweat, he would sometimes vocalise his
improvisations and then play them simultaneously. Not
only did he know seemingly every jazz number ever
written, be able to play them in any style, at any speed, with
unparalleled precision, he was also an incredibly kind,
courteous gentleman who enjoyed playing practical jokes
on people.

His personality and his feelings shone through in

his playing. If you want an example of playing ‘for a
reason’, you need look no further than OP. His
progressively intensive playing took the audience by the
short and curlies and, even if you were not very receptive,
you’d still be left spellbound by what he was doing. His
infectious smile was his trademark which proved he loved
every moment of his playing.

I recommend listening to a large amount of his

work from all stages of his career. You will enjoy Latin
rhythms, incomprehensibly fast be-bop, standard swing
jazz and, most beautiful of all in my humble opinion, his
solo works.

His blues playing was and probably always will be

unmatched. I wish I could expand upon this point, but
words simply fail me. Check out ‘Sandy’s Blues’ online.

As I shall expand upon in this book in detail, OP

also knew how to create an ‘intro’ and an ‘outro’ to a song.
His sidekick guitarist for a time, Joe Pass, also used to drum
in this skill of introducing a song and closing it… all while
being interesting and melodic. Pay attention to how his
solo pieces, where he was free to do what he wanted, have
him introducing songs in the most magical of ways. Enjoy
how he closed the number, too, and made you not want
him to stop, but he did so beautifully that you didn’t mind.
OP was a man of magic at the piano and I can’t imagine
another who could take his place.

Red Garland was also an African-American jazz

pianist around the same time as OP but predominantly in
the 50s. He was famous for his block-chord style which
had him play 4-note chords in the left hand with 3-note
chords in the right hand but one octave higher.

The thing to enjoy most about Red Garland is his

trio work. With Paul Chambers on bass, the most ‘sick’
(really brilliant) swing was created. Chambers would play a
bowed solo on his bass before leaving a space of a few
beats then coming back in randomly on any beat he felt
next as a walking bass, minus the bow. It is absolutely
corking music to listen to and Red gave much space to the
bass solos.

As I mentioned above with OP and his intros and

outros, Red played some excellent ‘intermediary break
melodies’; the space between finishing the melody and
starting the improvisation. I personally enjoy these
immensely.

All in all, Red Garland was an underrated jazz

pianist despite playing with Miles Davis and John Coltrane.
Perhaps it’s because he retired early? Perhaps it’s because
he didn’t tour enough? The point of discussing him now,
however, is to appreciate how brilliant he was in his own
way and how he played the piano differently to any other
jazz pianist. He is also an excellent example of how
virtuosity such as that of OP is not necessary in being a
great jazz pianist; it’s about timing, elegance, feel, swing
and… purpose.

Bill Evans was Bill Evans. I should stop now and

allow you to go and discover his recordings. You will learn
probably everything about Jazz piano just by listening to 2
of his albums from beginning to end. I would be a fool to
not write a few words about him though so I shall begin,
oddly, with his posture.

He had the posture that every piano teacher in the

world would curse their student over and perhaps even
stop wasting their time with them. He was oft times bent
over the keyboard with his head hung low. He looked like
he was deformed but he was actually far from it. He had a
Classical background which, as I said earlier in the book, is
almost a total prerequisite for playing jazz well since finger
dexterity, sight-reading and general keyboard knowledge are
all acquired gradually through the grades. Despite his
body’s posture, his hands were very open and spread out,
something Liszt taught too, rather than curling the fingers
over in a drooped fashion.

He played with a very steady left hand which is

noticeable both visually and audibly. His unique use of
rootless chord voicings and generally open voicings meant
that his left hand, centred primarily around the middle of
the keyboard, hardly appeared to move. His right hand
melodies were commonly complex whilst at the same time
being quite ‘spacious’. It must be highlighted that, as I say
to all students, “Silence is also a note. Use it”.

Bill Evans is an acquired taste. Some are put off by

the sometimes sombre sound because he doesn’t use very
much blues and his swing feeling is very ‘hard’ rather than
loose like we could say about Red Garland and others. On
the other hand, his improvisations are astronomically more
impressive than those by Red simply because he had a very,
very strong background in piano studies, Classical featuring
heavily in that, and was seemingly obsessed with incredibly
complex and difficult chord harmonies.

I recommend Bill Evans to any aspiring Jazz pianist

since they will immediately become aware of how, dare I
say it, ‘perfect’ jazz piano can sound. By perfect, I mean
refined, expertly-executed and simply pristine. No other
Jazz pianist played how he played, which is a good thing.
He could play fast, sure, he knew blues scales, sure, but he
played for a purpose perhaps more than most jazz pianists.
He was also a composer, composing the famous Waltz for
Debbie for his niece of the same name.

Wrapping up my blurb about Bill, I will say that,

once you have been astonished by the virtuosity and
startling playing of OP, the smooth, silky block chords of
Red and various other traits of a few others I’ll note, come
back to Bill with your favourite beverage, the lights low and
no other distractions. You will not experience anything
finer.
 Art Tatum, that guy who, according to quite a few
knowing readers, should have been placed above OP in my
list. As I said, this is not about personal preference as
much as it is about directing the newcomer to jazz pianists
who will provide a varied and very enjoyable experience as
they enter the world of jazz piano.

Art was the first jazz virtuoso in terms of

technique. He had dazzling speed, precision and melodic
ideas which were stratospheric for his time. OP never
believed only one pianist was playing when his father had
him listen to a recording of Art playing Tiger Rag, amongst
other things.

Art was not much of a composer, choosing more

to play and improvise on anything he heard once (and there
are some incredible stories). What you can garner from
Art, to be honest, is not much use since almost nobody will
ever reach his stratospheric level of ability. That said, you
will come to appreciate his chops (melodic ideas) and
probably try to emulate them since a lot are available in
sheet music form online these days.
 The downside to Art Tatum for students, dare I say
it, is simply that he was so fast and excellent in his playing,
that he is known to have put off many people from playing
the piano. Quite a few instrumentalists are on record for
saying that they heard Art Tatum and stopped playing
piano that same day and moved on to a different
instrument. A little research online in that area will reveal
some surprising results. It stopped OP playing for a few
months and, as revealed to André Previn in an interview,
having heard Tatum gave him crying fits at night!

In conclusion, enjoy Art for what he represents at

the time he came along and most of all, don’t be put off!

Thelonius Monk is almost indescribable. In a way,

he shouldn’t be a jazz pianist because he can hardly be said
to ‘play the piano’ in the typical way one plays it. Don’t
attack me just yet, it gets better.

His style was abrupt, jagged, unexpectant and harsh

yet somehow melodic and harmonious at the same time.
Take his most famous piece, Blue Monk. A standard blues
structure, quite an interesting melody and a good swing
speed. His solos? They will separate humanity into two
very distinct groups: Bloody Awful and Bloody Brilliant.
Which one do you fall into? I’ll try to describe both
groups whilst sitting on the fence with complete
impartiality.

Bloody Awful: Understandable. His solos are

jagged and harsh and don’t appear, to the untrained ear, to
contain any ‘melodic’ phrases whatsoever. He doesn’t seem
to listen to other band members, sounding rather like he is
alone in his bedroom with his piano just bashing out a few
interesting sounds he just heard the kids next door playing.
It is dissonant nothingness.

Bloody Brilliant: His timing is perfect and the

overall result is a controlled mess. He couldn’t play like this
unless he knew what ‘normal’ piano playing sounded like
(just like Les Dawson, a now deceased British comedian-
pianist who used to play out of key on purpose; he could
only do so if he knew how to play correctly in key so he
knew what would sound terrible and piercing to the ear on
purpose, at will). Monk’s melodic lines, despite being
short, always hit the right notes and were forward-thinking
of his time.

It’s really divided and the fact he unintentionally

divides listeners so well, I think, lends to his brilliance as a
jazz pianist. He used to stand up and listen to his band
members soloing, jumping back to his piano just in time to
play his improvisation. His appearance was unorthodox
too, wearing a suit with sunglasses and uncoordinated hats.

Just listen to him. The purpose of this list is to

direct you towards famous, influential jazz pianists, not
judge them against each other. Despite what is written
above, you must hear him to believe him.

What follows is a rapid-fire list of other jazz

pianists that you should go and listen to, in no particular
order:
 McCoy Tyner, Bud Powell, Keith Jarret, Tommy
Flanagan, George Shearing, Teddy Wilson, Fats Waller,
Errol Garner, Dave Brubeck, Ahmad Jamal, Gene Harris,
Wynton Kelly, Cecil Taylor, Hank Jones, Billy Taylor,
Lennie Tristano, Nat King Cole (yes, he didn’t only sing)
Chick Corea, Dick Hyman and Bill Charlap.

From your research, you will discover other jazz

pianists but please appreciate that I have merely scratched
the surface of what and who is available. The list could be
written one hundred different ways by one hundred
different people, so do not consider this a definitive list.

Jazz, of course, is not only about the musicians but

also what they play: Jazz! Jazz is only recognisable because
of its components; a huge list of ornaments, techniques,
chord extensions and improvisational ideas alongside
particular instruments and structures.

Throughout this book, especially once we start

focusing on the actual keyboard techniques (despite not
needing to be at the piano to read this book and learn from
it), I will provide much valuable information in terms of
technique, thought processes and chord theory but for
now, as a little introduction in this early chapter, let’s
consider ‘The Blues’.

Very basically, and not to want to make this into a

history book, the blues comes from the African slaves
taken to America in the 19th century. Over time, they
would bring their rhythmic and improvisational qualities to
their eventual learning of European instruments, including
the piano. As time passed, and do appreciate that this is a
rapid cruise through some essential background
information which I urge you to study, more structure was
added to their melodic ideas, a lot of which was based on
the ‘call and response’ technique which is discussed in this
book, and this, along with their increased freedoms,
allowed certain musicians to gain some notoriety and
success. In particular, the very famous today Scott Joplin
with his syncopated stride piano style (7). From here, we
got New Orleans Jazz bands, Louis Armstrong appeared
later and generally things got a whole lot more complex
and interesting until we get to where we are today.
 That place of today is not so dissimilar to those
times gone past in terms of blues music. The most
interesting notes of the blues scale itself are the flattened
5th followed by the dominant 7th. The 3rd is usually slid
up to from the minor 3rd. They feature heavily when the
purposeful player wishes to sound ‘bluesy’, of course, or to
add a bite to a more gentle melody without getting too
heavy into the blues.

I think it’s fair to say that, without the blues notes,

jazz would be very dull. You won’t hear much jazz in
which the players do not at least hint at a minor 3rd,
flattened 5th or dominant 7th.

The title of this chapter uses the word ‘feel’. Feel is

so important to the purposeful pianist for without it, his
music is pretty much meaningless. There are many
melodies and songs to play but without feel, without
rhythm or swing, they are dead. Consider increasing your
awareness of feel when you listen to what I recommend (or
demonstrate in the audio eBook version) and try to
acknowledge how it affects you. Do you tap your foot?
Do you feel your heart bounce on accented beats of
melodic phrases which really sound powerful against the
general swing rhythm? Do you smile when something feels
really, really good but you don’t know why? All such things
should be acknowledged at this early stage of your jazz
journey because without such awareness, you will not
become the best jazz pianist you can be.
 CHAPTER 3 – Learning Pieces Quickly

This is the first chapter of many in this book going

into the technicalities of jazz without, unlike other books,
requiring you to sit at the piano and/or follow complicated
notation and/or tables whilst being told to practice in every
key and having to be able to memorise a deluge of
theoretical principles and/or inversions. Lots of
and/ors…

If you have a fakebook available either on your

computer or in printed form, do grab it or open it to a
song you would like to learn.

The first thing to do is verify the key signature and

time signature. Let us assume it is C major and a standard
4/4 time signature. That way, you can apply the template I
shall explain now to any key of any song in any time
signature, so do not worry if your selected piece is in what
you would consider a ghastly key and 5/4 time (like Take
Five by Dave Brubeck).
 Secondly, you want to casually study the structure
of the song. Does it have one of those introductions that
nobody really knows to even the most popular tunes or
does it go straight into the melody? Is the second ‘part’ of
the song (for example, the Chorus) in a different key?
How many similar chords can you find? Usually, songs are
built out of repetitive chords which are ‘diatonic’ or
‘relative to the key of X’. C major, for example, will use
lots of Dm, G7, Am chords, only occasionally going out
into the ‘black’ keys to change key briefly before returning
to C.

Thirdly, look for patterns. Regular chord patterns

repeat in Jazz. What are known as II V I (said “two, five,
one”) turn-arounds are very common in jazz songs. This
means that, given a primary key, C in our example, simply
the chord progression will be the 2nd, D, the 5th, G then
the first, C. This becomes a tiny bit more complicated but
I will approach that fully a little later in the book. For now,
understand the principles because, do not forget, you are
not sat at a piano!
 Finding II, V, I progressions will help go towards
structuring the song in your head for playing at the piano
later.

Those three things above are the casual inspection

stages of learning a song quickly. Of course, it only takes a
minute’s glance to fulfil those points. Once you have got a
general feel for the piece, you will be surprised at how easy
it will become to now internalise the changes.

Now comes a rather deep, philosophical spot of

text:

Every pianist has an internal piano. It is the

purposeful pianist’s duty to have a conscious awareness and
understanding of this internal piano. All pianists have one,
not all know about it or know how to use it. Allow me to
explain.

If sat at a real piano, you have a physical

representation of the keyboard. Your eyes guide your
hands to the notes and your fingers play them. Your
emotional centre then responds to the sounds you create
(should you question them). Over time and with practice,
you will soon come to have a physical connection with the
keyboard. You could perhaps play with your eyes closed,
or at least focus on the music without looking down too
much for your fingers will know where to go quite
naturally. This is marvellous.

What the purposeful pianist can do with their

internal piano is to recreate that exact same situation with a
physical piano and a physical connection, but do it
internally with an internal piano and an emotional
connection.

Chopin used to practice in the dark and he

encouraged his students to do the same. Liszt, rather
sickeningly, used to read Shakespeare texts whilst practicing
scales to remove the boredom of it (I’m not joking), so you
can’t go wrong with such advice and recommendation.
The purpose is to make your internal piano become as
close and as similar to your physical piano as possible so
that eventually (and yes, I accept, it can be a long
‘eventually’) you can play absolutely anything, anywhere,
without problem and without looking at your hands.

The effort formerly used for sight-reading or

looking for finger positions for nice lush chords will then
be channelled directly from your internal piano and
emotional centre to your fingers on the physical piano.
How about that? It is as if the physical piano doesn’t
actually exist; it is simply required for you to produce what
you feel inside.

With that in mind, try to imagine how you would

internalise a piece of music you have never played before
just by studying the score. Do you now think it is
impossible? You shouldn’t, because it isn’t.

Let’s apply the above method and analyse a random

yet popular jazz piece. Earlier, I recommended finding a
piece of music you’d like to learn. Of course, knowing the
melody helps, but once you know the structure and chords,
applying the melody to it is very quick and easy, especially
in jazz. After all, you don’t need to remember every bar
perfectly like for a Beethoven concerto (!), only the chord
progressions and simple melody for most of the time, you
will improvise anyway.

For my example, I’ll use ‘Fly Me To The Moon’

because it’s in the key of C (relative minor: A minor) and
everybody knows the melody so could add the melody by
ear quite easily. If not, it’s very easy to learn by sight
anyway if you must (but please don’t!) (8)

By following my three-step guide above, we get the

following observations:

Firstly, it’s in the key of C but the first chord is the

relative minor, A minor. Secondly, we can see it is all
‘white-note’ chords which means it is quite diatonic which
makes it easier to internalise as our first piece. The second
part of the song does not change key simply because there
isn’t really a second part to this song! Thirdly, there are
apparent patterns which we will analyse in due course.
 We must now memorise the actual chords which is
not actually easier said than done; it is easy to say and do.
The key is C, so all related chords, as we saw in the brief
analysis, are white notes, thus easy to find (D, E, F, G, A, B
something). Remember the number (chord) progression II
V I? Jazz chords are written as Roman Numerals so do get
used to that immediately.

In our song, we have Am, Dm, G7, C, each lasting

4 beats, which is one bar, each. In RN’s, this is, from C, the
key of the piece: VI, II, V, I or “six, two, five, one”. This
means we remember the ever-so-common progression VI,
II, V, I and we will never forget it. We could even apply the
template to a different key (but let’s not get ahead of
ourselves just yet).

What happens next is a movement up a fourth to F

major. We can simply tag this on to the end of the ever so
easy to remember common VI, II, V, I progression to wrap
up the first part of internalisation, giving VI, II, V, I and up
to IV.
 For demonstration purposes, let’s imagine the next
bit as part two, even though it is not really a second part. It
is, as of the F major chord from the end of ‘part one’, a D,
which is again the II of C. The following chords are E
major, A minor (which can be raised to become a major
third, giving A major after two beats, but it is not
obligatory). This goes into a II, V again but this time ends
on a III. But, do not think of it as a III all alone, think of
it as a progression: II, V but then a III, VI, II, V, I because
that is what it is until the end, or it can be repeated as many
times as you like in improvisation.

So all we have to internalise, and please realise that

writing the procedure makes it sound more complicated
than it really is, is 2 parts: The absolutely bog-standard and
common-in-almost-all-jazz-songs chord progression of VI
(A), II (D), V (G), I (C) followed by going up a 4th to F
which in itself is ever so common in jazz scores, so it’s not
unusual at all. Then the II (D) to III (E) to VI (A) to II
(D) to V (G) to III, VI, II, V and repeat this III, VI, II,
V… until the end, or wherever your ear takes you. III, VI,
II, V, I progressions are very common so you’re not even
being asked to learn something new most of the time; it’s
just a bog standard chord progression in whatever key the
song may be in.

For example, even Misty, mentioned at the

beginning of the book in E flat begins I (Eb) then a II, V, I
in A flat (which is Bbm7, Eb7, Ab). Even the A flat is a
fourth up from E flat just like F is a fourth up from C in
our example song above. These progressions things are
ever so common so please internalise them immediately.

What happens now, once that is internalised and

visualised on your internal piano, is you ‘feel’ yourself
playing those chords on your internal piano. Play that A
minor, to D minor, to G7 to C major. Remember the add-
on 4th jump to F. That’s the easy first part which is
common in lots of songs - I’ll repeat this until you get sick
of seeing it.

You then play, with C as the root, the II, III, VI, II,
V over one bar each, then repeat from III (VI, II, V…)
until you decided to finish on I from the last V or go back
and repeat the III, VI, II, V and then finish on I when you
want.

In chord form, this is, from F major (where the

lyric goes: You are all I…), the end of the first part: Dm
(…long for, all I…), E major (…worship and…), Am
(…adore…) (to A major after 2 beats if desired), Dm (…in
other words…), G7 (etc…), Em, Am, Dm, G7, then to Em
again to repeat the VI, II, V and eventually go back to C to
finish.

I promise now that if you repeat those two parts in

your head and play it on your internal piano, you will be
able to go to the piano and play that song within 5 minutes.
Force your mind to open up your internal piano and focus
as if you are actually at the physical piano. It will come.

I will conclude by doing a rapid repetition of this

procedure with a song in a different key. Let’s take a song
in the key of F, ‘A Foggy Day’ (9).
 So, it’s the key of F, 4/4, steady tempo. Its second
part goes into B flat (what a surprise, a fourth up from F)
but then has a typical chord progression to get back into F.
Nice II, V, I’s everywhere too, so nothing unusual.

The chords are as follows:

F / / / | D7(b5) / / / | Gm7 / / / | C7 / / / | F
/ / / | Ab(13) / / / | Gm7 / / / | C7 / / / | F / / / |
Cm7 / F7 / | Bb / / / | Eb13 / / / | Am7 / / / | D7 /
/ / | Gm7 / / / | C7 / / / ||(second time after Eb13
goes: F / Gm7 / | Am7 / Gm7 / | C7 / / / | / / / / |
F / / / ||.

We have F as our primary key to which all RN’s will

refer. F is I. We are alternating dominant 7ths and minor
7s throughout the song which is a great pattern.

We are thus going to remember I, VI, II, V (where

have we seen that progression before!?). We will then
repeat that but this time, the second chord will be the tri-
tone substitution of the original II. Wait, what? Tri-tone
substitutions substitute particular chords for a different
sound as can be seen in this song. To find it, you simply
play exactly the same chord ‘type’ but base its root on the
flattened 5th of what you would have played. We would
have played D. The flattened 5th of D in its scale is D, E,
F#, G, A > A flat. This is why we are playing Ab (13) not
D (13). A flat is the tri-tone sub of D. That’s it in a
nutshell.

So to recap, you’re doing two progressions of I, VI,

II, V, I but the second time round, the II becomes the tri-
tone sub of D, A flat. You just remember that
automatically. You could visualise it as: first II chord, go
down to D (relative minor of F) and the second time go up
a minor 3rd to Ab, the key of which F is the relative minor;
you can’t deny there is a simple, unforgettable connection
between these first few chords.

After this, we get a II, V, I (again) into B flat (Cm7,

F7, Bb, a fourth up from F!), followed by a jump up a
fourth (!) to E flat briefly for one bar. So part two can be
what is contained in this little paragraph.
 Finally, we work our way back to F using a known
route once again: III, VI, II, V, I. Amazing, right? A
completely different song yet so similar to the first example
of Fly Me To The Moon.

You can now go over it on your internal piano.

Begin to ask yourself how you want the song to sound.
Identify the purpose of the tune and apply various
techniques (which you may already know but which I shall
expand upon later in the book), decide on a tempo which
fits your interpretation of it, etc. Make it your own and
play it for a purpose, not just because you can play a few
chords.

It should now be easy for you to learn lots of songs

quickly. I once had to learn three songs in an evening
without my digital piano because there was a power cut. I
was playing at my regular local restaurant and had to learn
Do Nothing Till You Hear From Me, I Got The World On
A String and I Left My Heart In San Francisco in my head
within 2 hours because I had no power.
 I was simply fully aware and in touch with my
internal piano as well as how to recognise patterns and
obvious repetitions in the structures. I stared at the scores
(from jazz fakebooks) for about 20 minutes each until I
could say off the chords to myself and play them from
within. Once I got to the restaurant and came to play them
in my set list (just a list of songs, no musical scores in sight,
it looks very ugly in my opinion) I got through them
surprisingly fluently.

Do not take this chapter as selfless promotion of

my own skill at learning songs quickly. It is written to share
with you what seem to be secrets to some pianists so that
you may stay away from a piano as much as possible whilst
reading this book, then once you arrive at your piano, be
genuinely amazed at how you now see the notes and songs
you wish to play and can recall from memory perfectly.

Do you remember at this very moment the chords

to the last example song? You should. It was simply two
lots of I, VI, II, V, I progressions in the key of F with the
second being the tri-tone of D: Ab. It then gave a II V I
into Bb (which, I hasten to add, is a 4th up from F) then a
4th up again to E flat for a bar followed by a common III
VI II V I in F to start again. It really couldn’t be easier!
Try it with a few songs before going to the piano and you
will be very surprised at how your internal piano functions.
As always, practice makes perfect.
 CHAPTER 4 – Transitioning Towards a
Jazz Frame of Mind

In my teaching experience and from various

conversations I’ve had over the years with pianists who
simply “don’t do jazz”, as they say, I believe I have come to
a finely-tuned realisation and awareness of what actually
defines a so-called Jazz Frame of Mind in comparison with
that of a regular pianist, if I may use that term in a non-
diminishing way.

By regular, I simply mean those who play from

musical scores and those who do not modify that score to
the point of complete improvisation (through lack of
specific knowledge rather than lack of pianistic ability).
Perhaps ‘typical pianist’ would be a better word? What
about ‘traditional’ or ‘Classical’ pianist?

In this chapter, I would like to highlight some

differences in approaching the piano so that I can then
discuss a transition from the classical mindset to that of
the jazz idiom.
 I can’t stress enough that this chapter is not about
jazz pianists being ‘better’ or ‘requiring more talent’ or any
similar silly ideas. It is purely about the differences and
what is required mentally to play jazz and how these
differences compare with playing classical piano or having
a background in casual playing.

The first of these differences is ‘awareness of what

one is playing’. Awareness of what one is of great
importance in jazz. As a classical pianist, you will be used
to being told what to play (notation) and how to play it
(pedal markings, fingering, dynamics, rests, etc.). In jazz,
these things do not exist so you are alone with the piano
and maybe a few chords with a simple right-hand melody.
You may even be learning a piece by ear.

The biggest problem resulting from a lack of

awareness of what one playing is that, when you see a jazz
fake book, you have no idea what to do with those chords
above the melody line. You have no left hand direction.
You may well have the dexterity and general piano theory
well-founded in your mind but it cannot be used if you
don’t know where to begin or how and what to play from
such an empty piece of musical score.

A classical pianist will sit down, open a book and

play off the page. Marvellous. However, if stopped at a
random point and questioned about what chord they are
playing or what note value the right hand is currently
playing against the chord and how that could be changed to
still be in tune, most (in my experience) would not know.
They would struggle to name the chord or to understand
the correlation between melody and chord at that particular
moment. It just isn’t necessary to their performance.

As a jazz pianist, it is imperative that you have an

incredibly high awareness, at all times, of the correlation
between melody and chord; it enables you to play what you
want, when you want and to create the desired sound or
emotion. Following a written score does not grant this
option since the composer has already decided what it will
sound like at the time of writing and that is never to be
changed, only interpreted.
 Therefore, the first step in transitioning into a jazz
pianist frame of mind is to acknowledge that, as either a
classical pianist or a casual sight-reading pianist, you would
generally have a lesser awareness of melody/chord
relationships. This is not a bad thing in itself but if you
wish to improvise and not rely on any music, you must
increase your keyboard awareness a lot.

Imagine you are sight-reading a piece of music. In

it, your left hand is playing an E, B, E, G (of next octave
played with index finger), E (going back down with the
thumb), B (with index finger), then repeat this arpeggio
bass line in 6/8 time. Your right hand is playing B, B, D, G,
G, E, for example, with two notes per bar (10). All of this
is taking place in E minor. Play this on your internal piano,
not at a physical piano.

It sounds nice for what it is but what if you want to

replicate this sound in an improvised piece? What note
values are you playing? How could you enhance this sound
to be jazzier? More romantic? More serious? More…
whatever you want?

And here is the problem! You maybe wouldn’t

know how to do that as a classical pianist simply because
you have never needed to consider it. The score directs
and that’s the end of it.

Let’s analyse a little.

In my example melody just above, we played a D.

This is the dominant 7th in E. G is the minor in E. Minor
7 chords are soft and smooth but can be enhanced by
adding a 9th. Where is that in the key of E? It’s the F#.
An 11th is also a nice addition to m7 chords. What is that
in E? It’s an A. So, in your written melody of B, B, D, G,
G, E, you now know that, if you want to
improve/enhance/modify the sound of that melody (and a
bog-standard minor 7th chord in any other piece generally),
you can add two more notes: a 9th, F# in this example,
and the 11th, A in this example.
 Play those notes when you next go to the piano and
you’ll hear the difference. You could play them together
and hear the texture of the chord type ‘m9 (#11)’ as a
whole. It’s nice (11).

It is possible to write a whole tome on chord types

and melodic interaction (perhaps I will one day), but in all
honesty, it’s basically one principle: melodic lines (read
‘individual notes’) are simply notes which have been
removed from a chord. Whatever you are playing, at any
point, those notes in both hands can come together and
form some kind of pleasant chord and be named
something. What you need to have is an awareness of their
connection so that you can have ultimate control over what
your playing sounds like and how it affects your and other’s
emotional centre.

Following on from being aware of what you’re

playing, the next thing as part of your transition is a
‘feeling for rhythm’. People who play entirely from music,
in my experience, do not have a heightened sense of
rhythm like those who are more used to playing jazz or
those who learn songs by ear. I will reiterate once again
(and probably many times) that this is not a fault of or a
swipe at ‘non-jazz’ pianists. It is merely an observable fact
that those who have spent their piano lives reading music
are not encouraged to have what would be called ‘perfect
swing’; a massively important and vital element in the jazz
pianist’s ammunition stockpile.

Playing straight fours is more common outside the

jazz idiom than within and feeling the swing rhythm, at all
speeds, is paramount to sounding like a jazz pianist. It
doesn’t matter what you play or how well you play it; it
don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing!

Jazz highlights beat 2 and 4 (12). If you go to any

recordings of those musicians I listed earlier on in the
book, you will notice that the high hat (the foot-controlled
‘ts, ts’ sound created by two cymbals coming together and
the sound being flattened by their contact) of the drum kit
will always be on beat 2 and 4: bass drum/high hat/bass
drum/high hat, in its most basic form (far be it from me to
discuss the technicalities of drumming!), but that is the
basic idea of what you will hear.

To swing, one highlights beat 2 and 4 by prolonging

beat 1 and 3. You may think that this results in beat 1 and
3 being highlighted, but it doesn’t work that way. It’s like
onnnnne two threeeee four, rather than a straighter one,
two, three, four.

If you are playing a riff of 8 notes, 2 per beat, let’s

say the notes of the C blues scale (C, Eb, F, Gb, G, Bb and
C again), you would play C a little longer than Eb which
you would ‘stab’; you would play F a little longer than Gb
which you would stab (13). If you just go up and down the
notes of the blues scale on your internal piano, nodding
your head on beat 2 and 4 whilst internally playing the
notes in brackets above, you will begin to feel the swing
which generally can’t be found outside jazz.

‘Listening’ is the most important and beneficial way

to appreciate jazz, its rhythms and overall sound
possibilities: Blues, Swing, Bossa Nova, Romantic, Hard
bop, etc.

When listening to anybody I listed earlier in the

book and others, bop your head or tap your foot on beat 2
and 4. Imagine playing your own blues scale or your own
improvised riff (little melody) against the drummer. You
will rapidly begin to connect your internal piano with your
emotional centre so that, when actually at the piano, you
will recall that feeling, that onnnne bop threee bop, and
play appropriately to recreate that swing rhythm. Once you
can do it naturally, after a bit of experience and practice, it
will become second nature and you will always have it in
you.

Negativity. Stage-fright. Lack of self-belief. “I

don’t know what to play”. A few examples of what I have
heard in my one-on-one lessons from students who try
their hand at improvising for the first time without relying
on music. It’s quite funny, in an affectionate way, why
anybody feels nervous about playing the piano without
music but, as I have been trying to say with the least
intention of insulting anybody or coming across as
‘superior’, playing what you want to play, how you want to
play it, for the first time without music, is really an apparent
struggle for many newcomers to jazz.

It needn’t be that way.

“There are no wrong notes in Jazz”. I have said

this so many times to so many students. It means that, no
matter which note you play against which chord, there is
always a way to explain why you played it or why it
sounded good or a little off. That doesn’t mean you go to
extremes and play literally anything with every chord; that
would be really silly. However, for a beginner in jazz, to
know that any note will work is something worth knowing
and being comfortable with.

Imagine you’re playing a nice Ab13/9 chord around

the middle C area of the piano (Gb, Bb, C, F – I’ll explain
chord voicings and types later in a dedicated chapter). Play
this chord on your internal piano. Now, in the key of Ab,
which you must know (like all 12 keys), imagine you played
a… D. That, you might think, would clash with the C from
the chord and because D is not in the Ab scale, it can’t
possibly work (14).

No doubt you will be delighted and surprised to

learn it does work. D, in the key of Ab, is a #11. This, you
will learn in the chords chapter, is a nice sound against any
dominant 7th chord. It sounds like a ‘springboard’ note
which can bounce to anywhere else in the key. 13th chords
are a dominant chord type since they contain a dominant
7th (again, to be expanded upon in the appropriate
chapter). The other interesting thing about the #11 note is
that it can also be considered a flattened 5th (again, to be
expanded upon later) which is a blues note.

Naming chords, as I shall discuss later on in the

book, can be confusing but there is a perfectly logical,
uncomplicated way of naming and understanding them.
This #11, also being a flattened 5th, means it is a note in
the blues scale and any blues note with a dominant 7th
chord means business. I’m just putting it out there now as
a warm up for later on.
 Taking this misconception of seeming impossibility
when playing ‘something’ without music and being worried
about it, allow me to conclude by reminding newcomers to
jazz who have either a classical background or a casual
sight-reading background, that jazz is a wide idiom and the
reason it is so diverse is that all musicians play ‘jazz’ in their
own way. In other words, whilst there are no ‘wrong’ notes
in jazz, you could also say there is no ‘right’ way to play it,
either. There are typical ways, sure, but not one correct
way.

Keith Jarret, Herbie Hankcock, Chick Corea.

These three very good and talented players play jazz in a
very ‘different’ way to OP and Red Garland, but they still
play ‘Jazz’. What sounds amazing to them, to their ear,
could be ghastly to another. So, do not come to the world
of improvising worrying that what you play is ‘wrong’,
because it is simply impossible to play something ‘wrong’
in jazz. You can play it badly, sure, with bad rhythm,
boring chords, repetitive melodies which get dull really
quickly, no blues notes, etc., but you cannot play ‘wrong’
notes.

Next time you’re at the piano, discover sounds that

work for you and explore them. This comfort will make
you a better pianist from the outset of your jazz journey.
 CHAPTER 5 – Listening to Jazz, not
Hearing Jazz

I could sum up this chapter in one sentence: If

those nice chords and improvisations don’t do anything to
you emotionally, then you will never be a good, purposeful
jazz pianist, so don’t waste your time.

Quite abrupt, I admit, but very true. For example,

sometimes in a jazz club, I will see people not moving a
muscle; not a foot, not a bop of the head, not even an
appreciative smile at what the soloist is doing or at the
interplay between the musicians. What are they actually
there for? Somebody could have bought their ticket and
actually enjoyed the music rather than have these people
waste a seat. I have even seen such people in live concerts
by much-missed greats! Did they not know where they
were?

Rhetorical questions aside, don’t be like them. Jazz

is about unique sounds, unexpected riffs in improvisations,
chords which sound so great they make you cry or at least
should move you in some way. I would hate for you to be
disconnected from such things because you would be
missing out on a lot of great sounds and talent.

As a performer, you must also have a large part of

you which listens. Jazz is not to be heard, it is to be
listened to. That means, when Oscar Peterson is playing a
solo on Just Friends, for example, you listen to his lines, his
chords, his use of blues notes, his use of embellishments,
techniques and virtuosity of scales; not any scales, the right
ones; the blues ones, the minor ones, the diminished
ones… If you don’t appreciate them and are not touched
by such sounds, then maybe jazz is not for you because you
will never be a good performer if you are not a good
listener. Not hearer, but listener.

Exactly the same can be said for becoming a

Classical pianist or even any artist in general; if you don’t
appreciate the artistic qualities of what you are involved in,
you will never be able to perform honestly, purposefully,
authentically, believably and all the other adverbs. This is
not only about jazz and is certainly not (again) about jazz
being ‘more superior’; it’s merely stating that one must
appreciate what they are involved in before they can
produce their own honest interpretations of it.

It is now very much worth expanding on the points

made above in more detail. Asking questions like “How
can I reproduce such sounds?” or “Will this work?” are
good starting points because they will lead you to musical
discoveries of a very important nature.

Getting such sounds first of all comes from

knowing what is available in terms of jazz and the only way
to know the answer to that is by…? Listening, of course!
The best way to do this is by using one song which is
recorded on a CD so that it will not disappear from being
on online sites such as YouTube where users and content
change daily. An excellent first example of appreciating
jazz and acknowledging a few sounds, all necessary to be
able to actually play jazz yourself, is Bill Evans’s version of
‘On Green Dolphin Street’.
 This blew my socks off the first time I heard it. I
recommend a YouTube search because it will probably be
available for quite some time but, just in case not one day
in the future, buy the album of the same name. It is very
easy to find. It was released in 1975 but was actually
recorded in 1959 so can be considered an example of his
‘early work’, being born in 1929.

If at all possible, listen to it before you read on. If

that is not possible at this moment, do not worry; I just
wanted you to acknowledge your own reaction and feeling
towards the piano solo up until the bass solo just after the
4 minute mark.

If you can, consider the following things and then

listen again. You will undoubtedly pick up on things you
didn’t hear the first time. Listening multiple times reveals
new things each time.

Consider the speed, the overall tonal quality, the

general feeling you get from listening to it. Does it make
you feel sad or happy? Serious or fun? Feel beat 2 and 4
being highlighted by both the drummer and Bill Evans
himself and how it gives a swing to the piece. Are there
any particular riffs he plays which you like? My favourite
occurs at 1.21 until 1.24. It is a lovely unexpected rolling
melodic chord sequence, something I may not have even
considered myself when playing but now I’ve heard it, I
could apply that when I want to during my own
performance. If not note for note, then at least the idea of
a ‘rolling melodic chord sequence’, as I have named it,
could be improvised in some way.

A second nice idea, which is almost the inverse of

what I mentioned above, occurs at 2.50 until 2.54. You can
hear that this is a descending rolling melodic chord
sequence which I also find very tasty and pleasant to the
ear. This is one thing you could do when you listen to the
greats; find nice melodies to copy note for note or emulate
as your own.

We could analyse every 5 second section of this

recording but I only want to introduce you to the idea of
listening, not hearing, rather than writing a 500-page book
on analysing recordings.

Let’s now listen to Red Garland. Either go and

find online the song Billy Boy from the album mentioned
next, or purchase and download the album Red Garland
Revisited; it’s blue in colour with a picture of his face. As
with Bill Evans, listen to it once or twice before answering
the questions I wrote above. What do you think about it?

A few favourite parts for me are his overall block

chord sound (for which he was famous), but particularly
how he starts the solo after the break at the one minute
mark. The solo following this is a great example of how
occasional silences really work. You can actually count 12
times how he leaves a space between his improvisation and
it really adds to his general feeling of swing. He plays, he
stops and feels some swing, then comes back in. He’s
playing with the rhythm; this is something to consider in
your own playing. Interacting with the rhythm rather than
smothering it in scales and notes is well-advised.
 Another thing to consider would be how he plays
in a ‘call and response’ manner. That means that he plays a
melody, or ‘calls’, then leaves a silence, then ‘responds’ with
another melody, sometimes related in notes used or rhythm
used. Take, for example, his first two improvised lines just
after the break at the one minute mark. The first melody is
nice and simple, then the silence, then a response using
similar notes but with a ‘conclusive’ sound as if he is
wrapping up that little conversation, followed by another
silence before the next call and response idea. I hope you
can hear the same thing as I can.

Next, we will listen to an Oscar Peterson piece.

Find on YouTube the song ‘On the Sunny Side of the
Street’ or purchase the album on which it appears, ‘Oscar
Peterson, ‘Round Midnight 1959 - Live in Paris’.

As always, give it a casual listen first. You may find

it too slow but I want to present you with different tempos
for a reason. Jazz isn’t all fast!
 The first thing I’d like to highlight in this is the
sparseness of his left hand. It’s a primarily right-dominated
piece with beautifully elegant scales and melodic lines. He
focuses on the melody but adds ornaments (fancy bits) to
where it matters.

One particularly noteworthy trait of OP is his

ability to approach a chord change or new part of the song
with a ‘lead-in’ line. Check out 1.11 to 1.19 where he runs
up to the next chord change using a nice line to almost
‘dance up to’ the chord change until landing on the desired
note. It’s a nice touch and something worth considering in
your own playing. It is also a technique which I shall be
describing in a little more detail later when I discuss the
idea of thinking ahead and planning a route to the next
note or chord.

Something else to be garnered from this piece is

the fact that he is using particular chords and scales which
suit the environment and general ‘theme’ of the song. It’s
a reflective song, not a dance song or a blues song. For this
reason, his chords are gentle and his scales are not hard
bop or blues scales with strong-sounding flattened 5th
notes in them. He highlights 9ths, flattened 13ths, etc. As
I have already stated, chords shall be explained in a
dedicated chapter.

The only time he uses harder blues chords, notes

and/or scales is during turnarounds or lull zones to fill in
space; a primary example of how being aware of what is
going on at all times, both musically and situationally, is of
paramount importance to the purposeful jazz pianists.
Think about that.

Having casually reviewed and looked at three very

good jazz numbers, I’ll now discuss listening to jazz in a
generic way. I’ll begin by saying that, when you randomly
‘hear’ a jazz song somewhere, such as on an advert, driving
in the car, wandering around in a shop: listen! People have
always laughed at me (friends, of course, not strangers; I
do have a certain level of social awareness) when I
suddenly disappear conversationally and get connected to a
really swinging jazz beat or sweet saxophone emanating
from somewhere.
 If you detect that minor blues sound (15), or a
sweet 13th to #9th transition during a tri-tone substitution
(16), feel it! Recognise it and know what is going on and
say to yourself “Yea, that’s the stuff!” You need to be
passionate about jazz when you hear it. Love it. Want to
reproduce that sound you just heard. I can’t even
remember the amount of times I had to dash to the piano
to replicate what I had just heard on an advert (on those
incredibly rare occasions that the makers use some good
jazz) or in the background to a film, in order to memorise
its ‘sound shape’ on the piano.

In Budapest and Paris, two cities I know well, I

have walked past open-door bars and heard some jazz. I
specifically remember walking past a bar in a city in
Southern Hungary once and stopping, much to my
acquaintance’s confusion, and doing my best to enjoy and
soak up the saxophone from the CD player inside. I
recognised it was Sonny Rollins but I had to know which
album. I went in and asked and searched YouTube once
home to dig the music properly once again.
 This is the life of a purposeful jazz pianist and, to
expand beautifully upon this point, the song being played
by Sonny Rollins (check out his work on YouTube) was
What Is This Thing Called Love (and the album on which
it appears is A Night at the “Village Vanguard” on Blue
Note records) and I now play that song for a purpose and
in a particular environment: Summer, hot day, feeling good
and needing a cold beverage outside. It reminds me of
when I heard it outside that bar and of all the nice
memories of that particular city. I play it best this way.

I’ll conclude this chapter by encouraging you to

listen not only to jazz pianists, but to bass players (Ray
Brown, Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen), trumpet players
(Wynton Marsalis, Louis Armstrong), vibes players (Lionel
Hampton, Milt Jackson) and saxophone players (Sonny
Rollins, Charlie Parker, Stan Getz, Scott Hamilton (my
personal favourite)). From each, you will hear how jazz can
sound. You will hear different approaches to melodic
improvisation. You will feel differently when you hear the
same song played by different players. All of these things
will make you a hugely improved jazz pianist by opening up
to you what is possible and encouraging you to discover
and develop your own sound.
 CHAPTER 6 – Jazz Chords and Their
Tonal Qualities

The first thing jazz students realise is just how

many ‘weird’ chord variations there are and that’s true,
there are many. This can be made more complicated by
including inversions but I don’t agree with counting an
inversion as a chord because all you’re doing is naming a
different chord type in a different key. C6, for example, is
C E G A, A being the 6th. A soft, nice chord which I use
in Glen Miller-sounding tunes like Moonlight Serenade
(17). But those notes, if starting on A, would provide
Am7, the C being the minor and the G being the 7th.

My point is that, considering inversions as a ‘new

chord’ is not right because all you have got is a new chord
type, the m7 in this example, so why not just add that to
the list of chord types and play it in one key, Cm7 (giving
C, E flat, G, B flat) and not worry about inversions? It
over-complicates things, so for the purpose of simplicity
and a more structured understanding, we will name chords
based in one key whilst being aware that yes, such-and-such
a chord could indeed be inverted, a new root established
and thus a new chord position created. Of course, that
new chord ‘type’ we have established would simply be
played back in the key of C anyway, thus not actually
adding a new ‘chord’. I will explain this more with a few
examples.

The list of possible chord types goes up to around

30. In that list would be a 6th chord as well as a m7 chord.
As I wrote above, C6 has C E G A and Am7 has A C E G;
the same notes. Considering A C E G an inversion of C6
rather than a new chord of Am7 is just splitting hairs and
adding unnecessary length to an already lengthy list.
Therefore, by renaming an inversion of one chord, we
simply add the new chord (m7 in this example) to the
chord type list and just play that new chord ‘type’ in our
main key of C, giving C, E flat, G, Bb.

We could invert these Cm7 notes as E flat, G, B

flat, C giving Eb6 but again, that’s splitting hairs so we
would simply say “Ah, we have a 6th chord from that
inversion; what is C6?” You see? Naming an inversion as a
‘new chord’ is nonsensical; just discover the new chord
type and apply that new chord ‘type’ to the main key of C,
rather than considering each inversion a ‘different chord’,
because it isn’t.

Having said that, it does not mean that you never

play inversions; far from it. You would simply name the
chord appropriately and then play it in the inversion you
wish, or need, or feel fits the style you are playing or your
current hand positions. If we tried to name every
inversion as a new chord, our heads would explode, so do
understand that what I have explained is for simplicity and
is not an attempt at modifying the truth.

Now we have established that all chord types can

be demonstrated in one key, C for us, let’s take a look at the
logic of their naming and fill in a few common naming
errors. Then, we’ll discuss tonal qualities. Don’t forget
that we’ll be working with your internal piano, so stay away
from a physical piano.
 The basic chord is a major chord; a triad. It’s called
a triad because it has three notes. Every chord is built up
on a major scale; even minor ones were once major until
the 3rd was dropped a semitone. Because you know all 12
keys’ major scales, you can technically find any chord very
quickly, getting to the point where you recognise a lot of
them immediately and don’t need to actually find them at
all. The triad chord is the 1st, 3rd and 5th of the major
scale of the key of the chord.

The word ‘major’ is important in naming chords.

If you use the word ‘major’ after saying the letter on which
the chord is based, then a Major 7th will be used for more
complex chords known as ‘extensions’. If you only say
‘seventh’, then you flatten the major 7th, by lowering it one
semitone, to become a dominant 7th. For example, C
minor 7th implies C, E flat (minor) G and B flat (the
lowered major 7th). Cm Major 7th would be C, E flat
(minor), G and B (the 7th note of the major scale). It
couldn’t be simpler and there are no exceptions to this rule.
 So to recap, all chords are built up on major scales.
The basic chord is a triad which means you play the 1st,
3rd and 5th of any major scale; this is your starting point
for all chords, no matter how complex. When you say 7th,
it means you play the ‘dominant’ 7th which is the lowered
major 7th. If you say major 7th, you include the 7th of the
major scale of that chord’s key. That’s it.

A useful thing about jazz chords is that you don’t

need to play all the notes of a chord to make it work or
sound great. Usually, a chord is ‘voiced’, called a chord
‘voicing’, meaning that only the most important notes are
played. These voicings change depending on the chord but
one thing will absolutely always be the same and never, ever
change: the 3rd. Every chord needs a third because you
need to know if it’s major or minor. Whatever voicing,
however complex, there will absolutely always be a note in
that chord acting as the major/minor decider, the 3rd or
minor 3rd.

Chords are based on numbers of the major scale so

you can never get confused or lost. It’s like having a street
map with street names pinned up all over the place; to get
lost is pretty much impossible. As I have mentioned in
passing in the book so far, jazz has 9th, 11th and 13th
chords, but what does that mean? Well, logically, you play
your triad chord, C, E, G and add the 9th, 11th or 13th!
But, whilst that is correct, there is only one little thing to
remember and that thing is perfectly logical.

Because all chords are different, they obviously

sound different and use different notes, just as in the
English language where we have a word for seemingly
everything; every adjective to describe the most intricate of
nouns. The same goes for chords. Here is the simple
explanation for chord extensions: any chord with a
number above 8 (the octave), is called an extension and
every extension needs either a dominant or major 7th. The
default is dominant 7th unless the word ‘major’ is used.

That’s it. Interestingly, you have lots of choices.

You can either play the extension (9th, 11th and 13th) with
a dominant or major 7th, or without either! The naming is
equally as simple. If you don’t say anything, only the
extension, then the dominant 7th is automatically implied,
so you play it. C9 would thus be C, E, G, B flat (dominant
7th implied) and D (18). If you want the extension with a
major 7th, you would say C Major 9 and play C, E, G, B
(major 7th) and D (19). If you want only the 9, you would
write C add9 (or, 11, or 13) and play C, E, G.. (no 7th of
any kind).. D (20)!

So, three options with no exceptions are available.

Either say the extension which implies the dominant 7th,
say Major (9, 11, 13) to play the major 7th with it and not
the default dominant 7th, or simply say ‘X add X’ (9, 11, or
13) and not play any 7th at all.

Some notes in a chord can be flattened or

sharpened; as I explained in the beginning of this chapter,
this can result in the chord being called something else in
another key, but we shall stick with naming chord types in
one key, C.

An example of this is D, the 9th note, being

sharpened to D sharp. This physical note can also be an E
flat, the minor in C. But this can be discounted
immediately using what I wrote earlier as an explanation:
every chord needs one of the notes to act as a major or
minor determiner. If you play C(#9), the E remains an E,
is not considered flattened, and so the chord remains
major; it is the 9th, D, which has be sharpened, not the
minor, E, which has be flattened. This such chord would
be C, E, G, B flat, D sharp (21).

The notes which can be flattened or sharpened are

the 5th, 9th, 11th (only sharpened since flattened makes it a
third) and 13th. As with the chords above, the extensions
9th, 11th and 13th, flattened or sharpened or neither,
always imply the dominant 7th unless the word ‘Major’ is
used before the extension meaning the major 7th is used,
thus giving us 6 options for the three extensions: minor or
not with the dominant 7th or the major 7th or no 7th.

Next comes mixing and matching and this is where

you need to use your brain a little, but don’t despair; this is
a logical naming process and does not contain exceptions.
 The most common mix and match is the use of the
minor or major note with chords more complicated than
the simple major triad. As mentioned before, every chord
begins as a major triad; 1, 3, 5 (C, E, G in our example key
of C). This can be made into a minor simply by flattening
the 3rd but, whilst that is quite probably obvious to a huge
majority of readers, the point I am making is that this
‘minor’ modification (no pun intended) can double up the
amount of chord types.

Every extension and every normal chord can be

played with a major… or with a minor. So what were
already perhaps 20 chords, become 40, but are no more
complicated since all you have done is moved the 3rd down
a semitone with the rest of the chord staying the same.

Let’s look at a few examples but do your best to

imagine them on your internal piano. I will discuss
voicings throughout the text rather than make them overly
complicated and presenting them in their own paragraphs
since they don’t need to be over-complicated.
 The music says to play C13(b9) (22). First, we
know it’s a major chord since there is no minor; second, it’s
a dominant 7th implied by the extensions (13 and b9)
because there is no ‘Major’ used before them (implying a
major 7th would have be played instead). This major is
usually written as a capital M and sometimes you can see a
triangle (Greek Delta sign). Other times, you may see ‘Maj’
written. They all mean that ‘Major 7th’ and must be used
either alone with the triad or with an extension.

Therefore, our chord has an E, the major,

somewhere in it. It also has the dominant 7th, B flat,
somewhere in it. This leads me on to my first comment
about chord voicings: a voicing does not always have a
root in it! This is played by the bass on the piano or by
another instrument if in a band setting. It may even be
implied indirectly as the music passes, if you want to get
more complicated about it. Art Tatum used to avoid
playing notes physically even though you expected to hear
them and would swear you did, so it is possible.
 Thus, our voicing for this chord does not need a C
in it. The other useless note is a 5th, the G in or example
key. The 5th, even in improvisation, is a dull note. It
sounds bland and simple and adds nothing to the overall
sound. It is therefore not present in the standard 9th and
13th voicings which I shall demonstrate later.

Our chord, C13 (b9) thus has at least an E, a B flat

and a D flat, the flattened 9th itself. If you were to play
these notes with a C bass to establish the key, it would
sound very pleasant. However, my current aim is to
explain the name of the chord and how simple it is. The
three notes mentioned above could be considered a part-
voicing for this chord; part, because we don’t have the 13th
yet.

The main notes, in order, are C, E, G, B flat, D flat

and A; a comfortable way to play this chord is with the left
hand playing C, E, G and your right hand playing the B
flat, D flat and A. The voicing for one hand would be to
play with your left hand: E, A, B flat, D flat or the 3rd,
13th, 7th, b9th.
 A second example: C minor Major 9th (23). This
is a nice example because it’s a mix and match and not a
dominant 7th being called for. Can you imagine on your
internal piano what this would be? One of its correct
appearances could be CmM9.

Here, the 3rd is dropped to a flattened 3rd to make

the minor, E flat, and the 9th, D, requires a 7th, but which
one? It’s the Major 7th, B, not the dominant 7th, B flat,
due to the ‘M’ for Major 7th in the chord name.

This chord is a mix and match chord because it

exists without the minor too, like all chords can, so using
the major E in the triad also exists. Rather than being
labelled CmM9, it would simply be labelled CM9 which
would be C, E (major third), G, B (due to the M) and D,
the 9 rather than CmM9: C, E flat, G, B, D.

Another one: C+(#9) (24). I know you are

probably wondering what the plus symbol is for. It means
‘augmented’ and this word only refers to the 5th. Some
people say ‘augmented 9th’ when really they should say
sharpened 9th. Augmented only refers to the 5th. An
‘augmented 9’ would be the sharpened 5th with the 9th,
not a ‘sharpened 9th’ as they incorrectly imply.

Our chord is not a minor chord so we have E, the

major third. There is an extension, #9, which is D sharp
and implies a dominant 7th due to the lack of ‘M’ in the
label. The augmented always refers to the 5th as already
mentioned so that gives us G sharp. The notes in order are
therefore: C, E, G sharp, B flat, D sharp. As with the
above chord, you could play the first three notes with the
left hand and the two black notes with the right. It is
worth noting that, when there is an augmented 5th, you
cannot mix and match this chord type with a minor
because it is pointless; it just creates a major triad chord
shape in first inversion of the augmented key’s augmented
root (G sharp/A flat in our case) so doesn’t actually create
a new chord type.

Think about it: C, E flat and G sharp. These are

the notes of A flat major in first inversion. Don’t get
confused by this; just remember that a ‘minor augmented’
does not exist because it creates the major triad of the key
of the augmented 5th itself so is not a new ‘chord type’, it’s
just an inversion of a major triad; a chord type we already
have so don’t need to make more complicated by inverting
it! Perhaps read that last paragraph again – it does make
sense.

The final example chord is this: Cm add11 (25).

Hopefully you will immediately realise how to interpret and
play this. There is a minor so we change the major triad to
a minor triad giving C, E flat and G. We have an extension
which should imply a dominant 7th since there is no M,
however, as I hope you spotted, there is the word ‘add’.
This means no 7th at all is required and you simply play the
extension with the major or minor (minor, in this case)
triad.

Now you can see how naming even complex

chords is quite easy, and do bear in mind that more shall be
discussed on this subject as the book progresses. You may
perhaps be aware of some chords I have not included,
especially the diminished, but do not worry as everything
has its place in the book.

Having an awareness of chord tonal qualities is a

must for the purposeful jazz pianist since, without such
knowledge, you will be unable to play appropriate chords at
appropriate times in appropriate environments. Would you
play a sharpened 9th or a flattened 9th for a more gentle
sound? Would you play a 9th with a 13th to enhance the
sound or make it worse? Would you play a major 7th or a
dominant 7th with your sharpened 11th for a crushed,
atonal sound?

First of all, you must have an awareness of what

they sound like and this comes from your emotional centre.
Second, you must know when to use them and why you are
using them at any particular moment. I will begin with the
four primary chord types discussed in the previous
paragraphs and then develop and mix and match them to
obtain a wider variety of tonal qualities. This may appear
to be a repeat of what has already been written, but it is
not. Here, we discuss their tonal qualities, not their theory.
 The four primary chord types are: major triad,
minor triad, dominant 7th and major 7th.

These are basic sounds and are very commonplace

in pop and rock music which themselves do not call for
complicated chords or extensions since they focus on
rhythm and lyric. A simple glance through any mainstream
song chord chart from about the 60s onwards will reveal an
average of 4 chords and 2 main chord types: dominant
seventh and minor. Jazz calls for more complex chords.

The tonal quality of a standard minor triad is

‘down’, as in miserable, serious or sad; but when mixed and
matched with dominant or major 7ths or extensions, its
standard tonal quality is enhanced, providing yet more
adjectives to describe results which are not always ‘down’
(26).

A dominant 7th sounds bluesy, happy and has a

tiny bit of tension which can feel like it needs to be
released by moving on to the next chord (usually a 4th up,
as in our two example songs in the earlier chapter on
learning songs quickly). With a dominant 7th chord, one
can play blues scales which produces a very happy sound
(27).

Just one semitone higher than the dominant 7th is

the major 7th. This is played to create a romantic sound; a
sound of longing or love. You would obviously not play
the blues scale with such a chord (for tonal clashing
reasons), choosing perhaps gentle arpeggios or, as we will
discover next, extensions to add on to it to enhance its
tonal quality (28).

It goes without saying that the dominant and major

7ths are played with the major (or minor) triad so such
chords contain four notes; the major and minor triads
alone contain three notes.

Let’s mix and match to create some new tonal

qualities. We can play a dominant 7th with a minor, giving
a minor 7. This is a nice soft sound which is very common
in jazz songs. It sounds neither sad nor happy; it just
sounds elegant and pleasing to the ear. However, when we
raise the dominant 7th a semitone to the major 7th, we get
a ‘minor Major 7th’ which is a serious sound. Cry Me A
River begins on this very chord with the melody note a 9th,
giving CmM9; very serious indeed (29). The tonal quality is
such that it sounds good at the beginning of a song as
much as the final chord as it fades out off of the sustain
pedal; a very unique and interesting sound.

We can now move on to adding the first extension:

the 9th. This is my favourite extension since it can be
added to well over half the chord types and can itself be
flattened or sharpened, depending on the tonal quality
required. It can even be added to the other extensions! It’s
a great note value, the 9th, so allow me to explain its tonal
qualities in different situations.

As you have already learnt, extensions have three

options: said alone, they imply the dominant 7th; said with
the word ‘Major’, they require the Major 7th; used with the
word ‘add’, they simply tag on to the major or minor triad
and don’t have either of the sevenths. This same principle
applies if you flatten or sharpen the 9th.

The first explanation shall be about the chord type

C9. This is a major triad with a 9th and implies the
dominant 7th, the B flat. Its sound is ‘top heavy’ because
of the ninth and is a bluesy sound but a jazzier and gentle
bluesy sound rather than just the dominant 7th chord.
When you see a regular C7 chord, feel free to add a 9th on
most occasions or improvise on the C7 chord using a ninth
in the improvised melody; the D in our example key of C.
It brings out a nice, warm, jazzy and bluesy sound which is
neither too hard nor too soft. A typical voicing for this
chord is to play the 3rd, 7th (dominant) and 9th, giving: E,
B flat, D in the key of C.

CM9. This is C, E, G, B (major 7th) and D. This is

romantic like the regular major 7th but even more so! The
9th, as mentioned above, sounds ‘longing’, so a M9 chord
sounds romantic and longing. It’s perfect for slow,
romantic songs or long arpeggio endings.
 We end with C add9 which is, without any kind of
seventh, only the triad C, E, G with the D thrown on top.
This is the basic ‘longing’ sound and is used as a
‘thoughtful’ tonal quality which is neither romantic, bluesy
nor beautiful; it’s simply an open, longing sound which
could lead to many other types of chords. I think the
French adjective pensif reflects this tonal quality well.

And now the corker: we have 3 chord types above

using the 9th. We can simply double those up to 6 by
playing exactly the same extension types but using a minor,
the E flat. Our resulting chords would be, in order of
explanation: Cm9, CmM9 and Cm add9 (30).

Next, and without wanting to draw too much

attention to it for fear of confusing you, we can flatten or
sharpen the 9th. If you imagine on your internal piano, in
C, the sharpened 9th, this would be a D sharp, which is
also an E flat, which is the minor of C. Therefore, as with
the augmented and minor: you cannot sharpen a ninth in a
minor chord since you’ll just be playing the same note, the
minor, twice! Logical, really.
 That said, the sharpened 9th is regularly played
with a dominant 7th only; you don’t see C add#9 or CM
#9 so simply remember the sharpened 9th as a dominant
chord extension. It sounds hard blues and leading
somewhere-y, for want of a better word. A good, hard
blues ending or a ‘going up a fourth’ kind of chord where
beauty is not required (31).

On the other hand, the flattened 9th, the D flat, is a

gentle and sweet sound also used only with a dominant 7th.
Use this also for going up a fourth but in a more elegant
way (32). At the beginning of this book, I gave some
examples of where I had played and to whom; in nice
Sunday lunch restaurants, you would give preference to the
flattened 9th over the sharpened 9th for its gentleness and
‘sweet’ beauty.

That’s all there is for the ninth so let’s take a look at

the 11th. In the key of C, this is an F. Remember this: the
Devil’s Fourth is ugly. That means that the fourth of a
major scale, which is also the 11th when used as an
extension (F) and thus implies the dominant 7th, is always
the most out-of-key-sounding note and later, when we look
at modes, you will see me repeat this fact surrounded by
cleverer blurb as to why (33).

That said, do not play an 11th with a major triad; it

prefers minor (seventh) chords. You can’t flatten an 11th
otherwise it becomes a third, which isn’t much use, but you
can sharpen it and this gives a great ending sounding chord
with major 3rds: CM#11 (34). As always, it’s an extension
but not implying the dominant 7th but the Major seventh.
It’s not minor so the notes are C, E, G, B, F sharp. The
quality is dark but tuneful. It also has a certain ‘take me
somewhere else’ quality to it. Naturally, you can add the
9th, D, to enhance the sound further.

So in conclusion, the 11th is nice with minor

sevenths and the sharpened 11th is nice with major and
dominant sevenths, without a minor. You can add the 9 to
either if you wish.
 That leaves us with the 13th, perhaps the most
common jazz chord and most easily recognisable audibly.
The 13th is a dominant 7th chord and does not use a
minor. The notes are therefore C, E, G, B flat, A – the
thirteenth (35). It can enjoy the added 9th if desired (36).
One may flatten the 13th but not sharpen it since it would
simply become the same note as the dominant 7th! (A
sharp/B flat, in the key of C).

The tonal quality of this chord type is jazzy; simple

as that. It will be the first choice to replace most standard
dominant 7th chords in music if you want to make the
piece jazzier. It, having 5 notes, is quite a handful to play
so it comes with a voicing: B flat, E, A or in other words,
the dominant 7th, 3rd (as always, to dictate major or minor;
major in this case) and the 13th. Please note the difference
between the 6th (A) and the 13th (A): The A (in our
example key of C) is only a 13th if the dominant 7th is
played with it. Alone, it is a 6th.

A final word on the above chapter as a whole: any

dominant 7th chord, whether with an extension or with a
flattened or sharpened extension, is perfect for going up a
4th. C13(b9), for example, goes up to F Major just as well
as C+(#9) or C(b13).

To conclude, I will quickly examine the tonal

quality of a chord which is less common in jazz but still
needs to be known because it can crop up or you may
choose to use its tonal quality in your own improvisations.

The sus4 chord (37) is probably the most ‘common

uncommon’ jazz chord. It simply means you ‘suspend’ the
4th, so thinking visually; the third is ‘hung up’ to the
position of 4th until the performer wishes to release that
tension. Such chords regularly begin as sus4 chords then
the tension is released when the normal 3rd is played. Such
chords can be used with dominant 7th and 9th chords, but
are usually played alone in a triad.

All in all, I hope you can see that chord naming is

quite logical and that each chord does indeed have its own
tonal quality. Knowledge and awareness of these chords
shall enhance your playing simply because you will have a
good understanding of actually how to enhance the chords
in any given jazz song in general; you see a dominant 7th
jump up a 4th so you play a (b9) chord with the dominant
7th to sound sweet, or an augmented with a sharpened 9th
to sound harder, etc. Without such jazzy ideas in your
mind, you simply will not sound jazzy.
 CHAPTER 7 – Thought Processes
Whilst Playing

This chapter is the most interesting of all to write,

yet the one I fear approaching most. Reasons shall become
clear relatively quickly as to why, so I shall begin with the
question which acts as the foundation of this whole
chapter, after which I shall expand upon various points and
then give examples of actual ‘thought processes’ whilst
playing jazz.

The question is simply: “What do you think about

when improvising?” A question I have asked many soloists
in many countries of many different lead instruments
(piano, guitar, saxophone primarily) in many different
settings and it is the answer to this question which I shall
discuss as concisely as possible. The most common
response is, “I don’t know, I just play and what comes out
seems to work”.

Having had some discussions both in-situ and

casually in my life with both musicians and non-musicians,
I have quite often had difficulty in trying to make such
people understand that a knowledge of chords and
melodies is not the same as a deeper understanding of their
purpose; just because you know them and can play them
should not mean that you are playing to the best of your
ability, just as memorising a list of words in a foreign
language does not mean you can actually speak it.

Playing ‘anything’ because ‘it works’ is not the best

equation to playing and sounding ‘your best’. (I trust the
inverted commas give a spot more strength to my
expression).

In jazz, I fully support the notion of ‘playing what

sounds good to your ear’, but this is not the same as
‘playing anything that happens to work’. This is not playing
for a purpose, this is playing just because you can and that
is the biggest mistake a purposeful pianist can make;
especially an improviser. I cannot stress enough how
having a philosophical understanding of what you are
playing will make you a better player.
 Let’s imagine two improvisers that we consider
really good musicians; they play some really cracking,
swinging riffs, melodic ideas and chords. One of these
improvisers says “I have a great understanding of chord
theory and I use exactly what I know works at the right
time and I play primarily for a purpose; I feel the
atmosphere in the room, I choose scales and chords
carefully and use this knowledge and awareness as a
comforting support to my playing”. He plays really well
and you’d rate him 7/10 (for example purposes) in terms
of how much he touched you. It’s fair to say that he has
reached his peak. Marvellous.

The second improviser says “I play what sounds

right. If you ask me what chords I’m playing or what scale
this is and what chord that is, I couldn’t tell you. I just play
the right notes at the right time and it works” – just
imagine what this musician is missing out on? You would
equally rate him (for demonstration purposes) 7/10 but, if
he applied his musicianship, skill and knowledge to actually
appreciating what he knows, increasing his situational
awareness, playing more purposefully and enhancing
audience perception, he could raise his own bar to an 8 or
even 9 out of 10.

I must highlight that, having said all that, I strongly

recommend that any aspiring jazz pianist do indeed play
‘what sounds right’ and to ‘go with the flow and feeling’;
such things go without saying. My point, however,
highlights a necessity in also having a conscious awareness
of as much of your playing as possible; not to analyse
every note, phrase and chord, but to respond to audience
reaction purposefully and to play at all times with a
purpose. Earlier, I said that just memorising a list of words
in a foreign language is no substitute for speaking it
correctly or well; the same goes for this point in question:
knowing all the riffs, scales and songs is one thing, but
using grammar, conjugation and more specific vocabulary
that you have studied and understand well, will simply
provide you with a greater ability to sound and play better.

Following on from this idea, I’d like to share a few

things to consider whilst actually playing.
 To begin, consider planning the end of a melody
line before or during its execution, in perfect knowledge of
which note or chord you intend to finish on. In this state
of awareness, a lot of really jazzy and powerful tensions
can be created. Doing it because it ‘sounds good’ is
absolutely fine, but doing it at the right moment because
you are receptive to what is going on and fully aware of
how to reproduce such a sound with the chords you are
playing and are to play next, can produce a more refined
excellence.

For example, your chord progression is moving

from C7 to F7; a bluesy piece with a steady swing rhythm.
You can hear a few mumbles of agreement when you play
any other strong-sounding blues riff so you feel a great
moment coming up to really give them what for, seeing as
this particular group of listeners enjoys a bit of blues. In
full knowledge of all notes and chords and their tonal
qualities, along with some excellent timing and swing, you
hit that B flat as an octave using your right hand’s thumb
and little finger (I might use my ring finger as it frees up
the little finger to do something above if required) as your
left hand ‘jabs’ the C13 chord voicing (B flat, E, A). This B
flat is the dominant 7th of C but, as you are consciously
planning forward, you know it will become the 4th of F.

As this B flat octave sounds out, you slip up to a B

natural; a dissonant sound in C because you’re playing a
major 7th against a dominant 7th chord but, rather
brilliantly, you are consciously aware that this B will
become the flattened 5th – the blues note – in F, in just a
few moments, so when the F9 chord you have decided to
play arrives, A, E flat, G (just a small hand movement away
from the C13 voicing), you will have ‘transferred’ that
tension from C13 with a major 7th to an F9 with a
flattened 5th. The tension releases when you drop back
down to the B flat or go off elsewhere such as the E flat
(dominant 7th in F) to highlight the blues feeling but also
to maintain a regular, non-tensioned sound after the
tension (38).

Another thought process while playing is to

consider the lyrics of the song, if you know them. This
allows you to ‘sing-play’ your improvisation or, as I call this,
a ‘lyrical improvisation’. What you are doing is what a
singer would do whilst actually singing the words; the
general melody line is there but the voice will be raised and
lowered around the melody line so, rather than completely
improvising, you’re simply enhancing the melody with your
own ideas but not actually losing the general tune’s theme
and making up an improvisation.

A good way to imagine this is to think of the very

common song Someone To Watch Over Me and simply
imagine Ella Fitzgerald doing what she does best: adjusting
her voice across a wide range of notes whilst still singing a
recognisable tune. I’d also like to add here that Ella is
unquestionably the Queen of vocal improvisation if there
ever was one.

Equally excellent in sound is to play different notes

entirely yet still play those notes as if they are the correct
notes of the melody. Fly Me To The Moon, in A minor,
begins with a descending C, B, A, G, F over the two first
chords of Am7 and Dm7 (basically). You could semi-
improvise these lyrics by playing that same melody/rhythm
as the original song but use the notes of the chords to be
played, giving, for example: C, E, G, A (for the A minor)
then D, F, C, A (for the Dm7). These notes are from the
chord, in any random order, but played as if they are the
melody and lyrics of the original tune (39). In other words,
you have replaced the actual notes of the song with
improvised ones but you still play them in the same way
you would as if you were actually playing the song
‘correctly’.

Next, something I call ‘Note Value Awareness’,

henceforth referred to as NVA. I was in two minds about
whether or not to discuss this concept fully in this chapter
but in the end, I decided to grant it its own chapter.
However, I still feel it has a good argument for being
involved just a little in this chapter since, for me, this is the
primary thing going through my mind when I play.

As exampled above with the B flat and B in the

blues change, NVA involves knowing what note value a
particular black or white note has when considered
alongside the chord against which it is played. Having an
awareness of such a concept will greatly enhance your
playing and most certainly make you sound jazzier than you
thought possible.

In totality, you would be seeing the piano as a

combination of numbers ranging from 1 to 13. If you
have seen the film The Matrix, you will be aware of a
character who ‘reads’ a screen of green digital number
information; from this, he can see what is going on
graphically in the matrix. The same idea applies here: do
not see black and white notes, see numbers. This shall be
expanded upon in the dedicated chapter but for now,
understand the idea that what value one note has in one
key will be different in the 11 other keys, meaning that
every single note can be any note value in 12 keys. Sounds
complicated, but isn’t.

When you play an E note, acknowledge that it

could be the 9th in D, the 3rd in C, the flattened 5th in B
flat, the Major 7th in F, etc. Combining this awareness
with your knowledge of chord tonal qualities, you
automatically begin to play great sounds purposefully and
if you happen to be playing ‘what sounds good’ rather than
thinking about it, at least you understand how it is working
and what is going on if you wish to know what you just
played to do again another time.

With chords, the same idea applies: know the tonal

qualities of each chord type and play/enhance them as
required. With NVA, one knows how a note individually
sounds against a chord in a particular key; it doesn’t
necessarily matter how complicated the chord is with its
sharpened this or flattened that; the focus is primarily on
the root of the chord rather than the chord type.

Patterns are useful to see on the keys for many

reasons: they help you jump between scales at the drop of
a hat, they help you in finding correct finger positions for
repetitive or fast riffs, their familiarity helps to chuck them
in whenever you want, etc.

If you imagine, on your internal piano, a shape in

the key of C using all white notes, it will most likely include
black notes, thus a different shape, in a different key.
Through practice and recognition, one hopes to build up a
‘bag of licks’, as it is known; a metaphorical container of
(usually) quick-and-easy melodies or riffs which you can
use at a moment’s notice. During your performance,
awareness of these licks and their ‘shape’ on the piano
enables you to play with a little more fluidity, especially
when you know them in different keys or can find them in
different keys immediately since you know the note values,
meaning the key is not important, only knowledge of the
major scales is.

A particularly easy favourite idea of mine is to play

the arpeggio of the chord you are actually to play at that
moment in the piece (usually it will contain 4 notes) and
then play twice the root of the chord as an octave. For
example, C7 would be C, E, G, B flat, C, C, with those last
two C’s played as an octave twice whilst your index finger
bounces on the (minor) third (40). This particular shape
works over major, minor and m7 chords, plus a few more
which you will discover over time.
 Another pattern to visualise is sliding off the
flattened 5th, minor 3rd and/or flattened 9th to their
respective majors in keys in which the flattened note is
black (since the slide to white notes is, of course, much
easier than ‘sliding up’ to a black note).

When you play a m7 chord and the 9th sounds nice

as an extension, why not use an octave right hand position
from the flattened 9th to slide up to the 9th itself then off
the flattened 5th to the 5th and then repeat downwards
over two or three octaves (41)? Once your eyes are trained
to spot these, you will see them in all suitable (black to
white movement) keys and be able to use them at your
guise.

Since this chapter is all about thought processes, I

would like to remind you that what has been written above
is all part of what I have come to call ‘purposeful playing’;
much like the title ‘purposeful pianist’ used earlier. At the
beginning of the chapter, I tried to differentiate between
playing with the flow without too much thought, and
playing consciously with purposeful melodies and chords.
The discussion has now progressed onto what kinds of
things a jazz pianist might think about during his playing
which are not so much about notes and chords but rather
techniques and ornaments along with emotional and
situational responses.

When in the midst of a jazz improvisation, one is

well advised to consider the emotional centre. When you
combine technique and ornaments with the natural
responses of the emotional centre, a very powerful effect
can be created; this, of course, is only possible when the
pianist is playing purposefully and that can only take place
when the pianist is thinking or consciously connected with
the environment and himself.

When I hear jazz pianists playing, both live and in

private online videos, many times I am disappointed by the
sheer lack of variation and situational awareness. It is very
clear that no thought processes are taking place apart from
when the bass player is to come in or when the song shall
come to an end on the same beat. Private videos usually
disappoint me since they are more often than not played
with no heart and/or for the sole purpose of showing off
finger speed or how much bashing the strings can take.

Individually, however, the pianist is usually

‘comping’, meaning to play chords in a jabbing fashion
with the left hand, whilst the right hand is playing very
typical, unsurprising scales in the right, usually as quavers
(half-notes). The result can be compared with simply
practicing scales and finger speed at home rather than
actually ‘playing jazz’ in front of an audience of emotional
centres. Where is the purposeful pianist, I wonder to
myself ?

Such a jazz pianist is well advised to begin analysing

their playing before performing again and begin to
question their skills so that they may attain a higher
emotional response from their audience through pacing
and a higher degree of self-control. When such an
approach is employed, an already-existing talent can be
enhanced.
 When performing, I also find myself consciously
following my eyes on occasion. My eyes are simply being
directed by my brain which contains the knowledge of
notes, scales, various tonal qualities of chords and the
concept of note value awareness; sometimes, with this, my
eyes create a route over the notes and my fingers/hands
will follow that pattern. For me, this takes place more
often during intros and outros because of the freedom not
available when playing the actual song’s melody and chord
progressions. It is definitely something to consider.

Considering the register in which you are playing is

interesting because you can create various moods and
emotional responses from your audience. Be aware that, as
you begin a song, depending on the kind of song it is
(bluesy, romantic…), starting or finishing on upper register
notes has a powerful effect. Glistening scales at the upper
end of the piano is perfect for those romantic songs (42)
just as low, two-note ideas with a bass in the lower registers
is good for sadder, more serious tonal requirements (43).
 An effect I like to employ during my improvisation
is to come to the end of the chord sequence and, just
before going back to the beginning of the song, going into
the lower registers with my right (yes, right) hand and
playing a few melodic improvisational lines, usually based
on the chord progressions but they can be literally any
notes which sound good when played all together in the
correct key, slowly working my way up the piano to a point
when I decide I should bring in some chords and start or
return to an improvisation or simply close the song (44).

The same can be said for the upper register alone.

In the chapter discussing intros and outros, I will discuss
this in much more detail but for now, as I introduce you to
the notion of being aware of registers when playing,
consider a few lonely chords at the beginning as you
introduce a romantic piece like My Romance (45) or Body
and Soul (46). Mixing a few chords right the way up there
at the top with a few descending arpeggios or appropriate
scale runs as you come to centre piano can be a lovely way
to use the piano’s keyboard with feeling and purpose. You
can equally play a few blues scales, with some swing of
course, to introduce a more swinging number. The
opportunities are perhaps endless. Use (the) register!

My next entry into the thought process chapter

may surprise you but I only write with a purpose, so do
take this seriously: fear. When playing, do not be afraid
that it doesn’t ‘sound good’. Nobody has the ultimate
solution to ‘good’ in music for the obvious reason that
there are just too many tastes and interests. Worrying
about how good you think you sound is wasting valuable
energy you should otherwise be putting into your
performance.

Even with this book, there will be some people,

regrettably, who do not find it useful or worthwhile. Some
may say they could do a better job; all things I should not
and shall not deny, but I still write it because I am of the
opinion that there is an audience for everybody.

Just because you think your improvisation is too

simple does not mean it is simple-sounding to everybody
else. There will be people who greatly admire what you
just played and thought it was perfect for that part of the
song. Others may consider it simple but like it for its
swing, or its timing, or the actual use of notes selected
rather than the simplicity of what you produced.

Further, do not worry about your own limitations.

If you play within your own limits publicly but push your
limits privately, people will never be disappointed or
negative, at least justifiably, so play what sounds good to
you and find purposes in everything you play.

To conclude this chapter, I’d like to bring your

attention to one important point: Do not expect to ‘think’
so much when you’re actually playing, despite what you
have been and shall continue to read about. This chapter,
and this goes for pretty much all the content of the entire
book, is written for your own enhanced ‘awareness’ so that
you can lull it over and absorb it, rather than take it as
carved-in-stone gospel.

Upon playing, most of what you have read will

flow naturally without much thought from the ether of
your mind. Of course, look at the notes, realise a few
things and do things consciously but, as a whole, this book
is a ‘philosophical approach’, which means it’s a book more
for thinking, not doing.

‘Doing’ should involve combining this book’s ideas

with some real exercise books, scale and chord practice and
recognition, as well as expanding your own repertoire.
Used together, you shall not be disappointed with the
responses to your deep, meaningful, purposeful playing,
even if you’re not a virtuoso.
 CHAPTER 8 - Note Value Awareness

What you are about to learn is what I have always

labelled as the DNA of Jazz. With this knowledge and
after practice on your internal (not external) piano, you will
have the most valuable tool for becoming a very, very jazzy
pianist.

Quite a claim, I agree, but well-founded. Every

student I have ever taught, no matter their previous
pianistic experiences or current ability, have found the
following incredibly useful and would vouch for its value if
they could.

It is based on one simple principle which I shall

state, then explain:

There are no black and white notes, only

numbers

And just in case, I shall repeat: There are no black

and white notes, only numbers.
 But what does this mean?

Feel your internal piano; now play the note F with

the middle finger of your right hand, internally. I say this
because you then have two fingers free to play the next
notes without moving your hand in either direction; always
a nice feeling. If you get used to this on your internal
piano, it will reproduce itself on your real hand at a real
piano.

Before reading on, with this F, what do you think

about? Have a think and then read on. For the purposes
of this book, wrong answers are the following: the first
space on the ledger lines of a score, the note next to the
three black notes, the associated chord of F major or the
fact it is a white note. Correct answers require a bit of
explanation since there is, in fact, only one answer.

This physical F is not a note, it is a note value. It is

simply a number against any chord whatsoever. The fact it
is white carries no importance whatsoever. For example, it
is logically number 1, the first, of any F chord; F7, Fm7,
F+, etc. It is the first and it sounds very neutral.

What about the key of B flat? F is the fifth of B

flat and as such, it sounds open, happy, uplifting and
generally very acceptable. The F has a little bit more of a
rich sound than when played as a first than a fifth.

What about the key of E flat? At least in jazz, a

‘second’ chord doesn’t exist (a sus2 exists which is the same
note as a 9th but it’s called a suspended 2nd because the
2nd returns to being the first, whereas a 9th remains a 9th
and implies a dominant 7th, as you already know). A note
can therefore simply be valued as a 9th rather than a sus2.
F is then the 9th in E flat. This F would be the 6th (or
13th if a dominant seventh is involved, see Chapter 6) of A
flat, the dominant 7th of G, and so on and so forth.

Only by having complete awareness of this concept

can you produce the sounds you feel inside and begin to
answer tonal questions when playing, such as: can I play a
B with this Am7 chord, the 9th, in this bluesy piece of
music or will it sound too sad? Will this A, the 13th or 6th
in C, work as a transition into GM7 well or will it go out of
key? Well, if you want the A to sound like a 9th, as it will
in the key of G, then go for it. This A would change from
a bluesy 13th in C to a romantic, smooth addition to a
Maj7 chord in G and be really sweet to the ear (47). If you
don’t want that sound, don’t play the A against the G
chord; perhaps climb up to a C sharp, the sharpened 11th
of G, to enhance the M7 chord (as explained in Chapter 6)
or be boring and play the root, G or the third, B.

Taking this concept a stage further, let’s look at

picking out note values from popular songs and
acknowledging their status in that piece. With such
awareness, it is possible to make a tune sound jazzier and
also alternate between the song melody and an improvised
idea. Such an approach to improvisation will appear in
more detail in a later chapter involving telling a story.

With Fly Me To The Moon, a song we have already

looked at, the first chord is A minor. The melody notes
over this chord are, descending: C, B, A, G, but imagine
you want to begin to develop your improvisation this time
round after having played the song as per the actual
melody?

Acknowledging the note values will help

tremendously: B is the 9th of A, G is the 7th; these are
interesting note values. C and A are boring since they are
the minor and the root so they can be ignored, just as can
the 5th of any chord, unless you want a particularly
‘boring’ sound for part of the improvisation (which is not
always a bad thing, just a bit bland).

Therefore, at the beginning of your improvisation,

acknowledge the existence and availability of the 9th and
7th and use them to your advantage. Perhaps only play the
B, on the swing beat, as the chord of Am7 passes and then,
enjoying this nice extended open 9th tonal quality, repeat
that idea in the key of the next chord: D. The 9th is E so
run up chromatically to E as Dm7 passes for 4 beats (48).
You will be very surprised at how pretty that sounds, but
of course, it was only possible to produce such a sound
since you were thinking of this NVA concept. You may
produce that sound by chance when just playing ‘whatever
sounds right’ or ‘whatever works’ as I mentioned at the
beginning of the previous chapter, but to play with such
acknowledgements as NVA really provides an advanced
control of tonal qualities that those players who play
‘whatever works’ do not generally possess; or at least could
not explain when questioning it.

Let’s continue a little through the song. The next

chord is G7; a dominant chord meaning any extension (9,
#11, 13) will work. Why #11? Because, if you remember
from earlier in the book, the 11th does not work well with
major chords, only minor chords. Our chord is a major
chord with a dominant 7th so we must use the #11 for a
more acceptable tonal quality. Of course, use the 11th
with a dominant 7th if you want that clash-y, atonal sound,
but we don’t here.

The 9th, #11th and 13th of G are A, C# and E

respectively. The melody notes of the song over this chord
are, descending: B, A, G, and F, so the 9th, A, is already in
the melody which is useful since we could play the melody
until that point and then repeat that one note (at any speed)
which would be pleasing to the ear (49).

The next chord is CM7. The B from the melody

over the G chord is a boring 3rd in G but is a nice Maj7 in
C so we could play the A, 9th, a few times in G and then
slip up to the Maj7 in C; that is a jump in terms of note
value but physically it is only 1 whole tone we have jumped
over (50)

Being aware of note values within an existing

melody is a good start in understanding this principle
before you go all-in and apply it to a full improvisation.
Once you have got used to it in songs, make up your own
melodies using NVA and various chord progressions to
discover a lot of exciting and interesting sounds, tonal
qualities and ideas for future use in any song in any key.

Do you now see why I wrote that there are no

black or white notes? If we put the song Fly Me To The
Moon from our example into the key of E flat, all the note
values would still sound the same; they would just
sometimes be black notes and not white notes. This
principle enables you to play in any key because note values
are indiscriminate about note colour. Never again will you
say “I don’t like the key of…” or “I can’t play in the key
of…” because note values are note values.

Note value awareness has even more treasures

within: they allow you to control the listeners’ emotions.
That is quite some power, you may agree?

It is one thing knowing which notes work, as

discussed above, but knowing the note value’s tonal quality
is unavoidable knowledge to the purposeful pianist. Like
with chord sounds, individual notes have sounds which can
be used to our advantage to make the listener feel a certain
way. It takes a little time at the piano to internalise such
sounds but, for the purpose of this book, we will focus on
the note values of our internal piano. You may be
surprised how you will now hear and see notes when you
next go to the piano.
 Let’s learn a new song with which to demonstrate
this idea; one of my favourites, in fact. It is incredibly easy
to learn and is based on absolutely the same chord
structures as we saw above. It is called ‘I Can’t Get Started
With You’ (51). I strongly urge you to find Oscar
Peterson’s version online, but any version will do so that
you can internalise the melody and lyrics (which help in
improvisation as I mentioned once before and which will
appear in the chapter on actually improvising).

We will play it in C but now that we are advancing

together, I’d like for you to transpose what I discuss into
the key of E flat, without my help. Since you now accept
that there are no black and white notes on the piano, it is
now not acceptable to say that you don’t like E flat or don’t
know it. Once you know the major scale of any key,
anything is possible.

The chord structure is as follows:

 CM7 / Am7 / | Dm7 / G7 / | E7 / Am7(b5) / |
D7sus / D7 | Em7 / Am7 | Dm7 / G7 / | *III to VI (II,
V, I) or I to VI, II, V, I turnaround to repeat…

The second wonderful section is as follows:

Em7 / A7 / | Em7 / A7 / | DM7 / D6 / | DM7

/ D6 / | Dm7 / G7 / | Dm7 / G7 / | CM7 / Am7 / |
Dm7 / G7 / | *back to first section.

You must now internalise that chord structure and

learn it quickly because we’ll be working in the key of E
flat in just a moment. I believe you could do this in 2
minutes and then go to the piano and play those chords,
albeit without the melody since you may not know the song
yet, in C and E flat, and perhaps every other key because
you learnt all you needed to know in the earlier chapter on
learning a song quickly.

Analysing it tells me it’s the key of C saturated with

II, V, I and III VI II progressions so it will be very easy to
memorise, and it is. First, remember the common and
regular I, VI, II, V sequence, then remember it goes into
the 3rd as a major then up to the 6th (we’re in C, here) as
Am7b5 (A, C (minor), E flat (flattened 5th), G (dominant
7th) then the II as a sus4 then regular major triad (the
raised 4th drops back to a regular major 3rd), then thirdly, a
typical III, VI, II, V, I to start again or enter the second
section as described below.

So, three parts to the first section of the song: I,

VI, II, V (regular) then III, VI, II (regular) and then III, VI,
II, VI, I (regular). Goodness, it can’t be easier than that.
Once that is internalised, you will subconsciously know,
without any effort, that in the second section, the chord
types are III7, VIm7b5 then IIsus. It will just stay in your
mind. Everything else is regular.

Do I even need to explain the second section? It’s

III, VI two times followed by alternating IIM7 and II6
followed by II, V two times. Then do a VI, II, V, I
turnaround and start again!
 We’re now in E flat, the key in which we shall
demonstrate some NVA in action in terms of tonal quality
rather than, as demonstrated in earlier paragraphs, actual
note value awareness.

This example song is a mix of romantic and happy.

It is not completely serious like My Funny Valentine yet it
is not so happy like Take The A Train. It’s slow but not so
slow and swings but not too fast. Its general feeling is soft,
melodic and a tiny bit longing if you read the lyrics (even
the title gives that away), so it would be best to highlight
gentle, melodic note values rather than harder, bluesy ones.

What notes come to mind? Flattened 9ths are nice,

as are flattened 13ths when transitioning from V to I or
going up a 4th. Regular 9ths would be nice on the minor
7th chords, as would 11ths (remember the #11th only
sounds good to the ear with major 3rds and the 11th only
sounds good with minors due to the clash with the
3rd/minor 3rd and 4th since the 4th is also the 11th in
terms of physical note). Read that again.
 Whilst these are indeed chord-related comments, I
am going to give you some melodic ideas. We just played
the song and we are playing the II, V progression to start
again, this time with a nice, purposeful improvisation. First
chord is E flat followed by Cm7 (I, VI). How about
alternating notes F and D, the major 7th and 9th of E flat
and two lovely notes which, when played against Cm7, will
give the 9th and 11 which would sound great with the
minor in C without actually changing the physical note
played (52).

Maintaining this alternating two-note idea (which

just came to me randomly as I type, much in the same way
it would have done when playing), we know the next chord
is the II, or Fm7 in our key. I am playing a D and F at the
moment but, while the D would be nice, a 13th (since we
have a dominant 7th so it can’t be a 6th, it must be called a
13th), the F would be the root; very dull. Why not move
the F up to the G, the 9th, giving us a two-note alternating
melody on the 13th and 9th!? Now that is sweet (53).
 Our next chord is the V, B flat. I already said that a
flattened 9th sounds nice, as does a 13th, C flat (B) and G
respectively in B flat. We are already playing G, the 9th in
F, so let’s stay on that note in B flat as it will become a 13th
and we can flatten it on beat 3 and 4 to the G flat which is
the b13. The D, currently a boring 3rd in B flat, would
sound lovely as a 9th with that b13, so let’s move the D
down a whole tone to a C, chromatically (54).

Playing those notes above in a purposeful manner

would complement this song perfectly. We have an
improvised idea of the alternating two notes, and it is
highlighting beautiful numbers against the chord changes.
All of this occurs without physically moving the hand at all
since we are only spanning from C with the thumb to G
with the ring finger. It goes without saying that the rhythm
of this idea or other added notes could be discussed, but
the basic idea still remains, no matter the rhythm chosen.

The next bit went up as III7 to VIm7b5 and IIsus.

In E flat, we get G7, Cm7b5 and Fsus, each chord having a
dominant 7th which is worth noting since it rules out
playing the major 7th anywhere; unless, of course, you
want to create a clash or tension which you will resolve
very carefully.

Here, we could touch on a little bit of blues since

we have three dominant chords, one of which has a
flattened 5th. A shared note of all this could be the B flat
because: in G, it is the minor which sounds bluesy if used
as a grace note (slide off it to the B, the 3rd), it’s the
dominant 7th of C and the 4th in F used as both the sus4
from the chord and as a grace note up to the flattened 5th,
B. Thus, we could get some good action going around that
B flat for this passage (55).

NVA can be applied to intros and outros, which

themselves will be discussed in a later chapter, by preparing
the listener audibly for what they are about to enjoy from
your playing. It seems a little strange to introduce a song
by playing just arpeggios of the chords you will play since it
would sound boring and not really entice the listener, no
matter how fast you can play them.
 Start a song with an embellishment of part of the
chord progressions in the song; change their key, for
example. Highlight interesting notes and hint at the
melody (56). When closing, it is nice to create a tension
using out-of-key notes which are then returned into key
with nice note values (57). Finish a bluesy piece on a
sharpened 9th or 13th, but finish a romantic piece on a
major 7th. If you want to finish with a tension, play a
dominant 7th when it should be a major or play a minor
when it should be a major, or vice versa. Having a
conscious awareness of the NVA principle will really
enhance the purposeful pianist’s playing.

***

What follows is called ‘Modal Theory’. It is based

on a major scale’s notes and sticks on perfectly to what was
discussed above. Understanding this concept will enable
you to know which notes will work rather than simply
playing ‘nice notes’ as discussed above. I was in two minds
as to whether I put this concept first or second but I
thought I would introduce the chapter with an easier idea,
hence why this part appears after the above.

On your internal piano, see the C major scale or,

now we have mentally progressed quite far, try to transpose
into any key you wish, that which I discuss in the key of C;
that would be a useful exercise and it also proves that this
concept applies to all keys (like all things in jazz).

Know that every note of the C scale has its own

major scale and major chord triad. For our purpose, we
will use 4 notes, the 1st, 3rd, 5th and 7th (major, not
dominant) to create each chord based upon the notes of
our primary major scale, C (or whatever scale you are using
instead on your internal piano, and I do recommend you
try to apply my C example into your own chosen key).

As you will see in the end but is necessary to

mention now, each 4-note chord gives us a major/minor
with a major 7 or dominant 7. Since these, as discussed
previously in the book, are the 4 primary chord
combinations to which one may add extensions, it is
perfect for us to apply this modal logic to almost any chord
in any jazz song. At the end of this, you will understand
how we needed to use 4 notes in our chords and not just
the triad; we need the 7ths too.

We will perform two steps on every note of our

primary major scale, C (or your own). Once completed, we
will ask one important question based on the resulting
chord from steps 1 and 2.

We first of all play the 1st, 3rd, 5th and (major) 7th
of each of the 7 notes of the major scale of our primary
key. The first is always a major 7th chord: C, E, G, B. We
then determine which of the notes we have obtained from
the previous step are not, and I repeat, not in the primary
major scale. C, E, G and B are all in the major scale of C
(the 1st is always a major 7th). We then name the resulting
chord. Let’s continue up the primary key of C, but do this
in your own key in your head for a better understanding
and some visualisation practice.
 Moving on to the 2nd note, D. We play its own 1st,
3rd, 5th and major 7th (from now on, I’ll simply say “We
play its own major 7th chord) and we determine which
notes are not in the major scale of our primary key, C. In
D, we get an F sharp and a C sharp along with the D and A
of the major 7th chord so, as in every other case along the
primary major scale, C, we flatten, again, flatten the out-of-
key note which will always put it into the primary major
scale. We thus get an F and C natural. We then simply
once again name the resulting chord: m7. Why? Due to F
sharp being the third to a minor third, F, and the C sharp,
the major 7th becoming a C, dominant 7th, thus, chord
type: m7. Thus, the second is always a ‘m7’ chord.

E is next. E’s major 7th shape has two notes we

don’t need, the G sharp and D sharp, so we flatten them to
get another m7 chord. G sharp was the major third which
is now minor and D sharp was a major 7th which is now a
dominant 7th. The third is also always a m7 chord.
 F gives F, A, C and E; all notes of the primary key
scale, C, so we change nothing and name the chord as is:
Major 7th. The fourth is always a M7.

G gives a dominant 7th because the F sharp is not

in the primary key. Drop it to get F, the dominant 7th.
The fifth is always a dominant 7th.

Can you do the next one alone before reading on?

It’s A, so we need to flatten the C sharp and G sharp which
will give us a resulting m7 chord. The sixth is always a m7
chord.

B is last. B gives B, D sharp, F sharp and A sharp.

We need to lower three notes on this one. The lowering of
the 3rd and 7th is required and that gives us a m7 chord,
but we have an F sharp, so we make this a flattened 5th.
The m7 chord with a flattened fifth is called a ‘diminished’
but there are two kinds of diminished chords: a ‘half
diminished’ has a dominant 7th on top and a whole
diminished has a 6th on top.
 It’s also a whole diminished because it is a
collection of minor 3rds (going from our B, we go minor
thirds up, giving B, D, F, A flat, the 6th of B) but our 7th
mode only has 2 minor thirds, from the D and F, the top
one being a whole third to the A. It is thus called a ‘half-
diminished’ because of this top being a major third and not
a minor third (put simply, a dominant 7th is on top, not the
6th) and is symbolised on the score either as m7b5 or a
circle with a line from the top right to bottom left. A full
diminished is symbolised either as ‘dim’ or a circle, quite
simply. Thus, all 7th modes are m7b5 or ‘half-diminished’
chords.

I agree that that is a headful to understand but now

we will apply it to actually playing so it will all fall into place
as if by magic. First, I’ll put the modes together in a nice
little list which you must internalise.

1.M7
2.m7
3.m7
4.M7
 5.7
6.m7
7.m7b5, or half-diminished, or Ø

To help you with the simplification process, 1 and 4

are the same, 2, 3 and 6 are the same, it’s only 5 and 7
which are different. Remember 2, 3, 6 are m7, 1 and 4 are
M7, 5 is dominant and 7th is half diminished. Very quick
and easy to internalise.

We now go to a song, let’s pick one in a new key

(which may be the key you were using instead of C which
will be lucky for you!) such as B flat. I know and like My
Romance so we’ll use that (58).

Before we begin, let’s now understand the purpose

of this process since, as you well know, everything needs a
purpose. When we play a piece of music from now on, we
will look at what chord type is next and ask ourselves:
“What chord type is that?” We will then know
automatically where it falls in the list above (from 1 to 7).
We then know what major scale(s) the chord is diatonic to,
in other words, which major scales’ notes we can play
without playing out of key since they will all be diatonic.

This is better in action so let’s take the first few

chords of My Romance:

BbM7 / Cm7 / | Dm7 / C#dim / |Cm7 / F7 / |

BbM7 / Eb7 / || and then goes into the next part, but
we’ll just work with these nice, very suitable chords.

We want to improvise and we can do that very well

using the ideas discussed elsewhere in this chapter and the
book in general, but using this concept, we will know, for a
fact, which notes will work against which chords and this
brings great comfort to newcomers to the jazz
improvisation world without sheet music.

The notes made available by the associated major

scales will vary in tonal quality and some are worth
remembering more than others for application across many
songs, but the principle is gold and you should take it with
you to every piano.
 The first chord is BbM7. What chord type is it? A
Maj7. Which positions from that list are M7? The answer
is the 1st and the 4th positions. That means, and this is the
magic, that BbM7 is acting as the 1st or the 4th of 2
respective major scales. So, B flat is the first of itself, of
course, and is the 4th of ? F major. So we can play all the
notes which are provided to us from those two major
scales; Bb itself, and F (59).

Of course, B flat gives us one extra note which F

doesn’t have, the E flat, but F does give us an E which B
flat does not have so there we go, our first choice of tonal
quality under modal law, so to speak. E, which is allowed
under modal law, is the sharpened 11th of B flat and if you
remember from earlier in the book on chord tonal qualities,
a sharpened 11th with a major 3rd and major 7th is perfect.
Well, this is why. Magic, isn’t it?

The next chord is Cm7. What chord type is it?

m7. Which positions in the list contain m7? The 2nd, 3rd
and 6th. What does this mean? It means that Cm7 is
acting as the 2nd, 3rd and 6th of 3 respective major scales
so we can play the combined mix of all notes made
available to us from those three major scales in our
improvisation and not sound out of key at all. We have
Cm7 which is the 2nd of B flat, the 3rd of A flat and the
6th of E flat. All those chords share the same black and
white notes at some point, with A flat giving the most
options since it covers all notes provided by E flat and B
flat. Therefore, we can play A flat, B flat, C, D flat (when
Cm7 is considered the 3rd mode from A flat), D (from E
flat and B flat major scales), E flat, F and G (60). Don’t
feel lost, just use your internal piano, I urge you.

Next is Dm7. The process is the same as above

since it’s a m7 chord type so we get the 2nd, 3rd and 6th of
C, B flat and F respectively. We can play all the white notes
from C when D is the second, we add a B flat from the F
when played as a 6th and we add the E flat when played as
a third from B flat, giving C, D, E flat, E, F, G, A, B flat
and B as possible notes (61).
 Next is a diminished chord. For the sake of
simplicity, whole and half-diminished chords can generally
be played interchangeably in jazz. The main ‘crunch’ of
the diminished tonal quality comes from the minor 3rd and
b5 so the 6th or dominant 7th don’t add too much; in other
words, you could simply play the root, m3 and b5 and still
know it’s a diminished of some kind, even without the top
m3 or 3rd. Our song’s melody is actually a B flat/A sharp
(6th) of C sharp so playing a B, the dominant 7th, giving a
half-diminished chord, would be a bit of a clash (62), but
as I said, in principle, you can interchange them or simply
play the first 3 notes of a diminished when improvising to
remove any ambiguity. Further reading on your part is
recommended since such details are beyond the scope of
this book.

This chord type, the half-diminished, is the 7th

mode from the list so C sharp can only be played, under
modal theory law, with the D major scale (since C sharp is
the major 7th of D). That will sound nice (63). So
remember, if you don’t know what to play with a
diminished, play its root’s major 7th’s major scale if you
don’t know diminished scales just yet. For example, if you
must improvise over Ab(dim), play the major scale of its
root’s (A flat) major 7th’s (A) major scale, so play A major’s
major scale against the Ab(dim) chord (because A flat/G
sharp is the M7 of A). Once more, E(dim) would sound
nice against the F major scale because the E of the
diminished chord is the major 7th of F. It’s quite logical
and provides nice results quickly without too much
thought.

The next is Cm7 again but we’ve discussed that

chord type twice so the next chord, F7, can be next. What
chord type? Dominant 7th. Where is that in the list? The
5th. What is F the 5th of? B flat. We can thus play the B
flat major scale over F7, under modal law (64).

I don’t think there is much need to continue on

modal theory apart from giving you the boring names for
the modes! It is useless in your own playing, however, it is
incredibly useful when you want to find a scale immediately
to practice with. I’ll give the list, then a few examples of
how to use the wording to your jazzy advantage.
 1.Ionian
2.Dorian
3.Phrygian
4.Lydian
5.Mixolydian
6.Aeolian
7.Locrian

Let’s say you want to play G Dorian. What would

you play? It means that G is acting as the 2nd of a
particular scale and the chord type would be m7, giving
Gm7. G is the second of F, so you would play the F major
scale against the Gm7 chord which makes sense thanks to
the B flat of both the chord and scale. Or, you would play
the F major scale from G to G which would give a B flat in
the scale and not an F sharp on top because F sharp is not
in F major.

E flat Mixolydian, please. That’s E flat being the

5th of… A flat, with the chord type a dominant 7th. Play
the A flat major scale against Eb7 chord or, put another
way, play the A flat major scale from E flat to E flat which
would give a G flat instead of a G and a D natural instead
of a D flat because the E flat has been made to be
‘diatonic’ with A flat, in the position of a Mixolydian mode.

Another one. D Aeolian. The chord type would

be Dm7 and D would be considered in 6th position of… F.
You thus play the F major scale against the Dm7 chord or
play the F scale from D to D, which would give an F not F
sharp, B flat not B natural and a C not a C sharp because,
once again, D has been forced into the position of the 6th
mode, of F, and is now diatonic to it.

In terms of actually improvising, you will simply

think about the chord type and which mode it is in that list,
and then immediately know which major scale it is
associated with. You can then play any other of those
notes, melodically and tunefully, to create very tasty
improvisations. This, combined with NVA, will make your
playing sound very sophisticated and purposeful, with a
little self-application and awareness.
 CHAPTER 9 – The Art of Improvising
From Within

You understand NVA, chords, tonal qualities,

modal theory, can learn songs quickly and have taken on-
board generally everything discussed in previous pages.
You think you could now go to the piano and play a nice
jazz improvisation over a tune. Perhaps, and may I suggest
you do indeed try that, but maybe before you do, give this
chapter a little read.

Whilst all the previous pages have been useful in

their own way, we have not yet looked at actually playing an
improvisation itself. For this chapter’s example song, I will
use Laura simply because it has lovely chords, great
improvising opportunities and is a favourite amongst jazz
pianists and listeners alike.

You sit down and a 50-something lady asks you if

you know “Laura”. You respond with a smile, look at the
keys, and begin. But where do you start? Think about this
(65): obviously the person likes this song for its melodic,
gentle sound and its lyric. They do not expect to hear hard
sounds or fast playing, they expect gentle chords, elegant,
graceful touches and a pretty improvisation which does not
deviate too much from the melody. Flattened 9ths and
13ths come to mind, m11 chords, grace notes and block
chords (discussed shortly) are considered to sound like
George Shearing sometimes (which is not a bad thing). It
is certain that including such things will make your tune
perfect for the listener.

Congratulations. You have begun to play, without

even touching the piano, for a purpose!

Consider register. Let’s go to the top and introduce

the song with high, pretty notes, highlighting the chords to
come and a hint of the melody blended in with improvised
patterns to connect the chords chromatically, for example.

In solo piano, the intro should equal what the tune

will sound like. If it is bluesy, make the intro bluesy; if it is
melodic, like our example, make it melodic. A clever trick
is to hint at other songs of a similar style so for Laura, we
could even begin our upper register with the first melody
of I’m Getting Sentimental Over You, drifting off into the
chords of Laura once that reference has been made (66).
Such techniques make listeners smile and nothing is better
than that.

Intros may contain arpeggios, block chords,

individual notes or simply a ‘round’ of the actual song’s
chords played straight away but without the melody. This
option is a little lazy in my opinion, unless you make the
accompanying improvised intro melody somewhat
interesting.

Starting in another key is always surprising to the

listener. Laura begins in A minor for our example so why
not begin an introduction based on C minor (for no
particular reason), dropping to B minor, B flat minor and
then holding that chord just before you drop, surprisingly,
to the V of the Am, but this V (E in our case) being a
flattened 9th or an augment 5th (67)? That would be very
tonally interesting, surprising and show great musical
control and feeling.
 Something I like to do is play the melody straight
away with simply my right hand. It is surprisingly beautiful
because you are playing softly, with swing and feel, you can
improvise a little bit of the melody without completely
removing it and also share this time with chords (but not
every chord all the time) (68). Once you have played the
melody once, bring in some left hand chords to set up a
rhythm and play as you would normally.

As a final word on intros, do not get too carried

away with your intro; it should be short and sweet, usually
going over a I, VI, II, V turnaround if not actually
involving any of the aforementioned techniques.

As per the entire book up to this point, we know to

focus on NVA, important note values in general (especially
for enhancing chords), particular scales and general self-
control and purpose. With these things in mind, main-
body improvisation can be better approached and
appreciated.
 Based on that, have you ever considered structuring
an improvisation… like a book? Telling a story? Thinking
of improvisation in story-form is incredibly useful because
it frees up the mind of wanting to do too many things all at
once, allowing you to introduce characters and basic ‘story
lines’ little by little as the song progresses.

Characters can be thought of, in terms of

improvisation, as ‘ornaments’, those little things which
sound ‘jazzy’ on the piano; a quick bop run, one of
millions of possible blues riffs, etc. One is well advised to
acknowledge their own ‘jazz piano characters’ in order to
cement a more personalised ‘writing’ style across their
whole playing. This does not mean that you use the same
characters in every story; or, the same licks in every song,
but that you will occasionally ‘come back’ to what you
would consider your favourite characters at random
moments.

Even Oscar Peterson had his favourite chops and

you can hear them in the odd recording all the way across
his career. Most of them are blues-based but, after
listening to even a small amount of his work, you will
immediately identify his favourite characters, or ornaments,
so it’s not a bad thing.

Stories do not self-complete over 5 pages, they take

pages and pages to introduce characters and storylines,
environments and emotions; such should your
improvisation. Laura begins on A minor so why not
introduce our favourite characters along with their
personalities? I’ll speak from personal choice but this is
meant to be an example, not something you should copy
and emulate entirely.

I like the 9th, as you may or may not have gathered

by now, and I love to play such soft extension tonal
qualities as octaves (whereas 13ths I would usually play as
an individual note; it’s just one of my character’s traits) so
here, I would acknowledge that the first melody note is a
9th and play it a few more times than the lyric requires,
which is twice: “Lau…ra”). I imagine I’d play it 5 times,
the fifth time sliding from the b9 to the 9 to add a bit more
class (69).
 Thinking ahead, B is the 13th of the next chord,
D7. Don’t forget, in a II, V, I, the V can be any kind of
dominant 7th chord, thus including the flattened 5th,
sharpened or flattened 9th, normal or flattened 13th,
augmented (with an extension). The list is long. This is a
gentle song, and we’re on the 13th of D (not the 6th
because we have a dominant 7th as well. Remember this:
7+6 = 13) so why not stay there, hint at the melody which
includes the B flat (b13) and simply enjoy its presence by
doing a similar kind of thing we just did on the B but the B
flat? With the D chord, we could also flatten the 5th (A >
A flat) because that is a soft and quite jazzy chord tonal
quality (70).

Next, we have GM7, completing the II, V, I of G.

Let’s continue on octave-ninths in this story because A is
the 9th of G and that also completes a little chromatic
descending pattern of B, B flat, A (71). After this, because
I am feeling a little tension here with the ‘excessive’ (but
purposeful) 9ths, we should break away and introduce a
new story line.
 Of note here is the extended duration of the GM7.
A lot of pianists don’t know what to do (understandably)
when a chord lasts 2 bars, 8 beats, without any melody
taking place. One such option is to deviate from the
written chord progressions and go up, guess what… a 4th
to some kind of dominant chord (as was the case many
times in our example songs earlier in the book) such as a
#11th or 13th and then continue as written when that
moment comes. You could always simply fall silent and
allow the base note to resonate a while as you collect your
thoughts (72).

We could consider this B, B flat, A some kind of

‘call’ or ‘introductory clause’ in our story so it’s only logical
to respond or complete the sentence over the next II, V, I
which takes place in F (giving Gm7, C7, F). Developing
the idea, let’s start to rise up the keys to a slightly higher
register but doing it step-by-step over the three chords.
How could we do this?
 I can already feel that a tiny, tiny bit of blues would
be nice on the II to V transition to break up the previous
II, V, I being so romantic so, with that in mind, let’s
respond by using another character or ‘ornament’ and go
up the arpeggio of Gm7 to a purposeful blues note of C,
the flattened 5th, G flat. A little bounce off this G flat to
the G in a grace-note kind of way would be very pleasant
and, thinking forward yet again, would mean G becomes
the 9th of the FM7 chord, giving an FM9 chord in totality
(73). Beautiful. This last part would not be as octaves if I
played it, but it could be if you so desired.

A further nice technique which can be

demonstrated from our current position, is to ‘build out’
chords by playing the root and the third (to dictate major
or minor, major in our case on the F) with the left hand
and then, using the right, build up the chord rhythmically
as far as your little finger will reach at a stretch. In our
example, our left hand would play the F and A and our
right hand, starting on the thumb, would add the 5th, C,
the M7, E, the 9th, G and what kind of 11th? Correct, the
sharpened 11th (B). If you can make it, the 13th, D, would
be nice on top (74). That is one ‘phat’ chord!

This F can also be filled as follows. I enjoy going

up a 4th to float there a little but allow me to introduce
something else you can do. I’ll explain it in Roman
Numerals since then you can apply it to any key.

Our root, F, I, is what we base this idea on. In

other words, whatever the chord of the 2 bars is, that is
considered the root, I. You can use any timing you like
since solo jazz piano doesn’t really follow set measures but,
for explanation’s sake, we shall use 4 beats to the bar. The
idea looks like this:

IM7 / bIII13 / | dVIIm9 / MVIIm9 / ||

Of course you can change the timings, but in F, this

would be: FM9 / Ab13 / | Ebm9 / Em9 / ||

There is a nice melodic connection between the F

and A flat as well as A flat to E flat. The falling ‘up’ sound
from E flat to F sounds equally as pleasant to the ear via
the E natural (75). Just for examples sake, in C, this would
be:

CM9 / Eb13 / | Bbm9 / Bm9 / ||

An easy progression to internalise, I would say.

Also, do note that, from the last m9, this could lead
anywhere. In our example, it will go to the II (Fm7) of the
next II, V, I chord progression of the song. Otherwise, it
could have gone back to the FM9 which was being filled in,
or somewhere completely different.

Do not feel a need to follow ‘perfect’ chord

progression patterns when playing freely like this all the
time. The Bm9 from the above example in the key of C
could go to Ab13! It would sound a bit strange, but it
wouldn’t sound terrible. Are you aware of any list of
commandments dictating which chords come and go after
other chords? Indeed not, so do what you want when free
to do so.
 We are now on the II, V, I into E flat, giving Fm7,
B flat 7, E flat. Can you think any of any more characters
or ‘ornaments’? A nice rhythmic ornament is to play a bar
of 4 beats with 12 notes. Sounds like a handful, but isn’t;
you merely play 4 ‘triplets’, but which note shall we start on
and finish on? I have an idea: let’s do this two times so
that we play a long melodic line (a phrase) over the II, V,
which is Fm7, B flat 7. Of course we will enhance the
chord type using our ascending phrase but we need to
think about where to start and end.

We are currently in chord form, playing Em9 (from

that fill in to break up the 2 bars of FM9) so our top note
is the 9th, F sharp. It would be pretty to continue that 9th
so let’s go to Fm7 in our left hand on beat 1 and 4 (in
swing feel) and then B flat 7 on beat 1 and 4 of the next
bar using a nice inversion to save moving the left hand too
much. F, A flat, C, E flat to F, A flat, B flat, D; only the
top two notes move.

Using the modal theory discussed at length earlier

on, Fm7 is the II, III and VI of 3 major scales, but which
ones? II = E flat, III = D flat and VI = A flat. We can
therefore use any notes from those major scales in the safe
knowledge that all those notes will work in some way. I
randomly select the III, E flat. Starting on the G, our run
will go up the E flat scale, in triplets (4 sets of 3), for one
bar because, in the next bar, we will be in B flat. Here, as I
mentioned just a page or two back, I feel a spot of blues
coming on again. Our run from G will logically finish on
the D (count up twelve from G in the E flat major scale)
and this D is the 3rd in B flat, a pretty normal note.

At the D and Bb7 chord, you could ‘crush’ the D

flat and C, the 9th, together, giving a momentary ‘romantic’
blues quality (76). A new character comes to mind: octave
bounce with third or minor third in the middle,
syncopated.

You may have lost the plot of the story at the

moment, so let me tell it to you to help you keep on track.
Laura is simply a collection of II, V, Is so I am using each
turnaround to introduce a new character or ‘ornament’,
musically speaking.
 As I mentioned earlier, a story is told over many
pages; you don’t learn about all the characters and the end
of the story in the first chapter, or there is nothing else to
‘play’.

I have introduced each character by applying its

personality to a particular part of the storyline.
Occasionally, I have responded to one character’s calls by
using a similar, either melodic or technical, idea. As the
song progresses, we can bring back in particular characters
and/or ‘say’ longer ‘sentences’ (read “play longer phrases”),
but this only makes sense once the listener is familiar with
their existence.

We have finally come to E flat, having just played

our nice crushy lick in Bbm7. At this point in the song, I
can demonstrate a nice technique in solo jazz piano and
that is to play the melody of one bar, later followed by the
one or two chords involved in that melody. At this point in
Laura, E flat lasts two bars, just like the other II, V, Is
ended. This is perfect for such a demonstration so let’s
finish the EbM7 chord and take our hands off the piano.
Using both hands, play the same melody line at the same
time two octaves apart. The notes are E flat, G, B flat, E
flat two times (three sounds good too), A flat but the lower
one, not upper.

Once completed, then play the two chords that you

would have played under that melody line: Am7b5 and
D7b5. It is a very tasty technique to use and a ‘character’ I
employ regularly (77).

Following this, we have a II, V back into A, which

gives Bm7 and E7, basically. Let’s highlight a nice note
common to all these chords: the D. It is the minor in B,
the dominant 7th in E and the 11th in A which is great
since we’ll be playing a minor 7th not major 7th, so the
11th is what we want. An open octave jump would be
perfect here on the D as the chords pass by, leading our
improvisation from the first chords again from an 11th, a
good choice indeed, but let’s take it a little further; make a
bit more jazzy (78).
 The II, in some instances, can be substituted for a
diminished of itself, so Bm7 could be played as Bdim. The
V, E7, as you now know, can be played as anything with a
dominant 7th in it. Let’s use a 13th with a 9th, giving the
13th voicing 7, 3, 6 (6 = 13, it’s just quicker to find) the
notes D, G sharp and C sharp, and the putting the 9th, F
sharp, in the most comfortable location which is next to
the G sharp with an available finger, giving D, F sharp, G
sharp and C sharp, or 7, 9, 3, 6 in the key of E.

Now for a bit of a jump because the song repeats

the first two II, V, Is as per the beginning of the song so
let’s go to where things change a little. That is the third II,
V, I in which only the II, Fm7, is played. This chord lasts
one bar and then it continues Dm7b5 / | G7b9 / | CM7 /
/ / | (79)

Some interesting sounds can be garnered from this

progression. It is, essentially, just another II, V, I with the
II being a dim7 as mentioned earlier on the B minor chord.
In modal theory, dim7 chords are the 7th mode meaning
that D is the major 7th of a particular major scale that you
could play. That key is E flat. I would probably play the B
flat, A flat and G of that since I could descend with those
notes on the Dm7b5 and ascend on the G7b9. That gives
some very nice note value tonal qualities (80).

The song now finishes with two beats each of

Am7b5, D7b5, Dm7, G7, C, and fortunately allows me to
conclude my improvisational blurb in a nice way using
block chords, my favourite jazz piano style. They are a
little difficult to play at first but the result is beautiful once
you can do it.

Without making this into a technical exercise book,

block chords are basically played in the following manner:
take a chord and put its top note at the bottom using the
left hand, in effect doubling it up. The idea is to play a
melodic idea using chords in this way. Red Garland and
George Shearing played such chords, with the latter having
a block chord style named after him.

For our song at this point, may I suggest using

block chords to take us back to the beginning of the song
for another round of improvising? To remind you, the
next chords in the song are: Am7b5 / D7b9 / | Dm7 /
G7 / | C (81), but who says we need to play them exactly
as written?

Remember that a chord can be substituted by its

own flattened 5th? This is called a tri-tone substitution so
let’s just do that on the first two chords, giving Ebm9 (from
A) and Ab13 (from D) (82). I have added extensions just
to make the sound better. Let’s now combine the block
chord idea (which shall be demonstrated more fully in
another song later in the book) with this tri-tone sub of
what was originally a VI, II in C.

The top note of Ebm9 is the 9th, F, but I want to

voice it differently because I want the dominant 7th on top.
Let’s play F (9th), G flat (minor), B flat (5th) and D flat
(dominant 7th) with the right hand and place the top note
of that, D flat, in the left hand just underneath that chord
next to the F. This is your first block chord and it must be
played with two hands.
 What we will do is chromatically run up with the
left hand to the voicing for Ab13, which is F sharp
(dominant 7th), C (third) and F (13th) so our block chord
will double the F so that will sit under that chord
comfortably against the F sharp being playing by the right
hand’s thumb forming the Ab13 chord.

How do we go between those two chords

chromatically in block chord style? Block chords sound
richer than regular chords because they are usually played
in melodic phrases where a regular single-note melody
would be played. They sound even better when you
chromatically run up from note to note in the left hand
between the spaces create by the right hand changing
position/inversion. A run of about 3 notes prior to the
actual note is perfect.

Thus, we will run from B flat to D flat, the

dominant 7th of Ebm7, just before we play the voicing in
the right hand so that the chord and D flat are played
together. The next chromatic run would be from D to F as
the Ab13 chord is played with the F note simultaneously
(83).

I wanted to get those chords in first since, as for

the actual melody, it would be nice to again play the four
melody notes in unison two octaves apart, giving B and C
(which appear as chordless in the song) and two E flats
which last two beats each over the Ebm7 and Ab13.
Playing them ahead of the chords rather than with, will
mean the block chords will not sound so out of place (84).
It’s also a nice example of how playing solo piano can be
more enjoyable than being stuck to a metronomic band.

We can end the song using block chords too but

now it is time to explain that in a little more detail.

First of all, block chords appear utterly impossible

upon first reading about them so I would like to be the
‘resistor’ in the circuit and just control what you need to
know so that you are not put off learning such beautiful
sounds.
 Second, do not get into the wrong idea that there is
one kind of block chord. Just because one’s hands are
‘locked’ together does not mean that there is only one way
to play them; far from it. That said, all block chords are
based on one same principle: play them as a substitute for
a single-note melodic phrase and share the notes between
two hands. That is always the same.

The quickest way to start playing block chords is to

run up the C major scale using the 6th chord. C, E, G, A.
The top note (or melodic note, when improvising phrases)
is doubled up below the chord, as mentioned earlier, but
note that this is merely one option for playing block
chords. The key to this is that, if you just played the notes
of the chord and inverted them, doubling up the top note,
you would only have 4 sounds (one chord inversion
starting on each note of the chord, A, C, E, G), but a scale
has 7 potential possibilities, so what happens with the ‘non-
chord tones’? Simply, play a diminished. Use your internal
piano to feel yourself playing them and once you get to the
piano, they will be a piece of cake. Don’t make the mistake
of playing a C in the left hand as the first chord; the first
note in the left is the top-most note of the chord, which is
A here (because of the C6, C, E, G, A) (85).

The only unique thing about block chords in this

example is that, the diminished will be D, F, A flat and B.
A flat is not in the scale of C but it must be there to count
for the diminished requirement. Don’t forget to play it!

The diminished chord has 4 notes and 4 positions.

There are 12 notes in the chromatic scale. Logically, there
are 3 groups of 4 diminished chords of 4 notes.

Leading on from this, you don’t need to follow a

6th/diminished pattern. Playing a melody will involve
jumping around a bit or wanting to play a particular chord
(like we do in this song at this moment) so, rather than
complicating things, simply find an inversion of the chord
which provides the top note as the melody note and double
that up underneath the chord block itself.

Our melody goes E, E flat on a Dm9 chord, then

D, A, B, C on a G7 chord (which will be enhanced with
whichever extension I feel like playing when I get to
writing it).

Let’s run up chromatically to the melody/top note

of the chord, E. Our right hand will play the Dm9 voicing
as comfortable as possible, giving F, A, C, D, E. Next, we
get E flat which is a non-chord tone so we’ll play a
diminished under it. What will it give? E flat diminished
gives E flat, G flat, A, C but this must be inverted to put
the E flat on top so the chord in the right hand must start
on a G flat, the now top E flat being doubled into the left
hand.

Next, we have the G7 but we need to play notes

which involve the melody and make up a nice chord in the
middle. We need a D on top and D on the bottom played
by the left hand, so what else could the right hand play? F,
A and C, the dominant 7th and 9th! Very simple, looks like
a D minor but is not. You could emphasise this by playing
a G in the bass after the chord to root it to the key of G.
 Now the melody goes down to A which is a drop
from D to A, a 4th. We need to maintain some kind of
dominant 7th chord to finish on the note and chord of C,
so what could we do? Left hand plays A, top of chord is
A, but what is the chord? Try B, E flat, F, A. The E flat is
the b13 of G so of course we have a third, the B, and a
dominant 7th, F. Move this shape up to include a B top
and bottom, the melody note, with the chord giving, in the
right hand, D, F, A flat (86). B is surrounding this. Note
how this is a diminished chord.

So, what we have done with those block chords is

apply a logical ‘internal chord’ structure whilst maintaining
a melodic top and bottom ‘double-up’. It takes practice
but internalise what I have just done; see the notes on your
internal piano and it will make a lot more sense and
become part of your being rather than just boring finger
memory… anybody can have that.

Next, actually improvising uses a lot of rhythmic

ornaments. A 5-note phrase could be made to sound very
different depending on how it is played. Consider holding
back the first note for longer than you would normally do,
just to create a tension before beginning (or repeating) a
phrase. Beat 2 and 4 are highlighted in jazz, as mentioned
earlier in the book, so time your phrases to highlight those
beats.

Be aware of ‘hit’ notes, as I call them. By this, I

mean a note which you play (purposefully) on a particular
beat against a particular chord, as part of a particular
phrase. VI, II, V, I turn arounds are a great basis for ‘hit’
notes because, for example, you could play the I, VI, II, V
as pure chords without any actual melodic ideas, but on
beat 4 of chord V, ‘hit’ a bluesy flattened 5th and ‘dribble’
down to the root, for want of a better word, by quickly
sliding down keys or running chromatically but quite fast
(87). It sounds good.

It is important here to mention the left hand. It

has not been neglected, just given its own little space in the
chapter. The left hand causes many problems for jazz
pianists (or any pianist, for that matter), first of all because
of its inherent physical weakness for most and second,
because in jazz, nothing is written for it! It’s simply
hanging there waiting to do something whilst the right
hand touches and plays purposefully for all to enjoy.

It depends on your style and if you’re playing alone,

but in a nutshell, give the left hand the attention it deserves
without smothering the piano with it. Use it for
intelligently-employed bass notes, an occasional walking
bass, perhaps a gentle stride for some rhythm. But, make it
work when you do use it.

Anybody can play bass note>chord, bass

note>chord very mundanely, but can they reach a 10th
span to enhance the voicing tonal quality? Can they use
fingers independently to chromatically run to/from chords
as they come and go to give the left hand a bit more of a
melodious touch? Don’t let the left hand get stuck in a rut.

Thus, some left hand ideas to consider are to break

up the bass>chord stride idea by playing the bass on beat
one and the chord on beat 4 or on an ‘off-beat’, such as
beat 4½; stab it just before the new bar comes in, then play
the bass on beat three alone, then the next bar, play the
chord (88). It’s about playing stride but not in a machine-
like fashion. Break it up, add some rhythm and
syncopation.

Use arpeggios in the left hand to break up an

otherwise boring or long chord and, between chords,
connect them chromatically using a melodic connecting
phrase. For Laura, we could begin (playing the song or
improvising) by playing, in the left hand over 1 slow bar:
A, C, A then the G below it on the way to E flat to drop
onto the D of the next chord. A bit of pedal work would
complement such an idea nicely to broaden the sound (89).

To slowly bring this chapter to a close, I would like

to become philosophical again. This time, I’d like to ask
you to do something randomly and observe the result.
From that randomness, we shall find a pattern and
acknowledge what we observe from such patterns;
identifying particular traits, if you will. The purpose of
this is to encourage those who may still be unsure of
improvising, especially those who still feel at this point that
they don’t know what notes to play, despite understanding
all that has been written, to actual improvise on the piano
and to demonstrate how a ‘random’ collection of notes
from ‘nothing’ can actually be made into something
melodious and purposeful.

We’ll use yet again a new song for this concept, but
we will not go through the song in detail as with Laura.
For this example, I’d like to introduce the song Stella By
Starlight (90), a favourite amongst many jazz musicians and
listeners alike, and in that song, demonstrate this idea of
finding meaning in randomness to help those who may still
feel incapable of improvising when faced with a bunch of
chords.

Complicated song I have chosen, you may think if

you know it? Not really. As you can see from the chords,
it is just II, V, Is with a few other chords which are all
logical to the song and easy to remember. Using your new-
found abilities, memorise this song’s chord sequence to the
point of complete internalisation over the next 5 minutes.
I dare you.
 Em7b5 / / / | A13 / / / | Cm7 / / / | F7 / / /
| Fm7 / / / | Bb13 / / / | EbM7 / / / | Ab13 / / / |
BbM7 / / / | Em7b5 / A13 / | Dm7 / / / | Bbm7 /
Eb7 / | FM7 / / / | Em7b5 / A13 / | Am7b5 / / / |
D7(b9) / / / | G7(b13) / / / | / / / / | Cm7 / / / | / /
/ / | Ab13 / / / | / / / /| BbM7 / / / | / / / / ||
Em7b5 / / / | A13 / / / | G7(b9) / / / | / / / / |
Cm7b5 / / / | F7 / / / | Bb / / / | / / / / ||:

Also, acknowledge the sheer amount of ‘up a 4th’

movements! Go and listen to a vocal or gentle version
without too much improvisation so you can actually follow
the melody. Once you have internalised it, the chord
sequence will not be so daunting and then I can use it in
part to demonstrate my randomness concept.

So we want to improvise over this piece of, pretty

much, II, V progressions; they’re all over the shop. But,
this is not about those readers who could do that, this is
about those who are yet to know what to play and is a way
to force yourself to play something and analyse it.
Eventually, after a few minutes, the feeling of freedom will
come over you and you will internally realise how there is
not really anything known as a ‘wrong note’ in jazz
improvisation.

Write the numbers one to ten on a piece of paper.

This represents how many notes our improvised melodic
phrase will cover. We don’t know how many bars it will
last, it’s just ten notes we’ll place into the music however we
feel so inclined at the time. Note, here, that it would be
different every time, just like regular improvisation.
Nothing is set in stone.

Now randomly write any numbers between 1 and

13 alongside and in line with the first 10 numbers. You will
have two columns of 10 numbers; the first, 1-10, the
second random numbers between 1 and 13, representing
possible note values.

Congratulations. Technically, you have just

improvised! Why did you choose those numbers in the
second column? You couldn’t tell me. This is the first step
to improvising. When you improvise, you will play exactly
the same way, randomly playing notes at first without really
any purpose as to why you played them. The point at this
stage is that you allowed yourself to do something without
thinking about it too much, and that is excellent.

What we now need to do is give these numbers a

physical note by assigning them a place in the key against a
particular chord. On your internal piano (please, don’t do
this at a piano just yet, this is about internalising ideas, not
playing them; anyone can do that and you’re supposed to
be above them), imagine the first chord of our example
song: Em7b5. Key is E, it’s minor and we have a
dominant 7th not a major. It’s also a flatten 5th in there,
giving a half diminished, but all that aside, we’re in E since
that is all that matters for this stage.

Imagine you wrote 3, 9, 7 as your first three

(random) of ten random numbers between 1 and 13 (I just
wrote those randomly as I typed; there was no musical
reason for them). Which physical notes would these
become in the key of the chord? We would get G (minor
third in this chord type, not major), F sharp (9th) and D
(dominant 7th). The chord lasts 1 bar of 4 beats so we
have quite a while to play those 3 notes how we want,
where we want. The 9th sounds great against a m7 chord
but since we have a flattened 5th in there too, it makes it
sound very, very rich. Our melody could simply be a
descending G and F sharp then up a jump to the D above.
Why not bounce very gently on that note to give it some
character (91)?

Perhaps you next wrote 6, 8, 11. This combination

we will put against the next chord, A13, a dominant 7th
chord with a major 3rd. The numbers would give F sharp
(6th), A (octave/root) and D (11th). The F is the 13th too
so that will sound nice with the chord because of the
dominant 7th. The 8 is the octave/root so that won’t
sound wrong with any chord. The 11th, however, will
clash since it’s a major 3rd chord and we know that only
the sharpened 11th works with those so we should raise
that to a D sharp (92).
 If you continue to do this throughout any chord
sequence, you will begin to realise how unnecessary it is to
‘worry’ about what to play. Consider NVA, know that a
‘wrong note’ does not exist, it just sounds better or worse;
sometimes you may want that. We may want a discordant
D (11th) with the 13th chord! Who is to say we can’t?

Once you have come to terms with this feeling of

freedom, try your hand at moving on from fixed
improvisations and venturing out into playing notes for real
on the piano. I strongly recommend to first of all do this
on your internal piano. When making a tea or lying in bed,
picture your internal piano, realise what numbers you are
playing in a particular key as well as simply feeling yourself
play any notes, again in a particular key. Once you can
comfortably play internally, what you have created
consciously on the inside will come out subconsciously on
the outside.
 CHAPTER 10 – Analyses of Sample
Improvisations

I have selected 4 songs to best demonstrate a few

particular concepts, ideas or notions. Some songs are
perfect for the demonstration of a pretty introduction
whereas other songs have elements for demonstrating
different styles; for example, a flattened 9th, as you will
remember, the ‘soft and lush’ chord for going up a 4th,
would not work well in a bluesy, jazzier song, preference
being given to a sharpened 9th or flattened 13th.

Chord progressions were also important in the

selection process. Some songs are excellent
demonstrations of how to learn a song very quickly
because they are built from mostly II, V, I turnarounds.
Other more complex songs allow you to apply a little more
thought yet still break down the song to learn it in fixed
‘blocks’, as discussed in the dedicated chapter.

Further, I have tried to find jazz numbers which are

not all completely mainstream, such as those used as
examples throughout the book, but which are still very
tuneful, melodious and useful for demonstration purposes.
I used to only listen to popular tunes when I started out in
jazz but was encouraged by various people to listen to
lesser-known songs and was never really disappointed; I
thus wish to encourage you to do what I missed out on and
regret not doing at the beginning of my own jazz journey.

Each song will have a number of paragraphs

dedicated to it as I discuss how and why I do things. It is
to be noted and remembered that, when playing in real life
rather than for educational purposes, I would play a lot
more freely and with less analysis during every bar; I have
discussed how over-analysis is a bad thing at some points in
the book, but for all intents and purposes, I have recorded
ideas and example material in as natural way as possible
without getting carried away too much, since education
requires some form of structure.

Most importantly of all, this is not an eBook or

Audio eBook to showcase my piano abilities; it is to share
my experiences and give you something to think about on
your own journey.

Here are the songs in order. You do not need to

read them in order; perhaps you would like to focus on one
which interests you because of discussion on intros and
outros or because of blues scales, or modes. Please take
your pick but naturally do show at least a passing interest in
each song for each of the points included.

1.I’ve Got A Crush On You

2.Old Folks
3.Satin Doll
4.Soon

Each song has me playing it in a basic song form

followed by a relatively simplified improvisation to give you
something to listen to casually. I hope you enjoy them for
their educational rather than performance value. Once
performed, each song will be dissected and various parts
demonstrated using various ideas, and more, discussed in
the book.
 1. I’ve Got A Crush On You

In this song, I would like to highlight the lyrics as

part of the improvisation. In the book, I touched upon
using lyrics to help you with improvisational ideas,
especially in terms of chord types and note values. This
song is very romantic, you could even say completely
soppy, which is the reason I also chose it for demonstrating
b9, b13, augmented and 9th extension chords, including
variations on those.

The introduction begins ‘high’ with a descending

block-chord-style down to the beginning of an ascending
arpeggiated augmented F chord. Space is used very
carefully and the melody is oft times played before the
chord comes in as well as the inverse; something which is
very good for self-control and not getting ahead of
yourself.

Interesting note values are made obvious by

prolonging their existence in both melody and chord form.
The left hand maintains a relatively steady rhythm of
bass/chord, with variations on this idea. Blues notes
sometimes come in just to give the very lovey-dovey sound
a bit of a break but only in the places where it doesn’t
distort the pretty melody or where it simply ‘feels right’.

The ending returns to the pretty higher octaves in

an ascending fashion and goes out of key by one semi-tone
just for some unexpected aural pleasure more than
anything else. Note, also, the ‘purposeful’ crushy ending. I
did that because of the song title, quite simply. It was a B
flat chord but with a completely atonal note which I knew
would not work: F sharp. In the book, I discussed playing
purposefully as well as playing whatever feels right without
over-analysing; this includes playing ‘technically wrong’
notes but ‘for a purpose’. This ending is a good example
of that in action.

The first set of lyrics until the melody repeats are

as follows:

I've got a crush on you, sweetie pie,

 All the day and night-time, hear me sigh,
I never had the least notion,
That I could fall with such emotion…

It is so mushy that playing anything other than

sweet, romantic notes would almost be musical murder.

We could use exactly the same melody sound and

note durations but instead of playing the actual melody, use
other notes which are suitable to the song and chord
progressions. 9ths, b13th and a few grace notes could be
used, as well as alternating between octaves and single
notes. Tension is also a nice touch here.

An improvisational idea based on repeated

interesting notes as if playing to lovers on Valentine’s Day
in a very posh restaurant with a lovely shiny black grand
piano in the middle of the hall, for example, so sparseness,
gentillesse and romance are all necessary in the blend. A
nice technique is to repeat a particular note value in each
of the new keys of the new chord of the song; playing a
9th in F, then C#, then C, etc. Each key has a different
chord type so the 9th gives a different tonal quality each
time.

Let’s now think of another romantic song we

know; it needn’t even be jazz. Maybe you know lyrics to
your favourite love song or even a classical repertoire
melody which you feel is very romantic; possible options
are Chopin or Liszt. For me, as an experiment, I could try
to surprisingly blend in the basic melody of Liszt’s
‘Liebestraum’ (Love Dream) to the middle of our example
song. For those who know it, for example, if the couples
in this restaurant are over 40’s or 50’s, they would probably
recognise it and be charmed (I’d like to think)!

2. Old Folks

This is a good song to demonstrate how the left

hand can be used to good effect. There is a nice
descending chromatic movement from C to B flat then up
a 4th (of course) which can really be highlighted nicely and
is a way to break up the bass>chord stride which is easy to
get carried away with.
 In the demonstration of the song, notice the
alternation between stride rhythm and freestyle playing, the
latter providing space and opportunity to play some
connecting scales between chords without worrying about
timing. Again, melody played before chord changes always
sounds nice in jazz piano.

Can you feel the emotional changes between happy

parts with dominant 7th chords and more sentimental parts
using m7 chords? This song is very good to demonstrate
combining just enough blues-based ideas and just enough
tuneful, gentle touches, so listen to an example of blues
being predominant.

The song also makes me feel ‘bouncy’, if that is a

feeling. The chord progressions make me want to play
little licks which contain 4 or 5 notes in a call-and-response
fashion. I get the feeling of being a painter who wishes to
dab his brush into a few colours and just flick the bristles
randomly onto his canvas. I don’t know why this is, but it
is an honest emotional response to the music and that is
what matters.

This song doesn’t really begin like it needs an

introduction so I prefer to just begin with the melody alone
and then slowly bring in the chords, lilting to/on notes
which sound nice. This can be heard in the full song
version.

Going back to the left hand, a nice technique which

sounds good in this song is to ‘hand over’ the chord played
by the left hand to the right hand playing the melody note.
Both hands are made to work together with the left
sending and the right receiving the chord. This technique
is good for solos without metronomic requirements.

Consider playing chromatic octaves (or tenths if

you can!) in the bass and chromatically move between each
root note. This will give space for your right hand to do its
business. Further, if you check out the lyrics, it is a very
‘kind’ song about an old man, so give the song the respect
it deserves as you play it.
 3. Soon

A very nice, moderately up-beat song in which

major 7ths, dominant 7ths and minor 7ths all appear. The
structure is incredibly easy to learn because it’s basically II,
V, Is all over.

I like to play this song more slowly because I love

experimenting with the II, V, Is mentioned above. I enjoy
highlighting interesting notes, embellishing chords, leaving
space, etc., because I like the title of the song and that is
how it makes me feel.

In the book, I discussed telling a story, so in a way,

I like to represent that in playing this song by doing a little
more each time round, rather than going faster; although I
do like to at some points play a steady bass. The feeling of
‘Soon’, in this way, comes ‘sooner’, with the increase of
speed and steadiness, as if there is a little less time to wait.
Alas, one must wait until the end in any event so I think it’s
important to keep that underlying tone of longing.
 A technique used here which is nice if, for example,
you are bored of melody lines and wish to break them up a
bit, is to play chord inversions up and down the piano.
However, this only really works if you time them well, give
them a swing, be inventive with them (only use the
extension and third, for example), play with the rhythm and
connect them in a smooth, melodious way.

4. Satin Doll

This is such a classic number that the only way you

can make it interesting is by really making it your own and
playing it other than simply stride or walking bass. Here, I
completely improvised on my first take and didn’t really
know how it was going to sound.

What I hope you will find enjoyable and interesting

about this particular recording is how I play most of it with
only my right hand. I occasionally bring in the left hand of
course but it is predominantly right-handed.
 That being the case, can you feel the swing created
only by use of the right hand? Once I got into it, I just
imagined the drummer tapping his stick on the rim of the
snare or using the high hat on beat 2 and 4. It became an
example demonstration of how you must absolutely be
able to feel swing when playing solo piano and I hope that
you will feel that by tapping your foot or bopping your
head.

The melody is so simply that anything you play

becomes an embellishment. For this reason, I changed
octaves, added some blues, some space, some repetitive
notes, etc., all to try and break up the standard melody, as
the song progressed.

At one point near the end, I felt it necessary to go

into a little blues sequence. Again, I don’t know why and I
shouldn’t need to explain that; it just happened. Who is to
say I cannot do that? In a trio situation, I would have said
“12 bar blues in C after next turn around” and they would
have accompanied me and it would have sounded very
interesting and surprising, until going back into the song
afterwards.

During the solo, I highlighted particular beats to

help the listener follow. Sometimes, I returned to the
melody to help to listener know where I was in the song.
 CHAPTER 11 – Final Thoughts

If you have really made it to this chapter in one

piece, I congratulate you! It was quite a lot of pages to
read, a lot of examples to hear and a lot of ideas to get
your head round.

Maybe you came to this book as a newbie or an

experienced Classical pianist, but no matter your
background, I sincerely hope that my writing efforts will
give you a lot to think about and automatically improve
your playing without actually having sat at a piano at all.

Despite all my words in this book (all 37,000 of

them), nothing takes away from practicing. By urging you
to not sit at the piano, I was trying to make you pay more
attention to your internal piano. All pianists have one, not
all know about it, fewer use it. Perhaps you have your own
experiences of learning pieces quickly or enhancing songs
you already knew or choosing to play or stop playing
particular pieces because you have no purpose to play
them?
 I also hope that you listened to and enjoyed the
music I directed you towards from the greats and also
ventured further in discovering new names, new styles and
new sounds. You can’t be a jazz pianist without listening to
what is already out there, and you have over 80 years to
look back over, so you won’t run out of things to listen to.

I further wish to share some of my own practicing

techniques when at the piano; some I do automatically,
others I do on the guidance of Franz Liszt. First of all,
don’t practice what you already know. I never play songs
that I know so well because that time is being wasted; use it
to learn a new song, especially now that you can internalise
chord structures quickly.

When sitting at the piano, close your eyes and play

or make it pitch black. I do this a lot. It is indescribable
but the connection you get with the piano is quite amazing
and most importantly, your fingers very quickly learn where
to go to not hit wrong notes. It’ exactly like immersing
yourself in a foreign country to learn its language
(something I have done twice); you make mistakes (miss
notes), and don’t dare rush to use complicated grammar
(play fast scales), but over time, your errors will self-correct
and you will simply know exactly where to place your hand
over large jumps.

When you learn a new song, learn it in at least one

key. Playing in particular keys opens up new chord
progressions that you otherwise would not be aware of.
Even the simple VI, II, V, I… of course, you must know
this in every key but still, knowing that two particular
chords go together in a sequence is enormously useful for
many reasons, one of which is when you want to switch
keys, you know that such-and-such a chord will work with a
chord in another key because those two chords go together
in that new key anyway; for example, Cm7 is the II of B
flat, part of a VI, II, V turnaround but you could then
consider Cm7 the VI of E flat and slip into that key.

Play at least 10 chromatic scales (up and down) a

day. This will keep your fingers active and moving quickly.
I recommend both hands individually then both together,
up and down, as far as you can reach.

A more unusual (you may think) technique is to sit

in a quiet room with no distractions and simply raise your
hands palm-down in front of you, without stretching your
arms too much – as if you are receiving a cake on a tray.
Close your eyes because you need to feel every tiny
movement. Let your fingers droop naturally without
sending them any signal to move a muscle. Now,
purposefully (that word again) straighten both thumbs by
living them up as if to play the piano, without moving your
index finger. If your index finger didn’t move, that’s good,
but if it did, do this exercise a lot until it doesn’t.

Next, try with your ring finger. This always pulls

the little finger but try to do this every day for a few
minutes until it doesn’t. Such a technique will provide you
with better finger dexterity without having to play boring
scales. Further to this, force all 5 fingers of both hands out
as wide as possible and hold that position until it begins to
be uncomfortable. Such a technique loosens muscle tissue
and stops your fingers, over a few days or weeks, from
drooping. Such a playing position is ill-advised.

I don’t consider this book a workbook or exercise

book so it would be perfectly acceptable if you only read it
once, over a few days perhaps. However, do use exercise
books for your own study purposes and interests. A quick
Google search will provide the best options.

I shall at this point wish you well in your studies

and hope to hear either your piano playing, experiences or
discoveries, As Time Goes By (93). Last lesson: you don’t
need to resolve chords at the end.

Thank you for your time and best of luck with your
progress,

Daniel.