Jazz Piano Lesson: Jazz Piano Lick 001

First in Frank’s HUGE collection of bread and butter jazz piano licks to add to your bag… by ear, intellect, eye, and muscle…

Table of Contents

---

Lesson Goals

To deeply internalize the sound, feeling, and function of the three Tonic Major Triad Chord Tones (Do, Mi, So) played over a standard turnaround chord progression.

Don’t underestimate the value of this seemingly simple study. The knowledge and skills presented here are fundamental to how an enormous amount of music works… and elevate your capacity to hear, read, feel, perform, compose, and improvise in every kind of musical genre.

---

Special Note about the Design of these Studies

An extremely effective way to internalize any new lick and to simultaneously develop your comping and soloing chops is to play it “in context”: within an established form over a set of standard chord changes. In this lesson the context is a Major 1-6-2-5 (I-vi7-ii7-V7) turnaround chord progression in an 8 bar form in the key of Bb Major (a commonly used jazz key)…

---

Jazz Piano Lick 001 (Etude#1)

Play each of the three Tonic Major Triad Chord Tones (Do, Mi, So) against the chord roots in the bass.

Listen to Frank demonstrate one way to play this at 120 beats per minute…

Functional Ear Training: As you play and sing each Solfege syllable (Do, Mi, So) aloud, pay special attention to the unique sound-feeling of each one and ask yourself: Which one sounds and feels most stable and resolved? How does the sound, feeling, and function of each note depend on its location within the meter, within the form, and with respect to the chord that is being played at the time?

back to… Table of Contents

---

Jazz Piano Lick 001 (Etude #2)

Played over “root plus definitive tones” left hand arpeggios.

Notice the left hand pattern: Root on the strong beat and the definitive tones 3 and 7 are played on up beats and weak beats. Here’s where knowing your major scales and chords really pays dividends…

Listen to Frank demonstrate one way to play this at 80 beats per minute…

back to… Table of Contents

---

Jazz Piano Lick 001 (Your Homework)

Use what you know about form, meter, scales, chords, chord progressions, chord voicings, and left hand patterns to play these etudes in other keys you expect to play in and see what you discover.

Special Note from Frank: If there’s interest, I’d be happy to write this out in a few other keys.

---

Study & Practice Reminders

1. You’re singing the Solfege or scatting aloud in order to internalize the sound-feelings, right?
2. You practice with a metronome or rhythm track in order to instill good time, right?
3. You record yourself, listen to the playback immediately, self evaluate, and respond accordingly, right?

---

---

back to… Table of Contents