Frank’s HUGE personal collection of bread and butter Jazz Piano Licks to add to your bag… by ear, intellect, eye, and muscle…
Table of Contents
Lesson Goal
To deeply internalize the sound, feeling, and function of an enormous number of common practice jazz piano licks in a variety of contexts and a variety of keys.
Prerequisites
Basic music reading skills… basic scale, chord, and chord progression theory… basic piano technique… the LOVE of music… and the discipline to study and practice.
Study, Practice, & Performance Tips
- Never play these mindlessly and mechanically. Always aspire to play them musically.
- Don’t just play dots. Play sounds!
- Never think, hear, and play one note at time. Hear and play in complete phrases.
- Don’t merely memorize these. Internalize them using all four musical intelligences: ears, intellect, eyes, and muscles.
- Every time you practice something, you are programming your brain. So always play accurately.
- Practice with a Click Track or a Rhythm Track. Doing so will give you immediate feedback on any rhythmic misconceptions or places where your timing gets sloppy.
- Record Yourself, always. Listen to the playback immediately, and ask yourself: Is that what you intended to play?”
- If anything feels tense or awkward, stop immediately and experiment with alternative fingerings or choreography.
- Play in other keys you expect to play in. By the way, once you see the patterns (which is guaranteed if you know your scales and chords) finding the notes in other keys will be a piece of cake!
- When you feel stuck or overwhelmed, realize that anything can and will be mastered if you slow things down or break things down to small enough pieces.
- Although it takes time to talk about all the above practice habits, practicing them takes almost no time at all because they can all be done simultaneously!
- Mastering all this takes no special talent. All it takes is a wee bit of knowledge and the discipline to employ a very short list of productive study and practice habits.
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About the Design of these Studies
All the studies below are expertly designed based on the following principle: The most efficient and musical way to internalize any new lick (by ear, intellect, eye, and muscle) 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 commonly used keys. Enjoy the process!
Jazz Piano Lick #001
A lesson in major key tonic triad primary chord tones…
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Jazz Piano Lick #002
A lesson in minor key tonic triad primary chord tones…
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Jazz Piano Lick #003
A lesson in major key tonic triad upper neighbor tones…
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Jazz Piano Lick #004
A lesson in minor key tonic triad upper neighbor tones…
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Jazz Piano Lick #005
A lesson in major key tonic triad lower neighbor tones…
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Jazz Piano Lick #006
A lesson in minor key tonic triad lower neighbor tones…
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Jazz Piano Lick #007
A lesson in major key tonic triad passing tones, ascending…
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Jazz Piano Lick #008
A lesson in minor key tonic triad passing tones, ascending…
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Jazz Piano Lick #009
A lesson in major key tonic triad passing tones, descending…
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Jazz Piano Lick #010
A lesson in minor key tonic triad passing tones, descending…
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Jazz Piano Lick #011
A lesson in major key diatonic modes…
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Jazz Piano Lick #012
A lesson in major key “1-2-3-5” chord outlines…
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Jazz Piano Lick #013
A lesson in major key 7th chord arpeggios…
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Jazz Piano Lick #014
A lesson in major key “scalewise” descending quadruplet lines, root to root…
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Jazz Piano Lick #015
A lesson in major key “scalewise” descending quadruplet lines, 3rd to 3rd…
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Jazz Piano Lick #016
A lesson in major key “scalewise” ascending quadruplet lines, root to root…
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Jazz Piano Lick #017
A lesson in major key “scalewise” ascending quadruplet lines, 3rd to 3rd…
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Jazz Piano Lick #018
A lesson in minor key harmonic minor modes…
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Jazz Piano Lick #019
A lesson in minor key “scalewise” descending quadruplet lines, root to root…
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Jazz Piano Lick #020
A lesson in minor key “scalewise” descending quadruplet lines, 3rd to 3rd…
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Jazz Piano Lick #021
A lesson in minor key “scalewise” ascending quadruplet lines, root to root…
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Jazz Piano Lick #022
A lesson in minor key 7th chord arpeggios…
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Jazz Piano Lick #023
A lesson in major key 9th chord arpeggios…
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Jazz Piano Lick #024
A lesson in minor key 9th chord arpeggios…
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Jazz Piano Lick #025
A lesson in minor key “1-2-3-5” chord outlines…
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Jazz Piano Lick #026
A lesson in major key tonic triad single approach notes…
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Jazz Piano Lick #027
A lesson in minor key tonic triad single approach notes…
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Jazz Piano Lick #028
A lesson in major key tonic chord tone enclosures…
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Jazz Piano Lick #029
A lesson in minor key tonic chord tone enclosures…
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Jazz Piano Lick #030
A lesson in major key 3-4-5-7 chord outlines…
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Jazz Piano Lick #031
A lesson in 3-2-1-7 to 3-5-7-9 chord outlines for the major 2 5 1 chord progression…
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Jazz Piano Lick #032
A lesson in 3-2-1-7 to 3-5-7-9 chord outlines for the minor 2 5 1 chord progression…
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Jazz Piano Lick #033
A lesson in 5-3-1-7 to 3-5-7-9 chord outlines for the major 2 5 1 chord progression…
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Jazz Piano Lick #034
A lesson in 5-3-1-7 to 3-5-7-9 chord outlines for the minor 2 5 1 chord progression…
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Jazz Piano Lick #035
A lesson in the descending “Mixolydian Bebop Scale”…
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Jazz Piano Lick #036
A lesson in the ascending “Mixolydian Bebop Scale”…
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Jazz Piano Lick #037
A lesson in the ascending “Major Bebop Scale”…
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Jazz Piano Lick #038
A lesson in the descending “Major Bebop Scale”…
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Jazz Piano Lick #039
Topic TBD…
Any interest in more Jazz Piano Licks? (I have at least three hundred more that build upon the licks above and get progressively jazzier)
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