Beginning Jazz Piano Part 1 - Everything You Need to Get Started
with Tim Richards
- Sample Lesson Free
- CHAPTER 1: USING YOUR EARS
- Welcome to the course
- A warm welcome from Tim
- Improvising With Triad Arpeggios
- Major triad inversions
- Arpeggio fun (performance)
- Cycle of fifths and spread position triads
- Going Beyond The Triad Arpeggio
- Getting in the groove - basslines
- One Chord Jam (performance)
- Broken chords
- The Major Pentatonic Scale
- Four-note groups
- Sing & Play #1
- Swing 8s and On/Off Chords
- Sixth and Seventh Chords
- Major seventh arpeggios
- Major Syncopation (performance)
- Dominant Seventh Chords
- Dominant Seventh Broken Chords
- Dominant Dissonance (performance)
- Clusters and other melodic choices
- CHECKPOINT: Loops and listening
- CHAPTER 2: TWO-CHORD VAMPS
- Alternating I and IV Chords
- Types of two-chord vamp
- Straight Eight (performance)
- The blue third
- Playing left-hand chords off the beat
- Swing Thing (performance)
- Alternating I and V Chords
- Dominant seventh inversions
- Five to One Shuffle (performance)
- Alternating I and II CHORDS
- The minor chord on II
- Open triads
- Eau de Cologne (performance)
- Scale patterns
- Major Seventh and Sus4 Chords
- Major Seventh Inversions
- The Sus-4 chord
- Peace for Bill (performance)
- Minor Two-Chord Vamp
- Melodic minor and Dorian scales
- Soulful Step (performance)
- The Minor Pentatonic Scale
- Four-note groups
- Minor seventh inversions
- Sing & Play #2
- CHECKPOINT: Seventh chords and Listening
- CHAPTER 3: THE THREE CHORD TRICK
- Swanee River
- Dominant 7ths are not always on V
- Swanee River (performance)
- Blues Harmony
- Left-hand shapes for Blues in G
- Rootless Blues (performance)
- The blues scale
- The Flat Three Pentatonic Scale
- Tritones in left hand
- Four-note groups
- Sing & Play #3
- Shells
- Left-hand shells for Blues in F
- Shell Blues (performance)
- Blues Improvisation
- Reviewing the Dorian
- Open Triads as Sixths
- Playing triads as two notes a sixth apart
- Three Chord Trick (performance)
- Minor Blues
- The natural minor scale
- Cloudy Days (performance)
- Top harmony
- Horizontal vs. Vertical Improvisation
- Improvising over perfect cadences
- Improvert
- CHECKPOINT: end of course and listening suggestions
- Conclusion
- Well done on getting this far!
Lesson plan (2h 1m)
Pianist and composer Tim Richards has been a presence on the UK jazz scene since the 1980s and as a bandleader has toured all over Europe with line-ups ranging from duo to nine-piece. He has released over a dozen albums as a leader, featuring many of London’s best jazz musicians including Pete King, Gilad Atzmon, Tony Kofi, Jason Yarde, Seb Rochford, Ed Jones, Dick Pearce and many others. He is also one of Britain’s most experienced jazz educators, teaching piano privately for over 30 years, as well as at Morley College, Goldsmiths College, the University of Surrey, Premises Studios and other venues in the UK and abroad. More info can be found on his website www.timrichards.ndo.co.uk
This first online course of jazz piano lessons is everything you need to get started improvising in Swing, Blues, Latin and Funk styles. It is aimed at players with some piano experience who wish to acquire the basic tools required to play and improvise in a jazz style and includes many unique features and resources to kick start your journey:
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19 PIECES spanning a range of styles, taking you in easy steps from one chord only, to tunes with three chords
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BACKING TRACKS with bass and drums only, so you can practise easily by yourself
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Interactive SHEET MUSIC that scrolls video and audio and can be slowed down and looped
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Downloadable AUDIO FILES for every piece, featuring further examples of improvised solos
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Invaluable SUGGESTED LISTENING sections throughout the course focusing on tunes with one, two or three chords only
Tim composed all the pieces in this course except where otherwise indicated and many of these pieces and examples are taken from Tim's best-selling book 'Beginning Jazz Piano' that has helped tens of thousands of pianists. The book is not required to take these online jazz piano lessons but contains additional exercises and material for those wishing to go into even more depth.
Improve your skills with the help of one of our pros or continue your jazz journey with our other online jazz piano lessons available on MusicGurus.