Jazz Piano School

I get this question a lot, and that is... "Brenden, how do I integrate extensions into my voicings?" Well most of the time you'll here upper structure triads brought up immediately. In this episode I would like to go a step further and teach you some easy strategies you can use to extract SPECIFIC colors from your voicings by integrating the extensions of your choice! Here we go!

This exercise is a trade secret I learned to make my improvised lines smoother. After working with this exercise, you will make it through the changes of tunes you used to find challenging with style and grace! In this podcast lesson, well be looking at the notorious jazz standard, "Cherokee" and I'll be showing you different ways to approach working on your eighth notes flows through this exercise. Let's go!

Improvising over 32 measure of minor 7th chords can leave us scratching our heads. What do we play? How do we keep our solo interesting. In this episode I'm going to show you my 7 favorite ways to improvise over modal minor 7th chords so you can implement burnin' colors, textures and atmospheres into your solo! Enjoy!

We ALL get stuck in our own ways of playing something the same way. Even me! Check out these 4 ways to add some spice, texture, and atmosphere to your major 7th chords.You can start to use these 4 building blocks to expand upon as well and create new sounds!

Jazz Piano School has come a LONGGG way since the days I first hacked together a terrible wordpress site. Now, JPS has helped, and is CURRENTLY helping thousands of people learn jazz piano freedom. In this episode I'll explain my goals and ambitions that I've brought JPS to where it is. I'll also talk about the AMAZING expansion, custom website, and teacher tools we plan to implement!Hold on to your butts cause here we go!

Playing in 7/4 meter can be a fun way to explore new rhythmic possibilities and comes with its own set of challenges. In this podcast lesson, we will explore ways of practicing 7/4 by using rhythmic claves to make it feel as natural as possible. Come along and feel the beat!

Learning jazz piano isn't a guessing game, even that's how I approached it for 15+ years. It's a system. The majority of students, including myself start by learning tunes.This should be the LAST step we do. Before that we need jazz piano TOOLS. Would you try and read and write without learning the Alphabet? No of course not. Jazz Piano is the exact same way. In this 15 minute podcast I'm going to break down the 4 step system we use that is has successfully taught thousands of students jazz piano so you can use it too.

Here we look at how to create more 4 and 5 note voicings in a modal setting. Today's session explores a more flexible approach in D dorian by transposing shapes through the mode. To take it further, we look at a technique of chromatic transposition used by Herbie Hancock.

This it taken directly from our new specialty course "How To Crush The Blues". These 4 comping setups are sure to give you everything you need to know in order to provide lush and rich sounding blues accompaniment to anyone.

Here is a tutorial to create 4 and 5 note pentatonic voicings. These voicings work well over modal tunes like "So What" by Miles Davis, and will give you a modern sound to add to your toolbox of voicings! Enjoy!

We take a deep dive into improvising over tritone substitutions. Find out how to implement a diverse harmonic palette, and discover the secrets used by some of your favorite players! Enjoy!

Usually we all want to learn cool, hip sounding voicings right?! Trust me, I've been there. But unfortunately these one off voicings don't do much for our education. It's like someone giving us a fish instead of TEACHING us HOW to fish. Now, I don't know about you, but I'd much rather learn HOW to fish. This episode will give you the 8 must know jazz piano chords but will also TEACH you how you can take these structures and methods and use them in all tunes. Enjoy!

Learning how to make your blues scale improv not sound terrible can be difficult. Trust me! I went through the same thing! Here are 3 very easy tips that will your blues scale improvisation instantly sound like you've been doing it for years! Enjoy

Learn how to shift and move extensions in your voicings with this quick method to create a more modern jazz piano sound! With this method you'll be create that complicated inner voice movement that you hear Bill Evans achieve, not to mention many other huge jazz piano giants. Jazz Piano School has taught thousands of students to achieve jazz piano freedom using methods and strategies exactly like the one you'll learn in this video.

Here is part 2 of Bill Evans Time Remembered Analysis which finished up the last 8 measures of the melody.

Well I have some very amazing news! A special friend in the California area, who played with Bobby Hutcherson for many years and has contributed so much to jazz through education, has recently helped Jazz Piano School build a brand new specialty course! This new specialty course, taught by Dr. Joe Gilman will be "The Bill Evans Arranging Style" and will be available through Jazz Piano School exclusively! To get on our list to learn more about this specialty course when we release it click the button below. You will ALSO get the transcription of the Bill Evans playing time remembered which is analyzed in this podcast. This Bill Evans specialty course is a MUST have for absolutely everyone, especially because of the Dr. Joe Gilman's teaching. To get you excited for the release of our new specialty course will be releasing lots of free Bill Evans education for you to soak up!

Finally we're at PART 4! Wow what a ride! Here I'll actually be playing with one of the backup tracks created for our Singer Accompaniment Mastery Specialty Course. I had a blast actually using the back up track. Remember there will be over 20 backup tracks within our new specialty course for you to use and play to along with analysis and walk through of everything I'm playing. In this episode I'm taking all the previous textures we've worked on and combining them to create a well balanced accompaniment story. I also add in some higher register fills, reharms and movements that I haven't explained that you can find in our new specialty course.

Welcome to Part 3 of our accompanying vocalist series. We're taking "The Switch" a step further and executing this action WITHIN ONE measure! Whooo. By doing this we're creating even MORE interaction within our hands, engagement with the vocalist, and ability to add our own expression into the tune. It will also go in our "tool bag" as another texture we can pull out to create contrast and add to the entire story and balance of our accompaniment.

Welcome to PART 2 of our accompanying singers series and in this podcast I'm teaching what I call "The SWITCH"! The Switch is the system I use to get a wide variety of textures, contrast, and balance in my accompaniment while playing for vocalist. It will allow you to get away from walking bass the entire time...(borrrring)...and help you add in expression of YOUR OWN! Which we all truly want to do right? I know I certainly hate being a back up track for a vocalist. When you mix the Switch in with other varying textures taught in our new Singer Accompaniment Mastery course you get a beautiful balance of lush reharms, fills, rhythmic and melodic accompaniment supported with bass notes. Have fun and enjoy!

Go to https://jazzpianoschool.com/singers to get details for our "Singer Accompaniment Mastery" specialty course being released in a couple of weeks! Well I'm super PUMPED! We're getting ready to release another specialty course called "Singer Accompaniment Mastery"! There is literally nothing out there like this and I know you're going to love it! So...to do a little promotion and give away some goodies that are in the course I will be doing a 4 part series on accompanying singers. And to start off I'm going to teach you about a very important and foundational element that is the 2 Feel Bass Line. Do you get bored of walking bass lines all the time? Because I know I do. This method will help you break up your LH a little bit...but will also lead to my own patent pending, (just kidding, but kinda serious) method I call "The Switch" Everyone should be using "The Switch" in their singer accompaniment and if you're not, then you're missing out! I'll be giving a little bit of "The Switch" away in the next couple of episodes and obviously you can learn the entire system in our "Singer Accompaniment Mastery" specialty course coming out in a couple of weeks! Enjoy! Happy practicing!

Oh boy...sometimes I just get going on some of these podcasts and this happens to be one of them. Seriously though...this one is AWESOME! I think you all are going to love the content in this. Would love to hear how your playing changes after working in some of the tips from this lesson. Happy practicing! Enjoy!

I've never known any jazz piano giant to not have the ability to play through changes in a bebop style. At the heart of all improvisation lies bop. If you think you're going to skip this step and achieve improv freedom...well, unfortunately you're lying to yourself. Needless to say this is a must! So here are 7 great tips to help you practice and excel quickly with proven and systematic steps. Enjoy!

I heard an amazing saying the military uses as a motto that goes like this..."Fast is slow and slow is fast." If I had to sum up jazz piano in a similar way I would say, "Theory & Structure is Freedom, and Freedom Is Theory & Structure." In this episode I show you why it's so important to learn theory concepts in a sequential manner and how it will translate into true freedom of self expression in your playing. Enjoy!

People will ask me, "Brenden, how do you play funk...how do you play latin?" Well when you learn the necessary foundational tools with Theory Sequences...you can play any style, any groove you want! At anytime! That is why our tagline is "Learning Freedom". In this episode I take a simple standard and play about a ten different grooves and styles through out the tune. Switching between each and every one as I explain. Enjoy!

I absolutely love gospel. I've been listening to it since I was a kid because I love the way it makes me feel! The chords and harmonies pull at my heart and soul strings because that's what it's meant to do! Give us an uplifting feeling, get us through hard times. The chords used in the chart do exactly that. I explain what types of chords do what and how you can use them in all different kinds of music to reharm whenever you want.

There are a ton of ways to implement rhythm into improv but...I've found these ways to be most effective at quickly upgrading your sound. Practice them alone at first before implementing them all into your solo at once. They're powerful tools so use them wisely and work hard. In no time your improvisation will be completely different...and for the BETTER! Enjoy!

So I'm going to say it...Jazz Piano is EASY...but...only after you have a plan to follow. I found this out the hard way after basically searching and guessing for most of my career until I finally developed my own plan. In this episode I talk about the foundation and TREE based concepts that splits off your foundation based on your specific goals. There is not much playing and demonstrating here but I truly believe the concepts I explain are much more valuable in the long run. Enjoy!

I think we can all agree Solo Piano is a NASTY BEAST! Even Bill Evans said it best to Marian McPartland, that he felt that he had a long way to improve, and this was AFTER he had recorded his first solo album which is ammmmazzing. Anyway, in this podcast I review the 7 most CRUCIAL elements to improving your solo piano and ensuring you're getting the sound that you want, dream of, and hear on albums! Enjoy!

I can't believe this wasn't a podcast episode yet but thanks to a member request here we are! So I will keep this one short and give you the basics of the pentatonic scale as well as show you a glimpse of how far into the rabbit hole you can actually go. I'll continue with a follow up episode on this as we begin to take this further but practice the basics of what I teach here first. Then you'll be ready for the next one! Enjoy!

We did an episode on walking bass lines part 1 a while ago and then I forgot to do PART 2! So here it is. Special thanks to one of our members for reminding me. :) In this episode we take it a step further and connect our roots and half notes with diatonic walking and approach notes. From here we can essentially connect any progression we want no matter how random it is. Enjoy!

So it's another new year. I waited till everything settled back down until I recorded this podcast. We've finally settled into our services and it's been a long journey. Listen here to find out what's next for JPS and how we're adding innovative concepts into our programs. Enjoy!

After amazing launch of our New LAB, we're switching over to a analysis series on how to use all the tools in the JPS Podcast and implement them into tunes. In the spirit of the holiday, I walk through different reharms and strategies on the tune Santa Clause Is Coming To Town. Enjoy!

December 4th at 10 pst is our official opening of our new lab launch. To give you more samples this podcast is taken from one of our live gig analysis from inside the lab. I'm confident you'll be able to get a lot of nuggets from this one. Enjoy!

This was a spur of the moment podcast! I actually started recording something else then got to talking about my vision and the structure of Jazz Piano School and I just went with it! But this should definitely bring a lot of information and clarity around the 3 major types of products we have and where we are moving to with jazz piano education software/website app we're currently building. Enjoy!

We've finalized a date for the Lab Launch and it is December 4th @ 10am PST! If you're interested in joining the priority waiting list go to https://jazzpianoschool.com/lablaunch. You can also visit this url on December 4th @ 10am to sign up for the lab at our celebration discount offering. This is part 2 of an Upgrade Formula taken directly from inside the lab to help you build and use 2 hand voicings in all situations and create freedom in your playing. Enjoy!

I struggled for yearsss. 15+ to be exact learning how to achieve some sort of jazz freedom on the piano. I was sick of just playing what other peopled showed me. It was like a coloring book. No matter how much freedom you had to choose colors you were still coloring other peoples pictures. I wanted to DRAW my OWN pictures! This podcast is taken directly from one of our lab upgrade formulas. The education contained in our lab, Launching in the next couple of weeks, will allow you to draw you own pictures. It was give you the tools to finally achieve jazz piano freedom so you can truly express YOURSELF! Enjoy!

Isn’t it strange that when it comes to the slower tunes we start to struggle more? There’s just soon much space! What do we do when the tempo is deathly slow and we start feeling anxiety to fill in everything. In this episode I’ll give you some tips to start feeling confident over slow swing tunes.

In this episode we explore how to build a relationship with extensions. Once your ear starts to learn the mood and atmosphere they produce, you can easily start to implement them into your improv to get different types of sounds you want to express.

We go a further down the rabbit hole and explore some of the way you can begin to use the modal interchange chords we discussed in the last episode for reharm. I also talk about my favorite ways to use these chords and how to optimize their beautiful harmonies.

Modal Interchange starts to dive head first into the theory rabbit hole for sure. But in this episode, I'll cover the basics of what it is, where you'll see it and how you can start to use it in your playing!

I announce the contents winners for our podcast review and giveaway more prizes to everyone who entered. Meanwhile we explore rhythmic comping for harmonic movements.

Not to take anything away from Keith on this one, but we reached PODCAST 100! Kind of crazy if you ask me? When I think about to all the hurdles, and problems we had to get through, I can't believe we've come this far. In order to celebrate we 're giving away 2 amazing gifts. #1 A LIFETIME membership to jazz piano. Yes you read that correctly. And #2 - A free reserved membership to our new "Lab" this is coming by the end of the year. Now in order to enter all you have to do is give the podcast a 5 start rating and write a brief review. I mean it could literally say "This podcast rocks!" and you will be entered to win 1 of 2 memberships to Jazz Piano School. Here are the directions. 1. Click this link to the Jazz Piano School Podcast. Click Here For The Jazz Piano School Podcast 2. Click the small button that says "VIEW IN ITUNES" 3. Click the "RATINGS AND REVIEWS" tab. 4. Click "Write A Review" 5. Write a review and leave a 5 star rating and we will enter you in. REMEMBER: You have to write a review because that is the only way we 'll know your name. We will announce the winner at the start of the following week 's podcast. The great thing about the entry is that you 're helping spread the love of jazz piano education to others around the world. Back to Keith. Keith Jarrett is brilliant at the way he moves his inner voicings around. Especially in a ballad. This can clearly be seen in this week 's analysis of "Someone To Watch Over Me". Please enjoy!

Herbie has always been a god in the jazz piano world. In this iconic track, Seven Steps To Heaven, we take a look at how Herbie is burnin' it up all over the place. He's got some beginner movements mixed with some advanced concepts. Anyone can learn from taking a look at this one. Enjoy!

Bill Evans was one of the greats for a reason...well...multiple reasons. In this episode we take a look at the phrasing, subtleties, rhythmic motifs, and note selection of Bill Evans in this solo off one his famous albums, "Explorations".

It's the small nuances and attention to detail that will take your playing to the next level. What sound are you trying to create? How do you get it? After you've learned the building blocks of jazz improvisation, these transcription analysis will help put you on top.

Most of the time I hear beginner and intermediate players stop at using quarter notes and eighth notes. This greatly hurts the sound of your improvisation. Remember, jazz was and is a dance music! Rhythm is like the oxygen to jazz. Without it, your solo is going to die. Here's how to start adding rhythmic variety to your improv.

A lot of the time when trying to get better at jazz piano, you simply have no idea what the future looks like...or even what the heck advanced players are doing! It sounds too far out of reach. Well I'm here to tell you it's not. In this episode I show you what is going to happen as you advance through the levels. This way you'll be able to see exactly what takes place.

I still get asked all the time, "How do I use modes to improvise and why are they important?" I'm confident this episode will remove this questions and finally allow you to understand how and why modes are important to your jazz improvisation. Enjoy!

We continue our series on minor 2-5-1’s as I explain rootless voicing options and different ways to improvise along with the notes and scales that you can choose from. With a little practice you’ll feel confident about playing minor 2-5-1’s in standards in no time!

Playing minor 2-5-1 is usually a mysterious process for most. There is a lot of harmony that surrounds this subject and how to approach it. Rest assured these Minor 2-5-1 basics will allow you to feel confident when playing this type of harmony.