Learning to play jazz

Play jazz: practice and theory Have you ever been asked the question “What do you do?” When I used to reply “I’m a singing coach” the usual annoying response was “Do you know anyone famous?” Now that I teach jazz piano, an equally infuriating reaction is “Learning to play jazz? How can you teach improvisation?… Read more »

Finding the sweet notes

Finding the sweet notes In video lesson 24 of Learn Jazz Piano  I focus on how songwriters employ ‘sweet notes’ to add that spine tingling effect to their melody. I then relate this to jazz improvisation and show you how to employ this technique in your solos. Here’s an extract from chapter 10 of my eBook… Read more »

How to play a jazz solo

How to Solo My learn jazz piano video course is now around half way through the series ‘How to play a jazz solo.’  There now follows a summary of these lessons so far with a link to my jazz course. Lesson 21:  Connecting hands   In this lesson I take you through techniques to incorporate… Read more »

Jazz solos

Playing jazz solos This is the last in the series of extracts from my new book How To Solo: your guide to playing more creative jazz solos. Click here to purchase my eBook How To Solo and see how your jazz solos improve! Chapter 11: Interlude from jazz practice This chapter serves as both an… Read more »

Learn to solo with my jazz eBook

Learn to solo : chapters 6-10 I’m not making out that you can learn to solo just by studying my new eBook How To Solo, but  it will certainly lead you on the path to creative improvisation. Click here to purchase all 4 of my eBooks Here are some extracts from chapters 6 – 10… Read more »

Release of my new eBook How To Solo

HOW TO SOLO How to solo is the name of my new eBook which has been released today. With the aid of over 150 illustrations I will show you the way forward with your soloing. Purchase How To Solo here. This is the fourth in the series of my eBooks ‘Learn Jazz Piano.’ You can… Read more »

Learn Jazz Piano checklist for soloing

Learn Jazz Piano checklist for soloing Here are 12 essential tips to learn jazz piano soloing. (This is an extract from my forthcoming book: Learn jazz Piano, book 4: How To Solo.) 1)   Chords belong to families. A chord rarely exists in it’s own right and is far more likely to have a relationship… Read more »

How to solo

How to Solo This is an extract from my upcoming eBook ‘How To Solo’ Chapter 13: Too much information If you’ve ever written a letter of complaint you’ll know that there is one basic ground rule to ensure a positive outcome: be concise and stick to the point. In other words, don’t ramble. If you’re… Read more »

Jazz Repertoire: essential standards part 3

Building your jazz repertoire: part 3 of essential standards Here’s my final list of suggestions for your jazz repertoire. These are all standards that you should become familiar with. Although I’ve listed 14 tunes, I suggest you at least learn What Is This Thing Called Love, Softly As In A Morning Sunrise and Yesterdays. For… Read more »

Learn jazz standards, part 2. (Full list in book 3)

Learn Jazz Standards Here are 10 more jazz tunes you need to be familiar with.  Although they are all popular, the two essential songs are ‘Autumn Leaves’ and ‘All The Things You Are.’The best way to learn jazz standards is to identify the map, in other words, spot the key centres. Autumn Leaves only has… Read more »