There has never been a better time to learn to play Jazz piano. Spotify and Youtube are great places to listen to virtually any jazz recording, Youtube videos can be slowed down to aid transcription of solos etc and there is an absolute plethora of jazz piano tutorials on Youtube. There are many excellent books covering learning to play jazz from beginners to advanced and there are many free and subscription websites. There are also many helpful Apps and software available. You may feel slightly overwhelmed by how much is available, particularly online and wonder where to begin so I want to give a guided tour through many of these resources that I have looked at.1. Subscription Websites
I mentioned Richard in the Introduction page, I was fortunate to study with him at St Andrews University and he is one of the most inspirational performer/teachers that I have ever met. In the Introduction page I put links to his presentation at The Edinburgh Fringe Festival where he talked about the history of Jazz piano and played the jazz standard Tea For Two as many of the jazz great pianists might have played it, if you haven't watched these videos yet then please do, they will certainly wet your appetite to learn to play jazz piano! At the present time during the pandemic Richard is offering Lifetime Membership at a Crazy Price of just £10.00!! For this you will be able to access the following three courses:
Jazz Essentials
This course consists of a series of videos together with downloadable sheet music covering the following topics:
Scales in Swing Feel
Left Hand chord voicing in a 2 5 1 chord progression
Improvising using chord tones and scales
Call and response
Repetition and Displacement
Bebop Scales
Altered Pentatonic Scales and Augmentation
Blues Scales and Diminution
Dorian and Mixolydian Modes
Basic Lead Sheet Reading
Arpeggios, Walking Bass and Guide Tones
Vamps and Intros
First Steps
This course consists of 64 podcasts with a heavy emphasis on rhythm and groove covering the following:
Walking a Groove
Solos on a Groove
Concepts
Beginning the Blues
Simple blues head and minor pentatonic scale
Blues scale and turnarounds
Chord substitutions
Mixolydian and bebop scales
Dorian, diminished and harmonic minor scales
An awful lot can be learned from all these lessons by working out what Richard is playing in the many vamps that he plays for you to practise with!