§ Blues and Jazz Piano Improv

§ Jazz Piano: The Theoretical Minimum

• Link
• Left Hand, Bass: Walking bassline, Stride, Root notes.
• Left Hand, Chords: Rootless, Shell, Quartal.
• Right Hand, Melody: Scale, Improv, Licks.
• Right Hand, Chords: Rootless, Shell, Quartal.
• Both hands, Chords: Two handed voicings, Spread, Quartal.

§ Things I need to learn

• Bossa nova beat.
• Stride piano.
• Crafting Walking basslines.
• Quartal Voicings
• Two handed Voicings.

§ Walking Bass Line

• Suppose we have one chord per bar, with chords ii-v in the two bars.
• Take the notes from your 7th chord, e.g. C minor ii7 D, F, A♭, C
• Play the first three notes of the chord, so play D, F, A♭.
• Then, for the next note, look at the next chord, e.g. C minor v7: G, B♭, E♭, C.
• We want to go to G next, we have one quarter note left in the bar, so play a leading tone to G.
• Since I like bluesey, I can play F# from the blues scale, to anticipate the G in the next chord.
• So for this bar, we play D F A♭ F#.
• Play the corresponding shell voicing or melody with the right hand.
• If we have two chords per bar, then all we get to play are root ii- leading v- root v- leading i etc.
• To add an arpeggio, add a 853 if you want some flourish.

§ Best References for theory

• The Jazz piano site
• Learn EVERY Chord and Chord Symbol - The 7 Systems by Musicians Inspired
• Jazz improv with julian bradley
• Jazz tutorial
• The real book. Get one in key C.

§ Types of Seventh Chords

§ Dominant 7th (default) C7:

• 1, 3, 5, ♭7
• Major triad + two semitones below octave note.
• Used on the fifth degree of the scale. One will common see G7.
• It's called dominant since it's used on the fifth scale degree.
• The only place we can build a dominant 7th and stay within key is on the 5th.
• F7 adds an Eb which makes it bluesey, so this is useful.

§ Major 7th Cmaj7 / C△7:

• 1, 3, 5, 7.
• Major triad + one semitone below octave. Seventh degree of the major scale.

§ Minor 7th Cmin7

• 1, ♭3, 5, ♭7.
• Lush, smooth sound.

§ Diminished 7th.

• 1, ♭3, ♭5, ♭♭7.

§ Minor 2 5 1 for Jazz

• We are playing in the key of C minor
• we want the ii v i chords.
• Scale chords
• 2: C minor chord iiø7: D, F, A♭, C. Voiced as D, F, A♭, C.
• 5: C minor chord v7: G, B♭, D, F. Voiced as D F G B ♭.
• 1: C minor chord i7: C, E♭, G, B♭. Voiced as C, E♭, G, B♭.
• What scale to play? consider chord + whole step, which gives us the following:
• 2: D E F G A♭ B♭ C D, ie, C D E F G A♭ B♭ (C aeolian dominant scale / C hindu scale )
• 5: G A B♭ C D E F G, ie, C D E F G A B♭ (C mixolydian).
• 1: C D E♭ F G A B♭ (C natural minor).

§ 2, 5, 1

2: C D F A♭
C D E F G A♭ B♭ (C hindu scale)
---
5: B♭ D F G
G A B♭ C D E F G (C mixolydian)
--
1: C, E♭, G, B♭
C D E♭ F G A B♭ (C natural minor).

§ Melody: Approch pattern --- half step below

• Approach each note with the note that is a semitone below.
• Dmin7: C# -> D
• Dmin7: E -> F
• Dmin7: G -> A
• Dmin7: B -> C
• G7: F -> G
• G7: A -> B
• G7: C -> D
• G7: E -> F
• Cmaj7: B -> C
• Cmaj7: D -> E
• Cmaj7: F -> G
• Cmaj7: A -> B

§ Melody: Approach pattern / scale associated to a chord: Chordal tone + whole step

• For any given chord, eg. Cmaj7 = C E G B, one is allowed to use notes that are a whole step up from each of the notes.
• This gives us the notes: C D E F# G A B C. This is the C lydian scale.
• For the next one, Cmin7, we get C D Eb F G A Bb C. This is the C dorian scale.
• For Dmin7, we get D E F G A B C D. This is the D dorian scale.
• For G7, we get G A B C D E F G. This is the G mixolydian scale.
• For A7, we get A B C# D E F# G A. This is the A mixolydian scale.

§ Melody: Approach pattern --- chord scale above

• Play C major scale, approach from above before playing note

• Dmin7: E -> D
• Dmin7: F -> E
• Dmin7: G -> F
• Dmin7: A -> G
• G7: B -> A
• G7: C -> B
• G7: D -> C
• G7: F -> E
• Cmaj7: E -> D
• Cmaj7: F -> E
• Cmaj7: G -> F
• Cmaj7: B -> A

§ Melody: Approach pattern --- enclosures

• Approach from both sides, chromatically, before playing the main note.
• Dmin7: C# -> E -> D

§ Melody: Walking Bass line

• We want the notes to be the root note of the chord
• For example, with the standard Dmin7, G7, Cmaj7, A7 progression, we would have:
• Play D, Play G, Play C, Play A
• We can move to the notes by leaping via 3rd / 5th / octave.
• But when we leap, we want to use notes from the chord.
• For example, to go from D -> G, we want to go as: D F A, and then at the note, transition with a whole step or a half step, so we go via Gsharp G.
• So, to go from D to G in four beats, we use D F A Gsharpfollowed by the G.

§ Learning Jazz Chord Voicings Link to tutorial

• This melody:improv::chords:voicings
• Quick hack: root + 7th on bass, 3rd+5th+melody note on treble.

§ Chord voicing for bossa nova: Rootless chord voicings (sophisticated)

• Key idea: leave out the root note, only keep 3 5 7 9.
• 3 5 7 9 (position A)
• 7 9 3 5 (position B) [7, 9 are octave lower ]