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Education

New Lesson on JazzPianoOnline.com: From Lead Sheet to Arrangement - The Safflower

Source: Bill Rinehart
December 6, 2011

At the heart of solo jazz piano playing lies the use of spread and rootless voicings. But to truly transform a simple lead sheet into a captivating piece of music involves digging deeper into the jazz player's bag of tricks and employing an array of arranging and reharmonization techniques to develop and intensify the underlying character of the melody and harmony of the tune. Each lesson in this series features a comparison of a fully realized two-handed arrangement of tune ...

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Education

New on JazzPianoOnline.com: Stride Left Hand Part 1

Source: Bill Rinehart
July 25, 2011

Stride piano is a captivating solo piano style anchored by the left-hand pattern of low bass notes that alternate with mid-range chords. Using a transcription of Harry Connick's left hand on the tune “On the Sunny Side of the Street" from his 1987 self-titled debut recording as a template, the stride left hand pattern is broken down into its component parts in this lesson. Master this solo piano style with the accompanying PDF Practice Sessions which will start you out ...

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Education

New on JazzPianoOnline.com: Chromatic Interval Ear Training

Source: Bill Rinehart
June 22, 2011

This lesson follows up the Diatonic Interval Ear Training lesson with the five chromatic intervals: the minor 2nd, minor 3rd, augmented 4th, minor 6th and minor 7th. Watch this lesson to learn how to associate these intervals with the first few notes of standard jazz tunes and then take a quiz to test your ability to hear them. Two timed quizzes are also included to help you develop speed at hearing these intervals. The final quiz tests you on all ...

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Education

Diatonic Interval Ear Training

Source: Bill Rinehart
May 16, 2011

Updated Lesson Just Released: Diatonic Interval Ear Training In this lesson, learn to identify the seven diatonic intervals by associating each one with the first two notes of a jazz standard. Test yourself with five randomized quizzes to gain speed and accuracy in hearing these most basic intervals. Updated with lots of new under-the-hood improvements: new streaming video, more music examples, table of contents (new feature!), searchable closed captioning (new feature!), five new quizzes built on a completely revamped quiz ...

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Education

New Lesson Just Released: Dominant Chordscales

Source: Bill Rinehart
February 24, 2011

While the mixolydian mode is the default dominant chordscale, there exists a whole world of dominant chordscale choices, each one possessing a unique sound palette owing to it's singular tension profile. The Monkish whole tone, the tense altered scale and the evocative blues scale are just three of the possibilities explored in this lesson. Learn where the scales come from, how to build them and see how Clifford Brown, Kirk Lightsey and Thelonious Monk have used them in their solos. ...

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Education

New Lesson Just Released: Chordscales of Minor ii-V-i Progressions

Source: Bill Rinehart
January 23, 2011

The derivation of chordscales for minor ii-V-i progressions is less straightforward than with major ii-V-Is. Each minor key has three scales whereas each major key has just one. In this lesson, watch as the chordscales for minor ii-V-i progressions are derived from their component 13th chords and then see how the resulting chordscales are used by Miles Davis in his improvised solo over the tune It Could Happen to You from his 1956 release, Relaxin' with the Miles Davis Quintet. ...

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Contest

Win The Stephen Anderson Trio's latest Summit CD, "Nation Degeneration"

Source: Bill Rinehart
January 1, 2011

Education

New Lesson Just Released: Improvising Over Pachelbel's Canon

Source: Bill Rinehart
December 20, 2010

Hiromi's understated solo over this well known baroque keyboard piece is an accessible introduction to improvising with pentatonics. In this lesson, a transcription of her solo from 2010's Place to Be is analyzed for her use of the major pentatonic scale within the framework of the Four Components of Melodic Construction. As an added bonus, she incorporates stride and gospel elements as well. JazzPianoOnline.com is an on-demand, digital library of streaming video jazz piano lessons. Choose from the ever-growing collection ...

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