Comping jazz piano - the basics, part 2

February 4, 2010

Second video on jazzy comps for piano.

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Comping jazz piano - the basics, part 1

February 2, 2010

This is the first of two videos about piano comping for jazzy-type numbers. I say “jazzy type”, because this is a style that’s pretty well suited to a great deal of popular music from roughly 1920-1960.

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Comping on the piano: a quick introduction

January 30, 2010

Comping is pretty much an essential skill if you want to be a decent pop pianist…

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Amati Recording Studios

January 28, 2010

Graeme Allen has just launched a nation-wide recording studio agency, read his introductory letter to see what it’s about.

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The ninth chord

January 27, 2010

Ninth chords are funny beasts. There are three basic flavours - ninth, major ninth and minor ninth - and lots of different inversions and voicings that you can use.

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Understanding bass voicings

January 25, 2010

Changing the bass note of a chord can radically alter the sound of the whole harmony. Knowing which bass notes (or “bass voicing”) to use can be very useful if you’re after particular effects in your playing.

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How do chord progressions work?

January 23, 2010

It’s very useful to understand the basics of how chord progressions work. If you do, you’ll find that improvising on different harmonies becomes more instinctive …

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Sixth and minor seventh chords

January 21, 2010

Next in the series of videos on harmony is a short overview of sixth and minor seventh chords. These are pretty interesting because they are closely related to each other.

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Understanding chord resolution, part 2

January 19, 2010

Second video in my series on chord resolution and related harmonic principles, designed to tie in with my book, How To Really Play The Piano.

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Understanding chord resolution, part 1

January 17, 2010

The first of two videos on the principles of chord resolution, including information on concepts like the subdominant and dominant chords, Roman numeral notation and the way different chords resolve on to one another in the chord progressions of songs.

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