Improv: The Jazz Education Section Terry Seabrook’s Jazz Tip no. 25 Creating a Jazz Piano Arrangement – left hand piano voicings: shells and Autumn Leaves The most straight forward way for a jazz pianist to play is to place the tune or improvised melody in the right hand (upper region) and the chordal […]
Terry Seabrook’s Jazz tip of the month No. 24 Some short cuts for scales and modes In order to improvise in jazz the subject of scales and modes as a tool is usually the first stop for study. It’s very obvious to think of all the modes in jazz as deriving from parent scales […]
Jazz is very polyrhythmic and often has 2 and 3 beats running simultaneously against each other creating an interesting polyrhythm. Drummers do this all the time! Here is a quick way to play or clap 2 against 3 using the mnemonic ‘Nice cup of tea’. We’ll start with the groups of 3 beats: […]
Pianist Terry Seabrook continues with his series of Jazz Tips with No. 22 Turnarounds and Substitutions (part 1) A turnaround is a sequence of chords which starts form the tonic (I) and moves through a short “progression” (mostly through the circle of 5ths) back to the tonic. This is typically as follows: […]
Pianist Terry Seabrook’s Jazz Tip of the Month No. 21: Phrasing in Improvisation A simple tip this week is this: Play less not more. It’s a common shortcoming of improvisers at all levels but particularly beginners that there are not enough spaces in the music. Simply put this means that while […]
Terry Seabrook’s Jazz tip of the month No. 20 Make sure you listen (and interact) Most aspiring jazz musicians learn to play by using play-along records (or more frequently now by using an app such as iReal Pro) and thus spend most of their musical activity playing alone. To be sure, the […]
It is very easy to get habituated to playing loud because it is often a way of creating energy and excitement in music but volume can become a one-way street if you are not careful and it is very easy to end up playing too loud a lot of the time. If you are […]
Jazz Tip of the Month No. 13 by pianist Terry Seabrook. Transcribe, Transcribe, Transcribe One of the best tools in learning to improve your ability as a jazz improviser is to transcribe other players’ improvised solos. This is a very effective way to learn the language of jazz and of your favourite players. […]
Terry Seabrook’s Jazz tip of the month No 12 Swinging the quavers part 2: When quavers stop “swinging” Generally when playing ballads (slower tempos) it is normal (most of the time) to play the quavers (or eighth notes) evenly or straight. Playing swing quavers when the tempo is below about 72 bpm (beats per […]
Terry Seabrook’s Jazz Tip No. 11 Horace Silver – Perseverance & Endurance Horace Silver, who died this week, was one of the greatest jazz pioneers. He was an original pianist, a great composer and arranger and a significantly important band leader, introducing many new young players into the jazz limelight. I saw […]