When to start jazz piano
Jazz Piano: WHERE TO START (ii V7 Is with 3rds & 7s)
hi everybody welcome to a Minolta music
I was just teaching a lesson to Kim in
Denmark this morning and Kim is a pretty
good piano player he had figured out how
to play misty and I think that's really
cool because it's nice to be able to
take a song that you know and just start
playing it I think that's what everybody
kind of wants to do I had some I had a
couple of moments with Kim where I kind
of had a little oh I wouldn't call it an
epiphany but just some thoughts about my
channel because I have some videos that
address some of the things that he
needed but I realized that I hadn't
started simply enough so anyway let me
kind of walk you through what it was
like with my lesson with Kim he was
playing misty kind of like this
you
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it was really nice
kind of like that um he was doing great
and I said how did you figure out those
chords because for one thing he told me
that he was a bass player and new to the
piano and he said well it took me some
time probably a few you know months or
whatever I've been just figuring out
those chords cuz I don't really read
music and I'm trying to understand
theory and anyway when he got to the
bridge it kind of crumbled he said I
haven't really learned that part yet I
was like okay so you're playing some
really good notes 7th snipes adding a
13th like almost all the time when
you're playing major chords dominant
chords it's all sounding really really
good but I wonder if you could just and
and then he and then he cut me off and
he goes if you asked me to just play a B
flat seven chord I couldn't do it he's
like it would take me a little bit of
time but something about you know that
having the tune the beautiful jazz
ballad misty had forced him to be able
to every time he came to that B B flat
seven chord you know he could play it
because of how it fit in the song and he
knew it was going to sound good and all
of that but just to play a voicing for a
B flat seven chord right on the spot you
couldn't do it
I said let's okay let's make it even
more simple can you just go through the
tune and with your left hand just play
bass notes and with your right hand play
the third and seven okay he said so you
know he played that first bass note
e-flat his right hand played a D and he
and then the next chord was going to be
P flat minor 7 and he slowly figured it
out but his hand jumped way down here
did this and then when he had to figure
out the next chord which is E flat 7 his
hand dropped way up here then he jumped
down to here for the a flat major and he
was getting on but it was taking him
quite a while and I thought oh gosh
we've got to go back for you it's really
cool that you're playing this too and
you got a lot of talent because you
figured it out but jazz piano 101 really
is to be able to play the thirds and the
7s of all chords and in particular to be
able to make your way around the circle
of fourths playing two five ones with
just thirds and sevens it's kind of just
bare-bones jazz piano and I wanted to
make sure that I showed you guys how to
do that I do have a video called Ella's
rootless voicing game dice game and it's
a fun video but if it's kind of
intermediate so I know I have plenty of
intermediate videos and I thought I had
some beginning videos but I just
realized that I skipped a step so so I
would recommend kind of doing the exact
same thing we're doing with Ella's
rootless voicing dice game but
simplified and I'll tell you how to do
that okay the first thing we're going to
do is talk about the three flavours of
chords we're going to be dealing with
today and that's a minor chord a
dominant chord and a major chord minor
chord we're going to start with D minor
that's how you're used to playing it
but for our exercise and for most of
jazz in general it's so helpful to just
learn to play the 3rd and the 7th so
there's a D minor 7 chord we take the
3rd we take the 7 so that it stays
nicely in the middle of the piano I'm
going to put it right here ok 3rd 7 now
we've got a g7 chord dominant chord
we're going to take the 3rd and 7 of
that chord right there
there they are the 3rd and the 7 and
when we play dominant 7 chord we flat
the 7 so even though G major sounds like
this when we play a dominant chord or g7
we just flat that 7 so that it's a whole
step away from the octave take the 3rd
you take the 7 and that's the 3rd and 7
of G dominant or g7 now the next chord
we're going to deal with is C major C
major 7 so we're going to take the 3rd
gonna take the 7
okay so there was our first third and
seven of D minor right here was our
second one there was our third one this
was g7 this was C major so I know why
have I chosen those two it's because of
the two five one the two five one is
like this and we find it everywhere look
at me this here is one G minor C seven F
major tree they happen all over the
place in jazz so it's really important
to be able to navigate your way through
to five ones it'll help you forever in
your future so there's just a simple
exercise that I do here's your third and
seven of D minor so what we're going to
do is actually I think in order really
in order to keep it in the middle of the
piano I'm going to reverse it right here
no let's put it up high because when we
play this exercise we're just you'll see
we're just going to be going down and
down and down and down so we're going to
start here with D minor we're going to
play the root with our left hand D right
hand we're going to play the third and
seven now when we change to a G chord G
seven chord all that's going to happen
is we're just going to move this note to
this note and now we have it you see
that and that's the seven of G and
that's the third so it's a really easy
motion between D minor seven and g7 now
to move to C major seven to complete our
251 we've already got the seven of C we
just have to move this down a half step
it's really nice voice leading if you
had to sing one of these notes it would
be really easy to do try this one
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or the top one
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really easy to hear really easy on the
ears so after we've done that much now
what I like to do is to move the whole
thing that we just did down a whole step
from where we started so we started here
right I like to move the whole thing
down a whole step so this one's going to
go to here D minor become C minor right
these two go down a whole step and now
we're going to do the exact same thing
in the key of B flat so we've got C
minor f7 and all we have to do is lower
the top note f7 now all we have to do is
lower the bottom note B flat major seven
you see how that works so we were up
here at D minor
now we do c-minor now to get from C
major to C minor all we're going to do
is lower these a half set both of them
the e to there and then B to there so e
flat and B flat and we just follow the
same pattern lower this one a half step
over this one a half step now we're
going to do it again we're going to do B
flat minor this will be a two five in
the key of a flat so B flat minor all we
do we lower these by two now this one
gets dropped this one gets dropped now
we haven't talked about the left hand
much what are we doing there we're just
saying
key of C is where we started right we
play the two the five the one you see
that one two three four five
then this becomes the - because we're
dropping everything a whole step two
five one now this becomes the two five
one does that make sense now I'm just
going to do the whole exercise you can
set your metronome
you're gonna have to go much slower than
this the beginning
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as you can see this puts us right back
where we started
you see right so what that did was take
us through six keys we went we went
through C major B flat major
a-flat major G flat major E major and D
major six of the keys because we're
moving in whole steps now if we'd like
to hit the other six keys all we have to
do is go back to the beginning
and we can just raise it a half step
that way what key are we in what is this
the two of we go down a whole step there
it just one two four four so it's the
two of D flat major so now we're going
to cover D flat major B major a major
and so on so to start that do this like
this same thing we lower the top one and
we lower the bottom one now we lower the
both a half step you can do the exact
same thing in the other six Keys does
that make sense
good and and when you start to get fast
at it you know make your metronome go a
little faster and and give yourself a
nice drum beat to it you can you know
put on some brushes or something with
the drum genius app and and just play
your exercises
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alright thanks for doing the exercise
with me now don't forget if you want the
worksheet this one right here you go to
my website click the card above my head
and you will be taken right there so
that you can have it for yourself it
takes you through all of the 12 keys
just like I did we go through 6 of them
and then we go through the other six of
them don't use the worksheet as a crutch
not for too long anyway you can use it
until you feel like you've got the feel
of it but then I really want you to be
using your brain I want you to be you
know thinking now we go down a half step
because that's the 7 it changes to the
third where in fact you should be
talking to yourself otherwise you're
going to get lost probably going to
sound a little bit loony while you do it
but this is how I would do it I would be
like ok this is D minor 7 this is G 7
this is C major 7 because we're in the
key of C major now we're going to flat
the 3rd and the 7 because we're in the
key of B flat major you just talked your
way through the whole thing otherwise
there's a really good chance that you're
going to get lost which is exactly what
happened to Ella right back to that
video
that's why Ella made up the dice game
the dice game would work well with this
as well after you kind of get them into
your fingers a little bit then you can
quiz yourself making sure that if I were
to say what are the 3rd and 7 of f-sharp
dominant 7 you could just do them real
quick that'll be your goal when you're
done with this this is the place to
start you guys if you're going to start
playing jazz piano this is what I would
tell anybody start learning your thirds
and sevens start learning your 2/5 1 so
I hope you had fun today thanks for
being here with me on a BLT music don't
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I'll see you next time
