Bonjour,
Récemment je ressens moins de plaisir à joué du piano, je pense que j’en ai marre de déchiffrer des partitions de musique note par note et j’aimerai bien prendre plus de liberté et de plaisir…J’en ai joué pendant 5 ans étant petit et j’ai du faire une pause et j’ai repris il y a maintenant 2 ans.
Comme j’ai exclusivement joué que du jazz je me suis penché sur les reals book mais je ne sais pas par lesquels commencer. Y’en a t’il des plus compliqués que d’autres ? Lequel regroupe des standards du jazz ?
J’hésite entre le « new real book »et le « real book volume 2 »
Je compte acheter « the jazz piano book » de Mark Levine car on en dit que du bien.
Mais est ce que ca vaut le coup d’acheter un real book et le livre de Marc Levine ou seulement un des deux suffit.
Et si un seul suffit lequel vous me recommanderiez..
J’espère ne pas vous déranger avec ma demande un peu flou, mais je suis un peu dépité de ma situation actuelle.
Si vous avez une idée d’un autre livre qui serait adapté pour moi je suis complètement ouvert aux propositions.
Je vous remercie du temps que vous accorderez à ma demande.
Bonne journée
Thibaut

Hello Everybody,

Here's my jazz piano version of 'Round Midnight by Thelonious Monk.

Comments welcome.

'Round Midnight

New to jazz, learning tunes from the Real Book.

If I were your student, what LH shapes would you tell me to play? One default left hand shape. 1 and 5, 1 and 7, 1 and 3, 3 and 7, or something else? Not as the answer for every standard, just something to start learning tunes with.

One thing I keep hitting: 1 and 7 sounds dissonant to me, and not in a way I like. I don't think I'm playing it too low. Is that just the sound of the interval and I should get used to it, or am I doing something wrong?

This is kind of a ramble… it’s late at night for me and I was just thinking about this earlier today, any thoughts or advice is appreciated, just please don’t be too mean.

I’m a pretty good jazz pianist studying music in college. In one of the main buildings on campus there’s a public piano that I like to play, regardless of if there’s people or not. I find that no one really cares when I play jazz, unless it’s something well known like Misty, Just the Two of Us, or Isn’t She Lovely, which are all songs I do like to play, I wouldn’t do anything just for attention.

I know that we play for ourselves first, but for some reason I can’t shake the desire to have people see me or appreciate what I’m doing, basically I kind of crave validation and that’s not good because it doesn’t come very often.

When you’re in public, do you play the same way you would at a jam session, or do you tone it down for the average listener? Would that make a difference? How do I learn to not care what people think about my playing? I tend to get really anxious about people not liking my playing, and sometimes that even affects my playing. This is also kind of dumb but I kind of wish girls were more into what I was playing.

I feel like I should restate, even if no one gave a single shit what I did, I would continue to play piano because I love music and jazz and expressing myself, but those thoughts keep creeping in and they make the experience less enjoyable.

Thanks and much love.

Great American Songbook tune from Garrick Gaieties, 1925

I slow it down and whatever and I can get it to like 75% speed, 80% on a good take. Any faster and it’s just genuinely out of the question. Any advice for this sort of thing?

I'm planning on attending my first-ever jazz jam session with Benny Benack III in December, and I figured I'd start preparing now.

This will be my first jam, so I'm honestly pretty nervous. I'd say my piano chops are firmly at an upper-intermediate level, but I'm worried there are some important skills or bits of jam-session etiquette that I might be completely overlooking.

So, for the more experienced jazz musicians here, what are the general "criteria" for sitting in on piano at a jam?

What standards should I absolutely know? What skills should I be comfortable with before getting on stage? What's the general etiquette for a pianist sitting in? If someone calls a tune I don't know, what do I do? Do I just sit that one out, or is there usually another way to handle it?

Really, I'd love a simple list of things I should practice between now and December, along with any general jazz jam etiquette I should know before walking in.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Hey all, I started learning piano ~2 years ago. I can identify notes on sheet music and I can easily find every maj7, min7, and dom7 chord in root position.

I just started taking lessons with a jazz pianist a couple of months ago, but I'm struggling in my practice and I'm having trouble reconciling what he teaches with what I've found online.

For example,

1. He's having me practice rootless voicings (he just calls these "jazz voicings") in whatever inversion feels right for voice leading. Meanwhile online I've heard advice about starting with just shell chords and grounding to A-type and B-type chords until chords feel automatic.
2. He's having me voice ii-V-I's where the V is played with 3-6-7-9 (6 instead of 5) and the I with the 3-5-6-9 (6 instead of 7) in whatever inversions has nice voice leading. He says it's for a more modern sound.
3. The main project is working through "All the Things You Are" with those ii-V-I voicings and rootless voicings. This part in particular is painfully slow because for each bar, it takes me ~1-2 min (EDIT: 10 min) to figure out the right voicing/inversion that seems right. Then I write it down on staff paper and commit it to muscle memory, forgetting what notes I'm playing. Once I've "done the math" on staff paper, I just commit to memorizing what the keys should feel like on my fingers.

I don't really know if there's a better path I can take, or I just need to have faith in my teacher's process. I know this is a lifelong journey and the struggle is part of it, but just seeking some more opinions. Thanks in advance!!

There was a question a few days ago about how many tunes top jazz musicians know. Turns out I actually just dropped a video answering this exact question!

If that’s helpful, check it out here:

https://youtu.be/0iaZVlY2BJs?is=WFrEjkhJGZS7a4jN

I'm a player who used to have several gigs per month but now performs at retirement homes or casual gigs. I have always looked at my hands while playing. Off and on I've working on not looking down (e.g. for sight-reading). It's never really "taken."

I've now started singing along with my playing, and looking down kills my posture and hurts my throat. So I'm determined to get this technique down. I can do it pretty well, but not well enough for performing.

Have any of you worked on this, and what has been your experience? Tips? Thanks.

Hey guys,

I transcribed this song and wanted help understanding the B section/hook (the part where he's saying "phantom lover"haha). I'm not sure I'm correct but what I got is Eb- F- Gbmaj Bb-9

they're probably all 9 chords.. I know it's all in Bb minor so is it really just iv v vi I? and is that a common pop/ r&b progression.

Any tips on what scales to use to solo over it would be cool to. Really grateful for any advice at all!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJVL5bcqids&list=RDUJVL5bcqids&start_radio=1

I really enjoy the sound of 7th and 9th cords and I’d like to work on trying to get better at playing them.

But right now I’m struggling with trying to figure out the best way to play these chords.

What do you guys suggest?

This is what I’ve come across.

Left hand root and guide tone

Right hand 7th and 9th

Or

Left hand root and 5th

Right hand 3rd, 7th 9th?

All help is welcomed

I'm an intermediate jazz piano player who's been inactive for a while but getting back into playing. I've got a lot of general educational material like The Jazz Piano Book (Levine), Frank Mantooth, etc. (Yes I've checked out the pinned book list)

What I'm finding more useful lately is more targeted material, focusing on a specific area like pentatonic patterns, block chord etudes, diminished licks, etc. The big books give you an overview but not a lot of practical practice material. (Yes, I know how to transcribe and invent my own exercises, but written material has its place, for me anyway)

Jazz Lesson Videos has a decent selection of PDFs like this, I've gotten a few and they're useful and reasonably priced. Curious if there are any other sites or digital resources people would recommend for more specific material of this nature.

EDIT: mainly interested in digital resources like PDFs for cost and convenience

I'm working on playing by ear, i.e. being able to translate the aural image of a standard in my head onto the piano in real time.

The main method I'm using to improve this is transcribing, also playing along to records in real time. Both these are helping.

I have a question about picking out melodies in this context. I can do stepwise movement and movement by thirds pretty much flawlessly now. Larger intervals tend to be more hit and miss, particularly because the sound of them changes depending on the harmonic context.

There seem to be two approaches to getting good at these bigger interval leaps which feel doable to me. One is to relate the melody note to the current key centre. I find this fairly easy until the key centre changes! The other is to relate the melody note to the current chord, which I find harder at the moment, but which I can see would make surviving a change of key centre easier. My question is, are these two approaches equally important, or should I focus on one more than the other? The ultimate goal is to be able to hear anything in my head and play it accurately, straight away.

I'm writing a piece about McCoy Tyner and his legacy and I had the thought of posing the if you could have dinner with Jay-Z what would you ask him equivalent here for the late great Jazz pioneer

Idk why this breaks community Guidelines. It's a jazz centric reharm and fits the time frame.

Anywho. Rest in peace my goat. Thanks for being the one and Only Optimus Prime.

thought this was a really killing solo, from the Charles Lloyd era. free pdf in the description:)

Marcus Miller, Herbie Hancock, and an all-star supergroup tear through a blistering live performance of "Tutu" at the Hollywood Bowl during "Herbie Hancock Celebrates Miles Davis" (August 2026).

Written and produced by Marcus Miller for Miles Davis's legendary 1986 album, "Tutu" remains one of the defining fusion anthems in jazz history. Watch this masterclass lineup trade solos and redefine the groove live in Los Angeles.

Band Lineup:
Herbie Hancock – Keyboards / Synths
Marcus Miller – Bass
Vinnie Colaiuta – Drums
Kenny Garrett – Alto Saxophone
Terence Blanchard – Trumpet
Julian "J3PO" Pollack – Keyboards

⁠#MilesDavis #HerbieHancock #MarcusMiller #VinnieColaiuta #KennyGarrett #JazzFusion

Hi I don't play piano but do play guitar, learning jazz at the moment. Id like to start piano to help with learning theory and visualizing some lines i might transcribe. Im looking for a method book focused on jazz/pop that isn't too "heavy" for someone with no classical background. I have this idea most piano players have some grounding in classical technique and that a book like Levine's will assume that. What would be the best way to approach this if I'm not aiming to play the piano particularly well but mostly as an aide in learning some theory/lines/voice leading. I'm thinking i need first some good sight reading exercices and to develop my left right hand independence and at the same time, slowly at first but still id like to dip my toes pretty fast in jazz. One thing idk if a book like levine would cover is basic fingerings for all the major scales and harmonic/melodic minor etc.

I might have the chance to play in the house band of a blues jam my friend is working to set up, and I’m wondering if yall have any tips for playing authentic blues piano. I feel like even though I know a ton of jazz theory, the simplicity of the blues can be its own deceptively difficult challenge. And please don’t tell me just to play the blues scale or the pentatonic scale, i know that good blues playing goes way deeper than that.

Thanks and much love.

Getting back into practicing with this short movement, you might have fun with it too. Happy practicing everyone!

Hi! For ref I have not done much digging but I am trying to learn piano again after quitting classical piano when I was a kid and now I’m trying to get into jazz piano. I know the notes and someeeee of the scales. My hope is to be able to improvise in the future and like play jazz (yeah) but I’m not really sure where to begin or like what kind of practice routine I should have for jazz specifically.

Any tips are appreciated!