Skip to 0 minutes and 5 seconds Hi. Welcome to my online course “ Learn Jazz Piano”. Part III is entitled “Solo Piano & Advanced Topics”. A third of the course is on Swing, Rhythmic Phrases and playing Jazz Waltzes. A third of the course is an introduction to playing Solo Jazz Piano and a third of the course is on the Theory of Scales and Chords. Now, why is there an introduction to playing solo piano when the course is aimed at getting you to play in voiced position with a rhythm section? Well, the answer is because the pianist is often expected to introduce a tune with some solo piano and maybe even to end the tune with some solo piano.
Skip to 0 minutes and 47 seconds So I’d like to get you started on this if you feel ready for it. If you’re finding it too challenging then move on. Similarly the part of the course on scales and chords is very theoretical in character. The good news is that a lot of it is revision, but I’ve tried to make it complete and put it into a more coherent and systematic framework. It’s very unlikely that you are going to master all this in one viewing. The way I’d like you think of this part of the course - particularly the parts on solo piano and chords and scales - is as a resource. Take out of it what you can.
Skip to 1 minute and 24 seconds I’ve tried to make it clear what the important points are. Know what’s in there and return to it at a later stage, if you feel you want to improve your knowledge. What’s important to me is that you pick up some new ideas and you see them exemplified in the tunes we cover. In fact, we cover 15 new tunes in this part of the course, many of which are jazz standards.
Skip to 1 minute and 53 seconds This course was developed over a number of years and so some of my comments and references may be out of date, so sorry if that’s the case. The key thing for me is that you learn something new and you enjoy playing your new tunes with your playalongs. Let’s end this introduction by looking at some excerpts from the course.
