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Exercises

Exercises Week 6
Please consider sharing your recordings and I particularly recommend Soundcloud for doing this.

Week 6 Exercises

  1. Choose a tune (such as a blues or a standard) and play whole choruses improvising over
    (i) legato left hand chords one to the bar on beats 1, then 2, then 3 and then 4
    (ii) on the “and” of beats 1, 2, 3 and 4
    (iii) playing two chords to the bar on beats 1 and 3, 2 and 4, then the “and” of beats 1 and 3, then “and” of beats 2 and 4.
    Try recording yourself to check that the left hand is correct.

  2. Do the same exercises as 1 but using stabbed chords.

  3. Choose a tune (such as a blues or a standard) and play whole choruses improvising over “Amen” in the left hand where
    (i) both the “A” and “men” are legato
    (ii) where the “A” is legato but the “men” is stabbed.

  4. Echo the hot licks played in section 12.5 on C minor 7.

  5. Practice playing II-V-I in a minor key using the half diminished, flat nine and major/minor scales as appropriate.

  6. Play “Autumn Leaves” in root position (i) Colla Voce (ii) in time (iii) in time with a playalong.

  7. Play and improvise on “Autumn Leaves” in voiced position with a playalong.

© Goldsmiths, University of London
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Learn jazz piano: Improvising on Jazz Standards

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