Q. I'm starting to learn how to play jazz piano and need some intermediate music with some solos in it. I am a medium high skill level so sight reading shouldn't be much of a problem as long as it's not crazy. Also I'm looking for a piece with a sort of fast and upbeat tempo.
Also if anyone knows a good sight that teaches you the basics of soloing then please suggest them to me.
Thanks
A. Get yourself a fake book, man. A fake book is a collection of lead sheets - meaning that you've got the basic melody to the song, and the chord changes written above the staff. With a fake book, you can interpret the song however you want and you can make it your own. You can lay the chord voicings out how you like, you can choose a tempo you like, you can add any embellishments you want to the melody, you can take as many solo choruses as you want, etc. A fake book is a lot more loose and provides a lots more opportunity for broad interpretation than a standard scored-out fully arranged part.
You can add other musicians, too - my favorite combo arrangement is the piano trio because I have a friend who's a really good drummer and a friend who's an amazing bassist. I take lead on the piano, and together we sound pretty good - we've even scored some gigs around the area where we live. What we do, though, is take songs from my fake books and just play. Sometimes we'll make changes or arrange some parts (especially when we're playing with a sax or trumpet player - we'll arrange backgrounds and stuff for them), but most of the time we pick a song, a tempo, a style/feel, work out how the solo sections are going to go, and then go for it. It's really unstructured and it's really fun stuff.
If you want to get a fake book, by far the best one (and the most legal one, and the one that the most jazz musicians have) is called "The Real Book", published by Hal-Leonard. It's got 400 different jazz standards in it, and you can get it for about $20 at Amazon.com If you don't want to drop the cash or if The Real Book doesn't have the song you're looking for, there's an excellent online collection of single lead sheets at http://www.wikifonia.org - from there, you can search for songs, download and print pdfs of them, and even transpose them to a different key if you need to.
I realize I didn't really give you a suggestion for a specific song to play, but with a real book or a bunch of lead sheets, you can easily find and play any song that you like. I guess I could suggest a few cool songs that you could perform pretty well as a solo pianist: It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing), Autumn Leaves, Summertime, Take Five, Moonglow, Misty, etc. There are a bunch of great songs out there, and with a fake book you're open and free to interpret them however you like.
what can I do to begin to learn new jazz chords for piano?
Q. Is there a text book that teaches me new chords and how to and where to apply them?
Any techniques on learning new chords and applications for them such as passing ect............
A. Check out "How to Speed Read Piano Chord Symbols" and "How to Play from a Fake Book without Gettin' the Blues"
These books are helpful for learning voicings and smooth voice leading, and they simplify a lot of complex harmony.
Also, check out the free site: http://www.list-of-chords.com/ It has some chord progression diagrams where you can move the voicings around right on the web and hear how they sound -- very helpful and instructive.
What is a good way to start learning guitar?
Q. At the moment I've just been trying to teach myself scales, and to be able to play them without looking. Is this a good way to start? Or should I start with chords or something else?
By the way, I have been playing piano and sax for 5 years, so I already know how to read music.
And one more thing, is it bad to play without a pick? I like playing without one better, but is it a bad idea not to use one? I don't want to start any bad habits
thanks!
A. Learning the basic open chord (CAGED), barre chords, and major, pentatonic, and minor scale patterns. When I bought my 1st guitar, it had a DVD which taught me all the above except for the major and minor scales. From there I spent the next several months playing tabs (which I really wish I didnt do. It doesnt matter if you can read music, you need to practice reading on every new instrument you play. I had been playing sax for 6-7yrs and trumpet for 2 at the time I picked up guitar so I skimped on it).
I think any type of playing is a good start. You need to get your fingers under you ASAP.The first song I learned was Californication by The RHCP, which introduce moving lines and used the open Am and F barre chord. From there, (about a week later) a friend gave me a death metal song to learn (it was The Faded Line by Lamb of God, which scared the hell outta me at the time adn was way too hard), and within the time it took me to get that down I learned how to alternate pick, palm mute, and improve my overall feel for the instrument. Some months later I got into Jack Johnson and I mix my metal and chords to improve both at the same (Johnson popular stuff uses nothing but barre, open, and 7 chords great starter to get into basic chords. The song Banana Pancakes is where i started). Then more random stuff, I learned more metal, acoustic songs, and anything I could play with moving lines (the hardest thing about guitar is getting familiar with it, and being able to move freely around it). Jazz, progressive rock, and much harder acoustic songs followed.
I think the biggest factors that will guarantee success are practice time (and content) and music theory. You should know basic chord theory with piano, and its pretty much the same idea but you tend omit and invert a lot more notes in guitar (ex: 13 chords are 1,7,3 (or a 10th),13). For jazz and anything acoustic-like, I find it easier to fingerpick or flick with my fingernails, but to I use a pick every once in a while to stay sharp. Using one or not isnt a bad habit, just know that the sound will change if you dont (I play electric and my amp's clean and crunch setting are for fingerpicking and if I forget to change the levels and use a pick, the sound is incredibly aggressive and almost vulgar).
I used this site a little too much when I was learning to help with guitar chord shapes, especially when you start to see chords like Emaj13#11
http://www.all-guitar-chords.com/index.php
and double check your own voicings (works about 80% of the time):
http://www.all-guitar-chords.com/chord_name.php
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