Bill Evans Jazz Chords Lesson and Video
If you love the sound of rich jazz chords then you’ll love this free jazz piano lesson.
So, in today’s video I’m going to be teaching you guys how to play some really sweet Bill Evans chords. (Notation of chords below the video).
Bill Evans was truly a harmonic genius. Whenever I want to learn some new chord stuff I tend to turn to Bill Evans for inspiration.
This really is a study in some amazing inner voice motion within a II-V-I chord progression in this lesson.
If you’re looking for a way to get more texture out of your spread voicings this will be the lesson for you.
For more information on Bill Evan’s playing style I encourage you to also check out this Bill Evans lick. As many of you know Bill became famous by playing in Miles Davis band. You can also check out another famous lick lesson from another alumni of Miles band Red Garland lick.
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The Bill Evans chord lesson was great food for thought. What I take away from this lesson is the impression that as long as I use scale tones from same key as the chord named, ANY scale tone of which my ear approves is correct. I figure if it sounds good, it is good.
For ex: If I play an F# -7 (the ii of EMaj), I can play F# E in the left hand and any note or notes of the E maj scale in the right. What have I discovered?
Your lessons are very clear and precise I really love it..it teaches me a lot of understanding jazz chords…Thank you…
Thank you Jer and welcome to the community here!
Thank you Steve! Im loving this site… I was looking a page like this for a long time. I’ve noticed that there are not so many for advanced jazz pianist. At least I did not find. Bass, guitar, drum players have many sites to explore. This lesson as the other I checked are excellent!!
Thanks Alexandra. I think it’s important to help people who already know how to play get to a deeper level with their music.
Why only just 2 notes per chord for the left hand?
There are more than 2 notes in the chords. Which one are you referring to?
It just looked like you were only using just 2 notes per chord for the left hand voicing. So, I am guessing one has the option of playing as many or as few notes as they want depending on what their ear tells them.
Theoretically that would be correct but of course certain note combos and voicings sound better than others.
What about online lessons for people that have physical handicaps? Are you aware of any such sites?
Good question Travis. I don’t know any off hand I’m sorry. I try to make lessons for people with all backgrounds here. Hopefully you can find some useful stuff here for you.
I used to play amateur guitar and bass and have learned quite a bit about chord theory over the years which I hate to let go to waste. I think what I’ll have to do is create a method on piano similiar to what sax player David Sanborn did with his polio. Anyway, thanks for the free lessons.
Thank you Steven. It’s a very interesting progression.
My pleasure. Glad you’re learning Lázaro 🙂
niiiice
Thanks Wade!