Jazz Piano Lessons Archives - Page 4 of 5 | FreeJazzLessons.com

Altered Scale – A Simple How To Guide

Are you curious how to use the altered scale? Are your dominant chords getting a bit boring? Do you wish you knew some more interesting scales to use over them? Well, in today’s jazz scale lesson I’m going to teach you a very cool sounding scale you can play over your dominant chords. This scale…

4 Different Ways To Play Minor Jazz Piano Chords

In today’s free jazz piano lesson we’re going to take a look at 4 different ways of playing minor chords. Once you learn these sweet chords you’ll have the ability to play a lot more interesting sounds every time you see minor chords written in a chord chart. Start by watching the video lesson first. Then…

Barry Harris Rhythm Changes Transcription Lesson

One of the best ways to really learn how to play jazz is to listen and study the playing of the masters. So, in today’s free jazz lesson we’re going to do an in depth study of a Barry Harris solo. Barry Harris took this solo on the tune “Moose the Mooche”. The chords to…

How to Play Jazz Piano – A Beginners Guide

Alright, so how do you really learn jazz piano? Since I started this site I’ve received numerous emails from readers asking me the best way to learn how to play jazz piano and how to get started learning jazz as a beginner. Let’s first start with my jazz piano journey to give you an example……

Tritone Substitution – The Ultimate Guide

Check out this cool tritone substitution tutorial: In this video I’m going to teach you how to play a tritone substitution. We all know how important the II-V-I chord progression is to jazz music. It’s used in thousands of jazz standards. Now, it a beautiful sounding chord progression but sometimes in order to not sound…

Interview With Jazz Legend Joey Defrancesco

One of the best ways to learn jazz is to sit down and talk with virtuosic jazz musicians. In this incredible interview we get an opportunity to sit down and explore the mind of jazz organ virtuoso Joey Defrancesco. (audio interview below) Who Is Joey Defrancesco? Joey Defrancesco is simply one of the greatest jazz…

How To Play Here’s That Rainy Day-Reharmonization Lesson

We all want to learn more about jazz chords don’t we? We love the way (fill in your favorite jazz musician here) plays but for some reason we can’t seem to figure out what they’re doing. Great jazz musicians tend to play so much more than what’s on a plain old chord chart. So, how can…

How To Apply 10 New Piano Chords To Autumn Leaves

This intermediate jazz piano lesson is going to be a deep dive! Not only are we going to learn 10 new jazz chords but we’ll also learn how to apply them to the tune Autumn Leaves. These powerful chords I’m going to teach you are known as “rootless 2 handed piano voicings”. These piano chords…

2 Famous ii V I Licks Starting On The 3rd

In today’s free ii V I licks lesson we’re going to explore a couple of very famous licks from legends Joe Pass and Harold Land. If you want awesome ii V I licks these guys are some of the best to learn from! This is the 3rd article in our series “How To Play Great Jazz…

How To Play Great Jazz Piano Licks Starting On Any Note

Parts in this series: #1: Starts on the root of a minor chord. #2: Starts on the 9th of a minor chord. #3: Starts on the 3rd of a minor chord. (Featuring licks from Joe Pass and Harold Land). #4: This one stars on the 11th (also known as the 4th) #5: Starting on the…

Jazz Minor Scale Formulas And How To Solo With Them

In today’s jazz lesson you’re going to learn how to quickly add jazz minor scale techniques and modes into your playing. Whether you’re playing in a jazz rock band, a bebop band, a latin jazz band, or another jazz style, this jazz minor scale tutorial will be useful. I think you’ll enjoy this particular jazz…

How To Play A II-V-I-VI Chord Progression With Jazz Chords

Are you looking for information on the II-V-I-VI chord progression? Congratulations. You’ve come to the right place! There are tons of free lessons and articles on jazz and piano chords on this site. Make sure you bookmark this site and let’s get to learning! I also recommend you check out several of the other jazz…

4 Bill Evans Jazz Chords You Need To Know

Here’s a free jazz piano lesson featuring the awesome jazz chords of Bill Evans. This particular lesson features a ii-V-i-IV (2-5-1-4) chord progression in a minor key. These beautiful chords are very useful because you can use them in solo jazz piano arrangements and you can also use them to play behind other instrumentalists. They…

How To Play A Jazz Blues Chord Progression

In today’s free jazz blues chords lesson we’re going to take an in depth look at how to mix together some jazz chords and some blues piano chords into an incredible chord blend. This combo of jazz and blues piano chords will make your blues sound way more interesting. Players like Oscar Peterson, Wes Montgomery,…

Wynton Kelly Jazz Lick Lesson and Video

One of the best ways to learn how to improvise in jazz music is to study the licks and improvisation of the jazz masters. So, today we’re going to check out a super fun Wynton Kelly jazz piano lick. This particular lick has some fantastic source material in there to really get your jazz language…

Grammy Nominee James Weidman Jazz Piano Interview

It is isn’t often that you’re fortunate enough to sit down with a Grammy Nominated jazz piano player and discuss how to become a better jazz musician. It must be our lucky day though because that’s what we’re going to do right now! James Weidman is a member of the Grammy Nominated Joe Lovano Band…

3 Uncommon Tips For Practicing Jazz Piano Technique

When most of us think about practicing jazz piano technique or jazz piano exercises we usually think of the same old boring exercises that piano players have been playing for countless years. Things like scale practice, arpeggios, Hanon exercises, and playing classical pieces. Now, to be fair these technique studies and piano drills can be…

Cool Red Garland Jazz Lick Lesson and Video

If you need to get some more jazz licks under your belt this would be a great place to start. Here’s a new Red Garland lick lesson and video. I love this lick and it was fun to teach! Red Garland became world famous by playing in Miles Davis quintet (with John Coltrane) from the…

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…

Bill Evans Jazz Lick Lesson and Video

Here’s a free Bill Evans lick lesson and tutorial video. Bill was a harmonic genius and one of the truly great jazz musicians. This Bill Evans lick is just so beautiful sounding I had to share it with you all! (After you check out this lick you will want to check out this additional Bill…

Oscar Peterson Lick Lesson

Here’s a fun Oscar Peterson lick. Oscar played this lick over a blues but you can throw it in over many other tunes. This little 4 bar lick is filled to the rim with all kinds of blues and jazz vocabulary. (audio and tips for learning this lick below) You can click on this lick…

Great Red Garland Solo – Jazz Transcription

For today’s free jazz lesson we’re going to take a look at a jazz transcription of Red Garland’s famous solo on the jazz standard What is This Thing Called Love. This is one of the first jazz solos I ever transcribed and when I studied Red’s solo it paid off big time! So, let’s take…

How To Play Extensions on Dominant Seventh Chords

Want to spice up your chords and arrangements and make them more jazzy? One of the best ways to do this by adding extensions to your chords. Unfortunately, most people don’t understand how to do this properly. So, you’re probably saying right now, “Steve, How do you play extensions on chords?” “I heard…

How To Play Satin Doll With Spread Voicings

A couple weeks back we learned about a very famous style of jazz chords called spread voicings. (If you missed the lesson and have no idea what spread voicings are make sure you check out the how to play spread voicings lesson). Anyway, since then I received a couple emails from subscribers to the site asking me…

How To Play Spread Voicings on Piano – Great Jazz Piano Chords!

– Are you struggling to find good solo jazz piano voicings? – Do you only feel comfortable when you’re playing in a trio and there’s a bass player laying down the bottom end for you? – How about accompanying vocalists? Do you have trouble finding the right voicings to play behind a singer? If you…