Learn Gospel Blues Piano Style of Ray Charles, with Video. Scott "The Piano Guy" Houston, together with guest pianist Milton Ruffin, did a nice analysis on the gospel piano style of Ray Charles. Milton explained how Ray Charles applied the 1 and 2 technique in his playing, a way of switching between the inversion of two chords. Here's the video [youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQWy0txK2ME] Milton demonstrated a few nice licks which he didn't really elaborate on. The first lick is at 01m48s of the clip, this was what he played. The main chord was Ab7 The lick is basically a switching between ...

Transcription and Video of Overjoyed by Stevie Wonder   Stevie Wonder, a very talented singer, songwriter, and multi instrumentalist, wrote this beautiful song titled "Overjoyed". Here's the video clip. [youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edxYCXaQLaw] And here's the transcription of Stevie Wonder's Overjoyed in PDF format: Overjoyed-Stevie-Wonder-Transcription A simple song with some nice harmony and beautiful modulations. Do keep in mind that the melody in the transcription is meant to be only a guide. Have fun and enjoy.. :D Check out also this transcription of funky tune "I Wish" by Stevie Wonder in this post: Learn "I Wish" by Stevie WonderSHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Learn Stevie Wonder’s song ...

"Only play what you hear. If you don't hear anything, don't play anything" ~ Chick Corea Chet Baker demonstrates this simple principle perfectly in his playing. Check out this video of his playing.  [youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZAgXr3ba9s] Chet Baker possesses the ability to scat a similarly melodious solo with his voice. Another proof that he is really playing ONLY what he hears, and NOTHING MORE. No meaningless scale runs of any sort, a true jazz master.  But many don't know, behind all these mastery, is a story of a man's thriumph over adverse conditions in life. Here's a short ...

Forward Motion Application on Jazz Bebop Au Privave Solo Improvisation, with video and analysis. Check out this video of my solo improvisation over popular jazz bebop tune "Au Privave" [youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXgd3hh76oQ] This is the solo line at 00m16s of the video Improvising a string of eight notes connected over a few bars, would be a difficult task without the a guide of some sort. This is where target tones come in. Here are the target tones for each chord. These target tones are basically chosen from one of the chord tones.   Observe how these target tones at "1" ...

Superimposition with Diminished 7th chord in Jazz Improvisation, with video and thorough analysis.  Check out this video of me improvising over the changes of popular jazz bebop tune "Au Privave" [youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXgd3hh76oQ] Observe 1m21s of the video, what I was doing there is this: THE TRICK - Superimpose a Diminished 7th chord half step above the dominant 7th chord of the key. In this case, the turnaround is basically in the key of F. Thus the dominant 7th chord would be C7. The diminished 7th chord a half step up from it would be the Dbdim7 ...

According to Hal Galper and his book, Forward Motion, one of the secrets of all those great jazz masters when improvising over fast bebop chord changes, is to count in half time. Here's an example of the first few bars of popular jazz bebop tune Donna Lee, notated in its usual form. Here's another example of the same few bars, notated in half time. Notice that both examples above sound the same to the listener (note the tempo marking) But for the musician playing it in half time, the speed of the song is ...

Many are aware of the problem in our classical music education system nowadays. We have many music students graduating with relatively high grades, but unable to play a simple tune without the help of a written score.  The great jazz pianist Bill Evans addressed this issue in a most profound way, in his interview themed "the Universal Mind of Bill Evans". Here's a quote from the interview,   "In the 17th century, there was a great deal of improvisation in classical music. And because of the fact that there were no electrical recording techniques ...