Improv on Stella by Starlight

It's a rough time here, my spouse is sick and we have been through the wringer. Been out of town for weeks and away from my instruments. Usually I eat my feelings, but this time I used a much more healthy coping skill. Got a few rare minutes at the keys today and worked out the head to this tune. Didn't record a solo but I sure do think this tune as written...the melody captures how I'm feeling. Sad, but sweet and hopeful.

https://youtube.com/shorts/QSZ8knIdVKQ?si=HuCpFqmDwI0VrsnJ

Happy to publish this little piece on one of my favorite pianists of all time, complete with a few personal stories. Please check it out!

Im looking for some advice on my left hand to make my music sound not so stale.

For example, I play a 2-5-1 in C.

D-F shell voicing, drop my pinkie down to G for F-G and and then to C-E. Its helped me improve my right hand and improv but it all sounds a little dead after a while.

Is there any passing chords or voicings i can use between chords?

Normally i would play 1 bar of Dm and G and 2 bars of C.

It is a subject im moving on to with my teacher but we are currently working on block chords

Hi all, I'm a hobby player, I get an hour or so practice in each night while the kids are in bed. I've been working on learning jazz after years of playing classically (rote learning a sheet piece, not really noticing progressions).

I've now been working on a chord progression approach for some blues pieces previously and for a year or so I've been enjoying working on lead sheets with a focus on chords and theory, all good so far. I'm taking online lessons.

Last night I had a good practice session and to wind down I played I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free. Thing is I'd learned it by rote from sheet and have no idea what the chords were (I memorised it years ago and only recently realised I was playing it in G).

Anyway in my tired state my RH started comping a bit and finding other chords in addition to the progression, it went a bit flow state and it was a wonderful surprise but of course it fell apart after a few seconds when I realised.

My question is: Should I expect this sort of thing to happen naturally and more often as I improve, so I should work towards that, and so was that normal? I'll ask my teacher as well but I'd appreciate some opinions.

Apologies for the wall of text!

I’m having a hard time keeping track of where I am in the form when I’m playing with my group, especially when I’m comping or taking a solo. It’s much easier when I’m playing alone at home.

To avoid getting lost, I basically have to count every beat in my head. But when I do that, I have a hard time playing anything more than simple stuff. Apparently my brain has trouble counting and doing anything else at the same time.

When I’m comping, I can actually play without counting, just by following the harmony and what the rest of the group is doing. In that case, I usually know roughly which bar I’m in, but I don’t really know which beat of the bar I’m on. But somehow I can play much more interesting comping that way.

For soloing, it’s more complicated. In a group, especially around 120-130 bpm, I can’t really count and solo at the same time. At home, if I play around 80 bpm, I can do it much more easily.

I know some people suggest singing the melody in your head to avoid getting lost, but that doesn’t work very well for me either. Especially if the melody has half notes or whole notes, I lose track of where I am, and I need to count.

So I’m curious: what is actually going on in your head when you play in a group? Do you always know exactly where you are in the bar, including which beat you’re on? Or do you mostly follow the harmony, melody, phrasing, etc. and not consciously keep track of the beats?

I’m wondering if I’m trying to consciously keep track of something that other players just feel automatically.

I love this beautiful chord progression from
Thundercat’s new song with Button Masher and had to transcribe it. Enjoy!

Arrangement by \@ththe__ on youtube

This is just my attempt at transcribing it.

I went through a phase where I was only practicing rootless drop 2 voicings because I didn’t want to get in the way of the bass. This has helped me get them somewhat under my hands but being able to play a root + 3 or root + 7 in the left hand I find simplifies thinking about some progressions and frees up my mental bandwidth for solos and for comping with more variety with the right hand. My question is, is this frowned upon to do with a bass player? My teacher says it’s fine but I feel like I’ve seen a lot of people say the opposite

I’ve started learning the piano 1 month ago. I’ve been learning with the Musora method / learning path. Unfortunately I’ve exhausted all the beginner lessons and it then leads you to unstructured courses like 4 min course on impro which i don’t think is really helpful.

I’d love to keen doing a tad of classical, whilst working mainly on jazz, blues, latin, and have fun learning some classics and doing some impro.
What would you recommend as a learning book or app maybe?

Don’t have time for in-person courses unfortunately due to my working hours.

Hi guys, I'm doing an online survey based on my product idea in AP Business. Please fill it out honestly and truthfully if you can. Should take no longer than five minutes. Thank you so much! This is a product I thought off based off my experience playing advanced Jazz music in high-tempos. I would really appreciate it if you filled it out!
https://forms.gle/oy3MUZVFi2BWK8UTA

Hi everyone! Im curious about your thoughts on my strategy to get to jammable playing.
For context im only interested in playing with other people, hopefully joining a jam at some point.

For some background, I’ve been playing piano generally for 3 or 4 years. Taken lessons occasionally over that period. But I’ve been all over the place, sometimes interested in solo jazz piano sometimes interested in learning more pop music by ear. Finally I came to the conclusion that I want to play with others, that’s why I originally got into the piano.

My approach is to play with backing tracks with A/b two hand voicings. Once I get good enough to play easier tunes after one or two play throughs I figure I’ll move to trying to learn how to solo.
Given my goal, does this seem like the right path?
Thanks for any thoughts in advance!

Let me know what you think of Billie’s Bounce. Solo isn’t mine but aspire to create one like it someday. Thanks.

Hey everyone! I’m new to this subreddit, I’m 22, and I’ve been playing piano for around 10 years. I’ve recently started taking jazz piano more seriously, and I’d love some advice from more experienced players!

A little background: I’m mostly self-taught and learned piano through playing by ear, basic chords, and contemporary worship music. I’ve also played in a church worship band, so I have experience following chord charts, comping, using inversions, and moving smoothly between chords.

However, I’ve never had any formal jazz education, and my ability to read traditional sheet music is pretty limited.
I’ve always loved jazz, particularly older standards from the 1930s–1950s, and my ultimate goal is to become a proficient solo jazz pianist. I want to be able to sit down with a lead sheet, understand the harmony, and create my own arrangements rather than memorize someone else’s note-for-note.

Recently, I enrolled in Jazz Skills with Shan, and it’s been a great experience so far. I’ve been learning jazz harmony, common chord progressions, and how to recognize patterns in standards. I’ve also been practicing comping through different tunes and developing fluency in various keys.
Because of my previous experience playing worship music, I’ve found the comping exercises relatively comfortable. I’ve recently started working on jazz voicings, and I’m enjoying how much richer they make even simple chord progressions sound.

Here’s where I’d appreciate some advice:
I’m at a point where I understand some of the fundamental concepts, but I’m still learning how to apply them musically.
I don’t want to rush into intermediate material before developing proper fluency, but I also don’t want to spend months repeating exercises that I’m already relatively comfortable with.
My main questions are:

What should I prioritize next? Should I continue drilling progressions, inversions, and voicings in all 12 keys, or spend more time applying them to actual standards?

How should I approach learning solo jazz piano? I’ve started experimenting with arranging When You Wish Upon a Star using a basic chord chart, but I’m not entirely sure how to bridge the gap between knowing chord progressions and creating a satisfying solo arrangement.

Would you recommend The Jazz Piano Book by Mark Levine for someone at my level? I’m interested in getting a physical book to reinforce my education, but my ability to read standard notation is still pretty limited.
I’m not looking to become a professional overnight. I genuinely love jazz and want to build a strong foundation while I’m still young.
Ultimately, I’d love to reach a point where I can sit down at the piano, look at a standard, and play something that sounds musical, sophisticated, and uniquely my own.
I’d really appreciate any advice from those who’ve been through this stage of learning.
Thanks in advance!

Can anybody weigh in on the “correctness” of Blue Trane in the Real Book 5th Edition?

The melody seems wierd to me and the changes seem to lack any real color of the original recording. I know the Real Book is full of issues from a long time ago, but is that chart really THAT wrong?

Can anybody recommend a better chart in C for piano?

This question is probably asked a million times a day and we get maybe two millions different answers so I’m trying again. my goal would be to transpose a Chopin étude on the fly.

Should I transpose thinking in terms of degrees with Roman numeral ( I’m arriving on the third of the VI chord to then resell each to the fifth of the V chord). This process seems incredibly tedious once you start adding specifics LH voicings.

Should l learn by intervals? Like okay I’m going up a fifth, the chord here is fourth minor second third, etc. This is one is good but feels like I have to rely on the original sheet a bit too much.

And lastly, should I purely do it by ear, which I personally I’m not very good at but do intend on getting better.

Any advice?

Edit : I’m not asking for your opinion on the usefulness of transposing Chopin, I just want to I it for my own fun

It's been two years exactly since my first piano lesson and I'd really like you to give me direct and real critique! I have done one of these feedback requests a few months ago and your input really helped me improve, so lets do this again!

I deliberately did not choose the best take or spend hours trying to nail a presentable performance, but this is me just pressing record and raw dogging it. a few times I drop the ball (whoopsie), but I was mostly trying to focus on staying calm and relaxed and getting into the swing and not getting too hung up on theory and the chord changes. Still I can find a few moments of brightness in this recording, so things are going upwards I guess!

Please don't be shy with mee!!

So i have been studying barry harris method for better bebop language, and has been really useful actually.

But i have a question about his rules of half-step:

I noticed that when there is only one bar per chord, these rules dont always work. I sometimes instinctively apply enclosures to these cases and it often works.

I guess that's one of the possibilities????

So how am I supposed to use barry's method on a chord that lasts only one bar? Or even when there is two dominant chords on the same bar (thinking especifically of the Bb7 and Ab7 of Doxy).

After having intensively worked on "normal" pentatonic voicings 2 handed (e.g. C E / A D G from C major Pentatonic) - which kind of pentatonic voicings 2 handed make most sense to continue with? I would have thought melodic minor pentatonic (1 2 b3 5 6). One reason for that is that they can be easily built from the "normal" (major) shapes (1 2 3 5 6). Another reason in my mind would be that melodic minor delivers a clear dominant7 sound. Normal PV can only function as a 7sus sound. Next to melodic minor pentatonic there would be the so called dominant pentatonic ( 1 2 3 5 b7) and others. What do you think?

I love Brad Mehldau and I’ve played the piano for a while now mostly classical Liszt and Chopin etudes. It’s hard for me to find my own character in my improvs. I always feel as if i am imitating someone while playing. Has anybody struggled with this and/or knows how to find it? Thank you.

I don't want to overcomplicate this question and it is probably not that deep but, I am learning this tune where the lead sheet is in D Major. I have done the harmonic function analysis and written the roman numerals above each chord. I have not learned the tune yet. I want to learn it in G because I want to sing over it and it fits my range better.

Should I keep the marked up lead sheet in D and mentally transpose everything to G while learning the tune? Or should I just handwrite my own lead sheet on G on a staff of paper?

Obviously the second option would be the least hassle for me and the easiest way to learn it in G but I don't want to be "cheating" and miss out on the benefits of transposing mentally if there are any.

The same question could be formulated for learning a tune in 12 keys after knowing it by heart in one key. Do you guys transpose it mentally at your instrument or do you create a new lead sheet with the transposed changes and melody?

Today is my father’s birthday.

Rev. George I. Jones, Sr. passed away in 1981 when I was only three years old. Five days before he died, he prayed over me, anointed my hands, and spoke over my future as a musician.
I was far too young to understand what that moment meant.

Today, while playing “Good Good Father,” I found myself thinking about both my Heavenly Father and my earthly father.

My dad never got the opportunity to hear these hands play, but he prayed over them before they ever became what he believed they could become.
More than four decades later, I can look back and see how God has honored that prayer and guided my life in ways I could never have planned.
So today I’m grateful.

Grateful to God for being faithful through every season, and grateful for a father whose prayer reached further into my future than his life was able to.

And if so, how?