Videos
The Weekly Piano videos this course uses
120 videos from Greg's channel, grouped by what they teach. 110 of them are already cited inside a lesson, and the lesson chips take you straight there.
Technique and fingering
26 videos
Basic Piano Lesson #1: Major scales and triads
Sets hand position, contrary finger motion, the Beringer exercises, and all major scales at 40 bpm with triads on demand.
How to play all modes on the piano
Teaches thumb under mechanics, posture, and how knowing every major scale already gives you every diatonic mode.
Piano scales fingerings
Points viewers to a student made fingering chart for the major scales and asks for corrections.
Fingerings for Major Scales
Gives right and left hand fingerings for major scales and the rule for where the thumb crosses.
Piano Fingerings for Scales
Runs fingerings for every mode of every key using the rule that a mode takes its relative major fingering.
Fast Scales
Shows scales played at speed; no spoken instruction is recoverable from the transcript.
Fingering for Bb Blues Scale
Fingers the Bb blues scale and explains why crossing the thumb from black key to black key is avoided.
Exercise for musicality (short)
A planing in thirds pattern that encloses and lands on a chosen goal note an octave below.
Theory and composition lesson
Traces how tonality was built from stacked fifths and how relativity gives a composer pivot points.
Tigran Hamasyan Transcription
An unedited transcription session on a Tigran Hamasyan line, counting five groupings over a 12/8 ostinato.
Why Every Jazz Pianist Should Learn Bach
Names the Bach pieces he keeps in his routine and why he uses them for technique.
Learn Bach's Prelude in C Major
Walks through the first Bach Prelude in C, reducing each bar to a chord to expose the voice leading.
Learn to play Bach in 1 Hour
Learns a Bach piece in an hour by metronome laddering from 62 bpm upward with a relaxed arm.
How to Learn Classical Music
Teaches a drop and reposition wrist technique for learning classical music one line at a time.
How to avoid tendinitis playing piano
Covers posture, shoulders, hands, and habits that prevent tendinitis at the piano.
Morning warm up
A filmed morning warm up; the transcript is a repeated artifact, so no spoken content can be reported.
Learn to play fast
Teaches speed through a relaxed hand and a counterpoint finger motion rather than wrist and arm pressure.
Play arpeggios and shapes fast and with musicality
Runs dominant nine arpeggios up the keyboard in every key with the thumb placed on the third.
Practicing SLOW!!!
States the slow practice principle, starting scales at 40 bpm and speeding up only once they are perfect.
Etude #1
A composed etude that outlines the fifth using four goal notes, each reached through a different scale.
Pentatonic Exercise - Jazz Piano Lesson
A descending pentatonic cell of one, six, five, three, sequenced down and taken around the circle of fifths.
Transcribing for Jazz Pianists
A short excerpt on transcribing slowly first and raising the tempo only once it is clean.
How to play Shapes and Enclosures (fast)
Explains why a fast enclosure shape works, through deception and the goal note created by where you start.
How to Become a Well Rounded Jazz Pianist (in 42 minutes)
A 42 minute roadmap for jazz piano, from technique and scales through harmony, transcription, comping and time.
Learn to play jazz piano; a brief overview
Orders the piano skills, two handed comping first, and corrects technique hands on with a guitarist.
Full Piano Lesson: Blue Bossa and basics
A full lesson on Blue Bossa that fixes technique, then builds comping, soloing and tunes around ii V I.
Scales and modes
34 videos
Basics of Music Theory
Builds the seven modes from one root, the four 7th chord qualities, the circle of fifths, and four cadences.
Basic Piano Lesson #1: Major scales and triads
Sets hand position, contrary finger motion, the Beringer exercises, and all major scales at 40 bpm with triads on demand.
How to play all modes on the piano
Teaches thumb under mechanics, posture, and how knowing every major scale already gives you every diatonic mode.
gotta practice this one
A one minute prompt to learn C major, Lydian and Mixolydian and play them in all keys.
Piano scales fingerings
Points viewers to a student made fingering chart for the major scales and asks for corrections.
Fingerings for Major Scales
Gives right and left hand fingerings for major scales and the rule for where the thumb crosses.
Piano Fingerings for Scales
Runs fingerings for every mode of every key using the rule that a mode takes its relative major fingering.
Fast Scales
Shows scales played at speed; no spoken instruction is recoverable from the transcript.
Fingering for Bb Blues Scale
Fingers the Bb blues scale and explains why crossing the thumb from black key to black key is avoided.
How to build a 7th chord (multiple ways)
Builds 7th chords two ways, by stacking diatonic thirds and by stacking major and minor thirds in order.
Exercise for musicality (short)
A planing in thirds pattern that encloses and lands on a chosen goal note an octave below.
Goal Notes using Minor/Major scale ideas
Combines goal notes with the minor major scale, running it in thirds down to the major seventh.
Play Polyrhythms on Piano - First Lesson
Adds polytonality to the Chick Corea bassline polyrhythm by playing C Lydian ideas in unrelated keys.
Reverse Harmony
Explains negative harmony as flipping scale and cadence around an axis halfway between C and G.
The Basis of All Music: The Tritone
Shows the tritone inside every major scale as the engine that moves one key to the next.
The most dissonant chord in the world
Builds one altered dominant voicing carrying every alteration at once and resolves it to a minor major chord.
Theory and composition lesson
Traces how tonality was built from stacked fifths and how relativity gives a composer pivot points.
Learn to play fast
Teaches speed through a relaxed hand and a counterpoint finger motion rather than wrist and arm pressure.
How to make a practice schedule
Builds a practice schedule in percentages, with blocks for scales, Beringer, transcription and tunes.
Practicing SLOW!!!
States the slow practice principle, starting scales at 40 bpm and speeding up only once they are perfect.
5 solos every pianist should transcribe
Names five solos to transcribe and what each one teaches, starting with Bill Evans on Autumn Leaves.
Playing outside the changes
Two ways to play outside, rehearing a note as a different degree and sequencing substitute keys by goal notes.
Learn to improvise
Ties improvising to ear training through transcription and interval recognition, and defines improvisation as stringing vocabulary into a story.
Etude #1
A composed etude that outlines the fifth using four goal notes, each reached through a different scale.
Jazz Scales to play over Maiden Voyage
Maps scale choices over the Maiden Voyage sus chords, including whole step planing and minor with major sixth and seventh.
Pentatonic Exercise - Jazz Piano Lesson
A descending pentatonic cell of one, six, five, three, sequenced down and taken around the circle of fifths.
Scales to solo over Blue In Green
A demonstration of scale choices over Blue in Green; no transcript exists, so nothing spoken can be reported.
Blue In Green Scales (slowed down)
A slowed replay of the Blue in Green scale material for copying by hand rather than explanation.
Blue In Green Goal Notes
Picks the goal note from the melody first note and moves it only in stepwise motion.
Learning Herbie Hancock Solo Technique
Teaches the minor major scale as the Herbie Hancock color and superimposes it over an unrelated bass note.
Jazz Scales to play over a Blues
Plays a minor major scale a half step above the blues root to build tension toward the four chord.
Three Secrets to Hearing Chord Changes
Hear chord changes by tracking the single note that changes between chords, worked over an F blues.
How to Become a Well Rounded Jazz Pianist (in 42 minutes)
A 42 minute roadmap for jazz piano, from technique and scales through harmony, transcription, comping and time.
Full Piano Lesson: Blue Bossa and basics
A full lesson on Blue Bossa that fixes technique, then builds comping, soloing and tunes around ii V I.
Theory fundamentals
27 videos
Basics of Music Theory
Builds the seven modes from one root, the four 7th chord qualities, the circle of fifths, and four cadences.
Piano Fingerings for Scales
Runs fingerings for every mode of every key using the rule that a mode takes its relative major fingering.
Jazz Piano: The Circle of Fifths
A short demonstration of moving minor to dominant to major around the circle of fifths.
What is a triad?
Defines a triad as scale degrees one, three and five, and shows major and minor from the same root.
What is a 7th chord?
Defines the 7th chord as one, three, five and seven, and shows the dominant resolving a fifth below.
What is a 9th chord?
Builds major, minor and dominant 9th chords and shows the flat nine strengthening the pull back to the tonic.
What is a 13th chord?
Explains why the 13th is the last available extension and why the major 13 takes the sharp eleven.
How to build a 7th chord (multiple ways)
Builds 7th chords two ways, by stacking diatonic thirds and by stacking major and minor thirds in order.
How to play 7th chords on piano
Shows how spacing makes a major 7 sound sweet and why the dominant leads a fifth below.
Chord progressions with 7th chords
Tours progressions built from 7th chords, including melody note locked movement and reharmonizing under a held top note.
Outlining the 3rd
Aim every line at the third of each chord, demonstrated out of time on his song Hills.
How to improvise with musicality
Argues melodic interest comes from expectation and interval distance rather than from playing more notes.
Voiceleading exercise
A Russell Ferrante pattern exercise that carries one voicing shape through a chain of chords in all keys.
Reverse Harmony
Explains negative harmony as flipping scale and cadence around an axis halfway between C and G.
The Basis of All Music: The Tritone
Shows the tritone inside every major scale as the engine that moves one key to the next.
The most dissonant chord in the world
Builds one altered dominant voicing carrying every alteration at once and resolves it to a minor major chord.
Understanding Tritones
Uses the Beatles flat six to explain tritone tension, goal notes, and diverging before resolving.
Theory and composition lesson
Traces how tonality was built from stacked fifths and how relativity gives a composer pivot points.
Colors and Superimpositions on the Piano
Names superimposition, playing an upper triad over an unrelated bass note to supply bright upper extensions.
This One Exercise will Transform Your Playing
A rhythm changes lesson restricting the solo to shrinking ranges so melody leads instead of the chord changes.
Play arpeggios and shapes fast and with musicality
Runs dominant nine arpeggios up the keyboard in every key with the thumb placed on the third.
The Three Elements of Jazz Music
States the three elements of jazz, melody, rhythm and harmony, weighted equally.
Playing outside the changes
Two ways to play outside, rehearing a note as a different degree and sequencing substitute keys by goal notes.
Why is Giant Steps an Augmented Progression?
Explains the augmented fifth behind Giant Steps and why the tune has no single settled key.
Learn to improvise
Ties improvising to ear training through transcription and interval recognition, and defines improvisation as stringing vocabulary into a story.
Pentatonic Exercise - Jazz Piano Lesson
A descending pentatonic cell of one, six, five, three, sequenced down and taken around the circle of fifths.
How to Become a Well Rounded Jazz Pianist (in 42 minutes)
A 42 minute roadmap for jazz piano, from technique and scales through harmony, transcription, comping and time.
Chords and voicings
44 videos
Basics of Music Theory
Builds the seven modes from one root, the four 7th chord qualities, the circle of fifths, and four cadences.
Basic Piano Lesson #1: Major scales and triads
Sets hand position, contrary finger motion, the Beringer exercises, and all major scales at 40 bpm with triads on demand.
How to play all modes on the piano
Teaches thumb under mechanics, posture, and how knowing every major scale already gives you every diatonic mode.
What is a triad?
Defines a triad as scale degrees one, three and five, and shows major and minor from the same root.
Ear training: recognizing triads
An ear training drill on roughly sixteen major and minor triads with the answer spoken after each chord.
What is a 7th chord?
Defines the 7th chord as one, three, five and seven, and shows the dominant resolving a fifth below.
Ear training: recognizing 7th chords
An ear training drill mixing triads with major 7, minor 7 and dominant 7 chords.
What is a 9th chord?
Builds major, minor and dominant 9th chords and shows the flat nine strengthening the pull back to the tonic.
Ear training: recognizing 9th chords
A call and response ear drill on 9th chords mixed with plainer triads and denser voicings.
What is a 13th chord?
Explains why the 13th is the last available extension and why the major 13 takes the sharp eleven.
Exercise for recognizing chords (13th 9th 7th triads)
A capstone ear drill covering triads through 13th chords, with instructions to repeat until every answer is right.
How to build a 7th chord (multiple ways)
Builds 7th chords two ways, by stacking diatonic thirds and by stacking major and minor thirds in order.
How to play 7th chords on piano
Shows how spacing makes a major 7 sound sweet and why the dominant leads a fifth below.
Inversions
Finds inversions by stacking the chord an octave above and reading any consecutive group of notes.
The Blues Progression
Teaches the twelve bar blues in F with the root in the left hand and the third and seventh in the right.
Chord progressions with 7th chords
Tours progressions built from 7th chords, including melody note locked movement and reharmonizing under a held top note.
12 Steps to Musicality overview
Lays out twelve steps to musicality, from bebop origins and goal notes through feel and motifs.
How to create a melody and chord progression on piano
Builds a left hand shape of one, five, three and moves it under a melody over a descending bass.
Voiceleading exercise
A Russell Ferrante pattern exercise that carries one voicing shape through a chain of chords in all keys.
The Basis of All Music: The Tritone
Shows the tritone inside every major scale as the engine that moves one key to the next.
The most dissonant chord in the world
Builds one altered dominant voicing carrying every alteration at once and resolves it to a minor major chord.
The Most Beautiful Chord in the World
Teaches an altered dominant voicing from Ruslan Sirota and insists you hear every note inside it.
Theory and composition lesson
Traces how tonality was built from stacked fifths and how relativity gives a composer pivot points.
Colors and Superimpositions on the Piano
Names superimposition, playing an upper triad over an unrelated bass note to supply bright upper extensions.
Learn Bach's Prelude in C Major
Walks through the first Bach Prelude in C, reducing each bar to a chord to expose the voice leading.
Play arpeggios and shapes fast and with musicality
Runs dominant nine arpeggios up the keyboard in every key with the thumb placed on the third.
How to make a practice schedule
Builds a practice schedule in percentages, with blocks for scales, Beringer, transcription and tunes.
How to Transcribe and Study a Line on Piano
Extracts maximum information from one Brad Mehldau line, transcribing, analyzing, then drilling a fragment of it.
5 solos every pianist should transcribe
Names five solos to transcribe and what each one teaches, starting with Bill Evans on Autumn Leaves.
The Three Elements of Jazz Music
States the three elements of jazz, melody, rhythm and harmony, weighted equally.
Jazz Lesson for Classical Pianists
The syllabus for his classical to jazz series, from rhythm and the blues through comping and vocabulary.
Block Chords and Parallel Motion
Builds block chords by filling chord tones under the melody and moving the structure in parallel.
Playing outside the changes
Two ways to play outside, rehearing a note as a different degree and sequencing substitute keys by goal notes.
Jazz Scales to play over Maiden Voyage
Maps scale choices over the Maiden Voyage sus chords, including whole step planing and minor with major sixth and seventh.
Diminished Lick Over a Modal Progression
A diminished lick planed in minor thirds over a modal progression, heard as minor four with a natural sixth.
Learning Herbie Hancock Solo Technique
Teaches the minor major scale as the Herbie Hancock color and superimposes it over an unrelated bass note.
Jazz Scales to play over a Blues
Plays a minor major scale a half step above the blues root to build tension toward the four chord.
Left Hand Comping (jazz 2-5-1 progression)
A demonstration of left hand voicings over ii V I; no transcript exists, so nothing spoken can be reported.
Left Hand Comping
A general left hand comping demonstration; no transcript exists, so nothing spoken can be reported.
Three Secrets to Hearing Chord Changes
Hear chord changes by tracking the single note that changes between chords, worked over an F blues.
Jazz Harmony: Transcribing
A short excerpt arguing harmonic depth comes from transcribing great pianists rather than from theory.
How to Become a Well Rounded Jazz Pianist (in 42 minutes)
A 42 minute roadmap for jazz piano, from technique and scales through harmony, transcription, comping and time.
Learn to play jazz piano; a brief overview
Orders the piano skills, two handed comping first, and corrects technique hands on with a guitarist.
Full Piano Lesson: Blue Bossa and basics
A full lesson on Blue Bossa that fixes technique, then builds comping, soloing and tunes around ii V I.
Voice leading
17 videos
Basics of Music Theory
Builds the seven modes from one root, the four 7th chord qualities, the circle of fifths, and four cadences.
Basic Piano Lesson #1: Major scales and triads
Sets hand position, contrary finger motion, the Beringer exercises, and all major scales at 40 bpm with triads on demand.
Outlining the 3rd
Aim every line at the third of each chord, demonstrated out of time on his song Hills.
How to create a melody and chord progression on piano
Builds a left hand shape of one, five, three and moves it under a melody over a descending bass.
Voiceleading exercise
A Russell Ferrante pattern exercise that carries one voicing shape through a chain of chords in all keys.
Reverse Harmony
Explains negative harmony as flipping scale and cadence around an axis halfway between C and G.
Why Every Jazz Pianist Should Learn Bach
Names the Bach pieces he keeps in his routine and why he uses them for technique.
Learn Bach's Prelude in C Major
Walks through the first Bach Prelude in C, reducing each bar to a chord to expose the voice leading.
How to Learn Classical Music
Teaches a drop and reposition wrist technique for learning classical music one line at a time.
Block Chords and Parallel Motion
Builds block chords by filling chord tones under the melody and moving the structure in parallel.
Jazz Scales to play over Maiden Voyage
Maps scale choices over the Maiden Voyage sus chords, including whole step planing and minor with major sixth and seventh.
Learning Bill Evans Solo Technique
Applies the Bill Evans idea of choosing one note and leading every line back to it.
Left Hand Comping (jazz 2-5-1 progression)
A demonstration of left hand voicings over ii V I; no transcript exists, so nothing spoken can be reported.
Left Hand Comping
A general left hand comping demonstration; no transcript exists, so nothing spoken can be reported.
How to Become a Well Rounded Jazz Pianist (in 42 minutes)
A 42 minute roadmap for jazz piano, from technique and scales through harmony, transcription, comping and time.
Learn to play jazz piano; a brief overview
Orders the piano skills, two handed comping first, and corrects technique hands on with a guitarist.
Full Piano Lesson: Blue Bossa and basics
A full lesson on Blue Bossa that fixes technique, then builds comping, soloing and tunes around ii V I.
Harmony and progressions
34 videos
Basics of Music Theory
Builds the seven modes from one root, the four 7th chord qualities, the circle of fifths, and four cadences.
Jazz Piano: The Circle of Fifths
A short demonstration of moving minor to dominant to major around the circle of fifths.
How to play 7th chords on piano
Shows how spacing makes a major 7 sound sweet and why the dominant leads a fifth below.
The Blues Progression
Teaches the twelve bar blues in F with the root in the left hand and the third and seventh in the right.
Chord progressions with 7th chords
Tours progressions built from 7th chords, including melody note locked movement and reharmonizing under a held top note.
Exercise for musicality (short)
A planing in thirds pattern that encloses and lands on a chosen goal note an octave below.
Goal Notes using Minor/Major scale ideas
Combines goal notes with the minor major scale, running it in thirds down to the major seventh.
12 Steps to Musicality overview
Lays out twelve steps to musicality, from bebop origins and goal notes through feel and motifs.
How to create a melody and chord progression on piano
Builds a left hand shape of one, five, three and moves it under a melody over a descending bass.
Voiceleading exercise
A Russell Ferrante pattern exercise that carries one voicing shape through a chain of chords in all keys.
Play Polyrhythms on Piano - First Lesson
Adds polytonality to the Chick Corea bassline polyrhythm by playing C Lydian ideas in unrelated keys.
Reverse Harmony
Explains negative harmony as flipping scale and cadence around an axis halfway between C and G.
The Basis of All Music: The Tritone
Shows the tritone inside every major scale as the engine that moves one key to the next.
Understanding Tritones
Uses the Beatles flat six to explain tritone tension, goal notes, and diverging before resolving.
Theory and composition lesson
Traces how tonality was built from stacked fifths and how relativity gives a composer pivot points.
Colors and Superimpositions on the Piano
Names superimposition, playing an upper triad over an unrelated bass note to supply bright upper extensions.
Tigran Hamasyan Transcription
An unedited transcription session on a Tigran Hamasyan line, counting five groupings over a 12/8 ostinato.
Improv on Everything In It's Right Place
An improvisation on the Radiohead vamp; no transcript exists, so no spoken content can be reported.
Learn Bach's Prelude in C Major
Walks through the first Bach Prelude in C, reducing each bar to a chord to expose the voice leading.
This One Exercise will Transform Your Playing
A rhythm changes lesson restricting the solo to shrinking ranges so melody leads instead of the chord changes.
How to make a practice schedule
Builds a practice schedule in percentages, with blocks for scales, Beringer, transcription and tunes.
How to Transcribe and Study a Line on Piano
Extracts maximum information from one Brad Mehldau line, transcribing, analyzing, then drilling a fragment of it.
Jazz Lesson for Classical Pianists
The syllabus for his classical to jazz series, from rhythm and the blues through comping and vocabulary.
Block Chords and Parallel Motion
Builds block chords by filling chord tones under the melody and moving the structure in parallel.
Playing outside the changes
Two ways to play outside, rehearing a note as a different degree and sequencing substitute keys by goal notes.
Why is Giant Steps an Augmented Progression?
Explains the augmented fifth behind Giant Steps and why the tune has no single settled key.
Jazz Scales to play over Maiden Voyage
Maps scale choices over the Maiden Voyage sus chords, including whole step planing and minor with major sixth and seventh.
Diminished Lick Over a Modal Progression
A diminished lick planed in minor thirds over a modal progression, heard as minor four with a natural sixth.
Learning Herbie Hancock Solo Technique
Teaches the minor major scale as the Herbie Hancock color and superimposes it over an unrelated bass note.
Jazz Scales to play over a Blues
Plays a minor major scale a half step above the blues root to build tension toward the four chord.
Left Hand Comping (jazz 2-5-1 progression)
A demonstration of left hand voicings over ii V I; no transcript exists, so nothing spoken can be reported.
Three Secrets to Hearing Chord Changes
Hear chord changes by tracking the single note that changes between chords, worked over an F blues.
How to Become a Well Rounded Jazz Pianist (in 42 minutes)
A 42 minute roadmap for jazz piano, from technique and scales through harmony, transcription, comping and time.
Full Piano Lesson: Blue Bossa and basics
A full lesson on Blue Bossa that fixes technique, then builds comping, soloing and tunes around ii V I.
Practice method
54 videos
Basic Piano Lesson #1: Major scales and triads
Sets hand position, contrary finger motion, the Beringer exercises, and all major scales at 40 bpm with triads on demand.
How to play all modes on the piano
Teaches thumb under mechanics, posture, and how knowing every major scale already gives you every diatonic mode.
gotta practice this one
A one minute prompt to learn C major, Lydian and Mixolydian and play them in all keys.
Piano Fingerings for Scales
Runs fingerings for every mode of every key using the rule that a mode takes its relative major fingering.
The Blues Progression
Teaches the twelve bar blues in F with the root in the left hand and the third and seventh in the right.
Chord progressions with 7th chords
Tours progressions built from 7th chords, including melody note locked movement and reharmonizing under a held top note.
Motivic Development???
Solo through a whole tune using one three note cell, landing it on a chord tone over each chord.
Exercise for musicality (long)
Solo inside one octave and never finish a phrase, using expectation and deception on Cherokee.
Exercise for musicality (short)
A planing in thirds pattern that encloses and lands on a chosen goal note an octave below.
Become more Musical in your Piano Solos
Restrict a whole solo on a known standard to one octave so the line stays melodic.
12 Steps to Musicality overview
Lays out twelve steps to musicality, from bebop origins and goal notes through feel and motifs.
Voiceleading exercise
A Russell Ferrante pattern exercise that carries one voicing shape through a chain of chords in all keys.
Play Polyrhythms on Piano - First Lesson
Adds polytonality to the Chick Corea bassline polyrhythm by playing C Lydian ideas in unrelated keys.
How to Practice Polyrhythms - 2nd lesson
Runs a second Chick Corea bassline at 110 bpm and regroups triplets into four over the same pulse.
The most dissonant chord in the world
Builds one altered dominant voicing carrying every alteration at once and resolves it to a minor major chord.
The Most Beautiful Chord in the World
Teaches an altered dominant voicing from Ruslan Sirota and insists you hear every note inside it.
Understanding Tritones
Uses the Beatles flat six to explain tritone tension, goal notes, and diverging before resolving.
Theory and composition lesson
Traces how tonality was built from stacked fifths and how relativity gives a composer pivot points.
Colors and Superimpositions on the Piano
Names superimposition, playing an upper triad over an unrelated bass note to supply bright upper extensions.
Learn to play polyrhythms - 3rd lesson
Thins the metronome to one click per bar over the Chick Corea bassline so you internalize the pulse.
Play Polyrhythms on Piano
Regroups triplets as sixteenths to float four over three, then deletes the downbeat click.
Polyrhythmic Exercise
The origin polyrhythm exercise, a Chick Corea bassline at 90 bpm with a three against four right hand.
For Musicians - Improve Your Time
A guided meditation for calibrating the internal pulse against a 104 bpm click on beat one.
Good Time and Feel: The Time Stack
Presents the Time Stack, four layers of consistency, precision, flexibility and subtlety, with tools for each.
USE A METRONOME!
A short instruction to run every exercise with a metronome while developing an inner pulse.
Tigran Hamasyan Transcription
An unedited transcription session on a Tigran Hamasyan line, counting five groupings over a 12/8 ostinato.
Why Every Jazz Pianist Should Learn Bach
Names the Bach pieces he keeps in his routine and why he uses them for technique.
Learn to play Bach in 1 Hour
Learns a Bach piece in an hour by metronome laddering from 62 bpm upward with a relaxed arm.
How to Learn Classical Music
Teaches a drop and reposition wrist technique for learning classical music one line at a time.
How to avoid tendinitis playing piano
Covers posture, shoulders, hands, and habits that prevent tendinitis at the piano.
Morning warm up
A filmed morning warm up; the transcript is a repeated artifact, so no spoken content can be reported.
This One Exercise will Transform Your Playing
A rhythm changes lesson restricting the solo to shrinking ranges so melody leads instead of the chord changes.
How to transform your playing in 10 minutes
No transcript exists for this video, so no content can be reported.
Learn to play fast
Teaches speed through a relaxed hand and a counterpoint finger motion rather than wrist and arm pressure.
Play arpeggios and shapes fast and with musicality
Runs dominant nine arpeggios up the keyboard in every key with the thumb placed on the third.
How to make a practice schedule
Builds a practice schedule in percentages, with blocks for scales, Beringer, transcription and tunes.
Practicing SLOW!!!
States the slow practice principle, starting scales at 40 bpm and speeding up only once they are perfect.
How NOT to practice!!
Argues against grinding technical exercises and for musical ones, using his own burnout as evidence.
How To Transcribe a Piano Solo
Walks through transcribing an Oscar Peterson solo with the Transcribe app, from finding the key onward.
How to Transcribe and Study a Line on Piano
Extracts maximum information from one Brad Mehldau line, transcribing, analyzing, then drilling a fragment of it.
The two elements to being a great musician
Frames musicianship as freedom and vocabulary, two sides of a coin whose center is the goal.
Jazz Lesson for Classical Pianists
The syllabus for his classical to jazz series, from rhythm and the blues through comping and vocabulary.
Etude #1
A composed etude that outlines the fifth using four goal notes, each reached through a different scale.
Pentatonic Exercise - Jazz Piano Lesson
A descending pentatonic cell of one, six, five, three, sequenced down and taken around the circle of fifths.
Blue In Green Scales (slowed down)
A slowed replay of the Blue in Green scale material for copying by hand rather than explanation.
Diminished Lick Over a Modal Progression
A diminished lick planed in minor thirds over a modal progression, heard as minor four with a natural sixth.
How to make yourself practice (short)
Prescribes meditation before practice, since mental noise rather than laziness is what blocks the session.
How to make yourself practice
Build a written practice schedule small enough to keep every day for a year, with breaks between blocks.
Three Secrets to Hearing Chord Changes
Hear chord changes by tracking the single note that changes between chords, worked over an F blues.
Transcribing for Jazz Pianists
A short excerpt on transcribing slowly first and raising the tempo only once it is clean.
Chick Corea Matrix Exercise
A demonstration of an exercise from the Chick Corea tune Matrix; no transcript exists, so nothing spoken can be reported.
How to Become a Well Rounded Jazz Pianist (in 42 minutes)
A 42 minute roadmap for jazz piano, from technique and scales through harmony, transcription, comping and time.
Learn to play jazz piano; a brief overview
Orders the piano skills, two handed comping first, and corrects technique hands on with a guitarist.
Full Piano Lesson: Blue Bossa and basics
A full lesson on Blue Bossa that fixes technique, then builds comping, soloing and tunes around ii V I.
Ear training
15 videos
Ear training: recognizing triads
An ear training drill on roughly sixteen major and minor triads with the answer spoken after each chord.
Ear training: recognizing 7th chords
An ear training drill mixing triads with major 7, minor 7 and dominant 7 chords.
Ear training: recognizing 9th chords
A call and response ear drill on 9th chords mixed with plainer triads and denser voicings.
Exercise for recognizing chords (13th 9th 7th triads)
A capstone ear drill covering triads through 13th chords, with instructions to repeat until every answer is right.
How to improvise with musicality
Argues melodic interest comes from expectation and interval distance rather than from playing more notes.
For Musicians - Improve Your Time
A guided meditation for calibrating the internal pulse against a 104 bpm click on beat one.
Good Time and Feel: The Time Stack
Presents the Time Stack, four layers of consistency, precision, flexibility and subtlety, with tools for each.
Good Time and Feel: Swing Demystified
Defines swing as pushing the second eighth note back consistently, checked against a DAW grid.
Advanced Pianists Need This!!!
An eight bar call and response exercise over a blues that trains memory for what you just played.
How To Transcribe a Piano Solo
Walks through transcribing an Oscar Peterson solo with the Transcribe app, from finding the key onward.
Jazz for Classical Pianists; one thing you HAVE TO KNOW
Introduces swing to classical pianists using Count Basie, and how to count the pushed back eighth note.
Learn to improvise
Ties improvising to ear training through transcription and interval recognition, and defines improvisation as stringing vocabulary into a story.
Diminished Lick Over a Modal Progression
A diminished lick planed in minor thirds over a modal progression, heard as minor four with a natural sixth.
Learning Wayne Shorter Solo Technique - Goal Notes
Derives goal notes from a Wayne Shorter melody and tracks how his choruses circle back to them.
Three Secrets to Hearing Chord Changes
Hear chord changes by tracking the single note that changes between chords, worked over an F blues.
Rhythm and time
26 videos
The Blues Progression
Teaches the twelve bar blues in F with the root in the left hand and the third and seventh in the right.
Become more Musical in your Piano Solos
Restrict a whole solo on a known standard to one octave so the line stays melodic.
12 Steps to Musicality overview
Lays out twelve steps to musicality, from bebop origins and goal notes through feel and motifs.
How to create a melody and chord progression on piano
Builds a left hand shape of one, five, three and moves it under a melody over a descending bass.
Play Polyrhythms on Piano - First Lesson
Adds polytonality to the Chick Corea bassline polyrhythm by playing C Lydian ideas in unrelated keys.
How to Practice Polyrhythms - 2nd lesson
Runs a second Chick Corea bassline at 110 bpm and regroups triplets into four over the same pulse.
Learn to play polyrhythms - 3rd lesson
Thins the metronome to one click per bar over the Chick Corea bassline so you internalize the pulse.
Play Polyrhythms on Piano
Regroups triplets as sixteenths to float four over three, then deletes the downbeat click.
Polyrhythmic Exercise
The origin polyrhythm exercise, a Chick Corea bassline at 90 bpm with a three against four right hand.
Polyrhythmic 17/16 groove
A performance of a 17/16 groove with no spoken instruction.
For Musicians - Improve Your Time
A guided meditation for calibrating the internal pulse against a 104 bpm click on beat one.
Good Time and Feel: The Time Stack
Presents the Time Stack, four layers of consistency, precision, flexibility and subtlety, with tools for each.
Good Time and Feel: Swing Demystified
Defines swing as pushing the second eighth note back consistently, checked against a DAW grid.
USE A METRONOME!
A short instruction to run every exercise with a metronome while developing an inner pulse.
Tigran Hamasyan Transcription
An unedited transcription session on a Tigran Hamasyan line, counting five groupings over a 12/8 ostinato.
Blue in Green (in odd time)
A performance of Blue in Green recast in odd meter, with no spoken instruction.
How To Transcribe a Piano Solo
Walks through transcribing an Oscar Peterson solo with the Transcribe app, from finding the key onward.
The Three Elements of Jazz Music
States the three elements of jazz, melody, rhythm and harmony, weighted equally.
Jazz for Classical Pianists; one thing you HAVE TO KNOW
Introduces swing to classical pianists using Count Basie, and how to count the pushed back eighth note.
Jazz Lesson for Classical Pianists
The syllabus for his classical to jazz series, from rhythm and the blues through comping and vocabulary.
How To Improvise
A conversation with Ruslan Sirota on motivic development, treating a solo as composition with themes you return to.
Diminished Lick Over a Modal Progression
A diminished lick planed in minor thirds over a modal progression, heard as minor four with a natural sixth.
How to make yourself practice
Build a written practice schedule small enough to keep every day for a year, with breaks between blocks.
Three Secrets to Hearing Chord Changes
Hear chord changes by tracking the single note that changes between chords, worked over an F blues.
How to Become a Well Rounded Jazz Pianist (in 42 minutes)
A 42 minute roadmap for jazz piano, from technique and scales through harmony, transcription, comping and time.
Learn to play jazz piano; a brief overview
Orders the piano skills, two handed comping first, and corrects technique hands on with a guitarist.
Comping
7 videos
Diminished Lick Over a Modal Progression
A diminished lick planed in minor thirds over a modal progression, heard as minor four with a natural sixth.
Left Hand Comping (jazz 2-5-1 progression)
A demonstration of left hand voicings over ii V I; no transcript exists, so nothing spoken can be reported.
Left Hand Comping
A general left hand comping demonstration; no transcript exists, so nothing spoken can be reported.
Three Secrets to Hearing Chord Changes
Hear chord changes by tracking the single note that changes between chords, worked over an F blues.
How to Become a Well Rounded Jazz Pianist (in 42 minutes)
A 42 minute roadmap for jazz piano, from technique and scales through harmony, transcription, comping and time.
Learn to play jazz piano; a brief overview
Orders the piano skills, two handed comping first, and corrects technique hands on with a guitarist.
Full Piano Lesson: Blue Bossa and basics
A full lesson on Blue Bossa that fixes technique, then builds comping, soloing and tunes around ii V I.
Improvisation and goal notes
48 videos
Motivic Development???
Solo through a whole tune using one three note cell, landing it on a chord tone over each chord.
Outlining the 3rd
Aim every line at the third of each chord, demonstrated out of time on his song Hills.
Exercise for musicality (long)
Solo inside one octave and never finish a phrase, using expectation and deception on Cherokee.
Exercise for musicality (short)
A planing in thirds pattern that encloses and lands on a chosen goal note an octave below.
Goal Notes using Minor/Major scale ideas
Combines goal notes with the minor major scale, running it in thirds down to the major seventh.
How to improvise with musicality
Argues melodic interest comes from expectation and interval distance rather than from playing more notes.
Become more Musical in your Piano Solos
Restrict a whole solo on a known standard to one octave so the line stays melodic.
12 Steps to Musicality overview
Lays out twelve steps to musicality, from bebop origins and goal notes through feel and motifs.
Play Polyrhythms on Piano - First Lesson
Adds polytonality to the Chick Corea bassline polyrhythm by playing C Lydian ideas in unrelated keys.
How to Practice Polyrhythms - 2nd lesson
Runs a second Chick Corea bassline at 110 bpm and regroups triplets into four over the same pulse.
The Basis of All Music: The Tritone
Shows the tritone inside every major scale as the engine that moves one key to the next.
Understanding Tritones
Uses the Beatles flat six to explain tritone tension, goal notes, and diverging before resolving.
Colors and Superimpositions on the Piano
Names superimposition, playing an upper triad over an unrelated bass note to supply bright upper extensions.
Learn to play polyrhythms - 3rd lesson
Thins the metronome to one click per bar over the Chick Corea bassline so you internalize the pulse.
Play Polyrhythms on Piano
Regroups triplets as sixteenths to float four over three, then deletes the downbeat click.
Polyrhythmic Exercise
The origin polyrhythm exercise, a Chick Corea bassline at 90 bpm with a three against four right hand.
Blue in Green (in odd time)
A performance of Blue in Green recast in odd meter, with no spoken instruction.
Improv on Everything In It's Right Place
An improvisation on the Radiohead vamp; no transcript exists, so no spoken content can be reported.
Weekly Piano Improv #46 - for Schoenberg lovers
A numbered solo improvisation referencing Schoenberg; no transcript exists, so no spoken content can be reported.
This One Exercise will Transform Your Playing
A rhythm changes lesson restricting the solo to shrinking ranges so melody leads instead of the chord changes.
Advanced Pianists Need This!!!
An eight bar call and response exercise over a blues that trains memory for what you just played.
The Most Important Thing for Intermediate Piano Players
Defines goal notes and finds them in the Autumn Leaves melody by length and surrounding space.
The Biggest Pitfall for Piano Players
Uses space as the missing element, soloing within one octave on Autumn Leaves to shape phrases.
How to transform your playing in 10 minutes
No transcript exists for this video, so no content can be reported.
Learn to play fast
Teaches speed through a relaxed hand and a counterpoint finger motion rather than wrist and arm pressure.
Play arpeggios and shapes fast and with musicality
Runs dominant nine arpeggios up the keyboard in every key with the thumb placed on the third.
How to make a practice schedule
Builds a practice schedule in percentages, with blocks for scales, Beringer, transcription and tunes.
The two elements to being a great musician
Frames musicianship as freedom and vocabulary, two sides of a coin whose center is the goal.
Jazz Lesson for Classical Pianists
The syllabus for his classical to jazz series, from rhythm and the blues through comping and vocabulary.
Playing outside the changes
Two ways to play outside, rehearing a note as a different degree and sequencing substitute keys by goal notes.
Learn to improvise
Ties improvising to ear training through transcription and interval recognition, and defines improvisation as stringing vocabulary into a story.
How To Improvise
A conversation with Ruslan Sirota on motivic development, treating a solo as composition with themes you return to.
Solo Piano Improvisations followed by Explanation
Performances followed by his own analysis; no transcript exists, so no spoken content can be reported.
Etude #1
A composed etude that outlines the fifth using four goal notes, each reached through a different scale.
Jazz Scales to play over Maiden Voyage
Maps scale choices over the Maiden Voyage sus chords, including whole step planing and minor with major sixth and seventh.
Pentatonic Exercise - Jazz Piano Lesson
A descending pentatonic cell of one, six, five, three, sequenced down and taken around the circle of fifths.
Scales to solo over Blue In Green
A demonstration of scale choices over Blue in Green; no transcript exists, so nothing spoken can be reported.
Blue In Green Goal Notes
Picks the goal note from the melody first note and moves it only in stepwise motion.
Learning Wayne Shorter Solo Technique - Goal Notes
Derives goal notes from a Wayne Shorter melody and tracks how his choruses circle back to them.
Learning Bill Evans Solo Technique
Applies the Bill Evans idea of choosing one note and leading every line back to it.
Learning Herbie Hancock Solo Technique
Teaches the minor major scale as the Herbie Hancock color and superimposes it over an unrelated bass note.
Jazz Scales to play over a Blues
Plays a minor major scale a half step above the blues root to build tension toward the four chord.
How to make yourself practice
Build a written practice schedule small enough to keep every day for a year, with breaks between blocks.
Three Secrets to Hearing Chord Changes
Hear chord changes by tracking the single note that changes between chords, worked over an F blues.
Chick Corea Matrix Exercise
A demonstration of an exercise from the Chick Corea tune Matrix; no transcript exists, so nothing spoken can be reported.
How to play Shapes and Enclosures (fast)
Explains why a fast enclosure shape works, through deception and the goal note created by where you start.
How to Become a Well Rounded Jazz Pianist (in 42 minutes)
A 42 minute roadmap for jazz piano, from technique and scales through harmony, transcription, comping and time.
Full Piano Lesson: Blue Bossa and basics
A full lesson on Blue Bossa that fixes technique, then builds comping, soloing and tunes around ii V I.
Jazz language and blues
58 videos
Fingering for Bb Blues Scale
Fingers the Bb blues scale and explains why crossing the thumb from black key to black key is avoided.
Jazz Piano: The Circle of Fifths
A short demonstration of moving minor to dominant to major around the circle of fifths.
What is a 7th chord?
Defines the 7th chord as one, three, five and seven, and shows the dominant resolving a fifth below.
What is a 13th chord?
Explains why the 13th is the last available extension and why the major 13 takes the sharp eleven.
How to play 7th chords on piano
Shows how spacing makes a major 7 sound sweet and why the dominant leads a fifth below.
Inversions
Finds inversions by stacking the chord an octave above and reading any consecutive group of notes.
The Blues Progression
Teaches the twelve bar blues in F with the root in the left hand and the third and seventh in the right.
Chord progressions with 7th chords
Tours progressions built from 7th chords, including melody note locked movement and reharmonizing under a held top note.
Motivic Development???
Solo through a whole tune using one three note cell, landing it on a chord tone over each chord.
Outlining the 3rd
Aim every line at the third of each chord, demonstrated out of time on his song Hills.
Exercise for musicality (long)
Solo inside one octave and never finish a phrase, using expectation and deception on Cherokee.
Goal Notes using Minor/Major scale ideas
Combines goal notes with the minor major scale, running it in thirds down to the major seventh.
12 Steps to Musicality overview
Lays out twelve steps to musicality, from bebop origins and goal notes through feel and motifs.
Play Polyrhythms on Piano - First Lesson
Adds polytonality to the Chick Corea bassline polyrhythm by playing C Lydian ideas in unrelated keys.
How to Practice Polyrhythms - 2nd lesson
Runs a second Chick Corea bassline at 110 bpm and regroups triplets into four over the same pulse.
The Basis of All Music: The Tritone
Shows the tritone inside every major scale as the engine that moves one key to the next.
The most dissonant chord in the world
Builds one altered dominant voicing carrying every alteration at once and resolves it to a minor major chord.
The Most Beautiful Chord in the World
Teaches an altered dominant voicing from Ruslan Sirota and insists you hear every note inside it.
Understanding Tritones
Uses the Beatles flat six to explain tritone tension, goal notes, and diverging before resolving.
Theory and composition lesson
Traces how tonality was built from stacked fifths and how relativity gives a composer pivot points.
Colors and Superimpositions on the Piano
Names superimposition, playing an upper triad over an unrelated bass note to supply bright upper extensions.
Good Time and Feel: The Time Stack
Presents the Time Stack, four layers of consistency, precision, flexibility and subtlety, with tools for each.
Good Time and Feel: Swing Demystified
Defines swing as pushing the second eighth note back consistently, checked against a DAW grid.
Tigran Hamasyan Transcription
An unedited transcription session on a Tigran Hamasyan line, counting five groupings over a 12/8 ostinato.
Blue in Green (in odd time)
A performance of Blue in Green recast in odd meter, with no spoken instruction.
Improv on Everything In It's Right Place
An improvisation on the Radiohead vamp; no transcript exists, so no spoken content can be reported.
Weekly Piano Improv #46 - for Schoenberg lovers
A numbered solo improvisation referencing Schoenberg; no transcript exists, so no spoken content can be reported.
How to Learn Classical Music
Teaches a drop and reposition wrist technique for learning classical music one line at a time.
This One Exercise will Transform Your Playing
A rhythm changes lesson restricting the solo to shrinking ranges so melody leads instead of the chord changes.
Advanced Pianists Need This!!!
An eight bar call and response exercise over a blues that trains memory for what you just played.
The Most Important Thing for Intermediate Piano Players
Defines goal notes and finds them in the Autumn Leaves melody by length and surrounding space.
Learn to play fast
Teaches speed through a relaxed hand and a counterpoint finger motion rather than wrist and arm pressure.
Play arpeggios and shapes fast and with musicality
Runs dominant nine arpeggios up the keyboard in every key with the thumb placed on the third.
How to make a practice schedule
Builds a practice schedule in percentages, with blocks for scales, Beringer, transcription and tunes.
How To Transcribe a Piano Solo
Walks through transcribing an Oscar Peterson solo with the Transcribe app, from finding the key onward.
How to Transcribe and Study a Line on Piano
Extracts maximum information from one Brad Mehldau line, transcribing, analyzing, then drilling a fragment of it.
5 solos every pianist should transcribe
Names five solos to transcribe and what each one teaches, starting with Bill Evans on Autumn Leaves.
The two elements to being a great musician
Frames musicianship as freedom and vocabulary, two sides of a coin whose center is the goal.
Jazz for Classical Pianists; one thing you HAVE TO KNOW
Introduces swing to classical pianists using Count Basie, and how to count the pushed back eighth note.
Jazz Lesson for Classical Pianists
The syllabus for his classical to jazz series, from rhythm and the blues through comping and vocabulary.
Block Chords and Parallel Motion
Builds block chords by filling chord tones under the melody and moving the structure in parallel.
Playing outside the changes
Two ways to play outside, rehearing a note as a different degree and sequencing substitute keys by goal notes.
Why is Giant Steps an Augmented Progression?
Explains the augmented fifth behind Giant Steps and why the tune has no single settled key.
How To Improvise
A conversation with Ruslan Sirota on motivic development, treating a solo as composition with themes you return to.
Jazz Scales to play over Maiden Voyage
Maps scale choices over the Maiden Voyage sus chords, including whole step planing and minor with major sixth and seventh.
Pentatonic Exercise - Jazz Piano Lesson
A descending pentatonic cell of one, six, five, three, sequenced down and taken around the circle of fifths.
Diminished Lick Over a Modal Progression
A diminished lick planed in minor thirds over a modal progression, heard as minor four with a natural sixth.
Learning Wayne Shorter Solo Technique - Goal Notes
Derives goal notes from a Wayne Shorter melody and tracks how his choruses circle back to them.
Learning Bill Evans Solo Technique
Applies the Bill Evans idea of choosing one note and leading every line back to it.
Learning Herbie Hancock Solo Technique
Teaches the minor major scale as the Herbie Hancock color and superimposes it over an unrelated bass note.
Jazz Scales to play over a Blues
Plays a minor major scale a half step above the blues root to build tension toward the four chord.
Three Secrets to Hearing Chord Changes
Hear chord changes by tracking the single note that changes between chords, worked over an F blues.
Jazz Harmony: Transcribing
A short excerpt arguing harmonic depth comes from transcribing great pianists rather than from theory.
Chick Corea Matrix Exercise
A demonstration of an exercise from the Chick Corea tune Matrix; no transcript exists, so nothing spoken can be reported.
How to play Shapes and Enclosures (fast)
Explains why a fast enclosure shape works, through deception and the goal note created by where you start.
How to Become a Well Rounded Jazz Pianist (in 42 minutes)
A 42 minute roadmap for jazz piano, from technique and scales through harmony, transcription, comping and time.
Learn to play jazz piano; a brief overview
Orders the piano skills, two handed comping first, and corrects technique hands on with a guitarist.
Full Piano Lesson: Blue Bossa and basics
A full lesson on Blue Bossa that fixes technique, then builds comping, soloing and tunes around ii V I.
Musicality and phrasing
32 videos
Fingering for Bb Blues Scale
Fingers the Bb blues scale and explains why crossing the thumb from black key to black key is avoided.
Motivic Development???
Solo through a whole tune using one three note cell, landing it on a chord tone over each chord.
Exercise for musicality (long)
Solo inside one octave and never finish a phrase, using expectation and deception on Cherokee.
Exercise for musicality (short)
A planing in thirds pattern that encloses and lands on a chosen goal note an octave below.
Goal Notes using Minor/Major scale ideas
Combines goal notes with the minor major scale, running it in thirds down to the major seventh.
How to improvise with musicality
Argues melodic interest comes from expectation and interval distance rather than from playing more notes.
Become more Musical in your Piano Solos
Restrict a whole solo on a known standard to one octave so the line stays melodic.
12 Steps to Musicality overview
Lays out twelve steps to musicality, from bebop origins and goal notes through feel and motifs.
Play Polyrhythms on Piano - First Lesson
Adds polytonality to the Chick Corea bassline polyrhythm by playing C Lydian ideas in unrelated keys.
The Most Beautiful Chord in the World
Teaches an altered dominant voicing from Ruslan Sirota and insists you hear every note inside it.
Good Time and Feel: The Time Stack
Presents the Time Stack, four layers of consistency, precision, flexibility and subtlety, with tools for each.
Improv on Everything In It's Right Place
An improvisation on the Radiohead vamp; no transcript exists, so no spoken content can be reported.
Weekly Piano Improv #46 - for Schoenberg lovers
A numbered solo improvisation referencing Schoenberg; no transcript exists, so no spoken content can be reported.
Advanced Pianists Need This!!!
An eight bar call and response exercise over a blues that trains memory for what you just played.
The Most Important Thing for Intermediate Piano Players
Defines goal notes and finds them in the Autumn Leaves melody by length and surrounding space.
The Biggest Pitfall for Piano Players
Uses space as the missing element, soloing within one octave on Autumn Leaves to shape phrases.
How to transform your playing in 10 minutes
No transcript exists for this video, so no content can be reported.
How NOT to practice!!
Argues against grinding technical exercises and for musical ones, using his own burnout as evidence.
5 solos every pianist should transcribe
Names five solos to transcribe and what each one teaches, starting with Bill Evans on Autumn Leaves.
The Three Elements of Jazz Music
States the three elements of jazz, melody, rhythm and harmony, weighted equally.
The two elements to being a great musician
Frames musicianship as freedom and vocabulary, two sides of a coin whose center is the goal.
Learn to improvise
Ties improvising to ear training through transcription and interval recognition, and defines improvisation as stringing vocabulary into a story.
How To Improvise
A conversation with Ruslan Sirota on motivic development, treating a solo as composition with themes you return to.
Solo Piano Improvisations followed by Explanation
Performances followed by his own analysis; no transcript exists, so no spoken content can be reported.
Etude #1
A composed etude that outlines the fifth using four goal notes, each reached through a different scale.
Jazz Scales to play over Maiden Voyage
Maps scale choices over the Maiden Voyage sus chords, including whole step planing and minor with major sixth and seventh.
Blue In Green Goal Notes
Picks the goal note from the melody first note and moves it only in stepwise motion.
Learning Wayne Shorter Solo Technique - Goal Notes
Derives goal notes from a Wayne Shorter melody and tracks how his choruses circle back to them.
Learning Bill Evans Solo Technique
Applies the Bill Evans idea of choosing one note and leading every line back to it.
How to make yourself practice (short)
Prescribes meditation before practice, since mental noise rather than laziness is what blocks the session.
How to make yourself practice
Build a written practice schedule small enough to keep every day for a year, with breaks between blocks.
Learn to play jazz piano; a brief overview
Orders the piano skills, two handed comping first, and corrects technique hands on with a guitarist.
Melody and motivic development
30 videos
Motivic Development???
Solo through a whole tune using one three note cell, landing it on a chord tone over each chord.
Outlining the 3rd
Aim every line at the third of each chord, demonstrated out of time on his song Hills.
Exercise for musicality (long)
Solo inside one octave and never finish a phrase, using expectation and deception on Cherokee.
Goal Notes using Minor/Major scale ideas
Combines goal notes with the minor major scale, running it in thirds down to the major seventh.
How to improvise with musicality
Argues melodic interest comes from expectation and interval distance rather than from playing more notes.
Become more Musical in your Piano Solos
Restrict a whole solo on a known standard to one octave so the line stays melodic.
12 Steps to Musicality overview
Lays out twelve steps to musicality, from bebop origins and goal notes through feel and motifs.
How to create a melody and chord progression on piano
Builds a left hand shape of one, five, three and moves it under a melody over a descending bass.
Theory and composition lesson
Traces how tonality was built from stacked fifths and how relativity gives a composer pivot points.
Colors and Superimpositions on the Piano
Names superimposition, playing an upper triad over an unrelated bass note to supply bright upper extensions.
Polyrhythmic Exercise
The origin polyrhythm exercise, a Chick Corea bassline at 90 bpm with a three against four right hand.
Tigran Hamasyan Transcription
An unedited transcription session on a Tigran Hamasyan line, counting five groupings over a 12/8 ostinato.
This One Exercise will Transform Your Playing
A rhythm changes lesson restricting the solo to shrinking ranges so melody leads instead of the chord changes.
Advanced Pianists Need This!!!
An eight bar call and response exercise over a blues that trains memory for what you just played.
The Most Important Thing for Intermediate Piano Players
Defines goal notes and finds them in the Autumn Leaves melody by length and surrounding space.
The Biggest Pitfall for Piano Players
Uses space as the missing element, soloing within one octave on Autumn Leaves to shape phrases.
How to make a practice schedule
Builds a practice schedule in percentages, with blocks for scales, Beringer, transcription and tunes.
How to Transcribe and Study a Line on Piano
Extracts maximum information from one Brad Mehldau line, transcribing, analyzing, then drilling a fragment of it.
5 solos every pianist should transcribe
Names five solos to transcribe and what each one teaches, starting with Bill Evans on Autumn Leaves.
The Three Elements of Jazz Music
States the three elements of jazz, melody, rhythm and harmony, weighted equally.
Jazz Lesson for Classical Pianists
The syllabus for his classical to jazz series, from rhythm and the blues through comping and vocabulary.
Playing outside the changes
Two ways to play outside, rehearing a note as a different degree and sequencing substitute keys by goal notes.
Learn to improvise
Ties improvising to ear training through transcription and interval recognition, and defines improvisation as stringing vocabulary into a story.
How To Improvise
A conversation with Ruslan Sirota on motivic development, treating a solo as composition with themes you return to.
Solo Piano Improvisations followed by Explanation
Performances followed by his own analysis; no transcript exists, so no spoken content can be reported.
Etude #1
A composed etude that outlines the fifth using four goal notes, each reached through a different scale.
Blue In Green Goal Notes
Picks the goal note from the melody first note and moves it only in stepwise motion.
Learning Wayne Shorter Solo Technique - Goal Notes
Derives goal notes from a Wayne Shorter melody and tracks how his choruses circle back to them.
Learning Bill Evans Solo Technique
Applies the Bill Evans idea of choosing one note and leading every line back to it.
How to play Shapes and Enclosures (fast)
Explains why a fast enclosure shape works, through deception and the goal note created by where you start.
Composition
11 videos
Chord progressions with 7th chords
Tours progressions built from 7th chords, including melody note locked movement and reharmonizing under a held top note.
Outlining the 3rd
Aim every line at the third of each chord, demonstrated out of time on his song Hills.
Exercise for musicality (long)
Solo inside one octave and never finish a phrase, using expectation and deception on Cherokee.
How to create a melody and chord progression on piano
Builds a left hand shape of one, five, three and moves it under a melody over a descending bass.
Understanding Tritones
Uses the Beatles flat six to explain tritone tension, goal notes, and diverging before resolving.
Theory and composition lesson
Traces how tonality was built from stacked fifths and how relativity gives a composer pivot points.
Learn Bach's Prelude in C Major
Walks through the first Bach Prelude in C, reducing each bar to a chord to expose the voice leading.
The Most Important Thing for Intermediate Piano Players
Defines goal notes and finds them in the Autumn Leaves melody by length and surrounding space.
How to Transcribe and Study a Line on Piano
Extracts maximum information from one Brad Mehldau line, transcribing, analyzing, then drilling a fragment of it.
How To Improvise
A conversation with Ruslan Sirota on motivic development, treating a solo as composition with themes you return to.
Solo Piano Improvisations followed by Explanation
Performances followed by his own analysis; no transcript exists, so no spoken content can be reported.
Transcription
17 videos
12 Steps to Musicality overview
Lays out twelve steps to musicality, from bebop origins and goal notes through feel and motifs.
Good Time and Feel: Swing Demystified
Defines swing as pushing the second eighth note back consistently, checked against a DAW grid.
Tigran Hamasyan Transcription
An unedited transcription session on a Tigran Hamasyan line, counting five groupings over a 12/8 ostinato.
How to Learn Classical Music
Teaches a drop and reposition wrist technique for learning classical music one line at a time.
How to make a practice schedule
Builds a practice schedule in percentages, with blocks for scales, Beringer, transcription and tunes.
Practicing SLOW!!!
States the slow practice principle, starting scales at 40 bpm and speeding up only once they are perfect.
How To Transcribe a Piano Solo
Walks through transcribing an Oscar Peterson solo with the Transcribe app, from finding the key onward.
How to Transcribe and Study a Line on Piano
Extracts maximum information from one Brad Mehldau line, transcribing, analyzing, then drilling a fragment of it.
5 solos every pianist should transcribe
Names five solos to transcribe and what each one teaches, starting with Bill Evans on Autumn Leaves.
Learn to improvise
Ties improvising to ear training through transcription and interval recognition, and defines improvisation as stringing vocabulary into a story.
Learning Wayne Shorter Solo Technique - Goal Notes
Derives goal notes from a Wayne Shorter melody and tracks how his choruses circle back to them.
Jazz Harmony: Transcribing
A short excerpt arguing harmonic depth comes from transcribing great pianists rather than from theory.
Transcribing for Jazz Pianists
A short excerpt on transcribing slowly first and raising the tempo only once it is clean.
Chick Corea Matrix Exercise
A demonstration of an exercise from the Chick Corea tune Matrix; no transcript exists, so nothing spoken can be reported.
How to Become a Well Rounded Jazz Pianist (in 42 minutes)
A 42 minute roadmap for jazz piano, from technique and scales through harmony, transcription, comping and time.
Learn to play jazz piano; a brief overview
Orders the piano skills, two handed comping first, and corrects technique hands on with a guitarist.
Full Piano Lesson: Blue Bossa and basics
A full lesson on Blue Bossa that fixes technique, then builds comping, soloing and tunes around ii V I.
Bach and classical
13 videos
Basic Piano Lesson #1: Major scales and triads
Sets hand position, contrary finger motion, the Beringer exercises, and all major scales at 40 bpm with triads on demand.
The Basis of All Music: The Tritone
Shows the tritone inside every major scale as the engine that moves one key to the next.
Understanding Tritones
Uses the Beatles flat six to explain tritone tension, goal notes, and diverging before resolving.
Theory and composition lesson
Traces how tonality was built from stacked fifths and how relativity gives a composer pivot points.
Colors and Superimpositions on the Piano
Names superimposition, playing an upper triad over an unrelated bass note to supply bright upper extensions.
Good Time and Feel: Swing Demystified
Defines swing as pushing the second eighth note back consistently, checked against a DAW grid.
Weekly Piano Improv #46 - for Schoenberg lovers
A numbered solo improvisation referencing Schoenberg; no transcript exists, so no spoken content can be reported.
Why Every Jazz Pianist Should Learn Bach
Names the Bach pieces he keeps in his routine and why he uses them for technique.
Learn Bach's Prelude in C Major
Walks through the first Bach Prelude in C, reducing each bar to a chord to expose the voice leading.
Learn to play Bach in 1 Hour
Learns a Bach piece in an hour by metronome laddering from 62 bpm upward with a relaxed arm.
How to Learn Classical Music
Teaches a drop and reposition wrist technique for learning classical music one line at a time.
How to make a practice schedule
Builds a practice schedule in percentages, with blocks for scales, Beringer, transcription and tunes.
How to Become a Well Rounded Jazz Pianist (in 42 minutes)
A 42 minute roadmap for jazz piano, from technique and scales through harmony, transcription, comping and time.
Also cited in the lessons
14 videos
Autumn Leaves basics; comping and walking bass line
the clearest statement of the fingering principle, and the rule that every mode borrows its relative major's fingering
Jazz Scales to play over Take Five
five layers stacked over one Dorian vamp, from the mode to a pentatonic inside it to minor-major superimpositions three steps out
Herbie Hancock Solo Technique Explained: Minor-Major Solo Line
the half-step-above minor-major device applied to a whole turnaround, with the scale spelled degree by degree
Jazz Harmony, Piano Chords - Drop-2 Voicings Explained
the operation derived from scratch, all four inversions, and the all-keys assignment
How to Comp using Drop-2 Voicings
the direct sequel, applying drop-2 through a whole form with three colorings of the same dominant
Actual Piano Practice Session: Drop 2 chords
58 unedited minutes of Greg drilling the exercise at 40 bpm, so you can see what the practice actually looks like
How To Solo over Autumn Leaves
one shape sequenced through changing modes, then answered with a variation that resolves unexpectedly
Keith Jarrett Piano Lesson
the goal note as a moving target, lowered from one phrase to the next
Weekly Piano Lesson: How to Solo Over Giant Steps
choosing a goal note that works across two keys at once
How to play Coltrane's Afro Blue on piano - session one
the feel diagnosed first: a four driving through the three, and why the backing track was wrong
How to play Coltrane's Afro Blue - second coaching session Masterclass
the layer stack for 3-against-2, built and stripped and rebuilt live with a trio
How to play Coltrane's Afro Blue on piano - third coaching session
the seven-step independence ladder, from comping alone to an octave of right-hand motion
How to play Coltrane's Afro Blue on piano - fourth coaching session
the write-it-down drill: notate where the hands intersect, then move the right hand until they stop
Get Started Fast with Sibelius: Layout, Instrument Changes, Transposition, Playback
Avid's own tutorial, 13 minutes, on the layout and playback half of the program