Melvin Goh UiTM Piano Workshop September 17, 2020

UiTM JAZZ SERIES WEBINAR

Keyboard & Piano Grooves:
Soloing & Accompanying Methods
This workshop aims to cover fundamental and practical methods that will
help contemporary piano players/students approach jazz improvisation in a
way that is clear and concise. We will briefly cover targeted foundational
areas that are essential in helping you solidify your role as an accompanist
before going in depth on the topics of soloing and improvisation . Listed
below are the foundational areas:

1. Voicings
a. Basic chords and formulas
b. ii-V-I major voicings
• 3/7 guide tones
• 3-note voicings A+B
• 4-note voicings A+B
c. ii-V-i minor voicings
• 3-note voicings A+B
• 4-note voicings A+B

2. Blue’s Basics
a. Basic blue’s form
b. Blue’s 3-note voicings
c. Blue’s 4-note voicings
d. Blue’s 3/7 guide tones

3. Jazz Piano Comping

a. What is “comping”?
b. Swing comping examples
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The next segment will be solely focused on concise jazz improvisation. We

will look at various methods and solo ideas that will be help us to see and
understand the use of specific approaches in soloing. The topics that will be
covered are such as:

1. Solo idea for major scale modes

i. 6 tone descending scale
ii. Arpeggios (chord tones): ascending or descending
iii. 7-6-9 pattern
iv. Neighbor tone
i. Lower neighbor tone (Half step/chromatic)
ii. Upper neighbor tone (Whole step)
v. Adding an ascending minor
vi. Adding the bebop scale
vii. Adding the dominant chord tone (3-5-7-9)

2. Solo idea for half-diminished chord

i. Using an ascending minor (minor 3rd above)

3. Putting it together and practicing it

i. Combining the different approaches
ii. Practicing exercises

4. Applying the ideas in songs

i. Moments Notice
ii. Joyspring
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Voicings
The ii-V-I cadence has a certain level of sophistication. It is essential that jazz
musicians be able to spot the ii-V-I cadence immediately, as they are
important in jazz harmony and central to the process of improvising over
changes. It is important to be familiar with this very common jazz chord
progression, as it will allow one to look at a set of chord changes and
perceive the overall tonal structure.

a. Basic chords and formulas

b. ii-V-I major voicings

• Guide tones - the 3rd and 7th notes of the chords
• Their tendency to resolve from a point of tension to a point of
resolution is characteristic of jazz harmony

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 • The voice leading that results from guide tone resolutions provide
smoother inner lines: F to E and C to B

Things to take note:

• The root is already in the bass
• The 5th can be freely omitted
• The 3rd and 7th should be emphasized when moving from one chord to
another

Example of Guide Tone voicings for left hand:

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Melvin Goh UiTM Piano Workshop September 17, 2020 • ii-V-I: 3-note

voicings for left hand

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• ii-V-I: 4-note voicings for left hand

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Melvin Goh UiTM Piano Workshop September 17, 2020 c. ii-V-i minor voicings

• ii-V-i: 3-note voicings for left hand

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• ii-V-i: 4-note voicing for left hand

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Melvin Goh UiTM Piano Workshop September 17, 2020

Blues Basics
The Blues is a musical form that jazz musicians have always embraced
because it allows them the opportunity to express emotion and everyday
feeling and intellectual concepts, which are often learned by studying another
 player’s style and conception.

Most beginning improvisers use the Blues as a springboard to other jazz

forms. They feel that you learn the blues scales of the key the blues is in and
just sort of improvise what you feel over that scale sound. They probably
think this is what they are hearing when they listen to jazz players on radio or
records. But, if you check out the major jazz influences, you will begin to hear
much more than the blues scale.

a. Basic blues form

• The basic 12 bar blues originally used what we call three chords. They
are a:
o Dominant 7th built on the root
o Dominant 7th built on the fourth
o Dominant 7th built on the fifth
• The blues in the key of F uses these three chords: F7, Bb7 and C7

F7 F7 F7 F7 Bb7 Bb7 F7 F7 C7 Bb7 F7 C7 Basic 12 bar blues

F7 Bb7 F7 Cm7 F7 Bb7 Bb7 F7 Am7 D7 Gm7 C7 F D7 Gm7 C7 12 bar

jazz blues variation

b. Blues 3-note voicings September 17, 2020

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Melvin Goh UiTM Piano Workshop September 17, 2020 c. Blues 4-note

voicings
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d. Blues voicing 3/7 Guide Tone

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Melvin Goh UiTM Piano Workshop September 17, 2020

Jazz Piano Comping

1. What is comping?

The Rhythm Section

The standard rhythm sections consist of the piano, bass and drums. There
are some that use the vibraphone or guitar. Each of these instruments has a
specific role to play in providing support for the soloists.

Comping
Providing accompaniment for soloists (comping) is a primary function of the
rhythm section. Comping provides an improvised background involving both
chordal and rhythmic components. When comping, a musician must support,
compliment, and give energy to the soloists while providing rhythmic variety .
Musicians who comp must use their ears in order to make creative choices.

When comping, musicians must remember to:

• Keep a steady tempo
• Listen to the rhythm section
• Maintain simplicity and clarity
• Vary the rhythmic patterns
• Change or alternate voicing
• Make use of space and balance
• Utilize chord substitutions

2. Swing comping examples

When comping, piano players or even guitar players employ a numerous

variation of rhythms. The following examples illustrate some common and
useful comping rhythms in the swing context. They should be practiced at a
steady tempo, with a metronome, and keeping in mind the supportive role
you play in providing the comping.

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Melvin Goh UiTM Piano Workshop September 17, 2020
How to practice?
• Remember to use a metronome
o Pick a steady tempo that you are comfortable with, play to the
metronome on the 2nd and 4th beats instead of playing to it on
all four beats.

• You can practice these patterns by applying the 12 bar blues

progression in it, as this well help you hear the rhythmic and the
harmonic elements as you practice.

• Practice the comping on your left hand without the right hand first. •
Make sure that you aren’t always playing the chord on the beat, focus on
anticipating the beats to give your solo a sense of forward motion. •
Remember that the left hand comping volume should not be louder than
the right hand playing the melody or lines.

• Pay attention to how the comping fits rhythmically with the rest of the
musicians and with the soloists.

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 Concise Jazz Improvisation
This section will focus on the creation of jazz lines using modes from major
and harmonic minor scales.

Solo Idea for Major Scale Modes

Ingredients for Cmaj, Amin and D7

i. 6 tone descending scale

ii. Arpeggios (chord tones): ascending or descending

iii. 7-6-9 pattern

iv. Neighbor tone

a. Lower neighbor tone (Half step/chromatic)

b. Upper neighbor tone (Whole step)

• Be familiar with each ingredient, especially with how you place and
control the target notes (9,7 and 5) on the downbeats.

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• Combine the four ingredients together and notice how the target notes
fall on the downbeats.
Example of combining the first 4 ingredients:

Adding an Ascending Minor

v. Ascending Relative Minor Scale

• You can combine this fifth ingredient along with the previous four. •
Because of the different set of target notes, chromatic approaches are to
be used to connect the ideas, in order for the target notes to always fall
on the downbeat.

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Example of using the first four ingredients + ascending minor:

 vi. Adding the bebop scale
D mixolydian bebop scale (8 tone scale with chord tones on downbeats)

vii. Adding the dominant chord tone (3-5-7-9)

Think D7 and play the chord tones 3-5-7-9 and resolve either on the root or
the 13th note.

• We can also combine the new two ingredients we just learnt with the
previous five ingredients that we went through earlier on.

• Remember, that the chromatic approach is still needed to connect the

ideas together due to the different set of target notes.

• We still want the chord tones to fall on the downbeat; hence the
chromatic approaches help us to do so.

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Example of combining all seven ingredients:

 Approaching m7(b5)/ half-diminished chords
When we see chords like F#m7(b5), Am79(b5) or even Dm7(b5), we just need
to think a minor 3rd above and play the ascending minor scale of the minor 3 rd
interval.

Example:
A minor 3rd from F# = A, so the notes for the A minor ascending scale are:
A-B-C-D-E-C-B-A
(Exactly as what we’ve talked about on the above example)

This is how it would look like in given examples:

Putting it together
• Connecting the ideas
• Applying the ideas on chords/harmonic analysis in a song.

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