I am just starting to learn what the letters at the top of the jazz piano sheet music mean (like EbMaj13). Its just that when i strike a chord in my left and play with my right, it sounds whack and i only play the chords in THAT key. For example, if i was ad-libing in the key of C, i would only play white keys and no black keys. Help?
I play the keys. Learn all of your major, minor and jazz scales. It will give you a greater sense of control and direction, like someone else suggested.
Learn your blues, minor and major pentatonic scales because if all you do is improvise using the same diatonic major and minor scales it can sound repetitive after a while.
Also like someone else suggested, think it terms of musical statements/phrases. Experiment with phrases of a few notes and lots of notes. You would be surprised how much you can say playing just a few notes in a phrase. Play straight from the soul without thinking. That's the definition of improvise and that's how you do it. Toss in some accidentals. Play outside (of the key).
You could try flatting the 7th tone or the second tone. You could try a relative minor as the tonal center.
~Music Resource~
http://www.squidoo.com/music-resource A couple of quick tips:
Try thinking in terms of musical phrases, as in short ideas that have a shape to them. If you can't really figure out what you're trying to say in your phrases, try at least making small ideas, and responding to them. For example, you can do a call and answer type of thing, where you play a small idea, and then answer it with another that "rhymes" with it.
In terms of actual theory, the most important concept to get is the way that notes can lean into each other. The entirety of music theory boils down to building tension and releasing it, and harmonically/melodically this boils down to realizing what notes are "stable" in a given context, and what notes want to resolve to someplace else.
There's alot of complex theories and scales to do this, which are in reality based upon the vibrations of given notes and how they interact mathematically, but knowing all of that rarely comes into use when actually trying to say something with music. Again, in the end it comes down to using your ear to hear where the note you are playing wants to go, and using that tension and release to shape phrases and express yourself through them. You may not want to hear this, but the best thing you can do right now is to learn and practice scales in all keys. This will attune your ear to the intervals and teach you where the flatted 3rds and the 7ths are - both primary ingredients in blues and jazz improvisation. When you know scales by rote, the improv can occur much more spontaneously.
Scales will also condition proper fingering so you're not tripping all over yourself when you move around the keyboard.
You need both hands to play a full Eb13. Here's a shortcut for playing 13ths:
Play the major triad, in this case, the notes Eb, G, Bb with the left hand; in the right hand, play a Dbmaj 7 - Db, F, Ab, C.
You can learn 11ths and 13ths this way. For a C13, for instance, play a Cmajor triad with the left, and a Bbmaj7 with the right. L: C,E,G R: Bb, D, F, A natural.
Play your root major chord in the left, and the major 7th two steps down for 13ths... D13 - D major triad left, C maj7 right; F13 - F major triad left, Ebmaj7 right, and so on.
You should learn to play by instinct all majors, minors, 7ths, diminished, augmented, 9ths, 11ths, and 13ths in all keys. It's all very mathematical, the rules apply to all keys Transcribe some Oscar Peterson and Gene Harris! The first step to learning awesome jazz vocabulary is learning from the greats. These will probably be very tough at first, but if you just start listening to them a lot, you will quickly absorb some of their ideas and transcriptions will become easier with time. |
