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Jazz Notes

Melody

Now we will move our interest to what your right hand is supposed to do. If you play solo or do not have any other lead; a vocalist, trumpet, saxophone or other instrument playing the melody.

Phrasing

[To be written]

Improvisation

[To be written]

Putting It Together

Now it’s time to use what we learned so far and apply it on a tune, preferably a jazz standard.

Learn the melody

Learn the melody, play it straight. Play through whole song and memorize it.

Learn the bass

Learn the bass line. No chords or reharmonization, play just the root, and memorize it.

Learn melody and bass

Learn to play the melody and bass together.

Expand the arrangement

Now it’s time to expand the arrangement, introduce full blown chords, figure out how to reharmonize and lay them out on the keyboard together with phrasing of the melody, if you play solo.

Make it personal

Create your own intro, improvised solo and outro.

2 comments

  1. Fleur
    Posted March 21, 2007 at 15:40 | Permalink

    Really interesting article, though I’m not a musician myself, I’m an avid jazz fan. Thanks for the information.Always search the web for cool music jazz mp3 is a site where one can compile perfect playlists. A cushy spot for a music addict!

  2. Posted March 21, 2007 at 18:24 | Permalink

    @Fleur: The link didn’t come through (only an empty anchor element without href attribute).

One Trackback/Pingback

  1. By Dahnielson » Uppjazzat on March 16, 2007 at 10:31

    […] det blivit lite väl mycket trams här. På annat håll har jag däremot grävt fram och publicerat ”Jazz Notes”, en gammal text som varit liggande i ett par år. Artikeln är skriven av Anders Dahnielson och […]

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