Piano

Jazz Preparation Pack

www.lcm.ac.uk | @LeedsMusic
 Congratulations on your successful audition to study Jazz at Leeds College of Music.
We are very much looking forward to welcoming you to our community!

This booklet has been designed to give you some advice as to the sort of things you might want to spend some
time looking at between now and the onset of your course. The idea is to make sure that we ‘hit the ground
running’ in September, by giving you a bit of notice as to the sort of topic areas that may be covered.

It’s important to clarify that you will be assigned to a 1-to-1 tutor upon enrolment, and the content of the lessons
you receive will be determined by them once they have met you and got a sense of what you would benefit from
the most. Naturally, your own interests and aspirations will come into it as well – we don’t deliver ‘one size fits all’
lessons. Having said that, though, there are certain fundamentals that every Jazz musician needs to deal with in one
way or other, and the purpose of this booklet is to give you a bit of a head start in these areas.

The idea of this pack is to give you some resources to use and practice so that you have some fundamental
concepts and ideas in place for when you begin the course here at Leeds College of Music in September.
The idea is to work through these ideas slowly making sure you have internalised the material presented and that
you are able to play/demonstrate these when needed.
No-one expects you to have fully mastered all of this before you start, but any progress you can make towards that
goal will be time very well spent!

Technique
There are many approaches to developing your technique, depending on the specific area you are looking at. Here are
a few suggestions of exercises, books and pieces, to be working through, ahead of your study at LCoM, with a view to
developing control of sound, strengthening muscles, fingering and coordination.

-- Hanon - The Virtuoso Pianist Book 1

-- Scales - ABRSM Grade 8 Piano

-- Bach - 2 part inventions, Preludes and Fugues

-- Piano Yoga - Transform your Hands – A Complete 10 Week Course of Piano Exercises

Another great way to work on technique is by learning other pianists’ solos – transcribing by ear is the best way to do this.
When transcribing for piano, learn the left hand and the right hand as you go along. Don’t be tempted to take the right
hand down first. This way you will develop a more integrated approach from the offset.

Transcribe solos by ear and learn by memory. Singing the melody through is a good idea too. Go through this process to
internalise the language and the way that ideas flow. If you can start to make these connections aurally, your playing will
sound idiomatically informed (convincing). See the transcription section for more advice.

Left Hand

Make a point of studying left hand techniques and finding different ways to bring the left hand into your
improvisations. A little finesse in this area goes a long way.

There are many approaches to creating different sounds and textures with the left hand, here a few techniques to
get you started. Work on these approaches whilst improvising with the right hand.
 Practice positioning the left hand chords on the quaver before the chord is written – so typically on the ‘and’ of
beat two or the ‘and’ of beat four.

Accompanying the right hand, this might look like:

Also practice playing the left-hand chord in the gaps:

And hooking-up the voicing at the ends of the phrases:

Practice these three techniques whilst you are improvising. Integrating your left hand in this way, gives a stronger
rhythmic foundation to your playing. It also forces us to position phrases with consideration and think about space.

Voicings
Here are a few basic shapes that you should be able to play over a chord sequence, from sight. Practice them with a bass
player or a play-along. Also practice all voicings ascending and descending chromatically, in whole-tone movement, in
minor thirds, in major thirds and round the cycle of 5ths. This will help with transposition and sequential development.

At this stage we are covering basic chord types. We will explore harmony that is derived from alternative modes (to the
major scale) at a later stage.

These voicings do not resonate well in the low register – use your ears to work out the best inversion, to compliment the
right hand.
 Common Left Hand Shapes

As with two handed shapes, there are a wide range of possibilities and variations. It is important to start with a
systematic approach, building a level of continuity. Once you have a good amount of options at your disposal,
invention will follow.

Here are some common four note left shapes to start with.

The above includes the guide tones and the 5th and 9th.

The above includes the guide tones and the 9th and 13th.

The above includes the guide tones and the 5th and 9th.

Here are the same voicings with one note taken out to give a lighter texture. The four note shapes can sound quite
dense.
To strip it back to two notes, leave the guide tones (3rds and 7ths).

The examples below are written in treble clef with the root note in the left hand. Practice playing in this way, then
practice playing the guide tones in the left hand with a bass player or play-along covering the root notes.

The above example is based upon dominant 7 chords. Practice with major and minor chords too.

The above example is based on Maj7 chords.

The above example is based on Min7 chords.

Once you can play through the guidetones in all keys and comfortably apply them in the left hand, whilst playing
through an unfamiliar chord sequence, start to add notes to the right hand. Here are some effective two note
combinations (avoiding doubling the left hand guidetones).
Once you can play through the guidetones in all keys and comfortably apply them in the left hand, whilst playing
through an unfamiliar chord sequence, start to add notes to the right hand. Here are some effective two note
combinations (avoiding doubling the left hand guidetones).

The Fmin7 includes the 5th 9th and the Bbmin7 includes the 11th and the 9th.

The F7 includes the 5th and 9th and the Bb7 includes the 9th and 13th.

The Fmaj7 includes the 5th and 9th and the Bbmaj7 includes the 9th and 13th.

Once you feel comfortable moving these shapes around with parallel movement, practice applying them to chord
progressions – over standards. Voice-lead through cadence to achieve minimal movement.
The next step is to apply alterations to the dominant chords. Be mindful of the melody note on the HEAD. Solo
sections can be approached with more freedom.

Practice using these techniques, with a rhythmic approach, over the following standards to start with:

-- Autumn Leaves

-- All the Things You Are

-- Have You Met Miss Jones

-- Beatrice

-- Bod and Soul

 Pianists & Albums To Check Out

There are so many great Jazz pianists to check out. Good advice is to find a small number of artists that you
really connect with, and immerse yourself in their music.
Some influential musicians and albums to check out are:

Erol Garner Geri Allen

Ready Take One , Contrasts, Concert by the Sea The Gathering, The Life of a Song, The Printmakers

Bud Powel Herbie Hancock

The Amazing Bud Powel Volume 1-4, Blues in the Speak Like a Child, Mwandishi, Herbie Hancock Trio
Closet, Live in Louisiana with Ron Carter and Tony Williams

Amed Jamal Chick Corea

Live at the Pershing Lounge, Ahmad Jamal at the Now He Sings, Now He Sobs, Return To Forever,
Blackhawk Selected Recordings – ECM

Thelonious Monk John Taylor

Monks Blues, Monks Music, Straight no Chaser Peter Erskine Trio- As it Was, Songs and Variations,
Azimuth ’85
Marian McPartland
Anything Goes, Just Friends, Bossa Nova + Soul Keith Jarrett
My Song, Standards Vol 2, Expectations
Bill Evans
Sunday at the Village Vanguard, Alone, Undercurrent Brad Mehldau
Art of the Trio Volume One, Largo, Seymour Reads
the Constitution

An Approach to Improvisation

Study of improvisation is endless – learning and internalising devices and concepts, to enable us to navigate our way
around varying structures (or not). Try to find exercises that will help you develop solos for the pieces you are working on
now, whether for a concert, audition or band rehearsal. Transcription is great for developing language (see the worksheet
on this). Playing with other musicians is vital (learning from what those around you play and what feels good to you). Over
time, you will figure out all kinds of methods and approaches.

This is a straightforward compositional approach that helps generate strong points of resolution. Remember, the resolution
is the moment when the idea becomes complete.

Choose strong chord tones to resolve on strong beats. The strong chord tones are 1/3/5/7 and the strong beats are 1/3.
You can also consider creating an inner melodic structure by developing a gradual descending, ascending or pedal-point
line. This is an ascending line with target notes on beat 1. The example below uses 7th, 7th and 5th.
Now approach the target note, creating forward motion through the approach notes. Adjust your left hand to lock in with
this, or anticipate - emphasising the resolution.

How else might you elaborate on the sections that lead to the target note? Here’s a chromatic approach.

Now try approaching the approaches! Often the target note (resolution point) will become the starting note of the next
approach. This is a good way to make longer phrases – lots of shorter phrases that overlap.

You can try the same process using enclosures as approach notes:

Enclosures are a type of approach that create a circle around the target note.

Enclosures are used a lot in bebop language, where improvisors often create tight loops around the target note,
resulting in chromatic movement.

This exercise uses three note enclosures to lead to the 7th, 5th, 3rd and root of the chord. The three-note enclosure
enables us to create a continuous flow of eighth notes/quavers that always resolve on beat one and three.

Each of the lines below and on the following page use three variations of enclosure to add variety to the phrase.

Learn to sing these before playing them.

Splitting melody into these two sections – approach notes and target notes is a good way to formulate your lines. But
make sure you can hear the line you want to play – let your ear be your guide.