Gyro, you are beginning to infuriate me. You are not a musician, you have no idea what it means to be one. You repeat your posts verbatim, you haven't said one thing helpful to a pianist here.

Go watch this post: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQaASwkqi9E

Wynton Marsalis, one of the the top jazz musicians today says that all people imitate to learn. He is at the forefront of jazz education, and you are telling me that he is wrong?

I suggest you quit playing the piano now and just give up. Stop making excuses about your playing and post some songs for us to hear. If you cannot prove your way is better than get out of here.

I know him too well, but you're right, I meant the music played by Clayderman. On the other hand, Gyro wouldn't know the difference anyway.

Let's face it, Gyro doesn't play jazz, he's never played a jazz gig, or even played with a band. And whatever new sound he is making, its probably not "jazz"..If He actually goes to a jam session to sit in.. he is probably one of those clueless people musicians will make fun of behind their back.

He is giving people advice to beginners on how to get used to improvising freely, which is fine, but it's not jazz.

So far, we have these styles (I added three new ones at the bottom, plus the summary from everyone else):

1) Play the C major chord in the LH on every count (4 times), or variations thereof (once for the whole measure, or even roll the chords, like C E G E, or C followed by (E G) together three times, etc.).

2) Play a ballad style: on 1/8th notes, counting 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &: C G E G E G E G.

3) Play Alberti Bass style.

4) If the chord changes every 2 beats, plunk out that low root on beat 1. For beat 2, bring your left hand up to a higher two note chord consisting of 3 and 7. Then, repeat process for beats 3 and 4

5) Alternate inversions on the beat. Example, CEG, move lower GEC, back up CEG, lower GEC, etc. Lots of variations possible.

6) Oompah. C, EG, C, EG.

7) Arpeggios at various speeds. C, E, G, E quarter notes. CE, GE, CE, GE. (eighth) CEGE, CEGE, CEGE, CEGE. (sixteenth)

8) A woman at my church did this particularly smoothly: C, C octave, above that G, E, C, Repeat.

9) boogie. C4, C5, E4, C5, G4, C5, C4. with a dotted rhythm.

10) root-fifth. C4, CEG4, G3, CEG4, C4, etc.

11) I play a walking bass line with the left and play the melody and occasional rootless chords between melody notes with the right. Alternatively, I play 1 & 3 in the left hand and 7 and melody in the right or 1 & 7 in the left and 3 and melody in the right.

12) Play a full arpeggio: In ascending order, C G E G C, then back to G (for 3/4 time).

13) Play low C, then higher C, then C Major.

14) Play low C, then 2nd inversion of C chord, then C major. If in 4/4, play C major twice.

I still don't know what to do if I have a seventh chord to play, say A7 or E7. How do you make it fit some of the above?

Those chords are often used as secondary dominants in the key of C, sometimes to modulate to another key. Another use is E7 to lead in to Am (still in C)or A7 to Dm. Of course they must harmonize with the melody.

Cool, Studio Joe! Mainly, I wanted to know how to do the following if the chord was an E7, or C7, etc., from above list:

2) Play a ballad style: on 1/8th notes, counting 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &: C G E G E G E G.

That is, what if the above was a C7?

You know, we really do need to upload audio samples to make things clear. With that in mind, here's Mary Had a Little Lamb with the 1-3-7 and 1-7-3 method of playing it:

Mary had a 1-3-7 Lamb

Mary Had a Little Lamb didn't work so well with the bass line technique, but here's an example of that with a sloppy Pennies from Heaven:

Pennies with Bass Line

That technique sounds better with a split keyboard and a Bass sound in the left hand, because it's hard not to play the bass line too loudly, as I did in that example.

I hope that helps.