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Joined: Jan 2006
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OP
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Hi,
I have started to learn how to play from a fakebook. My goal is to be a cocktail pianist (I have posted in the other threads on that topic)
Anyway, I would like to know what the best approach to practicing this style is.
Now I know taking a song, and working out the arrangement is probably the best way to go, but what about warm ups?
I know scales are a must, and it is best to learn chords.
What I have done so far is learn the Major and Minor Chords(and major and Dominat 7ths) and commited them to memory in root position.
One approach is to practice chord progressions mased on the circle of 4ths/5ths, using inversions to get to the next chord.
I have also thought of practicing common progressions.
These are all random Ideas that I have.
Can anyone recommend a mock practice routine. I have about an hour a day to practice.
Sorry if this post seems scattered.
Thanks.
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Definitely practice common chord progressions. You mentioned you're only practicing root position chords. It's very important that you learn all your chord inversions as well.
Make sure you're learning as many tunes as you can in addition.
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You need to learn a voicing so that you can easily play a II-V-I progression because you'll see that in loads of standards. Here how my teacher taught me to practice this. Pick a voicing and play a II-V-I in any key. After playing the I, turn that into a minor chord, and play the II-V-I that begins with that minor chord. (You'll be moving down by wholesteps.) You'll end up coming back to the minor chord you started on, at which point, you'll have played half of the 12 keys. Now start a II-V-I a half step down, and you'll get the other half of the 12 keys. The benefit of this is that you learn the progression all keys, your hands don't move a lot around, and a lot of standards do this: turn a major chord into a minor and use that to start a II-V-I.
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I go around the circle: Dm7-G7-Cmaj7 Gm7-C7-Fmaj7 etc. If you can't think of the next progression quickly, arpeggiate the triad in between. For example, Dm7-G7-Cmaj7 (Notes:) C-E-G Gm7-C7-Fmaj7 Like this: http://www.box.net/shared/2l76yi4v59Someone told me abobut this great way to get more bang for your practicing buck: Play the progression in the left, and some kind of improvisation in the right: http://www.box.net/shared/4kyfza4rj2
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OP
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Thanks for the tips and the audio sample.
I am fairly new to this style so I am practicing the inversions,
but I cant get them as quicly as root, excpet for C,G,F,D,E and A.
I'm working on it though.
I guess i will go around the circle of 5th, maybe in different inversions.
Any tips on how to aquire speed for runs?
I guess the answer is scales and arpegio's.
I really need to come up with a good daily routine.
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Be careful if you are practicing your chords separately, rather than as part of a chord progression. For example, you may learn every inversion of C major, and every inversion of G dominant, but in a real piece, the C will often follow the G dominant. So learing one good combination (voicing) for playing G dominant then C (wihout your hand moving very far) is more important than learning every inverstion of G and C.
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Hailun 178
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For warm-ups, many people use Hanon, in addition to scales and arpeggios. Playing a Hanon exercise in all the keys is great.
As for speed for runs, that is a result of good technique, which practicing Hanon, scales, arpeggios, and more advanced technique regimens such as Pischna will develop. Make sure you play those things in a relaxed way. Doing technique exercises with tension is counter-productive.
In addition to learning chords & their inversions, and scales and arpeggios, learn lots of songs, and transpose them into different keys.
And make sure you completely learn a song, and polish it.
All of that will sink in, and eventually come out as an ability to play.
Blues and Boogie-Woogie piano teacher.
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One great practice method that comes from Berklee (I didn't go by the way, but my pal did..!) is as follows:
Play Major 7 (four notes) chromatically up and down, through four inversions each, as block chords, Right Hand
Repeat for Left hand
Play Major 7 (four notes) chromatically up and down, through four inversions each, as arpeggios, Right Hand
Repeat for Left hand
Now repeat the entire procedure but substitute Minor 7 chords (block then arpeggio, both hands)
Repeat again using Dominant 7 chords
You can expand this to include other chords also. But these will develop useful muscle-memory, accuracy etc. whatever your level.
With a bit of practice you can do 12 keys both hands, M7,m7 and 7 fairly quickly. It's also a good exercise when you maybe don't feel like playing so much.
Good luck..!
B.A.
Musician/producer/teacher, London UK
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I use a similar technique to this for practicing inversions and voicings.
I start by playing up and down each inversion of a chord, but in block chords, not arpeggiated. I think it helps train your hand to go directly to a chord shape if you practice them in blocks. Arpeggiating cheats a bit by letting you find each note separately.
Then I'll do what you mentioned, playing a single inversion up and down chromatically, but then I got up and down a few more times, increasing the interval each time. So I'll move up and down in whole steps (2 sets to catch all the notes), then minor thirds (3 sets), major thirds (4 sets), and then into the circles of fourths and fifths.
I've found this to be invaluable in mastering new chords and voicings. It allows you to build familiarity when you're moving chromatically, when you can more easily see how to move to the next, unfamiliar chord. Then as you learn more, and start increasing the intervals, you have less chance to figure out where you're going, you just have to know where you're going, so by the time you're jumping around the circles of 4ths/5ths, you've got the chord down and you've trained your hands to immediately go to the correct position when you see a chord symbol. Incidentally it also builds a great familiarity with intervals.
Hope this was clear, it's a lot more confusing to write it out than to demonstrate it.
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See my article on pop/jazz chords in Clavier Companion digital edition. http://www.claviercompanion.com/
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Last edited by etcetra; 06/01/11 03:24 AM.
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One great practice method that comes from Berklee (I didn't go by the way, but my pal did..!) is as follows:
Play Major 7 (four notes) chromatically up and down, through four inversions each, as block chords, Right Hand
Repeat for Left hand
Play Major 7 (four notes) chromatically up and down, through four inversions each, as arpeggios, Right Hand
Repeat for Left hand
Now repeat the entire procedure but substitute Minor 7 chords (block then arpeggio, both hands)
Repeat again using Dominant 7 chords
You can expand this to include other chords also. But these will develop useful muscle-memory, accuracy etc. whatever your level.
With a bit of practice you can do 12 keys both hands, M7,m7 and 7 fairly quickly. It's also a good exercise when you maybe don't feel like playing so much.
Good luck..!
I use a similar technique to this for practicing inversions and voicings.
I start by playing up and down each inversion of a chord, but in block chords, not arpeggiated. I think it helps train your hand to go directly to a chord shape if you practice them in blocks. Arpeggiating cheats a bit by letting you find each note separately.
Then I'll do what you mentioned, playing a single inversion up and down chromatically, but then I got up and down a few more times, increasing the interval each time. So I'll move up and down in whole steps (2 sets to catch all the notes), then minor thirds (3 sets), major thirds (4 sets), and then into the circles of fourths and fifths.
I've found this to be invaluable in mastering new chords and voicings. It allows you to build familiarity when you're moving chromatically, when you can more easily see how to move to the next, unfamiliar chord. Then as you learn more, and start increasing the intervals, you have less chance to figure out where you're going, you just have to know where you're going, so by the time you're jumping around the circles of 4ths/5ths, you've got the chord down and you've trained your hands to immediately go to the correct position when you see a chord symbol. Incidentally it also builds a great familiarity with intervals.
Hope this was clear, it's a lot more confusing to write it out than to demonstrate it. I do a similar thing out of the Berklee Jazz Piano book: Inversion Practice: 2 Hands Parallel over the cycle of 5ths. LH Chorded Inversions & RH Arpeggiated Inversions over lead sheets. With the second one you play variations of it over a tune 17 times: 1. LH plays a different chorded inversion on each beat, RH plays melody. 2. LH plays root position, RH arpeggiates from the root. Repeat with LH playing 1st, 2nd & 3rd inversions. 3. Like 2 but RH plays a different order of notes e.g. 1,3,2,4 4. Like 2 but LH voice leads. 5. Like 4 but RH plays melody Later on you can do the same exercises but with tension substitutions(substituting extensions for the root & 5th) That's a good point about practicing in intervals of chromatic, 2nds, minor 3rds, 3rds and 4ths. That'll be good for when you find a voicing you like.
Monk - Boo Boo's Birthday Bach - Two Part Invention No.11 ![[Linked Image]](https://www.pianoworld.com/ABF_Medals/18xmedals.jpg)
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I was thinking about this and just sat down to quickly work out the following, as a sequence. Any comments? C(Root), F(1st Inv), Bb(1), Eb(R), Ab(2nd inv), Db(1), F#(R), B(2), E(R), A(2), D(R), G(2) (edited for typos)
Last edited by CaptainKawai; 06/04/11 08:10 PM.
Guitar since 1966. Piano (Kawai DP80) since 2011.
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Remember that, on solo piano, the LH's first priority is a strong bass line. It will very rarely play close position chords except, perhaps as the top half of an "oom-pah" vamp. Chord voicings often fit under the melody in the RH.
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In addition to the above you can learn jazz theory from Mark Levine's book "The Piano Jazz Book". This will help you with a lot of the color/flavor that jazz piano chords have. I was classically trained, but needed to understand the theory of why jazz piano sounded the way it did. The book was very helpful. It also will assist you in reading the chord symbols in jazz lead sheets, fakebook.
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What is the best chord progression to practice in?
I've seen II - V - I mentioned
What about I - IV - V ?
Is there a strategy with picking a chord progression for practice purposes?
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I would sooner grab hold of a fake book and painstakingly work out the chords one by one until they begin to seep into the memory. Rather than spreading the attention too wide making memorizing difficult, try and pick songs/tunes in the same key to begin with (so start working in C,F or G) so that more frequent repetition will bring the same smaller set of chords to the attention.
ii - V - I is certainly a commonplace in jazz but much less so in modern pop music.
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I can't drill chords without having the context of a song or tune. Sometimes i'll get chord progressions from a guitar site. Sometimes not. Most times it doesn't sound right to me so I make my own chart by modifying. Also settling on a key. I don't chart out things in Nashville notation, though I may note the motif.
I'll add, I don't think you can play your current repertoire too much.
nada
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