Home

Monthly Livestream #56!

Episode #56

Thanks for tuning in to today's livestream! Here's the recording. But first an update: the "audio only" versions of the Monthly Livestreams

Thanks for tuning in to today's livestream! Here's the recording.

But first an update: the "audio only" versions of the Monthly Livestreams will now be available on Spotify! (in addition to the "audio only" posts here on Patreon.) But don't worry, you can only access them as a Patreon subscriber. They'll show up as "locked" on Spotify, but once you log in with your Patreon username and password you'll be able to access the livestream audio there like a podcast. This might help some of you who may do all of your listening on Spotify, and to keep everything in one place. Also, this way you can download the episode and listen to it offline. You can find it if you search for "Glenn Zaleski" or "Glenn Zaleski Podcast" in Spotify, or you can just visit this link: Glenn Zaleski's Monthly Patreon Livestreams on Spotify

OK! Now for the livestream rundown:

Started off with an announcement/shameless plug - Patreon gift certificates are now here! For the jazz piano/Glenn Zaleski fans in your life, now you can finally gift a Patreon subscription for 1-12 months. Check it out at patreon.com/glennzaleski/gift

  • Then played a few tunes - first the standard "If I Should Lose You".

  • Then something a little different, I played a Scriabin prelude, Op. 17 no. 6 in B-flat major) that was showed to me recently by composer David Bennett Thomas. It's a gorgeous piece that sounds like it could have been written much later than 1895. It uses some harmonic elements that I learned from Barry Harris' 6th diminished scale (see Using Barry Harris' 6th Diminished Scale), and I took the liberty of improvising over the piece, using some elements of Chorale-Type Playing.

Then into some questions - first a few about the Barry Harris diminished 6th scale material, and a bit about Chorale-Type Playing and improvising over this Scriabin piece. Then:

  • a question about using "appogiaturas" or "grace notes" in my recent recording of "Mrs. Parker of KC" - which led to a discussion of getting a blues sound out of the piano, and some devices from Thelonious Monk

  • a question about counting when practicing the Ari Hoenig exercise (from this video: Ari Hoenig Rhythm Exercise) I was happy to demonstrate a bit on how to apply this exercise to a tune on the piano ("If I Should Lose You") - this is one of the most essential and beneficial exercises I know and we all can learn from it!

  • Then a question about the value of memorizing voicings, which led to a breakdown of how to create voicings in general. For more on this process check out Creating Voicings

  • And finally a question about hand independence, and some exercises in how to develop it. I demonstrated some ideas over "If I Should Lose You", which turned into the official song of this month's livestream.

We covered a lot today! Thank you again for your great questions and great energy, and see you all next month!

-Glenn