Monthly Livestream #53!
Thanks for tuning in to today's livestream - we covered a lot of ground! Here's the recording, and a little recap:
I started off with some news. First, you'll notice a different setup for today's stream. I moved my piano away from the window, because my new piano was too close to my radiator. Although the window was nice, overall I think this new setup is better.
Second - my new record, "Star Dreams" is coming out this Friday, August 23rd! It will be streaming everywhere, but for those of you that may be interested in a physical CD or digital download, you'll be able to get it here, from Sunnyside Records. And in case you missed my earlier post about this, I have a limited run of LPs for this album - my first recording on vinyl! And as a Patreon supporter, you can get a vinyl for $25! Here's the info on that if you're interested: Star Dreams Vinyl Patreon Discount
Then into some music. I really didn't have anything prepared for today, so was happy to take requests from you all, and got a few great ones. One was to play a song from the new album, so I played "I'm In The Mood For Love", which I don't think I've played here on Patreon before. Then a request for a tune of mine called "Table Talk". This is the first track on an album of mine called "Fellowship". I've included a chart of the tune if any of you wanted to check it out.
Then had some great questions:
How important is rhythm in improvising? Can improvising be picking rhythms and putting notes to it? Basically, yes! But I elaborated, and used the tune "I'm in the Mood for Love" as an example. You can see that playing "wrong" notes with "good" rhythm actually doesn't sound that wrong at all.
How to incorporate "intervalic" playing in our lines. An interesting question - basically I think there are a few ways to play lines: either "step-wise" or "arpeggios". And thinking in "arpeggios" automatically gives our lines more jumps, and an "intervalic" quality. Also, using arpeggios instead of scales, an arpeggio can become basically a 3 or 4 note scale, and is actually more harmonically specific than a full 7/8 note scale. I demonstrated some of these ideas on the tune "It Could Happen To You".
For more about creating lines this way, you can check out these two earlier Patreon videos: "Playing the Changes" (more about step-wise lines), and "Playing Lines" (more about arpeggios)
About "Upper Structure Triads" - on It Could Happen to You I used a B triad over a D7 chord, and that led to a quick discussion of how different triads can work over dominant chords. A very useful sound that's omnipresent in jazz piano.
About fingerings for arpeggios. Basically, I don't believe that we should ever twist to try and connect arpeggios, and to really have an even sound we just have to let notes go and not try to force legato if it's impossible to do so with our fingers. This was a big part of my "Myths in Piano Playing" series from earlier this year - here's that collection if you wanted to see more about this important topic: Myths in Piano Playing
Wanted to include a few more resources here about piano technique that I've found truly eye-opening, and would be very worth checking out if you're interested in this kind of nitty-gritty piano playing material. One is "The Four Pillars of Piano Technique", from the great pianist and teacher John Mortensen. And another would be any of the classes from pianist Seymour Bernstein from the website tonebase.co. These are all classes in classical piano playing, but lessons in piano playing in general are invaluable for jazz pianists.
Thanks again everyone, and see you all next month!
Glenn
