Learn The Top 10 Stride and Swing Piano LH Techniques (with application)
Вставка
- Опубліковано 11 лип 2024
- PDF Includes more examples not shown in video! Buy it here: jamesursel.gumroad.com/l/vkayk
In this video I show you some of the best stride and swing piano techniques,
then we put it all together on the song L.O.V.E. They Are:
0:00 Backbeats/ Rhythmic Displacement
2:10 Tenths
5:38 Teddy Wilson Intros
7:35 Broken Tenths
9:26 Count Basie Rolling LH Figures
10:35 Connecting Major and Minor Tenths (diatonic and chromatic)
13:08 Walking Bass Figures
15:05 Filled in Octaves
15:55 Fats Waller mid-range devices
18:04 Application To L.O.V.E
I'm just thrilled that so many people still care about stride, judging from the robust comment section here. Happy that there are pianists who still are interested in learning how to do these things.
It's such a unique sound, and there's no reason not to bring it in from time to time. It's part of the language of jazz. And if you're a bassist or baritone/tenor instrument, you can adapt this stuff to your own lines.
Stride Piano will *NEVER* die 😂
This is the content the stride world needs!
Thank you!
Great stuff. Would love to see a stride piano Right Hand technique video too.
Coming soon!
Я ждал этого! Идеальный набор! Спасибо за Ваш труд! Браво!
Thank you so much!
This is the most clearest explanation I've witnessed here on UA-cam, bravo and keep it up man!
Thanks man I appreciate that and your your channel is awesome!
Yo man thank you for making this! I’ve been practicing stride a lot these past few months trying to get my solo piano stuff together. There is a lifetime of work in this video! Thanks😎
No problem, I’m so glad you found it valuable!
yo you got more of this??? best rhythm referance vid ever
Yo there is more coming in my right hand vid, stay tizzuned homie!
Very informative. Thanks.
You're welcome!
Worth listening to all the way through for the final rendition of L.O.V.E. - crisp and complex playing to my ear.
Very educational and damn impressive! Thanks :)
Thank you, no problem!
Good stuff! Would love a video focusing on the RH of stride
It’s in the works!
Expert detail and obvious love and mastery of the subject James. Well done!
Amazing! So much homework in here
I really like your style of teaching. Thanks for this...I needed it
I'm so glad!
Спасибо, ценный и исчерпывающий урок!
Brilliant.
this is awesome!! thanks for this video :)
Glad you liked it!
Awesome! Cant wait to see that pdf!
its out!
Instant subscribe! Thanks for this!
Thanks for subbing!
Lots of cool ideas and tips in here, nicely put together. thanks! 🙏🏼
Glad you found it informative!
Bravissimo!
Dude this is incredible! Thank you for the info
Glad it was helpful!
Amazing video!! So concise and straightforward.
Wow thank you!
@@Jamesursel1 Absolutely. I’m a professor of jazz piano at a local community college, and I almost certainly will refer this video to my students!
@@AlexFlavell Wow! That would be great, as a professor that means a lot:)
Awesome video, James! Keep up the good work.
Thanks! Will do!
I love it!
So glad!
Awesome!!!!
Thanks!!
AMAZING!
Thank you!
Great lesson and outstanding playing. Thanks!
Thank you kindly!
Stride is such a great sound. Thank you for showing how it's done!
No prob and thanks for getting the pdf! I hope you enjoy it:)
Thank you very much for this video!
You're very welcome!
james you're the best 🐐
Wow thanks man!
Thanks for the video. It’s worth pointing out the player shouldn’t force the stretch on the 10th, this can lead to permanent ligament damage. There’s ways round this though, rolling the 10th is an easier solution and in my view sounds better as it adds a lilt to the music. Also, because both hands are also playing harmonic notes you can get away with just octaves. 10th’s sound great when walking chromatically, the more sparse the right hand is at that point often the better it sounds, so with that in mind the right can jump and play the 10th interval, assisting the left.
Very true
Excellent comment
I disagree. While rolled 10th's sound great at times they lose their consistency with the rest of the LH. The most famous of Fats "Handful of Keys" recording demonstrates this very well. The way the LH sings with the rest of melody is an effect you can't replicate with rolled 10ths with the same amount of crisp. You might also need to use the pedal which *could* obscure the melody a bit.
Still better than overstretching ofcourse.
Fantastic tutorial!
Thank you! Cheers!
Damn, this is good stuff. Thanks for this, absolutely love your playing and your teaching style.
So glad you liked this:)
Thank you so much!
Fantastic video,i can hear the techniques on the recordings but i didnt know how to play them,thank you so much for showing them
No problem:) seeing them adds a whole other layer of understanding I find
bravo!
Wow thank you for video! I want learn it!!
You can do it!
Immense video... It's mesmerizing watching you demonstrate those concepts so effortlessly!
There's something I've heard Rossano Sportiello use where the emphasis is put on the bass note, sort of a walking bass accompanied by the right hand playing broken chords. You can hear this in his recording "Stars Fell On Alabama" at 3:14 (briefly), and also at the famous Barry Harris workshop clip at 1:17. I love the sound of it. Do you ever use this yourself?
Yes I know what you mean, I haven’t investigated that tech thoroughly but he is an amazing player with great touch
Loved the video and the demonstrations! I envy people who can reach the larger tenths in LH (Db-F, F-F#). I can't and probably never can but I'm trying to work my way around it!
brilliant upload leson ,thanx
Glad you enjoyed it!
@@Jamesursel1 yr absolutely great ,my favourite piano player is Earl Hines and his 1975 documentary is said to be the best jazz doc ever made and I agree.Wish I could play but like him.Its on youtube a must watch imo
@@Jack-fs2im yeah art Tatum used to improvise over his records, I like his song Monday date and there is a new vid of him out playing Pennie’s from heaven and singing! He’s awesome as I love his playing too:)
@@Jamesursel1 “Earl Hines 1975 documentary’ on you tube sets the scene with his recollection of Al Capone taking over the venue where he played in Chicago.I watch it often ,Yr video is a keep for me to and in my fav library ,thank you so much
Great Stuff mate!
Thanks Azlan!
@@Jamesursel1 great closed voicing at the end too I usually don’t play those Tatum esque closed voicings much because It feels good for my approach to play open Oscar esque voicings for #11 endings but I’m gonna start using that one. The right closed voicing can sound like a dark open voicing it’s very cinematic. Also badass syncopated left hand stride. I’ve never taken the rhythmic variation that far cause it’s a little impractical in the moment but now I’m definitely gonna put some memorized patterns in my hands to use with some good right hand interaction.
@@Jamesursel1 love the Teddy transcriptions too you can really see how his love for lead sheets comes through with all of those Bbm6 approached to the F7/C where as Tatum or Op tend to go straight for the B diminished approach.
Absolutely remarkable, in so many ways: the amount of valuable information, your extraordinary talent to create and play the exercises, your amazing speed and dexterity, and finally, the remarkable extension of your left thumb from the index finger. Was it always such or did it happen over time with practice? I'll turn my personal "gear wheel" to 50% and try some of these. Thank you so much and all the best.
Thank you so much for your kind words John! Yes it has happened over time, I’m glad to hear you are going to try out these techniques and I saw you bought the moonlight serenade arrangement, I hope it’s fun to play. Thanks again for your support:)
Tenth hand span can be trained, the more spread you can get the more span you will have until you reach maximum spread (at which point you'll get no more span unless you have hand surgery or something). It takes time.
Wow. How is your playing so clear? There has to be a trick... ^^
No tricks I swear:)
Sorta new to ragtime/stride piano styles so obviously lots of work for me but you have an informative video here.
Glad you found it informative!
As a stride, swing and ragtime pianist, I have to say that your demonstrations are phenomenal as is your handspan xD
One thing I MUST POINT OUT THOUGH, Teddy Wilson did NOT play stride piano, he played swing, the cleaner more formal successor to stride!
There are small but pivotal differences between the genres.
Oh also one thing I'm going to mention about tenths, you should use them to add countermelody but don't abuse them because you can make things sound monotonous really quickly. They are REALLY REALLY good for solidifying chord changes! Use them in conjunction with the 1 5 1 5 left hand bass note pattern that could be something like Tenth 5 Tenth 5 and so on and then a straight run of tenths for chord changing passages.
As someone who can only reach all minor tenths but not major tenths unless they're on white keys I've found that if you can't reach a full tenth, use a 6th or a 7th (but try to use tenths if you can reach them as best you can, 7ths and 6ths are really only a crutch and don't have the same depth).
All in all, I am very impressed by this demonstration and I hope that more people take influence from better sources like this and not from kooky knockoffs like Johnny May that have ZERO knowledge of the bare fundamentals!
Thanks for the constructive feedback! You are right Teddy Wilson was a SWING pianist first and foremost where there was more of an even pulse. You clearly know your stuff man, eventually I want to do a vid of exclusively swing piano techniques like clipped tenths and get into the subtlety of pedalling, runs etc. I’m so glad as a fellow pianist who knows the nuances of this style you found it authentic:)
@@Jamesursel1 I'll be looking forward to the swing piano video! When you mentioned clipped tenths, do you mean the technique of using repedaling to make tenths thump a bit and decay quicker? Wilson did that a LOT, Tatum did it on slow stuff, Chris Dawson does it sometimes.
@@PiotrBarcz yes I do mean that and now that you mentioned those other artists, the clipped tenth technique could be a video in and of itself!
@@Jamesursel1 I mean, it's not really that hard of a technique so I would include it beside others in one video.
Anyone who is a classically trained pianist knows the pedaling technique of letting of the sustain on the beat quickly, slapping the dampers down to forcefully stop the strings vibrating and then raising them again right after while still being technically on the beat. I guess you could say it's pedaling in apoggiaturas? XD
@@PiotrBarcz yeah I guess you could say that and you’re right it might not make for a long video.lol
wonderful stride playing. Many thanks for sharing your expertise. I was hoping you would show a stride balld. For example, Oscar Peterson did an amazing stride chorus on Who Can I Turn to.
Thank you, slower tempo stride is way different, there’s more pedal, filled in tenths, runs and more complicated soloing. I do plan to do a tutorial on ways to play ain’t misbehavin (mid tempo) and body and soul or similar ballad which I could show slower tempo techniques, stay tuned!
This was great! The techniques you listed are mostly on the left hand. Do you have any stylistic suggestions for the right hand? Your right hand is super idiomatic to stride, but it would be great to have a breakdown of the specific elements that make it sound authentic.
Thank you for the suggestion, yes I do plan on doing a stride right hand video. I will have to transcribe a bunch of artists recordings and then I plan on distilling about 20 techniques might take a while.lol stay tuned:)
I have small hands. I can’t do half of that. Very cool video
Anxiously awaiting the .pdf
Yes coming soon!
its now in the description!
Badass L:O:V:E
18:12 - фантастика!
Wow! Informative and entertaining. Thank you.
Glad it was helpful!
Fabulous! Question: do you play your examples first and then transcribe them, or do you pre-compose them first? I suspect it’s a little of both…
Thank you! Yes your suspicions are correct, I like to play along with records to get ideas then write out, then if it’s different I amend the sheet music, but as you can see in the video I didn’t stay faithful to every written example. I do love sheet music though.
Complimenti! Farai anche un video su willie the lion smith?
Great video! I'd be interested to know what your favourite artists and recordings are for this style of music. Thanks!
I would have to say Art Tatum, fats Waller, teddy Wilson, earl hines and Mel Powell, who in my view are the best.
@@Jamesursel1thanks!
Great video! I know you touched on it but remember many of us can't reach a tenth and it's awkward to roll a tenth at tempo. What would you do if you could only reach a 9th? Instead of a 3 or 4 note chord in the left hand what about playing a two note 3rd and 7th instead? Will that work? Any other ideas? Still a very helpful video. Thanks. Nice playing too. BTW, really loved the Fats Waller mid-range devices.
It's awkward to roll a 10th at speed but not impossible, just one of those things that take a lot of practice. A 10th has such a distinct sound because of the rich overtones, I'm not sure it's possible to imitate the particular sound of a 10th without just playing it. But you don't have to play every bass note as a 10th, you can just throw them in when you can catch them. Sometimes Art Tatum would play stride and completely omit one of the bass notes but you could have sworn you heard it because his timing and voicings were on point.
@@Ambidextroid Thank you for the reply.
Thank you! I’m so glad you like the fats Waller mid range stuff, I agree with ambidextroid, it all just depends on the tempo Art tatums tea for 2 record was pretty quick and used 7ths and single notes in the lefts hand and it sounds great so there are workarounds:)
You may have named one chord incorrectly in the Teddy Wilson Intro … the 4 th bar implies an E 7/G# bass note, not really a G# dim .The splendid dexterity and coordination demonstrated here is inspiring..this left hand technique probably places it beyond grade 8 in ABRSM terms .
No, it definitely is a G# diminished chord, just as the second chord is an F# diminished. It's an ascending pattern.
@@tomgiles1484 you’re missing a trick sir there’s an E note at the end of the bar …. Giving us the notes G# D B and E …. That makes an E 7 / G # ( bass note) ( I think you over looked the right hand E note )
Thanks for the compliment! Yes it’s a E7/G# then the ED become an F natural to make a G# diminished, hope that’s the clarification you wanted:)
Yes indeed that’s what make it . 👍
@@dougie6897 Sure, that whole measure spells an E7, but the bulk of it (6 of the notes) spell a diminished chord and functions as such. The chord is also on the downbeat and is part of that ascending four-chord pattern of F -->F# Dim --> G min -->G# Dim. The diminished quality is the predominant sound the ear hears, and the E is secondary.
What if your hands are too small to form tenths, can you still play this stuff??
You can omit the top note, yes it’s totally possible Stephanie trick is a great stride pianist and she plays mostly single notes
Сложно❤
the emotion i feel when i look at my mere 9th-ranging hand and realize ill never be able to hit a R-5-10 or R-7-10 and play a melody at the same time... is there a hotline for that?
Tenths anonymous lol
Pdf pleaseeee 😊😊😊
Coming soon
its available now!
Some of us who have been playing since childhood still can't judge the distances accurately. ☹️
You literally just have to sit and grind it out until you can do it. It's the fact that you've never done that, that you don't get better. A lot of advanced techniques on instruments require focus and grinding. You'll never be able to practice other stuff or take it easy and expect that one day you will start playing with advanced techniques out of no where... 😅 It took me ten years to play barre chords.
There is a method to mastering this but it takes a lot of organised patience. Firstly work on pinkys jump ie the bass note then bottom of left hand chord before u add other notes of chord. Practise the jump in both directions whilst playing crotchets in rh then quavers then adding random rests and trying easy scale patterns. Make sure you're always doing something in rh and your progress will be more rapid. Note it will still take a while
Brilliant breakdown with such great demos! :)
Thanks! Glad you like them:)
The problem for me: my hands are too tiny so striding with 10th is not possible.
I don't think I'll live long enough to achieve lousy...
Most people cannot reach a tenth in one hand
Viu o galo cantar, é verdade, mas não sabe aonde.
Sees 10ths in the LH
>cries in corner. I can play this with octaves LH but it just sounds sht 😅 😞 rolling sounds corny as well. I once played 6ths in the LH and had a bass player playing the roots lol. Talk about cheating
>resumes crying in corner 😢
lol!!!
It is difficult for Asians due to the length of their fingers.😢
Stride piano Asian edition forthcoming lol