Ruslan says a lot of really cool things. His ideas are grounded and make a lot of sense. Play this video a few times then actually do what he says. Watching and listening to his advice is a start but doing what he suggests is important.
Hi Ruslan, thank you so much for your video. Very Motivational, I'm 65 years old I started playing guitar 5 years ago it's been a long life passion to learn guitar but couldn't Life is Life got married children, and now I have the opportunity to do so I just don't have time and terms of the age, in terms of time that it takes to become at least decent or good I also have arthritis in my hands. But I've never been a quitter and I will die learning to play guitar I just like to be able to see myself play halfway or a quarter like my favorite guitarist Eric Clapton so I like to thank you for your videos. You give me the drive to try one more time. I have trouble with timing I have some arthritis in my fingers like I said I'm 65 so I have a lot of challenges but I have never been a quitter at anything I've ever done and I will continue. it's just a little bit of a down because I don't see the progress that I like to see but thank you anyway.
Thanks for this video! 1) I need to work on moving in between two chords in different inversions and learning the arpeggios and 2-5-1 in both major and minor keys 2) Transcribing & ear training 3) getting comfortable with playing voicings in any inversions in two and three and octaves range on the piano 4) rootless voicings 5) getting comfartable to play the songs in all the keys (transcribing can help here i guess) 7) need to learn solo patterns 8) sight reading atleast 3 back chorales a day 9) practicing orchestration through score study 10) working on vocals
Hi Ruslan ! Thanks a lot for your knowledge sharing ! :) I have experimented burn out too ... I felt so zero compared to my musicians friends at the conservatory, that I started to read and followed jazz methods hoping to grow a little bit ... But I start to be owerwhelmed and very fast disapointed and tired, and begin to feel more and more incompetent and it was so hard on me that I stop playing ... for 4 months !! But thanks to your videos I I feel that I can find again the pleasure of playing, and to learn in all benevolence. So ! Today I am ready to resume my musical practice. Here areas in my own playing that I should improve : 1/ Rythmic variety 2/ Play fast (and relax) on chord changes 3/ Learn jazz vocabulary that I really like :) Thanks again Ruslan ! I hope to see you playing in Paris on day ! Peace Aubérie
First and foremost, man thank you for this video. This video helped me realized why I don't get callbacks and gigs. Also, why I don't feel good enough to go out and even try to get gigs or attend open mics. I haven't truly been practicing. My first topic for improvement is my timing( grooving without the track, taking fills and leading the band and not following the others for time) My second topic is my fear of soloing. My third topic which is weird but being a good hand(introvert personality and I don't really vibe with a lot of cats in the music world and I try I feel like I'm coming off as unnatural)
Your channel is awesome I discovered it 3 weeks ago. You should have at a millions subscribers I hope it happened soon. You are a great teacher. Thank you.
Hi, i know i m a bit late, but i start right now. I m a guitar player and this are my top 3 things that i want to change: 1: i don't transcribe constantly. I know the benefits etc, but i give up fast when there are fast runs or chords that i don't get. So now i will transcribe 10 min (or more) every day. 2: playing over chords... Not much to say, i often do the Guitarist kind of thing and just blast blues scales over everything, what is fine too do, but i want to get deeper into jazz improvisation. So now i start just with the basics like 251s and try to play probably over these kind of things. 3. I like to get better in combing chords and finding chord lines etc. For that i will ask my teacher. Cheers
Thank you for great advice and videos. My weaknesses: overwhelmed by what to practice... how to attack practice time and proper blueprint for it, transcribing. Soloing.
I’m a guitar player and I definitely am the guy who “practices” the same thing over and over. And yet I feel I’m getting nowhere.lol recently I’ve been doing better and venturing into unknown territory. I’m learning keys now and very excited about it!
Music is the language of nature; you truly know how to speak the language, also you're a great interpreter for those us that want to learn the language. Thanks.
Firstly, Ruslan, I just have to thank you for the time you have put into these thoughtful videos. They just make so much sense. I have been playing or I should say just messing around on my instrument for so long, it is embarrassing to actually admit how long I have been playing and there are still so many things I don't properly understand. So your home truths of 'How to Practice?' just struck home. Like an Exocet missile to be honest. I am a tenor Sax player. So here are the things I know I could really improve on 1) keeping time, 2) playing over the changes and 3) really knowing all the keys. I mean truly knowing them. You have forced me to confront and be honest. As oppose to just playing what I know again and again and again, and thinking I know my instrument. So thank you my friend.
Thank you so much, my friend. It means the world to me hearing these words. I just sit in front of a camera in solitude and talk.. and turns out it actually helps people I've never met. To your questions: The issues you site are very, very common. So you're not alone there.. Because of how common these issues are, I went ahead and made some videos specifically addressing THOSE issues. So here are my thoughts: 1 - *Keeping Time*. Check out the video I did on keeping time. Do the exercises I suggest in it. ua-cam.com/video/Uoj4sUd9uj4/v-deo.html Believe me, this stuff adds up if you stick with it. The exercises will help! Also remember, in order to improve this skill (or any other skill) its not enough to just do the exercises and improve in your laboratory alone. You also have to be PLAYING MUSIC with people, and be required to keep time on a regular basis! Just as, say, you are practicing certain specific things to improve your Basketball game. Say you are practicing how to throw 3 pointers from afar. You can spend 6 hours a day doing it and stick with it for 5 months. And yes, you will improve your 3 pointers throw.... BUT YOU ALSO HAVE TO PLAY BASKETBALL ON A REGULAR BASIS TOO! Its not enough to just train for basketball... you have to also PLAY basketball regularly. And then, if you TRAIN AND PLAY - you will for sure for sure improve!!! Ya dig? Same applies to improving time, improving repertoire, improving ability to play on changes, improving technique etc. 2 - *Playing Over Changes* Well, I made a video teaching how to do this. Its the most popular video on my channel. It amounted 14x more views than most of my videos get... ua-cam.com/video/RqHlXP6-B6Y/v-deo.html Check out this video man. You won't regret it. I think the system I teach on how to master chord changes is straightforward, simple, and clear. Again - its WORK.... you're going to have to work for this. We all have to. But please watch the video and you should be well on your way to a 100% guaranteed improvement. 3 - *Mastering All Keys* You know man... Take me, for example. I can really play in all keys. I really, really can. I can transpose a song to any key on demand, if I know the song. I can improvise in all keys. I'm the guy who truly, truly plays in all keys. .......But can I be really honest with you?..... I DON'T CONTROL ALL KEYS EQUALLY WELL. I just don't. NOT EVEN CLOSE!!!! I simply control them all SUFFICIENTLY well in order to work in the music industry. But please make no mistake, in some keys I sound a LOT better than other keys. In some keys I feel a lot more FREE than other keys. I can mask it, because I'm a good player. But I don't, to use your words, "REALLY KNOW ALL KEYS". I just don't and I doubt anyone does. Why? Because the level of freedom you experience in a certain key simply can not be disconnected from the FREQUENCY with which you play in that key. I'll repeat: *The level of freedom you experience in a certain key simply can not be disconnected from the FREQUENCY with which you play in that key.* And, as it happens, both Michael Brecker and you play more often in the key of F major than you play in the key of B major. Nothing to do about that and nothing to worry about. We simply don't play in C# minor often enough to be as comfortable in it as we are in D minor. None of us do. Nothing to do about that. I feel like the dogma of "REALLY KNOWING ALL KEYS" is similar to the dogma of "PRACTICING 12 HOURS A DAY". Its a high school/ college myth. Exaggerated, inaccurate, unnecessary, unrealistic, and at times even damaging to one's self concept. Want to improve your control in some new key? No problem. Decide on a key. Decide that this key will be your "key of the month" and spend 15 minutes a day playing in that key religiously for a month. 15 minutes a day. Every day. Will you master that key after a month? Will you, to use your own words, "really know" that key? Hahahaha hell no!!! NOT A CHANCE... You wouldn't have mastered that difficult key even after 6 months on it, because you don't play in that difficult key often enough in real life, which, even if you did, would still have taken years to have an accumulative effect. *But will you improve noticeably in that key after playing in it for 15 minutes, every day for a month?* Yes, you absolutely will improve in that key! You most definitely will! AND THAT'S GOOD ENOUGH. Next month pick another key and do the same.... then another key next month, and another next month. Spend a year doing this. Pick new key every month and eventually cycle back to that key 6 -7 months later. Guaranteed improvement in that area. But no, you will not master those keys like you mastered the key of C major. For that you would have had to play in those difficult keys as often as you have been playing in C major or F major in real life, and do so for as many years as you have been playing in C major and F major. And that's not likely in the cards for you, for me, or for Michael Brecker.
@@ruslanpiano Dear Ruslan Thank you for taking the time to write such a full reply. I appreciate it. I will follow your advice and work on the things above using the links and tips that you have provided. I also understand what you say about 'really knowing all the keys'. It makes a lot of sense. I like the idea of taking a key and working on that for say a month and then, another and so on, and perhaps rotating. But ultimately there will always be some keys with a greater familiarity than others. Onwards and upwards as they say, and thank you again. Leslie
Hi Ruslan. Improvement areas(piano): 1. Chording left hand. 2. Timing 3. Chord Progressions 4. Transcribing (I rarely ever do this) 5. Being fluent in all keys.
Tread 1. Look up a video I did on left hand (it’s on my channel) 2. Look up a video I did on how to keep amazing time (it’s on my channel too). 3. Chord progressions? I’m not sure what the issue is. You listed a topic, not a problem. 4. Transcribing gets better the more you do it. If you rarely do it - that would explain why you have a problem with it. 5. No short cut here really. The less you play in a particular key, the less fluent you will be in it. The more you play in a particular key, the more fluent you will be in it.
1. learning how to play at slower tempos and softer 2. transcribing chords and fast lines 3. expanding my jazz vocabulary thanks for these videos man! they really motivate me to become a better musician
1. Listen to a ton of ballads. By dexter Gordon, Coltrane, Miles, Keith Jarrett. Record yourself playing slower tempos. 2. Transcribing is a matter of how good your relative pitch is. Find software that slows down music, without distorting the sound too much. I know it’s out there, just don’t remember the name of it. Slow things down until you can transcribe them. Transcribe slower things, simpler things. Transcribing will both develop your ear, which will help you with further, more complex transcribing, and it will also increase your vocabulary. 3. Along with transcribing, check out my video on jazz vocabulary. It’s one of my recent ones. Really good method to expand vocabulary. It would be easier for me to assess your situation and prescribe a more exact cure if i heard you play. Thank you for checking out my channel! Ruslan
Im a piano and keyboard player -im working on increasing the speed at which i identify notes chords or any sound i have inside of me and bring them out and play them in real time. -im also working on building the amount of stylistic nuances i have in my repertoire in order to fully bring out my swagger when i play.( for example trills, flicks rolls and small licks) to give contest, think of Mike Bereal's playing or Woody Gross's playing.(His solo on 1612 on Stephen Colbert is a perfect example) -creating my own lines and seamlessly integrating them into my playing while still feeling natural Thanks SO MUCH for doing this man!
Edwin Blemur regarding being able to bring out what you hear as fast as possible - that is a great goal to have! We should all make accomplishing this goal a BIG priority, as too many of us are stuck playing from our muscle memory rather than streaming from the inside out. Involving our INNER LISTENER, our inner music fan in the decisions we make during our playing is so very important!! He knows the best notes to play, we just have to listen to him during and let him decide on what we play, rather than play from our fingers, or muscle memory, or habits. I find that recording oneself and listening back helps with that, even recording a solo and transcribing one’s own solo. Seeing what you like about it and what you don’t. Or any other process that involves the “inner listener” WEIGHING IN on how good our playing is. Sometimes when I practice soloing, I’ll play a phrase, leave space, and listen in my mind for when the next phrase is supposed to come in and what the first notes of it are. As soon as I hear it - I get ready to play it and.. STOP. Then repeat all the steps. Again i leave space, and listen in my mind for when the next phrase is supposed to come in and what the first notes of it are. As soon as I hear it - I get ready to play it and.. STOP. Then I do it the THIRD TIME. And on the third time - I actually PLAY the phrase I hear inside. This intense kind of “teasing out” of the inner listener creates a habit of playing from the inside, so to speak, and not from any finger habits. Also - SING a solo instead of playing it, then record it and transcribe it. Then you can also sing and play at the same time. If any of this is hard - slow down the tempo. If transcribing is hard - get software that slows down the music, to make it easier to transcribe. In short - ANYTHING to bridge the gap between the inner listener and your hands. As for all the little stylistic nuances - TRANSCRIBE TRANSCRIBE TRANSCRIBE. The more you expose yourself to these little details of playing, the more of these stylistic details you play (through transcribing others), the more naturally they will make their way into your own playing. You already hear them distinctly, which is why you’re bringing them up, now - play them a lot, transcribe mike b’s playing in detail, transcribe that solo you mentioned in your comment. With time and exposure to those little stylistic details, those little details will make their way into your playing.
1. Learning how to comp and really help the soloist come out! (Learning different generes and types of accompaniment) 2. Learn how to play over chord changes, learn to be more melodic! Thanks man!!!! Keep the videos coming. Sooo glad we are getting this incredible material.
1 -- Get a wealth of chord voicings under your fingers. Work on voice leading... and TRANSCRIBE PEOPLE'S COMPING!!! That's Right!! I transcribed people's comping before. Comping is ideas, just like soloing is. As such, it can be learned, understood, analyzed. Listen to different accompanists and transcribe your very favorite stuff! It will sharpen your own instincts of comping. 2 - Get your chord scales together. Know always what scale goes on what chord. Then try to start your solos as the melody of the song with slight variations, next chorus play the melody with even further, more elaborate variations on it, next chorus play the melody with even more distant variations, next chorus even more to the point where you can still hear the melody but its vague. In Short -- practice basing your solo on the melody of the song you're playing, where the melody is ALWAYS present but it gets more and more variations on with each chorus, and so it becomes harder and harder to trace with each chorus, yet is still there and is heard, however distantly.
Brad King I learn songs by looping sections. I loop the first 4 bars over and over and over until I remember it. Then looping the next 4 bars. Then looping the first 8 bars together. Vocabulary? Transcribing works for that. Also after that check out my video on jazz vocabulary. Playing gigs? Well... get really good and sit in on other people’s gigs and jam sessions. The gigs will come then :)
@@ruslanpiano Thanks so much for sharing this with me . I try to transcribe but it takes forever and the fast chromatic stuff throws me off.I got frustrated and didn't play for like two months which is not usual for me but I'm getting back into it now and your videos are awesome to see .I appreciate you bro , your awesome hope you are well God loves you deeply Shalom
I'm glad lots of people got to comment in your videos (I was one of them), because that keeps you motivated and I can keep enjoying new videos from you :)
I feel so grateful I found your channel! Your videos on improvising came at just the right time for me. 1. I've been neglecting my practice of rhythm for years. I rarely play with a metronome when I practice guitar. I remember jamming with a great drummer from Berklee, he was impressed with my vocabulary and improvising but he said jamming with me didn't FEEL good. Since then I've been more conscious of relaxing and not rushing the beat, but it still needs lots of work. I feel like I have a much deeper control of harmony and melody than rhythm. 2. Though I've been playing guitar for 10+ years, there are still keys I'm not very comfortable with. (Particularly Bb min and Ebmin and their modes etc). This mainly just because I don't play in them much. Musical Freedom is my ultimate goal. I want to be fluent in all 12 keys, being able to modulate and color them how I want. Thank you for starting this channel! I'm looking forward to great content to come.
Rhythm? Oh boy, are you going to freakin LOVE my next video 🙂 I know I said I will coach everyone in the comments, but you know what? I'm literally making an ENTIRE VIDEO about how to help this issue, and I think you will really enjoy it. Just wait another week or so... your rhythm problems will be addressed very thoroughly, in a very pragmatic, applicable fashion. Believe me, you are not the only one in the world who needs to work on their rhythm. PLUS -- you are aware of it, which is already half the battle! In my next video I will demonstrate 2 ways of practicing rhythm with a metronome that are literally 100% full-proof to improve your time feel!!! Hahah.. what an interesting coincidence man! Now I'm excited to release the next vid :))
Ugh! its painful to say but I need work on fingerings, reading, and consistent practicing. Thanks Ruslan, your videos are by far the most useful to me.
jeffrey kay read simple music every day, even if it’s children books music, figure out good fingerings slowly and practice them increasingly faster... consistently. These are the kinds of problems that contain the solutions within them. It’s the same as if someone said to me - “I need to improve in the key of B”. My response would have been - “well, then play in the key of B often”. Sometimes there are no secrets or methods. Just do the work. Slowly. Patiently. And give it a year. Or two.
Awesome ! thanks for all the videos, how about on the subject of playing at fast very fast tempos, Approaching it in a relax fashion yet with Energy :) Thanks Again
1. Getting familiar with different ways of comping chords, instead of merely block chords in my left hand. (Starting with open voicings specifically, triads first.) 2. Being able to sing different scales, not just the major scale. Grateful for any tips in approaching these. Keep up the great content!
Regarding singing different scales -- this is best done with the instrument (piano). Chose a scale you're going to focus on and play it slowly on the piano. Eventually start singing along in unison with your playing. Make sure you do it slowly and that you nail every note with your voice, as you clearly will nail every note with your fingers for obvious reasons, if u know how to play the scale on the piano. Do that for a while daily over ONE SCALE!!! - play the scale and listen to it - play the scale and sing back each note (as in: press key, sing the note, press the next key, sing the note, press the next key, sing the note etc) - press keys and sing SIMULTANEOUSLY - eventually reverse the order, and first sing the note and THEN press the key to see if you sang it correctly. As far as comping chords - do yo mean with a rhythm section or solo?
I play mostly by myself these days due to lack of time in my schedule, so solo I guess. I want to get away from my habit of simply playing block chords in the left and melody/solo in the right hand. I think it makes sense for me to start very simple by practicing triads in close and open positions to both get new ideas for using harmony and getting a more organised understanding of the keys. Thanks alot for the singing advice. Makes alot of sense to me!
Yes. In open positions and also in "inversions of open positions" For example (spelled from the bottom up) E,C,G is a C major chord in first inversion. Requires a bit of a stretch for the fingers but sounds nice and open!
First visit to your site. Very impressed, and appreciate the information given. I am a 79 year old gigging piano player. Problem areas. A slave to lead sheets, Real Books, written music before my eyes! Poor ears, both of them! Struggle with the difficult keys, or when sections appear within a piece. The the bridge of Cherokee affect! Regards Ed
Hey Ruslan! Love your videos and playing. Just now starting to dig into your recommendations in earnest. Looking forward to the journey! Here's the first 3 areas that came up for me-- 1. I don't know enough tunes, and I have a hard time learning and memorizing new repertoire effectively. Once I know a tune, I feel like I don't know what to do with it. 2. I don't feel like I have enough ideas or creativity when playing (solos, fills, comping, etc...not so much of an issue composing, producing or arranging, though!). 3. I don't sound good playing by myself...I'm not just bad at playing solo piano, but when I don't have a full rhythm section, or a recording to play with, I feel like I'm not playing together with myself, if that makes sense.
I need to learn more history, I need to learn to play the pieces I like and admire, and how sounds sound, I'd like everything really, thanks for the heads ups bro, I now can be honest with myself🤣
That’s so helpful Ruslan. I avoid transcribing because I find it hard and I blame my poor ear training skills. So I work on ear training exercises which also helps me avoid transcribing. I’m not sure how to solve this cyclic difficulty. I guess transcribing will be better than on line ear training exercises!! I struggle so much with the efforts of transcribing that I don’t believe it’s helping to tune up my ears. Ali
You rock dude! This really inspired me to keep working more on being mindful of my practising. The things I'm going to work on the next couple of weeks are as follows. 1. Hitting chord tones and making the changes more consistently. 2. Working on my time feel and taking responsibility for keeping the rhythm going. 3. Continue to transcribe Chris Potter's solo on Lingus.
That's awesome man! Sounds like a great plan and sounds like you are well aware of what you need to improve, which is already half the battle right there. Check out my next video in a few days, it will relate directly to your point #2.
Modal Soul you need piano lessons. These are very very very fundamental things, which mean you are at the beginning of your journey. These things are not to be coached through in some UA-cam comment, like the one you are reading right now. You need a piano teacher for a while.
Wow, this helped a bunch. That being said, I feel that currently the hardest part about my practice is getting to the practice room, I also struggle with managing my time as a composer and my time as a bass player, and finally I have yet to figure out how to make a good sound going fast with the bow. Keep up the great videos
1. Learning licks and incorporating them deliberately into my improvisation practice. 2. Remembering to practice with a metronome. 3. Writing out chord substitutions to jazz standards that I know.
Great video, man! This is the first one I’ve watched from your channel and I love it. What I need to improve on at the moment is getting comfortable playing chord progressions/improvising in every key. Some keys I find much easier than others at the moment. I also need to learn how to smoothly change keys, because it sounds a bit forced when I do it.
Elie El Khoury there is not a single living musician on this planet who feels equally comfortable playing in every key. The less you played in a particular key throughout your lifetime, the less comfortable you are going to feel in it. There’s nothing to do about that. Wanna play better in some key? Declare it “key of the month”, and practice every musical topic you practice but do it EXCLUSIVELY IN THAT ONE KEY during that month. There really is no way around this one. You will only feel comfortable in the key of B if you play in it as much as you played in the key of C. Regarding changing keys, I’d have to hear you play in order to address the issue.
Sweet! Glad you found it useful, man! There's a lot more coming.... I really, really want to get this knowledge out there. Not just to publicize myself, but because I really feel I can help thousands and thousands of people. If you know anyone who might benefit from this channel - please share it with them 🙂
Thanks for your videos. 👌🏼🙂 1) The left hand (confidence in teqniqually playing melodies/basslines etc ) 2) Rootless Chord Voicings (played with both hands) 3) Harmonic overview / Knowing all the different choices I can make (when reharmonizing a song) and making the right decision) Hope to hear from you 🤞🏼🙂
Rasmus Løhde Regarding 1 and 2, I would improve my left hand technique with some kind of piano technique book. Regarding point 2 and 3 - check out my Reharmonize toon videos. I play a ton of voicings in them and you can see exactly what keys I’m pressing with both hands. Most of them can be made rootless, by just abandoning the root. Take the ones you like and learn them in all keys.
Thank you so much for this video! I'm a jazz singer and classically-trained pianist who is trying to make the transition to jazz piano, so my main issue at the moment is trying to come up with the three most important starting points, given that I feel there is so much I need to work on in my piano playing! My overall goal is to be able to play keys at jam sessions/with my band, so I'll focus my practice on that. I would appreciate your thoughts on whether the three areas I've chosen are the best to focus on first: 1) learning jazz harmony properly (a lot of my knowledge has been learned on the job, so I'm good at recognising things aurally but not so good at knowing the names for them), particularly practicing scales 2) learning how to voice jazz chords on the piano and practicing voicing different changes (I'm going to take a look at your Five Useful Piano Voicings video) 3) working on solo improvisation (I know you have lots of videos on this so I'm looking forward to digging in!)
Yea, that sounds about right. But then again - if you are just getting started, almost ANY areas you could have listed would have sounded right. My suggestion to everyone in the beginning of their journey is to take a few lessons. Just to get your train properly put on the rails, so to speak. So that it can start rolling on its own and roll in the right direction. I hope you have access to someone who can guide you in the very beginning, in person or online. Learning from UA-cam is great but when you are in the beginning of the journey, you always want to take a couple of PERSONAL lessons, no matter what you are starting with - jazz, cooking, body building. In my opinion, the beginning of any journey is not the time to self-teach :) that comes a little later.
@@ruslanpiano I completely agree! Sadly, lockdown means I can't have any in-person lessons (and I'm not sure who is around locally to me either). I would be open to the idea of online lessons though - if you have any recommendations of teachers I'd be keen to hear (I'm a student though so nobody too expensive!).
Rhythm, drop2, enclosures, walking bass lines. Thank you. Just found you when I was looking for tunes that weeklypiano.com did lessons on. I copied an arrangement of autumn leaves that he taught. I really liked it. By the Time I copied it slowly from UA-cam, I had it memorized and have never forgotten the arrangement.
I'm so glad I found this channel, I am a bass player learned how to play by ear and hearing you talk has really helped me out a lot. You are so clear I understand quickly everything you are teaching! I think you are the best, keep it up sir. I need to work more on 1. Walking basslines 2. Soloing over chord changes And Understanding Harmony more Thanks
shabzstar chintu check out my videos on how to solo over chord changes. I have a play list dedicated to that. Regarding bass lines - transcribe transcribe transcribe.
Hiii really need your help!!!! I play Piano. Here are my 3 areas I really need to improve: 1. Increase speed (all my entire life teachers told me I could not play that fast) 2. Learn more extended chord positions (I feel I am so basic and a looser in that) 3. Improvisation:)
I came from classical piano, and have been trying to play jazz, and these are some of the things I need to improve: 1- Playing over fast chord changes (comping and soloing) 2- Sounding like a jazz solo 3- Solo piano arranging from the lead sheet
Gabriel Magioni I know exactly the shift you have to make in your head. I came from classical piano too. On this level, the only advice I can give you is TAKE JAZZ LESSONS with a jazz piano player. Over text comments, I can coach people on specific aspects of playing, improvising, comping etc. For example, I can help you improvise on chord changes and give you specific steps on how to do it slowly, and then gradually increase the tempo (I made a video called “how to improvise on chord changes” that can help you with that). But with something like “sounding like a jazz solo”, there really is no advice I can give to help you. You just have to listen to 84,000 hours of jazz music and take jazz lessons for a year or two. Which means - you have to LIVE with this music for a while, if that’s what your heart wants, of course. Not everything can be fixed with a specific bit of advice. It’s the same as if someone came on a sports and fitness channel and said - “I came from the hi tech world and spent 9 hours a day sitting behind a computer for the past 12 years. What should I do to get in shape?” The advice for such a person would NOT be “do 60 sit ups every 15 minutes after a meal with protein etc” The advice would be: “Hire a personal trainer and go to the gym for a year. Then come back here and we will give you more specific coaching”. Same is my advice to you. If you love jazz, listen to it a LOT. Take 2-3 lessons a month, if you can. Find a good teacher to do that with. Practice a little bit every day on the things your teacher tells you. Give it some time. Slowly your playing will start sounding more and more like jazz. Slowly you will start understanding ways of how to make solo piano arrangements from lead sheets (after listening to and living with 7-8 solo piano jazz albums for a year or two, and working out 3-4 solo piano arrangements with your jazz teacher, step by step). I’m sure you will see success!!!! I’m sure you will sound amazing!!! But right now the best advice for you is not “do 13 push ups, do 16 pull ups, and eat 2.5 meals”. Right now the best advice for you is: “Hire a personal trainer and go to the gym for a year”.
Superb advice... at the moment I’m trying to improve my time and motivic development..I recorded myself the other day and I play waaaaaaay too much ... only discovered your channel today and it’s blown me away thank you so much for sharing ... I’ll catch you at the kamasi gig in Auckland in October ✊
Hello Ruslan, my instrument is PIANO and IMPROVISATION is my WEAKEST LINK , 2nd will be CHORD progressions and third will be TRANSCRIBING. Love your CHANNEL !!!
You might want to consider some lessons with someone privately where you live. At least for a while. To put your train on the rails so to speak. It sounds like what’s missing is some fundamentals without which no further progress can be made
Great video, enjoyed your distillation. I am a comeback trumpet player, and have been working to get a good routine with expanding trumpet range, and technique. Very helpful comments. Reinforces what I am doing now, I do warm up with pedal tones , Long tones, slurs and lip slurs for five minutes. Do a combination of James stamp exercises and then Clark studies for technique for 15 minutes. I work on range studies daily for around 15 minutes. At this point, I start working on pieces for the big band that I play with. Lead trumpet stuff. Also I am playing with small group combos. Struggling with losing my place in the form when doing a solo for example 64 bar . That doesn’t happen all the time, trying to think in 4 bar phrases When putting his soul together
Continuing, what’s the best way to practice in this situation?, Have been using play along‘s, and working on my improv with using iPad Pro programs. Spending about 30 to 40 minutes working in this area. My goals are to be precise in the form, add some interest to my soling, start Including some bebop lines
William LeLiever Form? Just play over form all the time. This particular skill is just a matter of “Milage” so to speak. Get in the habit of playing on form ALL THE TIME. Keeping form is a muscle. Imagine you are working on a muscle at the gym. All the same rules apply. It will take repetition, it will take consistency. It will build SLOWLY, like any other muscle would. Get a copy of the Omni book, and learn some of those Charlie Parker solos. They are a joy and will add quite a bit to your vocabulary!
I'll give this a shot: 1: More of a compositional thing, but hopefully that's all right. I struggle with developing ideas, especially melodically. I'll make something cool, but then I'm often stuck with a few bars of something I don't know how to develop further without just repeating it. 2: Picking up melodic content by ear seems a lot harder than it should be after playing for 10-11 years.(guitar) I fear it might be due to lack of transcribing in my early period. I have some ideas of what I should be doing, and I am practicing those things regularly and do see improvement, but it would be interesting to hear your thoughts to see if I pick up some new ideas. Cool videos. Subscribed!
Mats Moland Træen 1 Get heavy into practicing Motivic development, methodically. I myself was going to make a series of in-depth videos on how to do it, and even made an introductory video on it here on the channel already, but i quickly realized that most of my audience needs help with structuring triads on a piano and adding basic tensions on top, or improvising on basic changes, learning chord scales, and keeping basic time well... not developing continuous compositional ideas in real time, so I changed the direction of my topics in order to actually be helpful to people, rather than just being “informative”. If you notice, the first few videos on this channel are a lot more advanced than the following ones. This is because of the feedback I got :). To those few who do seek learning Motivic Development, like yourself - just do the following and u will not regret it: Go to your wallet, pull out your credit card, and go buy a book by Hall Crook - “How To Improvise” online. In that book find the ‘Motivic Development’ chapter. Dedicate 6 months of your life to that chapter religiously, become fucking obsessed with that chapter and with the exercises in it. Come back to this comment and thank me later :). Just do it. 2 - yea developing a good ear really is the most helpful thing u can do. And the early period is in deed the best period u can do it in. But now - just transcribe as much of the music you love as u can transcribe, as often as you can, and also work with ear-training apps on your computer and phone to develop your relative pitch. It probably will not increase your ear miraculously or increase it fast. But with consistent effort - it WILL increase... and hey, every bit of progress in this area will make a positive difference in your music making. So - take whatever progress you can get with your ear, big or small, and you will not regret it!
Thanks! I'll check out that book, and your other videos! More transcribing definitely needs to happen. I'm starting to develop a routine for it now where I usually transcribe something ever day, so I'll keep doing that, and build a list of things to transcribe so I don't run out. Thanks again. Will keep an eye on this channel.
Hey Ruslan. Thanks so much for your lessons. I was sent here by Flying Lotus who was also kind enough to pass on some advice about my playing. The goals I have are as follows: 1. I want to understand and practice the style of improvising with chords. For example, in your lesson on improvising over chord changes, the backing track is supposedly in "G minor" but yet I hear a lot of chords being played. They may all very well be G minor, but perhaps you're playing different inverted forms? Either way, I don't feel comfortable sitting down at the piano and improvising chords in my left hand while improvising melodies or chord extensions in my right hand sort of thing. Maybe you can understand what I'm talking about. 2. I want to develop an understanding for really fast playing that I idolize. For example, Allan Holdsworth and Herbie Hancock are two musical idols of mine. I really would like to wrap my head around what is going through their minds as they play. Are all the notes they play (chords and melodies) really coming from their inner listener and being translated in real-time? Or is there something else about music I'm missing? I should note that I'm quite the beginner so there could be a lot of concepts that I'm missing out on. Hope these questions are not too hard! Thanks again for all the great help! - Cameron
That was an inspiring video, thank you! Mine is a little tricky- the thing I dislike the most about my playing is how there is no carry over from practicing to performing. I never feel nervous during auditions or gigs, yet my improvisation sounds bad and I can't focus and play gracefully, and everything non improvised that is even a little technichally challenging is a train wreck. Even if I practiced it 200 times perfectly.
Gal Roth I’d have to hear you play and could probably point you in the right direction. Your self diagnosis might not be helpful or even accurate. I know my self diagnosis wasn’t always helpful to me or true.
Yea, nothing to do, my friend. Look up “chord scales” on UA-cam. And watch some videos on that. It’s just knowledge. You can get it easily, if you want.
i PAY GUITAR, here are my issues which really need improvement. Hearing what I am listening to in its entirety in order to then feel and translate it to playing. Therefore IMPROVISING, is frustrating but you have given me my starting point. My chords are not always clear ( muffled or buzzing). I have not learned enough to recognize scales. Thanks for taking the time to read these comments. Rob.(:
1. Prehearing/being able to sing what I'm improvising, ie. not relying so much on my fingers. 2. Time (on bass specifically). I'm working a lot with a metronome that drops out every few beats or measures. Any exercises in particular you can recommend? Thanks man, keep it up!
1 -- Oh yes, yes... Huuuge topic!! ...and hey, I would make a video about it but I doubt that most people are advanced enough to care about how to play from their inner listener and not from their muscle memory. Kudos on dealing with that!!! That's some real artistic concern right there.. big ups!! So here's what you do: - Play a phrase - Pause and reflect on what you just played. - Listen intensely to the silence, and hear the next phrase coming in (in your head), focus really hard to hear the beginning of it and where its supposed to come in.. - and just as you're about to play that phrase... STOP... don't play it. Literally stop yourself on the edge of playing it. - Listen to the space again, slowly start hearing in your head the next phrase that will come in, hear the beginning of it in your head... hear where its supposed to come in... here it comes, here it comes, here it comes.... AND... - Juuuuust as you're about to play it .... STOP!! Don't play it. Like... get to the very very edge of almost playing it and then... DON'T. - Then do the whole thing for the third time... and on the third time DO play the phrase. 2 -- My entire next video will be on how to practice with click. I think you will really really enjoy it. I'll be covering two ways of doing it once of which involves something similar to what you wrote and another really cool way. Stay tuned!!
I'm also working on the first one! It's very hard so far, I have a strong habit of relying on my fingers... but it's getting better. Here's a couple of things that helped for me: 1. When we hear things in our head, it's not the same as when we hear things in the outside world. I've found it much easier to see music as colors and shapes. A certain chord might give a specific (abstract) color and a rhythm/melodic line has a certain shape. To me it really helped to see it as "visualizing" music rather than trying to actually hear it. 2.If you have a smartphone, get the iReal Pro! It has backing tracks for all the jazz standards and you can change the tempo, key etc. A good ear training exercise is to sit in your couch and just listen to the backing tracks. Can you hear/visualize the root of every chord? Then hear/visualize the 3rd, 5th etc. When you feel comfortable you can mute all the instruments and see if you can do it with just the drums. 3. Do the same thing as above but with licks, voicings and musical concepts your working on. 4. If you have an electric keyboard, play something with the sound turned off. Try to see how clear you can hear your playing in your head as you press down the muted keys. Maybe you disagree / already know all this but I'm just throwing it out there :)
Peter Gray 1. Check out my video on how to use your left hand. There’s some rhythmic stuff you can check out, I talk about it in the video. 2. Check out a video I did on how to keep amazing time. Stylistically? Well.. listen to a ton of music you love and transcribe as much of it as possible. After transcribing it, learn it in several keys. It’s just an ocean of work. No secrets really.
Glad I found "weekly piano" channel and yours! I related so much on the "burned out" phase. I'm getting through one :/ While I'm on these "plateaus" I try to read more theory books and just listen to good music. Could you make a video or just recommend me here about intermediate/advanced theory books that helped you the most? (I don't care if the list is too long! xD) Wish you all the best from Portugal. Have a good day Ruslan.
Jingle Bell Rock Thank you. I haven’t read any of those books to be honest. I find most it not really relevant to actual growth as a player, like books about basketball. It doesn’t hurt but it doesn’t really help either. When you have a plateau, take a private lesson from someone 4 times your level. That’s what i do, and it works...
I need to get better at improvising through tunes with more chord changes. I also have to learn some more standards. Triad pairs.... there's so much work to do with them other than just playing through all inversions.
1 - my next video will cover that pretty thoroughly, I think you will find it useful. So many people have been asking about rhythm. 2 - I did one video on it on this channel and will do another 1,000 videos on it. Its the topic that fascinates me the most. for now -- go and buy the book "How To Improvise" by Hall Crook. Believe me, you will not be sorry for spending the money. It breaks down motivic development SO AMAZINGLY WELL... I highly recommend it. There are specific techniques to practice that and I wish I could cover them in a Comment, I can't. I will make videos on each of the techniques in that book. But get the book, really. You won't regret it. 3 - I would say start improvising at a tempo in which you CAN play cool logical phrases and do that for a while. The point here is: in what tempo can you THINK clearly, and in what tempo is thinking becoming a little hard? So find the sweet spot in which you CAN think up interesting phrases and do THAT... then increase the tempo Juuuust A Little Bit. Now improvise in that tempo until you become comfortable with playing cool phrases and the tempo becomes easy. Then increase the tempo more etc etc.. This is a process that can take 6 months or 8 months or a year. But the method is clear -- there is a tempo in which you can play cool logical phrases, start in that tempo and gradually increase the tempo. And this process will take as long as it will take.
Shemar Davis That’s great, my man! Happy to hear! Please let me know if there’s anything you would like me to cover and talk about in future videos. Thank you for checking out the channel! 👊🏻
Hi Ruslan Thank you very much for all the advices. A musician with you level just share with world your knowledge it's amazing and beautiful. Thank you for that. About my problems. I struggle alot with standards chord changes no matter how i practice de progretion with scales or arpegios sounds always to mecanical, without fluence or meaning. Even transcribing i dont feel much of jazz vocabolary in me, or when it does just feel like is not my self or i'm repeting my self over and over. Keep doing music please you are genious :)
André Pires Costa send me a video of you playing. I will help you.
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Hi Ruslan I recorded a chorus here. Thank you very much for the help. ua-cam.com/video/xOO0MP6Je_U/v-deo.html If helps my e-mail it's contacto.apiresc@gmail.com. Thank you alot
André Pires Costa you sound really nice man! Your improvisation is good! Here is what I would do if I was you. General goal: You need to be able to improvise in such a way that, even without accompaniment, the harmony will be clear JUST FROM YOUR LINES. If you take Charlie Parker’s solos, or Pat Metheny’s solos, and you MUTE the accompaniment and just listen to their solo, you will be able to hear what the chords are just from the solo, just from the lines. The notes they emphasize will “paint” the harmony even if the accompaniment will be muted. This is also how YOU should learn to play. Send me another video where you improvise on this song in time, but without accompaniment. And I want to be able to hear the chord changes inside your solo lines. Your notes and lines should be OUTLINING the harmony even better than they are right now. If you want to improve in that, please check out my video “how to improvise on chord changes”. Do all the steps in it, especially the 3rd step (where you improvise around the tonic, around the 3rd, around the 5th, around the 7th etc etc). There are many more things you could work on (just like me or any other improviser), but they are less important. To me, the most important thing right now in your playing is I want to hear the harmony of the song in your lines EVEN MORE than I can hear it right now. I want you to outline the harmony even better.
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@@ruslanpiano thank you for the advice I saw the video before but didn't put it in practice with a jazz tune, is really very useful because I need to think in every note of each chord change, don't know why i never done it before cause it's something logical to think on work. I felt major dificulty in the fourds for get nice lines but i will improve it. I recorded here ua-cam.com/video/wNL4cQym4Sw/v-deo.html. I think it's better, at least i feel more freedom, I will put the steps in my tunes work out from now on. Thank you very much and please keep sharing your wisdom cause makes really a diference in the study and practice of alot of people, you really know where to go in the music. I realy love your music. thank you.
André Pires Costa sounds good brother! I can hear the chords. Continue to keep THAT in mind... The next step for you is to “make sense” of the lines you play and develop greater sense of phrasing and MOTIVIC DEVELOPMENT. I have a series of videos on motivic development in a playlist on my channel. I think a player on your level should be dealing with that topic! You are a good player and you understand the language and you understand chord changes. So.. NOW WHAT? What’s the next step after understanding those two important concepts? The next step is telling a story. And that’s where motivic development comes in! I think you should check out that concept either from books by Hal Crook or from my videos. If you add more motivic development to your playing, your playing will become more compositional and more like a story with a story-line. That’s something you, me, and most other players should be working on all the time.
PIANO: 1. Playing in good time 2. Listening to the other players and "speaking back" 3.Sensing where the end of the form is (32 bars/etc/end of solo? "Where is the end of my 8?")
I made a video about playing in good time! :) regarding keeping form -- thats a muscle. the more u do it, the better it gets. same with interplay and speaking back. listen to music and identify it in other player's playing.. it will eventually creep into your playing too, if u have good control of ur instrument and the language.
Been tackling guitar a lot lately. I need to practice my chord voicing (and how to execute chords with extensions) as well as using better voice leading. I get stuck in a rut of using my bar chord and root position 7th chord shapes. Love the videos and your playing!
Thank you, my friend! Here is your solution: First pick TWO chord voicings you want to master and write them down. Yup, first focus on only two chord voicings. This is important since there are 9,236,262 different chord voicings, and you want to master them all but its overwhelming and where do u start and what do u do and and and.... What to do?? To focus our work you will first DECIDE ON TWO VOICINGS AND WRITE THEM DOWN. The other voicings can wait, but these first two chord voicings you chose are going to become your B*tch! 😎 - PICK ONE MAJOR CHORD VOICING AND ONE MINOR CHORD VOICING. Maybe the first inversion of some major chord and the first inversion of some minor chord. - Now write down 2-3 songs you know how to play WELL, where you don't have to think about what the next chord is every 2 seconds. It can literally be any song from Nirvana to Happy Birthday To You to literally ANYTHING. - Now you are going to play those songs using ONLY THE TWO VOICINGS YOU DECIDED TO MASTER. Every major chord and every dominant chord in the song gets the "major voicing" you decided to master. Every minor chord in the song gets the "minor voicing" you decided to master. Once you start playing the song only using the two chord voicings you're working on - your playing might sound a little funny and not very musical, but that's okay. The goal is that you laser-focus on these two chord voicings and own them. The songs you're playing are merely a vessel to help you do so. Stick to these 2 chord voicings for one week, and try to play EVERYTHING YOU PLAY during your practicing only using those chord voicings, and NOTHING ELSE. Then if you want to play some other songs -- great! But still -- only use the two chord voicings you've decided to master and nothing else! Work as if someone said to you: "Seth, forget the rest of the chord voicings in the world. Just master the shit out of these two chord voicings, and if you do -- we'll give you 4 million dollars" You might say: "But Ruslan, there are 70,000,000 voicings in the world! Am I going to have to laser-focus on each one of them in this way?? I'll need 800 years to master the guitar chord voicings in this pace!!!!" And my reply would be: "Well... not exactly. Your growth will be exponential. After you focus on 10 chord voicings in this rigid, army-like fashion, the next 10 voicings will come EASIER than the first 10 did, because by mastering the first 10 chord voicings perfectly you will increase your overall facility on the instrument and will 'fly around the neck' way, way faster, which will speed up your learning process for other chord voicings you will want to master in the future". Hope this helps, Ruslan
For solo piano - I would recommend to transcribe or learn some transcriptions of solo piano performances. Also begin listening to a lot of solo piano recordings, figuring out how the pianists accompany themselves and begin imitating your favorite ways in which they accompany themselves. Also figure out how the pianists "shift gears" in their pieces, since they play by themselves, the "arrangement" of the piece is entirely on them. To make the music 'progress forward' you can't get stuck on one way of accompanying yourself forever. You can't, for example, play walking bass with your left hand from the beginning of the piece to the very end of it. It will get boring after a while if you don't switch it up to some other way of self-comping. But, if you do walking bass for, say, a chorus or two, and then switch to another kind of self-accompaniment, and then later maybe come back to the walking bass again - now that can sound really awesome, arranged and intentional. Giving your performance 'chapters'. Check out how richly the greats accompany themselves when playing solo piano. I recommend an album by Chick Corea called "Expressions", as well as Brad Mehldau's solo piano works (like "Elegiac Cycle" and "Live In Tokyo"), Keith Jarrett's many solo piano works, Michelle Petrucciani solo piano recordings, and any other solo piano albums you might get your hands on by the usual suspects. Intention with your color choices when comping? Well, this topic is a bit paradoxical. Because on the one hand, when you play you should avoid playing on auto-pilot, or out of muscle memory, or out of familiar chord shapes. Yet, at the same time, you also shouldn't be THINKING while you're playing. Whatever color choice you make during comping, it should not be a result of examining 6 different ones over the course of 1.3 seconds and choosing the best one of all available. Nope. Ideally, your subconscious simply feeds you a shape in real time, drawing on the hundreds of shapes you have mastered over hundreds of hours (.... have you?). I recommend mastering colors/shapes all the time in all 12 keys. In addition, and maybe even more importantly, I recommend recording your comping on a gig, and listening back to it at home, 'calling yourself out' on auto-pilot choices you make while comping. This process alone will summon your inner listener to be more involved in your musical choices while you comp. Also - check out my video "Inner Listener Workout" ua-cam.com/video/9jEF1CvLnq8/v-deo.html and do the exercise I show in this video, adapt it to comping. Do this exercise, and then also continue listening back to your own recordings and critiquing. Have that be your routine for a while, as well as continuously explore and ingrain new shapes/colors (each in all 12 keys of course), and you will see a positive result in becoming more discerning and intentional in your choice of color when comping.
Hi Ruslan IM at a beginner level and I really appreciate your teaching approach can you please make videos more on 1. Improvisation concepts 2. ReHarmonization 3. Passing Chords 4. Strengthening fingers / technique 5. Modern Jazz improv concepts 6. Chord extensions 7. How to apply counterpoint when playing the piano Sorry I have made such a long list.
Awsome lesson man, Im really excited to see your channel grow. I am a sax player and I need to work on sight reading and playing over changes and not letting the ideas in my head take me outside the changes... I am currently working on donna lee. Thanks
Thank you so much!! I know the feeling too!! I find though that the greatest freedom is to be able to find freedom in some sort of FRAME (in this case - chord changes). I will go deep on how to improvise on changes in my future videos. Its a huge topic and there is SOOO much one can do to work on that. One of my favorite methods is to improvise for one chorus around the tonic of each chord, the next chorus to improvise around the 3rd of each chord, next chorus to improvise around the 5th of each chord, next chorus to improvise around the 7th of each chord, next chorus around the 9th. Thank you for checking out the channel!!
Thank you that was helpful. I tried using some of the technique you are teaching and it has helped me improve. I'm working on expanding my jazz vocabulary. I need to work on my rhythm and soloing as well. Thank you for sharing your videos.
Happy to hear its helping. Both vocabulary and soloing can be greatly helped by simply making a list of other people's solos you really love, transcribing those solos, and learning them each in 3-4 keys. Its a ton of work.. but its an investment in yourself and one done through studying music you already love anyway (i.e. other people's solos you really love).
Your videos are awesome! I've been stuck in a rut for a while, and I've been wanting to break out of it. Reflecting on my practicing sessions I do realize that I tend to "practice" things I'm already good at just like you said. I'm going to approach practicing the way you've suggested, and it would be great to hear some advice from you on the parts I feel like I should work on. 1) keeping time 2) transcribing and ear training 3) Music theory 4) soloing over chord changes (I'm still only able of using the Pentatonic scale). Thank you so much!
Ray Chang check out my videos called “how to keep great time” and “how to solo over chord changes”. I’m still trying to work out a method for ear training. There are apps on the phone which train the ear with intervals. Those are always a good use of your time. So definitely get one of those!
Thanks, very frank advice. So, piano sightreading, triad/chord inversions on piano and guitar, learning and remembering whole bloody songs, not just fragments. Cheers
I've just discovered your channel and I love your advices! Things I need to work on: Soloing over chord changes (generally), Better feeling of sixteenth notes in faster tempos (to get better funky sound), Hearing chord progressions (more unusual than 2-5-1). I am practising technique by having classical piano lessons, but I want to go more in jazz world. I want to integrate some transcribing into my practise too :)
Really helpful video man 1. Playing a cohesive solo at faster tempos - I find it's moving too fast and I can't keep up or play any longer fluent lines. 2. Playing outside the changes effectively, especially when there aren't many chords
1 - Find a tempo where you can play the tune, but its a Liiiitle hard for you, where you have to sweat juuuuust a little to make the tempo. The tempo of the song has to be challenging BUT doable for you. Once you find that sweet spot tempo, practice in THAT tempo, no matter what the tempo is. After a week or two of that - this new tempo will become EASIER for you, and now you can increase the tempo a bit more to a point where it feels like the previous tempo felt: where you CAN make the tempo but its a little hard to do... not too hard and not too easy. After a while THIS tempo will also become comfortable, and then you will up it to a new, faster tempo... Until this one becomes easier as well, and then you up it again... .and then again after a while.. and again... And so on and so forth. 2 - Playing outside the changes effectively is the same as playing inside the changes effectively. Your lines have to make Sense. Your lines and ideas have to have internal logic to them and be connected to one another in some way. Be it taking a pattern of notes and moving it chromatically up (or down), or moving it around in another interval, like minor 3rds up. Or most importantly - it has to have Motivic Development (check out a video on motivic development i've done on this channel)
Great video, Ruslan! I’m a bass player (electric and upright) and I play literally all the styles you listed in your “who am I” video but my heart is in jazz fusion and modern jazz. 1. Being able to mentally tie the names and sounds of specific chords together. I have perfect pitch as well as a good amount of knowledge in theory but there’s just a disconnect when I see half and whole diminished, maj6, chords, etc. I know what notes are contained in them but not how they would sound while being voiced correctly. My aural experience (church and jazz scene) tells me exactly what to play over chords and sounds I like because I can usually immediately identify the “funny” notes by name and feel and then exploit them, however these are all reactions. I do not consciously recreate these chords when composing because I don’t fully understand their sound and function. Any feedback would be cool :) Thanks for opening up this forum 🙏🏼, -Caleb
Hmm... maybe some harmony/piano lessons to tie the loose ends. you're already doing the important part, and that is - you have a personal relationship to the way each chord rings and you know exactly what makes each chord 'tick'. I would say take a few piano lessons for harmony so that you can sort of 'compile' these sounds for yourself, and learn to play them formally, and how each one works. What matters is that if u hear a certain chord in ur head, if you feel a certain chord in your spirit -- u you have to be able to play that chord on the piano/bass, and make that translation from the inside to the outside... you also have to know which scale goes over that chord. The rest does not matter.
All so true... and so confronting. I'm a saxplayer and I've never really practised anything. I've made some miles for sure, but it all just came so easily. But in the end that actually sucks. It's really hard to expand the vocabulary that way, and there is always the feeling I could do much better if only I put in the effort. Anyway, your great video surely gave me some good food for thought. Thanks!
Hey mate I'm currently working on repetour reading transcribing and general improv. Ive been playing for 30 yrs but had a 20 yr break in really playing due to teaching students and playing/working general pub club gigs
Nathan George Well much of this is self explanatory. If you are working on repertoire - memorize the songs you want to memorize. You can break them down to smaller sections and play those in loop until you remember them well. Then move on to the next section of the song and memorize it. Transcribing - again, not much to do there. Just.. transcribe 2 bars a day, or 16 bars a day, or however many you have time and energy for. Regarding general improv - that’s a huge topic. I’d have to hear you play, and then maybe a more specific strategy could be developed, one designed to address your specific shortcomings.
Hi Ruslan, thank you for enlightening and challenging me to become better. I will try to practice how to play passing chords. I will practice how to play the scales. These two things first, then let’s see what happens. Again, thank you and more power to you. You are a generous genius.
Thanks for the video. Difficulties : 1)playing the left hand other than on one without losing the place in the rythm 2) moving my left hand around cleanly ( I have small hands, octave only) 3) playing fast 4) sharing a harmony between my hands. I've mainly played classical until a year ago. I know my scales and so on but it takes time to get my mind round rootless voicings and extensions. Any suggestions would be welcome.
Rachel Thomas thank you for writing. Yes, I am familiar with the transition from classical to jazz since I also did this transition many years ago as a teenager. It’s not easy, because the two are completely different ways of approaching music and approaching playing. :) The good news is that you are very aware of all the things you need to improve. This awareness is a big advantage for you, because you know exactly what needs to get worked on and that is a very important Clarity to have! What you need, however, is not advice from me on the internet, my friend :) What you need is to take Jazz Piano Lessons every 2 weeks for a year, not music advice in the comments section of a UA-cam video. The issues you are dealing with are very fundamental and basic. I promise you, you will improve!! But what you need is to find someone who plays good jazz piano and study with them, one on one for a while. This is a new journey and it’s very exciting! But at this stage of your journey you don’t need advice on UA-cam. You need a private teacher two times a month, and practice at home what the teacher tells you to practice. At this stage of your journey - this will be the best, and, in my opinion, the only solution.
TheNextLevel : thanks for your reply. I started jazz lessons in October...a very good and encouraging teacher...but July and August it's holidays ..so I won't see him until after his well earned vacation !!. I definitely have progressed, when I started I couldn't improvise following a chord chart to save my life and now I can ! It may not be fantastic but I can 100% impro, not just learn by heart and repeat.. Take care!
Soloing over chord changes -- there is a really really good video I made on my channel that is called "how to solo on chord changes" I promise it will help you. Playing fast -- find the tempo where you can solo but its a little bit harder than usual. NOT TOO HARD. But just a little harder, because the tempo is a little bit faster than you are feel comfortable in. Now practice soloing in that tempo for 1 week, or for 2 weeks, or for 4 months, or for 6 years -- until that tempo will become easy. And then increase the tempo and start practicing in this new tempo that is a little faster. REMEMBER: dont make the tempo you practice TOO FAST, because then you will not grow. You have to find the tempo that is a LITTLE bit above your comfort, not a lot above your comfort. And then, slowly increate the tempo over time, as you get more and more comfortable soloing in faster and faster tempos. Sight reading -- there are no secret methods here. If you don't sight read often you will not be a good sight reader. Just like with the previous part of my comment, find material that you can sight read relatively easily, but a little challenging (not too easy) and sight read it for 10 minutes. Then do that again tomorrow. And do that 4 times a week. Eventually you will need harder and harder material to read, since your reading will improve. But the secret is to practice reading stuff that is not too easy and not too hard, and practice doing that REGULARLY, not one in a while. Then your reading will for sure improve.
My struggles: 1. Know chords, scales, tensions, theory and what to play on them theoretically, but don't know how to really make music musically. 2. I stopped practicing for months because the more I practice the further away I feel from musicality and the more physical injury I get. 3. know the chord tones and scales but when improvising I sound like im playing scales and chords instead of improvising. sounds like shit. Need serious help here. :/
Great video! I'm an electric bass player and I'd like to improve my walking bass lines over jazz standards such as all the things you are. I'd also like to improve my sight reading abilities. Finally, I'd like to begin to solo over changes, something I've never tried.
All these goals comprise the very fundamentals of playing jazz. My best bet would be find someone who is better than you at jazz bass and take lessons twice a month for 6-8 months. Regarding walking bass lines -- I'd hammer in walking patterns over changes. Like decide on a walking bass pattern (1,2,3,5 or 1,5,8,5 or literally countless other walking bass patterns) and just run each one of them over a chart of chords. There are books for walking bass that have all those patterns in them. Get a book like that, its probably $20 or so. Sight reading - there is no way to work on sight reading that im aware of other than sight reading all the time. find the kind of stuff you can sightread slowly and do it every day.. eventually it will become easier, then u can either get a little harder material to sightread or have the tempo a little higher. Regarding improv -- I would first deal with thoroughly understanding chord changes and feeling comfortable in them (walking etc) before tackling improv.
This has to be some of the best practice-related advice on YT. Love it. Thanks so much!
Ruslan says a lot of really cool things. His ideas are grounded and make a lot of sense. Play this video a few times then actually do what he says. Watching and listening to his advice is a start but doing what he suggests is important.
Ben Fazio Thank you, my friend. I really appreciate it. And yes - the key is taking action and putting it into practice :)
Hi Ruslan, thank you so much for your video. Very Motivational, I'm 65 years old I started playing guitar 5 years ago it's been a long life passion to learn guitar but couldn't Life is Life got married children, and now I have the opportunity to do so I just don't have time and terms of the age, in terms of time that it takes to become at least decent or good I also have arthritis in my hands. But I've never been a quitter and I will die learning to play guitar I just like to be able to see myself play halfway or a quarter like my favorite guitarist Eric Clapton so I like to thank you for your videos. You give me the drive to try one more time. I have trouble with timing I have some arthritis in my fingers like I said I'm 65 so I have a lot of challenges but I have never been a quitter at anything I've ever done and I will continue. it's just a little bit of a down because I don't see the progress that I like to see but thank you anyway.
1)expand my jazz vocabulary
2)improve my comping, becoming able to create good melodic and rihitmic connection with the chords
Thanks for this video!
1) I need to work on moving in between two chords in different inversions and learning the arpeggios and 2-5-1 in both major and minor keys
2) Transcribing & ear training
3) getting comfortable with playing voicings in any inversions in two and three and octaves range on the piano
4) rootless voicings
5) getting comfartable to play the songs in all the keys (transcribing can help here i guess)
7) need to learn solo patterns
8) sight reading atleast 3 back chorales a day
9) practicing orchestration through score study
10) working on vocals
Hi Ruslan ! Thanks a lot for your knowledge sharing ! :) I have experimented burn out too ... I felt so zero compared to my musicians friends at the conservatory, that I started to read and followed jazz methods hoping to grow a little bit ... But I start to be owerwhelmed and very fast disapointed and tired, and begin to feel more and more incompetent and it was so hard on me that I stop playing ... for 4 months !! But thanks to your videos I I feel that I can find again the pleasure of playing, and to learn in all benevolence.
So ! Today I am ready to resume my musical practice.
Here areas in my own playing that I should improve :
1/ Rythmic variety 2/ Play fast (and relax) on chord changes 3/ Learn jazz vocabulary that I really like :)
Thanks again Ruslan ! I hope to see you playing in Paris on day !
Peace
Aubérie
First and foremost, man thank you for this video. This video helped me realized why I don't get callbacks and gigs. Also, why I don't feel good enough to go out and even try to get gigs or attend open mics. I haven't truly been practicing.
My first topic for improvement is my timing( grooving without the track, taking fills and leading the band and not following the others for time)
My second topic is my fear of soloing.
My third topic which is weird but being a good hand(introvert personality and I don't really vibe with a lot of cats in the music world and I try I feel like I'm coming off as unnatural)
Hi from Ukraine! Your lessons are THE BEST!!!
Kristinasaer 😃✌🏼🇺🇦
Your channel is awesome I discovered it 3 weeks ago. You should have at a millions subscribers I hope it happened soon. You are a great teacher. Thank you.
Hi, i know i m a bit late, but i start right now.
I m a guitar player and this are my top 3 things that i want to change:
1: i don't transcribe constantly. I know the benefits etc, but i give up fast when there are fast runs or chords that i don't get. So now i will transcribe 10 min (or more) every day.
2: playing over chords... Not much to say, i often do the Guitarist kind of thing and just blast blues scales over everything, what is fine too do, but i want to get deeper into jazz improvisation. So now i start just with the basics like 251s and try to play probably over these kind of things.
3. I like to get better in combing chords and finding chord lines etc. For that i will ask my teacher.
Cheers
Thank you for great advice and videos. My weaknesses: overwhelmed by what to practice... how to attack practice time and proper blueprint for it, transcribing. Soloing.
I’m a guitar player and I definitely am the guy who “practices” the same thing over and over. And yet I feel I’m getting nowhere.lol recently I’ve been doing better and venturing into unknown territory. I’m learning keys now and very excited about it!
Music is the language of nature; you truly know how to speak the language, also you're a great interpreter for those us that want to learn the language. Thanks.
I like where your coming from.Thanks.Health n Joy !
This was like my conciousness telling me to do what I know I should do but I lose my time playing around and not focusing.
1. timing, especially slow tempos and odd meters
2. Sound projection stability
3. Articulation
(on sax)
Firstly, Ruslan, I just have to thank you for the time you have put into these thoughtful videos. They just make so much sense. I have been playing or I should say just messing around on my instrument for so long, it is embarrassing to actually admit how long I have been playing and there are still so many things I don't properly understand. So your home truths of 'How to Practice?' just struck home. Like an Exocet missile to be honest. I am a tenor Sax player. So here are the things I know I could really improve on 1) keeping time, 2) playing over the changes and 3) really knowing all the keys. I mean truly knowing them. You have forced me to confront and be honest. As oppose to just playing what I know again and again and again, and thinking I know my instrument. So thank you my friend.
Thank you so much, my friend. It means the world to me hearing these words. I just sit in front of a camera in solitude and talk.. and turns out it actually helps people I've never met.
To your questions: The issues you site are very, very common. So you're not alone there.. Because of how common these issues are, I went ahead and made some videos specifically addressing THOSE issues. So here are my thoughts:
1 - *Keeping Time*. Check out the video I did on keeping time. Do the exercises I suggest in it. ua-cam.com/video/Uoj4sUd9uj4/v-deo.html Believe me, this stuff adds up if you stick with it. The exercises will help! Also remember, in order to improve this skill (or any other skill) its not enough to just do the exercises and improve in your laboratory alone. You also have to be PLAYING MUSIC with people, and be required to keep time on a regular basis! Just as, say, you are practicing certain specific things to improve your Basketball game. Say you are practicing how to throw 3 pointers from afar. You can spend 6 hours a day doing it and stick with it for 5 months. And yes, you will improve your 3 pointers throw.... BUT YOU ALSO HAVE TO PLAY BASKETBALL ON A REGULAR BASIS TOO! Its not enough to just train for basketball... you have to also PLAY basketball regularly. And then, if you TRAIN AND PLAY - you will for sure for sure improve!!! Ya dig? Same applies to improving time, improving repertoire, improving ability to play on changes, improving technique etc.
2 - *Playing Over Changes* Well, I made a video teaching how to do this. Its the most popular video on my channel. It amounted 14x more views than most of my videos get... ua-cam.com/video/RqHlXP6-B6Y/v-deo.html Check out this video man. You won't regret it. I think the system I teach on how to master chord changes is straightforward, simple, and clear. Again - its WORK.... you're going to have to work for this. We all have to. But please watch the video and you should be well on your way to a 100% guaranteed improvement.
3 - *Mastering All Keys* You know man... Take me, for example. I can really play in all keys. I really, really can. I can transpose a song to any key on demand, if I know the song. I can improvise in all keys. I'm the guy who truly, truly plays in all keys. .......But can I be really honest with you?..... I DON'T CONTROL ALL KEYS EQUALLY WELL. I just don't. NOT EVEN CLOSE!!!! I simply control them all SUFFICIENTLY well in order to work in the music industry. But please make no mistake, in some keys I sound a LOT better than other keys. In some keys I feel a lot more FREE than other keys. I can mask it, because I'm a good player. But I don't, to use your words, "REALLY KNOW ALL KEYS". I just don't and I doubt anyone does. Why? Because the level of freedom you experience in a certain key simply can not be disconnected from the FREQUENCY with which you play in that key. I'll repeat: *The level of freedom you experience in a certain key simply can not be disconnected from the FREQUENCY with which you play in that key.* And, as it happens, both Michael Brecker and you play more often in the key of F major than you play in the key of B major. Nothing to do about that and nothing to worry about. We simply don't play in C# minor often enough to be as comfortable in it as we are in D minor. None of us do. Nothing to do about that.
I feel like the dogma of "REALLY KNOWING ALL KEYS" is similar to the dogma of "PRACTICING 12 HOURS A DAY". Its a high school/ college myth. Exaggerated, inaccurate, unnecessary, unrealistic, and at times even damaging to one's self concept.
Want to improve your control in some new key? No problem. Decide on a key. Decide that this key will be your "key of the month" and spend 15 minutes a day playing in that key religiously for a month. 15 minutes a day. Every day. Will you master that key after a month? Will you, to use your own words, "really know" that key? Hahahaha hell no!!! NOT A CHANCE... You wouldn't have mastered that difficult key even after 6 months on it, because you don't play in that difficult key often enough in real life, which, even if you did, would still have taken years to have an accumulative effect. *But will you improve noticeably in that key after playing in it for 15 minutes, every day for a month?* Yes, you absolutely will improve in that key! You most definitely will! AND THAT'S GOOD ENOUGH. Next month pick another key and do the same.... then another key next month, and another next month. Spend a year doing this. Pick new key every month and eventually cycle back to that key 6 -7 months later. Guaranteed improvement in that area. But no, you will not master those keys like you mastered the key of C major. For that you would have had to play in those difficult keys as often as you have been playing in C major or F major in real life, and do so for as many years as you have been playing in C major and F major. And that's not likely in the cards for you, for me, or for Michael Brecker.
@@ruslanpiano Dear Ruslan
Thank you for taking the time to write such a full reply. I appreciate it. I will follow your advice and work on the things above using the links and tips that you have provided. I also understand what you say about 'really knowing all the keys'. It makes a lot of sense. I like the idea of taking a key and working on that for say a month and then, another and so on, and perhaps rotating. But ultimately there will always be some keys with a greater familiarity than others. Onwards and upwards as they say, and thank you again. Leslie
Hi Ruslan. Improvement areas(piano):
1. Chording left hand.
2. Timing
3. Chord Progressions
4. Transcribing (I rarely ever do this)
5. Being fluent in all keys.
Tread
1. Look up a video I did on left hand (it’s on my channel)
2. Look up a video I did on how to keep amazing time (it’s on my channel too).
3. Chord progressions? I’m not sure what the issue is. You listed a topic, not a problem.
4. Transcribing gets better the more you do it. If you rarely do it - that would explain why you have a problem with it.
5. No short cut here really. The less you play in a particular key, the less fluent you will be in it. The more you play in a particular key, the more fluent you will be in it.
@@ruslanpianothanks for your advice. How much do u charge for Skype sessions? I would be very interested in a mentorship. Seriously.
Tread what’s your email
@@ruslanpiano I just emailed you. I put in the subject line: "I need mentorship (Tread)"
1. learning how to play at slower tempos and softer
2. transcribing chords and fast lines
3. expanding my jazz vocabulary
thanks for these videos man! they really motivate me to become a better musician
1. Listen to a ton of ballads. By dexter Gordon, Coltrane, Miles, Keith Jarrett. Record yourself playing slower tempos.
2. Transcribing is a matter of how good your relative pitch is. Find software that slows down music, without distorting the sound too much. I know it’s out there, just don’t remember the name of it. Slow things down until you can transcribe them. Transcribe slower things, simpler things. Transcribing will both develop your ear, which will help you with further, more complex transcribing, and it will also increase your vocabulary.
3. Along with transcribing, check out my video on jazz vocabulary. It’s one of my recent ones. Really good method to expand vocabulary.
It would be easier for me to assess your situation and prescribe a more exact cure if i heard you play. Thank you for checking out my channel!
Ruslan
Im a piano and keyboard player
-im working on increasing the speed at which i identify notes chords or any sound i have inside of me and bring them out and play them in real time.
-im also working on building the amount of stylistic nuances i have in my repertoire in order to fully bring out my swagger when i play.( for example trills, flicks rolls and small licks) to give contest, think of Mike Bereal's playing or Woody Gross's playing.(His solo on 1612 on Stephen Colbert is a perfect example)
-creating my own lines and seamlessly integrating them into my playing while still feeling natural
Thanks SO MUCH for doing this man!
Edwin Blemur regarding being able to bring out what you hear as fast as possible - that is a great goal to have! We should all make accomplishing this goal a BIG priority, as too many of us are stuck playing from our muscle memory rather than streaming from the inside out. Involving our INNER LISTENER, our inner music fan in the decisions we make during our playing is so very important!! He knows the best notes to play, we just have to listen to him during and let him decide on what we play, rather than play from our fingers, or muscle memory, or habits. I find that recording oneself and listening back helps with that, even recording a solo and transcribing one’s own solo. Seeing what you like about it and what you don’t. Or any other process that involves the “inner listener” WEIGHING IN on how good our playing is. Sometimes when I practice soloing, I’ll play a phrase, leave space, and listen in my mind for when the next phrase is supposed to come in and what the first notes of it are. As soon as I hear it - I get ready to play it and.. STOP. Then repeat all the steps. Again i leave space, and listen in my mind for when the next phrase is supposed to come in and what the first notes of it are. As soon as I hear it - I get ready to play it and.. STOP. Then I do it the THIRD TIME. And on the third time - I actually PLAY the phrase I hear inside. This intense kind of “teasing out” of the inner listener creates a habit of playing from the inside, so to speak, and not from any finger habits. Also - SING a solo instead of playing it, then record it and transcribe it. Then you can also sing and play at the same time. If any of this is hard - slow down the tempo. If transcribing is hard - get software that slows down the music, to make it easier to transcribe. In short - ANYTHING to bridge the gap between the inner listener and your hands.
As for all the little stylistic nuances - TRANSCRIBE TRANSCRIBE TRANSCRIBE. The more you expose yourself to these little details of playing, the more of these stylistic details you play (through transcribing others), the more naturally they will make their way into your own playing. You already hear them distinctly, which is why you’re bringing them up, now - play them a lot, transcribe mike b’s playing in detail, transcribe that solo you mentioned in your comment. With time and exposure to those little stylistic details, those little details will make their way into your playing.
Great musician.Teacher
1. Learning how to comp and really help the soloist come out! (Learning different generes and types of accompaniment)
2. Learn how to play over chord changes, learn to be more melodic!
Thanks man!!!! Keep the videos coming. Sooo glad we are getting this incredible material.
1 -- Get a wealth of chord voicings under your fingers. Work on voice leading... and TRANSCRIBE PEOPLE'S COMPING!!! That's Right!! I transcribed people's comping before. Comping is ideas, just like soloing is. As such, it can be learned, understood, analyzed. Listen to different accompanists and transcribe your very favorite stuff! It will sharpen your own instincts of comping.
2 - Get your chord scales together. Know always what scale goes on what chord. Then try to start your solos as the melody of the song with slight variations, next chorus play the melody with even further, more elaborate variations on it, next chorus play the melody with even more distant variations, next chorus even more to the point where you can still hear the melody but its vague. In Short -- practice basing your solo on the melody of the song you're playing, where the melody is ALWAYS present but it gets more and more variations on with each chorus, and so it becomes harder and harder to trace with each chorus, yet is still there and is heard, however distantly.
Learning songs (repatoire),jazz vocabulary, playing gigs. thanks God loves you deeply Shalom 🏞️🎵😎🎈🐕✨
Brad King I learn songs by looping sections. I loop the first 4 bars over and over and over until I remember it. Then looping the next 4 bars. Then looping the first 8 bars together. Vocabulary? Transcribing works for that. Also after that check out my video on jazz vocabulary. Playing gigs? Well... get really good and sit in on other people’s gigs and jam sessions. The gigs will come then :)
@@ruslanpiano Thanks so much for sharing this with me . I try to transcribe but it takes forever and the fast chromatic stuff throws me off.I got frustrated and didn't play for like two months which is not usual for me but I'm getting back into it now and your videos are awesome to see .I appreciate you bro , your awesome hope you are well God loves you deeply Shalom
I'm glad lots of people got to comment in your videos (I was one of them), because that keeps you motivated and I can keep enjoying new videos from you :)
I feel so grateful I found your channel! Your videos on improvising came at just the right time for me.
1. I've been neglecting my practice of rhythm for years. I rarely play with a metronome when I practice guitar. I remember jamming with a great drummer from Berklee, he was impressed with my vocabulary and improvising but he said jamming with me didn't FEEL good. Since then I've been more conscious of relaxing and not rushing the beat, but it still needs lots of work. I feel like I have a much deeper control of harmony and melody than rhythm.
2. Though I've been playing guitar for 10+ years, there are still keys I'm not very comfortable with. (Particularly Bb min and Ebmin and their modes etc). This mainly just because I don't play in them much. Musical Freedom is my ultimate goal. I want to be fluent in all 12 keys, being able to modulate and color them how I want.
Thank you for starting this channel! I'm looking forward to great content to come.
Rhythm? Oh boy, are you going to freakin LOVE my next video 🙂 I know I said I will coach everyone in the comments, but you know what? I'm literally making an ENTIRE VIDEO about how to help this issue, and I think you will really enjoy it. Just wait another week or so... your rhythm problems will be addressed very thoroughly, in a very pragmatic, applicable fashion. Believe me, you are not the only one in the world who needs to work on their rhythm. PLUS -- you are aware of it, which is already half the battle! In my next video I will demonstrate 2 ways of practicing rhythm with a metronome that are literally 100% full-proof to improve your time feel!!! Hahah.. what an interesting coincidence man! Now I'm excited to release the next vid :))
Ugh! its painful to say but I need work on fingerings, reading, and consistent practicing. Thanks Ruslan, your videos are by far the most useful to me.
jeffrey kay read simple music every day, even if it’s children books music, figure out good fingerings slowly and practice them increasingly faster... consistently.
These are the kinds of problems that contain the solutions within them. It’s the same as if someone said to me - “I need to improve in the key of B”. My response would have been - “well, then play in the key of B often”. Sometimes there are no secrets or methods. Just do the work. Slowly. Patiently. And give it a year. Or two.
Awesome ! thanks for all the videos, how about on the subject of playing at fast very fast tempos, Approaching it in a relax fashion yet with Energy :) Thanks Again
try thinking in half time while you play. If the tempo is 200, you think in 100 in your head. if the tempo is 300 you think in 150
1. Getting familiar with different ways of comping chords, instead of merely block chords in my left hand. (Starting with open voicings specifically, triads first.)
2. Being able to sing different scales, not just the major scale.
Grateful for any tips in approaching these. Keep up the great content!
Regarding singing different scales -- this is best done with the instrument (piano). Chose a scale you're going to focus on and play it slowly on the piano. Eventually start singing along in unison with your playing. Make sure you do it slowly and that you nail every note with your voice, as you clearly will nail every note with your fingers for obvious reasons, if u know how to play the scale on the piano. Do that for a while daily over ONE SCALE!!!
- play the scale and listen to it
- play the scale and sing back each note (as in: press key, sing the note, press the next key, sing the note, press the next key, sing the note etc)
- press keys and sing SIMULTANEOUSLY
- eventually reverse the order, and first sing the note and THEN press the key to see if you sang it correctly.
As far as comping chords - do yo mean with a rhythm section or solo?
I play mostly by myself these days due to lack of time in my schedule, so solo I guess. I want to get away from my habit of simply playing block chords in the left and melody/solo in the right hand. I think it makes sense for me to start very simple by practicing triads in close and open positions to both get new ideas for using harmony and getting a more organised understanding of the keys.
Thanks alot for the singing advice. Makes alot of sense to me!
Yes. In open positions and also in "inversions of open positions" For example (spelled from the bottom up) E,C,G is a C major chord in first inversion. Requires a bit of a stretch for the fingers but sounds nice and open!
Wow Ruslan, you're really an amazing teacher and a saint for doing this!
Sharik Hasan thank you for your kind words. There’s a lot more coming
Thank for the tips ; I believe I should improve me improvisation , I’m working very hard on it . Thank you
,
First visit to your site. Very impressed, and appreciate the information given.
I am a 79 year old gigging piano player.
Problem areas.
A slave to lead sheets, Real Books, written music before my eyes!
Poor ears, both of them!
Struggle with the difficult keys, or when sections appear within a piece. The the bridge of Cherokee affect!
Regards Ed
Hey Ruslan! Love your videos and playing. Just now starting to dig into your recommendations in earnest. Looking forward to the journey! Here's the first 3 areas that came up for me--
1. I don't know enough tunes, and I have a hard time learning and memorizing new repertoire effectively. Once I know a tune, I feel like I don't know what to do with it.
2. I don't feel like I have enough ideas or creativity when playing (solos, fills, comping, etc...not so much of an issue composing, producing or arranging, though!).
3. I don't sound good playing by myself...I'm not just bad at playing solo piano, but when I don't have a full rhythm section, or a recording to play with, I feel like I'm not playing together with myself, if that makes sense.
Just found you on YT. Love your lessons and explanations. Thanx.
I need to learn more history,
I need to learn to play the pieces I like and admire, and how sounds sound, I'd like everything really, thanks for the heads ups bro, I now can be honest with myself🤣
Good lesson to chenge the mind
Ruslan, Just saw you play with Larry Carlton on 10-13-19 and was blown away by your playing. I'm gonna try to apply your teachings on YT to my guitar
That’s so helpful Ruslan. I avoid transcribing because I find it hard and I blame my poor ear training skills. So I work on ear training exercises which also helps me avoid transcribing. I’m not sure how to solve this cyclic difficulty. I guess transcribing will be better than on line ear training exercises!! I struggle so much with the efforts of transcribing that I don’t believe it’s helping to tune up my ears. Ali
Nice! Thanks a lot 👏🎸
You rock dude! This really inspired me to keep working more on being mindful of my practising. The things I'm going to work on the next couple of weeks are as follows.
1. Hitting chord tones and making the changes more consistently.
2. Working on my time feel and taking responsibility for keeping the rhythm going.
3. Continue to transcribe Chris Potter's solo on Lingus.
That's awesome man! Sounds like a great plan and sounds like you are well aware of what you need to improve, which is already half the battle right there. Check out my next video in a few days, it will relate directly to your point #2.
1. Hand technique
2. Finger technique
3. Moving around the keys
4.Hand independence
5.Forming Chords and musical phrases
Modal Soul you need piano lessons. These are very very very fundamental things, which mean you are at the beginning of your journey. These things are not to be coached through in some UA-cam comment, like the one you are reading right now. You need a piano teacher for a while.
Wow, this helped a bunch. That being said, I feel that currently the hardest part about my practice is getting to the practice room, I also struggle with managing my time as a composer and my time as a bass player, and finally I have yet to figure out how to make a good sound going fast with the bow. Keep up the great videos
Loving your channel man. Thanks!
you deserve more view and subscribers... definitely. Greetings from Italy
Michele Condò thank you. it’s been growing lately!
Soloing over chord changes and using best fingering to be effective.
1. Learning licks and incorporating them deliberately into my improvisation practice.
2. Remembering to practice with a metronome.
3. Writing out chord substitutions to jazz standards that I know.
Great video, man! This is the first one I’ve watched from your channel and I love it.
What I need to improve on at the moment is getting comfortable playing chord progressions/improvising in every key. Some keys I find much easier than others at the moment.
I also need to learn how to smoothly change keys, because it sounds a bit forced when I do it.
Elie El Khoury there is not a single living musician on this planet who feels equally comfortable playing in every key. The less you played in a particular key throughout your lifetime, the less comfortable you are going to feel in it. There’s nothing to do about that. Wanna play better in some key? Declare it “key of the month”, and practice every musical topic you practice but do it EXCLUSIVELY IN THAT ONE KEY during that month. There really is no way around this one. You will only feel comfortable in the key of B if you play in it as much as you played in the key of C.
Regarding changing keys, I’d have to hear you play in order to address the issue.
Man, this is huuuuge... I owe you a beer, or any other thing you´re drinking these days! Thanks so much! :D
Sweet! Glad you found it useful, man! There's a lot more coming.... I really, really want to get this knowledge out there. Not just to publicize myself, but because I really feel I can help thousands and thousands of people. If you know anyone who might benefit from this channel - please share it with them 🙂
You´re so right! Just sent this to a trumpet player friend of mine... I´m sure he´ll find it as useful as me! Uber-subscribed btw... :)
A fantastically informed video, thanks so much Ruslan. Time to create a proper practice routine...
Thanks for your videos. 👌🏼🙂
1) The left hand (confidence in teqniqually playing melodies/basslines etc )
2) Rootless Chord Voicings (played with both hands)
3) Harmonic overview / Knowing all the different choices I can make (when reharmonizing a song) and making the right decision)
Hope to hear from you 🤞🏼🙂
Rasmus Løhde Regarding 1 and 2, I would improve my left hand technique with some kind of piano technique book. Regarding point 2 and 3 - check out my Reharmonize toon videos. I play a ton of voicings in them and you can see exactly what keys I’m pressing with both hands. Most of them can be made rootless, by just abandoning the root. Take the ones you like and learn them in all keys.
Thank you so much for this video! I'm a jazz singer and classically-trained pianist who is trying to make the transition to jazz piano, so my main issue at the moment is trying to come up with the three most important starting points, given that I feel there is so much I need to work on in my piano playing! My overall goal is to be able to play keys at jam sessions/with my band, so I'll focus my practice on that. I would appreciate your thoughts on whether the three areas I've chosen are the best to focus on first:
1) learning jazz harmony properly (a lot of my knowledge has been learned on the job, so I'm good at recognising things aurally but not so good at knowing the names for them), particularly practicing scales
2) learning how to voice jazz chords on the piano and practicing voicing different changes (I'm going to take a look at your Five Useful Piano Voicings video)
3) working on solo improvisation (I know you have lots of videos on this so I'm looking forward to digging in!)
Yea, that sounds about right. But then again - if you are just getting started, almost ANY areas you could have listed would have sounded right. My suggestion to everyone in the beginning of their journey is to take a few lessons. Just to get your train properly put on the rails, so to speak. So that it can start rolling on its own and roll in the right direction. I hope you have access to someone who can guide you in the very beginning, in person or online. Learning from UA-cam is great but when you are in the beginning of the journey, you always want to take a couple of PERSONAL lessons, no matter what you are starting with - jazz, cooking, body building. In my opinion, the beginning of any journey is not the time to self-teach :) that comes a little later.
@@ruslanpiano I completely agree! Sadly, lockdown means I can't have any in-person lessons (and I'm not sure who is around locally to me either). I would be open to the idea of online lessons though - if you have any recommendations of teachers I'd be keen to hear (I'm a student though so nobody too expensive!).
Rhythm, drop2, enclosures, walking bass lines. Thank you. Just found you when I was looking for tunes that weeklypiano.com did lessons on. I copied an arrangement of autumn leaves that he taught. I really liked it. By the Time I copied it slowly from UA-cam, I had it memorized and have never forgotten the arrangement.
I'm so glad I found this channel, I am a bass player learned how to play by ear and hearing you talk has really helped me out a lot. You are so clear I understand quickly everything you are teaching! I think you are the best, keep it up sir.
I need to work more on
1. Walking basslines
2. Soloing over chord changes
And Understanding Harmony more
Thanks
shabzstar chintu check out my videos on how to solo over chord changes. I have a play list dedicated to that. Regarding bass lines - transcribe transcribe transcribe.
Hiii really need your help!!!! I play Piano.
Here are my 3 areas I really need to improve:
1. Increase speed (all my entire life teachers told me I could not play that fast)
2. Learn more extended chord positions (I feel I am so basic and a looser in that)
3. Improvisation:)
I need to improve on my timing, especially when improvising...improvising in general, and reharmonizing techniques, especially with better voicings.
Improvisation over chord changes
I have created an entire playlist on this topic. It’s on my channel right here. For free.
I came from classical piano, and have been trying to play jazz, and these are some of the things I need to improve:
1- Playing over fast chord changes (comping and soloing)
2- Sounding like a jazz solo
3- Solo piano arranging from the lead sheet
Gabriel Magioni I know exactly the shift you have to make in your head. I came from classical piano too. On this level, the only advice I can give you is TAKE JAZZ LESSONS with a jazz piano player. Over text comments, I can coach people on specific aspects of playing, improvising, comping etc. For example, I can help you improvise on chord changes and give you specific steps on how to do it slowly, and then gradually increase the tempo (I made a video called “how to improvise on chord changes” that can help you with that). But with something like “sounding like a jazz solo”, there really is no advice I can give to help you. You just have to listen to 84,000 hours of jazz music and take jazz lessons for a year or two. Which means - you have to LIVE with this music for a while, if that’s what your heart wants, of course. Not everything can be fixed with a specific bit of advice. It’s the same as if someone came on a sports and fitness channel and said - “I came from the hi tech world and spent 9 hours a day sitting behind a computer for the past 12 years. What should I do to get in shape?” The advice for such a person would NOT be “do 60 sit ups every 15 minutes after a meal with protein etc” The advice would be: “Hire a personal trainer and go to the gym for a year. Then come back here and we will give you more specific coaching”. Same is my advice to you. If you love jazz, listen to it a LOT. Take 2-3 lessons a month, if you can. Find a good teacher to do that with. Practice a little bit every day on the things your teacher tells you. Give it some time. Slowly your playing will start sounding more and more like jazz. Slowly you will start understanding ways of how to make solo piano arrangements from lead sheets (after listening to and living with 7-8 solo piano jazz albums for a year or two, and working out 3-4 solo piano arrangements with your jazz teacher, step by step). I’m sure you will see success!!!! I’m sure you will sound amazing!!! But right now the best advice for you is not “do 13 push ups, do 16 pull ups, and eat 2.5 meals”. Right now the best advice for you is: “Hire a personal trainer and go to the gym for a year”.
Superb advice... at the moment I’m trying to improve my time and motivic development..I recorded myself the other day and I play waaaaaaay too much ... only discovered your channel today and it’s blown me away thank you so much for sharing ... I’ll catch you at the kamasi gig in Auckland in October ✊
Hello Ruslan, my instrument is PIANO and IMPROVISATION is my WEAKEST LINK , 2nd will be CHORD progressions and third will be TRANSCRIBING. Love your CHANNEL !!!
You might want to consider some lessons with someone privately where you live. At least for a while. To put your train on the rails so to speak. It sounds like what’s missing is some fundamentals without which no further progress can be made
Great video, enjoyed your distillation. I am a comeback trumpet player, and have been working to get a good routine with expanding trumpet range, and technique. Very helpful comments. Reinforces what I am doing now, I do warm up with pedal tones , Long tones, slurs and lip slurs for five minutes. Do a combination of James stamp exercises and then Clark studies for technique for 15 minutes. I work on range studies daily for around 15 minutes. At this point, I start working on pieces for the big band that I play with. Lead trumpet stuff. Also I am playing with small group combos. Struggling with losing my place in the form when doing a solo for example 64 bar . That doesn’t happen all the time, trying to think in 4 bar phrases When putting his soul together
Continuing, what’s the best way to practice in this situation?, Have been using play along‘s, and working on my improv with using iPad Pro programs. Spending about 30 to 40 minutes working in this area. My goals are to be precise in the form, add some interest to my soling, start Including some bebop lines
William LeLiever Form? Just play over form all the time. This particular skill is just a matter of “Milage” so to speak. Get in the habit of playing on form ALL THE TIME. Keeping form is a muscle. Imagine you are working on a muscle at the gym. All the same rules apply. It will take repetition, it will take consistency. It will build SLOWLY, like any other muscle would.
Get a copy of the Omni book, and learn some of those Charlie Parker solos. They are a joy and will add quite a bit to your vocabulary!
Thanks Russian: have CP Parker Omni book and will get on with it. Back to working the form!
Great motivation
I'll give this a shot:
1: More of a compositional thing, but hopefully that's all right. I struggle with developing ideas, especially melodically. I'll make something cool, but then I'm often stuck with a few bars of something I don't know how to develop further without just repeating it.
2: Picking up melodic content by ear seems a lot harder than it should be after playing for 10-11 years.(guitar) I fear it might be due to lack of transcribing in my early period.
I have some ideas of what I should be doing, and I am practicing those things regularly and do see improvement, but it would be interesting to hear your thoughts to see if I pick up some new ideas.
Cool videos.
Subscribed!
Mats Moland Træen
1 Get heavy into practicing Motivic development, methodically. I myself was going to make a series of in-depth videos on how to do it, and even made an introductory video on it here on the channel already, but i quickly realized that most of my audience needs help with structuring triads on a piano and adding basic tensions on top, or improvising on basic changes, learning chord scales, and keeping basic time well... not developing continuous compositional ideas in real time, so I changed the direction of my topics in order to actually be helpful to people, rather than just being “informative”. If you notice, the first few videos on this channel are a lot more advanced than the following ones. This is because of the feedback I got :). To those few who do seek learning Motivic Development, like yourself - just do the following and u will not regret it: Go to your wallet, pull out your credit card, and go buy a book by Hall Crook - “How To Improvise” online. In that book find the ‘Motivic Development’ chapter. Dedicate 6 months of your life to that chapter religiously, become fucking obsessed with that chapter and with the exercises in it. Come back to this comment and thank me later :). Just do it.
2 - yea developing a good ear really is the most helpful thing u can do. And the early period is in deed the best period u can do it in. But now - just transcribe as much of the music you love as u can transcribe, as often as you can, and also work with ear-training apps on your computer and phone to develop your relative pitch. It probably will not increase your ear miraculously or increase it fast. But with consistent effort - it WILL increase... and hey, every bit of progress in this area will make a positive difference in your music making. So - take whatever progress you can get with your ear, big or small, and you will not regret it!
Thanks! I'll check out that book, and your other videos! More transcribing definitely needs to happen. I'm starting to develop a routine for it now where I usually transcribe something ever day, so I'll keep doing that, and build a list of things to transcribe so I don't run out.
Thanks again. Will keep an eye on this channel.
Hey Ruslan. Thanks so much for your lessons. I was sent here by Flying Lotus who was also kind enough to pass on some advice about my playing.
The goals I have are as follows:
1. I want to understand and practice the style of improvising with chords. For example, in your lesson on improvising over chord changes, the backing track is supposedly in "G minor" but yet I hear a lot of chords being played. They may all very well be G minor, but perhaps you're playing different inverted forms? Either way, I don't feel comfortable sitting down at the piano and improvising chords in my left hand while improvising melodies or chord extensions in my right hand sort of thing. Maybe you can understand what I'm talking about.
2. I want to develop an understanding for really fast playing that I idolize. For example, Allan Holdsworth and Herbie Hancock are two musical idols of mine. I really would like to wrap my head around what is going through their minds as they play. Are all the notes they play (chords and melodies) really coming from their inner listener and being translated in real-time? Or is there something else about music I'm missing? I should note that I'm quite the beginner so there could be a lot of concepts that I'm missing out on.
Hope these questions are not too hard! Thanks again for all the great help!
- Cameron
That was an inspiring video, thank you!
Mine is a little tricky- the thing I dislike the most about my playing is how there is no carry over from practicing to performing. I never feel nervous during auditions or gigs, yet my improvisation sounds bad and I can't focus and play gracefully, and everything non improvised that is even a little technichally challenging is a train wreck. Even if I practiced it 200 times perfectly.
Gal Roth I’d have to hear you play and could probably point you in the right direction. Your self diagnosis might not be helpful or even accurate. I know my self diagnosis wasn’t always helpful to me or true.
@@ruslanpiano I won't have access to my instrument for the next two weeks, but once I'm back home I'll post a video! Thanks for the reply (:
awesome tips, my biggest problem, what scale with what chord, dont need to know all but a start.. thanks for what you do
Yea, nothing to do, my friend. Look up “chord scales” on UA-cam. And watch some videos on that. It’s just knowledge. You can get it easily, if you want.
i PAY GUITAR, here are my issues which really need improvement. Hearing what I am listening to in its entirety in order to then feel and translate it to playing. Therefore IMPROVISING, is frustrating but you have given me my starting point. My chords are not always clear ( muffled or buzzing). I have not learned enough to recognize scales. Thanks for taking the time to read these comments. Rob.(:
Great Video bro! Really needed this. Greetings from Zambia. Keep up the good work and good content.
1. Prehearing/being able to sing what I'm improvising, ie. not relying so much on my fingers.
2. Time (on bass specifically). I'm working a lot with a metronome that drops out every few beats or measures. Any exercises in particular you can recommend?
Thanks man, keep it up!
1 -- Oh yes, yes... Huuuge topic!! ...and hey, I would make a video about it but I doubt that most people are advanced enough to care about how to play from their inner listener and not from their muscle memory. Kudos on dealing with that!!! That's some real artistic concern right there.. big ups!! So here's what you do:
- Play a phrase
- Pause and reflect on what you just played.
- Listen intensely to the silence, and hear the next phrase coming in (in your head), focus really hard to hear the beginning of it and where its supposed to come in..
- and just as you're about to play that phrase... STOP... don't play it. Literally stop yourself on the edge of playing it.
- Listen to the space again, slowly start hearing in your head the next phrase that will come in, hear the beginning of it in your head... hear where its supposed to come in... here it comes, here it comes, here it comes.... AND...
- Juuuuust as you're about to play it .... STOP!! Don't play it. Like... get to the very very edge of almost playing it and then... DON'T.
- Then do the whole thing for the third time... and on the third time DO play the phrase.
2 -- My entire next video will be on how to practice with click. I think you will really really enjoy it. I'll be covering two ways of doing it once of which involves something similar to what you wrote and another really cool way. Stay tuned!!
I'm also working on the first one! It's very hard so far, I have a strong habit of relying on my fingers... but it's getting better.
Here's a couple of things that helped for me:
1. When we hear things in our head, it's not the same as when we hear things in the outside world. I've found it much easier to see music as colors and shapes. A certain chord might give a specific (abstract) color and a rhythm/melodic line has a certain shape. To me it really helped to see it as "visualizing" music rather than trying to actually hear it.
2.If you have a smartphone, get the iReal Pro! It has backing tracks for all the jazz standards and you can change the tempo, key etc. A good ear training exercise is to sit in your couch and just listen to the backing tracks. Can you hear/visualize the root of every chord? Then hear/visualize the 3rd, 5th etc. When you feel comfortable you can mute all the instruments and see if you can do it with just the drums.
3. Do the same thing as above but with licks, voicings and musical concepts your working on.
4. If you have an electric keyboard, play something with the sound turned off. Try to see how clear you can hear your playing in your head as you press down the muted keys.
Maybe you disagree / already know all this but I'm just throwing it out there :)
@@SIRUS80 Awesome awesome awesome! Thank you friend! This is text gold, ha!
Things to work on
1. Comping better rhythmically and harmonically with myself and in a group
2. Soloing in time and stylistically
Peter Gray
1. Check out my video on how to use your left hand. There’s some rhythmic stuff you can check out, I talk about it in the video.
2. Check out a video I did on how to keep amazing time. Stylistically? Well.. listen to a ton of music you love and transcribe as much of it as possible. After transcribing it, learn it in several keys. It’s just an ocean of work. No secrets really.
Thanks! Ever since you told me to check out your videos in Spokane you’ve been a great help!
Gosh. I'm so glad we're friends.
+Audrey Bussanich me too!
Glad I found "weekly piano" channel and yours!
I related so much on the "burned out" phase. I'm getting through one :/
While I'm on these "plateaus" I try to read more theory books and just listen to good music.
Could you make a video or just recommend me here about intermediate/advanced theory books that helped you the most? (I don't care if the list is too long! xD)
Wish you all the best from Portugal. Have a good day Ruslan.
Jingle Bell Rock Thank you. I haven’t read any of those books to be honest. I find most it not really relevant to actual growth as a player, like books about basketball. It doesn’t hurt but it doesn’t really help either. When you have a plateau, take a private lesson from someone 4 times your level. That’s what i do, and it works...
I need to get better at improvising through tunes with more chord changes. I also have to learn some more standards. Triad pairs.... there's so much work to do with them other than just playing through all inversions.
1) rhythm
2) motif development
3) playing fast phrases ( I mean playing really cool and logical phrases)
1 - my next video will cover that pretty thoroughly, I think you will find it useful. So many people have been asking about rhythm.
2 - I did one video on it on this channel and will do another 1,000 videos on it. Its the topic that fascinates me the most. for now -- go and buy the book "How To Improvise" by Hall Crook. Believe me, you will not be sorry for spending the money. It breaks down motivic development SO AMAZINGLY WELL... I highly recommend it. There are specific techniques to practice that and I wish I could cover them in a Comment, I can't. I will make videos on each of the techniques in that book. But get the book, really. You won't regret it.
3 - I would say start improvising at a tempo in which you CAN play cool logical phrases and do that for a while. The point here is: in what tempo can you THINK clearly, and in what tempo is thinking becoming a little hard? So find the sweet spot in which you CAN think up interesting phrases and do THAT... then increase the tempo Juuuust A Little Bit. Now improvise in that tempo until you become comfortable with playing cool phrases and the tempo becomes easy. Then increase the tempo more etc etc.. This is a process that can take 6 months or 8 months or a year. But the method is clear -- there is a tempo in which you can play cool logical phrases, start in that tempo and gradually increase the tempo. And this process will take as long as it will take.
I just got hip to this Chanel..... this is amazing bro thank you a whole lot!!!!!
Getting comfortable in all 12 keys
Runs
Improvising
Chordal changes
Shemar Davis That’s great, my man! Happy to hear! Please let me know if there’s anything you would like me to cover and talk about in future videos. Thank you for checking out the channel! 👊🏻
TheNextLevel I’d love to see you cover correct fingering for all 12 keys.
Shemar Davis you mean playing scales?
TheNextLevel yes.
Hi Ruslan Thank you very much for all the advices. A musician with you level just share with world your knowledge it's amazing and beautiful. Thank you for that.
About my problems.
I struggle alot with standards chord changes no matter how i practice de progretion with scales or arpegios sounds always to mecanical, without fluence or meaning.
Even transcribing i dont feel much of jazz vocabolary in me, or when it does just feel like is not my self or i'm repeting my self over and over.
Keep doing music please you are genious :)
André Pires Costa send me a video of you playing. I will help you.
Hi Ruslan I recorded a chorus here. Thank you very much for the help.
ua-cam.com/video/xOO0MP6Je_U/v-deo.html
If helps my e-mail it's contacto.apiresc@gmail.com.
Thank you alot
André Pires Costa you sound really nice man! Your improvisation is good! Here is what I would do if I was you.
General goal:
You need to be able to improvise in such a way that, even without accompaniment, the harmony will be clear JUST FROM YOUR LINES. If you take Charlie Parker’s solos, or Pat Metheny’s solos, and you MUTE the accompaniment and just listen to their solo, you will be able to hear what the chords are just from the solo, just from the lines. The notes they emphasize will “paint” the harmony even if the accompaniment will be muted. This is also how YOU should learn to play. Send me another video where you improvise on this song in time, but without accompaniment. And I want to be able to hear the chord changes inside your solo lines. Your notes and lines should be OUTLINING the harmony even better than they are right now. If you want to improve in that, please check out my video “how to improvise on chord changes”. Do all the steps in it, especially the 3rd step (where you improvise around the tonic, around the 3rd, around the 5th, around the 7th etc etc).
There are many more things you could work on (just like me or any other improviser), but they are less important. To me, the most important thing right now in your playing is I want to hear the harmony of the song in your lines EVEN MORE than I can hear it right now. I want you to outline the harmony even better.
@@ruslanpiano thank you for the advice I saw the video before but didn't put it in practice with a jazz tune, is really very useful because I need to think in every note of each chord change, don't know why i never done it before cause it's something logical to think on work. I felt major dificulty in the fourds for get nice lines but i will improve it.
I recorded here ua-cam.com/video/wNL4cQym4Sw/v-deo.html. I think it's better, at least i feel more freedom, I will put the steps in my tunes work out from now on. Thank you very much and please keep sharing your wisdom cause makes really a diference in the study and practice of alot of people, you really know where to go in the music. I realy love your music. thank you.
André Pires Costa sounds good brother! I can hear the chords. Continue to keep THAT in mind... The next step for you is to “make sense” of the lines you play and develop greater sense of phrasing and MOTIVIC DEVELOPMENT. I have a series of videos on motivic development in a playlist on my channel. I think a player on your level should be dealing with that topic! You are a good player and you understand the language and you understand chord changes. So.. NOW WHAT? What’s the next step after understanding those two important concepts? The next step is telling a story. And that’s where motivic development comes in! I think you should check out that concept either from books by Hal Crook or from my videos. If you add more motivic development to your playing, your playing will become more compositional and more like a story with a story-line. That’s something you, me, and most other players should be working on all the time.
PIANO:
1. Playing in good time
2. Listening to the other players and "speaking back"
3.Sensing where the end of the form is (32 bars/etc/end of solo? "Where is the end of my 8?")
I made a video about playing in good time! :) regarding keeping form -- thats a muscle. the more u do it, the better it gets. same with interplay and speaking back. listen to music and identify it in other player's playing.. it will eventually creep into your playing too, if u have good control of ur instrument and the language.
Right On.U nail it.
1. Creating bebop lines
2. Plying fast lines
3. Improvisation
Been tackling guitar a lot lately. I need to practice my chord voicing (and how to execute chords with extensions) as well as using better voice leading. I get stuck in a rut of using my bar chord and root position 7th chord shapes.
Love the videos and your playing!
Thank you, my friend! Here is your solution:
First pick TWO chord voicings you want to master and write them down. Yup, first focus on only two chord voicings. This is important since there are 9,236,262 different chord voicings, and you want to master them all but its overwhelming and where do u start and what do u do and and and.... What to do?? To focus our work you will first DECIDE ON TWO VOICINGS AND WRITE THEM DOWN. The other voicings can wait, but these first two chord voicings you chose are going to become your B*tch! 😎
- PICK ONE MAJOR CHORD VOICING AND ONE MINOR CHORD VOICING. Maybe the first inversion of some major chord and the first inversion of some minor chord.
- Now write down 2-3 songs you know how to play WELL, where you don't have to think about what the next chord is every 2 seconds. It can literally be any song from Nirvana to Happy Birthday To You to literally ANYTHING.
- Now you are going to play those songs using ONLY THE TWO VOICINGS YOU DECIDED TO MASTER. Every major chord and every dominant chord in the song gets the "major voicing" you decided to master. Every minor chord in the song gets the "minor voicing" you decided to master.
Once you start playing the song only using the two chord voicings you're working on - your playing might sound a little funny and not very musical, but that's okay. The goal is that you laser-focus on these two chord voicings and own them. The songs you're playing are merely a vessel to help you do so. Stick to these 2 chord voicings for one week, and try to play EVERYTHING YOU PLAY during your practicing only using those chord voicings, and NOTHING ELSE. Then if you want to play some other songs -- great! But still -- only use the two chord voicings you've decided to master and nothing else! Work as if someone said to you: "Seth, forget the rest of the chord voicings in the world. Just master the shit out of these two chord voicings, and if you do -- we'll give you 4 million dollars"
You might say:
"But Ruslan, there are 70,000,000 voicings in the world! Am I going to have to laser-focus on each one of them in this way?? I'll need 800 years to master the guitar chord voicings in this pace!!!!"
And my reply would be:
"Well... not exactly. Your growth will be exponential. After you focus on 10 chord voicings in this rigid, army-like fashion, the next 10 voicings will come EASIER than the first 10 did, because by mastering the first 10 chord voicings perfectly you will increase your overall facility on the instrument and will 'fly around the neck' way, way faster, which will speed up your learning process for other chord voicings you will want to master in the future".
Hope this helps,
Ruslan
Ruslan Sirota, wow I couldn’t have asked for a better response, thank you so much for your guidance and your time!
I need to improve on solo piano and intention with my color choices when comping. Thank you Ruslan, these videos are very helpful.
For solo piano - I would recommend to transcribe or learn some transcriptions of solo piano performances. Also begin listening to a lot of solo piano recordings, figuring out how the pianists accompany themselves and begin imitating your favorite ways in which they accompany themselves. Also figure out how the pianists "shift gears" in their pieces, since they play by themselves, the "arrangement" of the piece is entirely on them. To make the music 'progress forward' you can't get stuck on one way of accompanying yourself forever. You can't, for example, play walking bass with your left hand from the beginning of the piece to the very end of it. It will get boring after a while if you don't switch it up to some other way of self-comping. But, if you do walking bass for, say, a chorus or two, and then switch to another kind of self-accompaniment, and then later maybe come back to the walking bass again - now that can sound really awesome, arranged and intentional. Giving your performance 'chapters'. Check out how richly the greats accompany themselves when playing solo piano. I recommend an album by Chick Corea called "Expressions", as well as Brad Mehldau's solo piano works (like "Elegiac Cycle" and "Live In Tokyo"), Keith Jarrett's many solo piano works, Michelle Petrucciani solo piano recordings, and any other solo piano albums you might get your hands on by the usual suspects.
Intention with your color choices when comping? Well, this topic is a bit paradoxical. Because on the one hand, when you play you should avoid playing on auto-pilot, or out of muscle memory, or out of familiar chord shapes. Yet, at the same time, you also shouldn't be THINKING while you're playing. Whatever color choice you make during comping, it should not be a result of examining 6 different ones over the course of 1.3 seconds and choosing the best one of all available. Nope. Ideally, your subconscious simply feeds you a shape in real time, drawing on the hundreds of shapes you have mastered over hundreds of hours (.... have you?). I recommend mastering colors/shapes all the time in all 12 keys. In addition, and maybe even more importantly, I recommend recording your comping on a gig, and listening back to it at home, 'calling yourself out' on auto-pilot choices you make while comping. This process alone will summon your inner listener to be more involved in your musical choices while you comp. Also - check out my video "Inner Listener Workout" ua-cam.com/video/9jEF1CvLnq8/v-deo.html and do the exercise I show in this video, adapt it to comping. Do this exercise, and then also continue listening back to your own recordings and critiquing. Have that be your routine for a while, as well as continuously explore and ingrain new shapes/colors (each in all 12 keys of course), and you will see a positive result in becoming more discerning and intentional in your choice of color when comping.
Hi Ruslan IM at a beginner level and I really appreciate your teaching approach
can you please make videos more on
1. Improvisation concepts
2. ReHarmonization
3. Passing Chords
4. Strengthening fingers / technique
5. Modern Jazz improv concepts
6. Chord extensions
7. How to apply counterpoint when playing the piano
Sorry I have made such a long list.
Awsome lesson man, Im really excited to see your channel grow. I am a sax player and I need to work on sight reading and playing over changes and not letting the ideas in my head take me outside the changes... I am currently working on donna lee.
Thanks
Thank you so much!! I know the feeling too!! I find though that the greatest freedom is to be able to find freedom in some sort of FRAME (in this case - chord changes). I will go deep on how to improvise on changes in my future videos. Its a huge topic and there is SOOO much one can do to work on that. One of my favorite methods is to improvise for one chorus around the tonic of each chord, the next chorus to improvise around the 3rd of each chord, next chorus to improvise around the 5th of each chord, next chorus to improvise around the 7th of each chord, next chorus around the 9th. Thank you for checking out the channel!!
Excellent and I will take this on, seriously. Thanks Rusian.
Thank you that was helpful. I tried using some of the technique you are teaching and it has helped me improve. I'm working on expanding my jazz vocabulary. I need to work on my rhythm and soloing as well. Thank you for sharing your videos.
Happy to hear its helping. Both vocabulary and soloing can be greatly helped by simply making a list of other people's solos you really love, transcribing those solos, and learning them each in 3-4 keys. Its a ton of work.. but its an investment in yourself and one done through studying music you already love anyway (i.e. other people's solos you really love).
Your videos are awesome! I've been stuck in a rut for a while, and I've been wanting to break out of it. Reflecting on my practicing sessions I do realize that I tend to "practice" things I'm already good at just like you said. I'm going to approach practicing the way you've suggested, and it would be great to hear some advice from you on the parts I feel like I should work on. 1) keeping time 2) transcribing and ear training 3) Music theory 4) soloing over chord changes (I'm still only able of using the Pentatonic scale). Thank you so much!
Ray Chang check out my videos called “how to keep great time” and “how to solo over chord changes”. I’m still trying to work out a method for ear training. There are apps on the phone which train the ear with intervals. Those are always a good use of your time. So definitely get one of those!
Three things I want to improve,
1, sight reading 2, writing little stand alone songs 3, improvise over chords more fluently.
Outline chord changes with scales, with chord tones and have a tight comping
As always, right on target!
Thanks, very frank advice. So, piano sightreading, triad/chord inversions on piano and guitar, learning and remembering whole bloody songs, not just fragments. Cheers
I've just discovered your channel and I love your advices!
Things I need to work on:
Soloing over chord changes (generally),
Better feeling of sixteenth notes in faster tempos (to get better funky sound),
Hearing chord progressions (more unusual than 2-5-1).
I am practising technique by having classical piano lessons, but I want to go more in jazz world. I want to integrate some transcribing into my practise too :)
Grzesiu Kierat check out my videos on how to solo over chord changes. It’s a series on my channel. There are several and soon I’ll upload more
Really helpful video man
1. Playing a cohesive solo at faster tempos - I find it's moving too fast and I can't keep up or play any longer fluent lines.
2. Playing outside the changes effectively, especially when there aren't many chords
1 - Find a tempo where you can play the tune, but its a Liiiitle hard for you, where you have to sweat juuuuust a little to make the tempo. The tempo of the song has to be challenging BUT doable for you. Once you find that sweet spot tempo, practice in THAT tempo, no matter what the tempo is. After a week or two of that - this new tempo will become EASIER for you, and now you can increase the tempo a bit more to a point where it feels like the previous tempo felt: where you CAN make the tempo but its a little hard to do... not too hard and not too easy. After a while THIS tempo will also become comfortable, and then you will up it to a new, faster tempo... Until this one becomes easier as well, and then you up it again... .and then again after a while.. and again... And so on and so forth.
2 - Playing outside the changes effectively is the same as playing inside the changes effectively. Your lines have to make Sense. Your lines and ideas have to have internal logic to them and be connected to one another in some way. Be it taking a pattern of notes and moving it chromatically up (or down), or moving it around in another interval, like minor 3rds up. Or most importantly - it has to have Motivic Development (check out a video on motivic development i've done on this channel)
TheNextLevel
Thanks man, I never thought about approaching either of them like that - I'll give them a go
Great video, Ruslan! I’m a bass player (electric and upright) and I play literally all the styles you listed in your “who am I” video but my heart is in jazz fusion and modern jazz.
1. Being able to mentally tie the names and sounds of specific chords together. I have perfect pitch as well as a good amount of knowledge in theory but there’s just a disconnect when I see half and whole diminished, maj6, chords, etc. I know what notes are contained in them but not how they would sound while being voiced correctly. My aural experience (church and jazz scene) tells me exactly what to play over chords and sounds I like because I can usually immediately identify the “funny” notes by name and feel and then exploit them, however these are all reactions. I do not consciously recreate these chords when composing because I don’t fully understand their sound and function. Any feedback would be cool :)
Thanks for opening up this forum 🙏🏼,
-Caleb
Hmm... maybe some harmony/piano lessons to tie the loose ends. you're already doing the important part, and that is - you have a personal relationship to the way each chord rings and you know exactly what makes each chord 'tick'. I would say take a few piano lessons for harmony so that you can sort of 'compile' these sounds for yourself, and learn to play them formally, and how each one works. What matters is that if u hear a certain chord in ur head, if you feel a certain chord in your spirit -- u you have to be able to play that chord on the piano/bass, and make that translation from the inside to the outside... you also have to know which scale goes over that chord. The rest does not matter.
Great Video!
All so true... and so confronting. I'm a saxplayer and I've never really practised anything. I've made some miles for sure, but it all just came so easily. But in the end that actually sucks. It's really hard to expand the vocabulary that way, and there is always the feeling I could do much better if only I put in the effort.
Anyway, your great video surely gave me some good food for thought. Thanks!
Great lesson. Thanks for sharing your knowledge !
Hey mate I'm currently working on repetour reading transcribing and general improv. Ive been playing for 30 yrs but had a 20 yr break in really playing due to teaching students and playing/working general pub club gigs
Nathan George Well much of this is self explanatory. If you are working on repertoire - memorize the songs you want to memorize. You can break them down to smaller sections and play those in loop until you remember them well. Then move on to the next section of the song and memorize it. Transcribing - again, not much to do there. Just.. transcribe 2 bars a day, or 16 bars a day, or however many you have time and energy for. Regarding general improv - that’s a huge topic. I’d have to hear you play, and then maybe a more specific strategy could be developed, one designed to address your specific shortcomings.
Hi Ruslan, thank you for enlightening and challenging me to become better.
I will try to practice how to play passing chords.
I will practice how to play the scales.
These two things first, then let’s see what happens.
Again, thank you and more power to you. You are a generous genius.
Thanks for the video. Difficulties :
1)playing the left hand other than on one without losing the place in the rythm
2) moving my left hand around cleanly ( I have small hands, octave only)
3) playing fast
4) sharing a harmony between my hands.
I've mainly played classical until a year ago. I know my scales and so on but it takes time to get my mind round rootless voicings and extensions. Any suggestions would be welcome.
Rachel Thomas thank you for writing. Yes, I am familiar with the transition from classical to jazz since I also did this transition many years ago as a teenager. It’s not easy, because the two are completely different ways of approaching music and approaching playing. :) The good news is that you are very aware of all the things you need to improve. This awareness is a big advantage for you, because you know exactly what needs to get worked on and that is a very important Clarity to have!
What you need, however, is not advice from me on the internet, my friend :) What you need is to take Jazz Piano Lessons every 2 weeks for a year, not music advice in the comments section of a UA-cam video. The issues you are dealing with are very fundamental and basic. I promise you, you will improve!! But what you need is to find someone who plays good jazz piano and study with them, one on one for a while.
This is a new journey and it’s very exciting! But at this stage of your journey you don’t need advice on UA-cam. You need a private teacher two times a month, and practice at home what the teacher tells you to practice. At this stage of your journey - this will be the best, and, in my opinion, the only solution.
TheNextLevel : thanks for your reply. I started jazz lessons in October...a very good and encouraging teacher...but July and August it's holidays ..so I won't see him until after his well earned vacation !!. I definitely have progressed, when I started I couldn't improvise following a chord chart to save my life and now I can ! It may not be fantastic but I can 100% impro, not just learn by heart and repeat.. Take care!
Soloing over chord changes, playing fast, and sight reading on tenor sax
Soloing over chord changes -- there is a really really good video I made on my channel that is called "how to solo on chord changes" I promise it will help you.
Playing fast -- find the tempo where you can solo but its a little bit harder than usual. NOT TOO HARD. But just a little harder, because the tempo is a little bit faster than you are feel comfortable in. Now practice soloing in that tempo for 1 week, or for 2 weeks, or for 4 months, or for 6 years -- until that tempo will become easy. And then increase the tempo and start practicing in this new tempo that is a little faster. REMEMBER: dont make the tempo you practice TOO FAST, because then you will not grow. You have to find the tempo that is a LITTLE bit above your comfort, not a lot above your comfort. And then, slowly increate the tempo over time, as you get more and more comfortable soloing in faster and faster tempos.
Sight reading -- there are no secret methods here. If you don't sight read often you will not be a good sight reader. Just like with the previous part of my comment, find material that you can sight read relatively easily, but a little challenging (not too easy) and sight read it for 10 minutes. Then do that again tomorrow. And do that 4 times a week. Eventually you will need harder and harder material to read, since your reading will improve. But the secret is to practice reading stuff that is not too easy and not too hard, and practice doing that REGULARLY, not one in a while. Then your reading will for sure improve.
My struggles:
1. Know chords, scales, tensions, theory and what to play on them theoretically, but don't know how to really make music musically.
2. I stopped practicing for months because the more I practice the further away I feel from musicality and the more physical injury I get.
3. know the chord tones and scales but when improvising I sound like im playing scales and chords instead of improvising. sounds like shit.
Need serious help here. :/
!This is fantastic information for any musician. Thank you
Great video! I'm an electric bass player and I'd like to improve my walking bass lines over jazz standards such as all the things you are. I'd also like to improve my sight reading abilities. Finally, I'd like to begin to solo over changes, something I've never tried.
All these goals comprise the very fundamentals of playing jazz. My best bet would be find someone who is better than you at jazz bass and take lessons twice a month for 6-8 months. Regarding walking bass lines -- I'd hammer in walking patterns over changes. Like decide on a walking bass pattern (1,2,3,5 or 1,5,8,5 or literally countless other walking bass patterns) and just run each one of them over a chart of chords. There are books for walking bass that have all those patterns in them. Get a book like that, its probably $20 or so. Sight reading - there is no way to work on sight reading that im aware of other than sight reading all the time. find the kind of stuff you can sightread slowly and do it every day.. eventually it will become easier, then u can either get a little harder material to sightread or have the tempo a little higher. Regarding improv -- I would first deal with thoroughly understanding chord changes and feeling comfortable in them (walking etc) before tackling improv.
That makes a lot of sense. Many thanks! I'll let you know how I get on.