Introduction to Jazz

Your Instructor: Jeremy Siskind

tonebase Piano
About This Course
Ever wanted to learn to play jazz but felt stuck in your classical training? Join award-winning jazz pianist
and acclaimed pedagogue Jeremy Siskind for an introduction to playing jazz at the piano. From decoding
chord symbols, to cultivating a swing rhythm, to practicing scales and figurations within common chord
progressions, Siskind will show you the path towards developing basic competency in jazz at the keyboard.
Intended especially for classically trained pianists of any level, Siskind offers a structured, step-by-step
program for developing your chops and finding your voice in a new idiom.

Contents

03
Rules of the Road
21
Drone Improvisation

04
Reading Lead Sheets
23
ii-V-I Improvisation

12
Personalizing a Melody
32
The Blues

15 Swing Rhythm & Comping

36 Adding Colors

Jeremy Siskind
P​ ianist-composer Jeremy Siskind is “a genuine visionary” (Indianapolis Star)
who “seems to defy all boundaries” (JazzInk) with music “rich in texture and
nuance” (Downbeat). A top finisher in several national and international jazz
piano competitions, Siskind is a two-time laureate of the American Pianists
Association and the winner of the Nottingham International Jazz Piano
Competition. Since making his professional debut juxtaposing Debussy’s Etudes
with jazz standards at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Hall, Siskind has established himself
as one of the nation’s most innovative and virtuosic modern pianists.

Learn more about Jeremy’s multi-faceted career at jeremysiskind.com

WATCH COURSE
Rules of the Road WATCH LESSON

If you’re a classical pianist exploring jazz for the first time, these lessons may require a few
shifts in thinking. Throughout your study of jazz, you will be exploring possibilities and creative
options; you will learn rules only to one day break them; you will experience how jazz, like any
language, can take a very long time to master.

For every new concept you learn in this course, challenge yourself to understand it thoroughly
before moving on. Then, ask as many “what if” questions as you can! Jazz musicians are
always trying to find ways to do things differently.

Make a Mess and Clean It Up

Many classical musicians can find it difficult or scary to play something and risk it not
sounding good. Unfortunately, there’s no way around experiencing a few failures in your early
experiments with jazz. If you wait for perfection, you’ll likely be waiting forever! Approach jazz
with this mindset of making a mess and then using Jeremy’s guidance and your musical ear
to clean it up and improve it!

It’s Like a Language

Languages have many components like grammar, spelling, accents, and more. The learning
process is often not linear; you will be learning many things at once and trying to assemble a
logical framework for them as you go. The best way to learn jazz, like any language, is to
immerse yourself in it! Play jazz with others, listen to recordings and practice the music as
much as you can.

Great jazz musicians are akin to poets; not only are they fluent in the language, but they
invent their own unique and clever approach!

03
 WATCH LESSON
Reading Lead Sheets

Jazz musicians are taught to learn lead sheets, a piece of sheet music with a melody and

chord symbols. This allows the player flexibility to interpret the tune in any way they want.

Jeremy has written a piece called Tone Up for this course, and the lead sheet is printed

below:

Tone Up is what jazz musicians call a "contrafact," a composition where a new melody is

written over the chord changes of an existing piece of music. Tone Up is based on the song

"Tune Up" by Miles Davis, with an original melody by Jeremy.

04
In jazz music, after we play the melody (also called the head), we’re going to repeat the entire
sixteen measures (the form) again and again. We’ll create a new melody, soloing (or
improvising) over the chord changes. We’re allowed to do this as many times as we want. If
we’re playing in a band with many people, usually each member will solo.

One time through the form of the tune is called a “chorus.” We use this word to measure how
long a solo lasts; for example, a solo might last three or five choruses. We usually close out
the piece by playing the head one more time.

Chorus # 1 2 3 4... final

Head in Solo Head out

The final chord in parentheses (bar 16 of the lead sheet) is called a turnaround. Often some
chords are only played when we want to repeat back to the beginning of the form. We don’t
want to use these chords on the head out because they lead us back to the beginning. So we
end the performance with the B♭ major chord.

This form can also be called a “sandwich form” since we start and end with the head. We
have a ton of options about how we fill in the sandwich with our solo.

This might feel slightly similar to the theme and variations for classical musicians. The key
difference in jazz is that, typically, the solos we create are entirely new and may not be
related to the melody at all.

05
Chart Notation
On the next page is another score for Tone Up that looks slightly different. There is a second
system on the bottom; this is designed for the pianist to use while accompanying
themselves or another musician and not playing the melody. Some things may look
unfamiliar to you – for example, the first notehead has an X on it. We call this “rhythmic
notation,” and the noteheads with Xs are called hits or kicks. The chord notated above an X
notehead should be played in that exact rhythm. We generally use rhythmic notation if we
want everyone in the rhythm section playing at the same time.

The second thing you’ll notice is something called slash notation. The angled slashes on
every beat mean that you’re allowed to improvise your part. There is no specific rhythm that
you need to play over the slashes. However, as a piano player, it does mean that you are
expected to “comp” (short for accompany or complement, depending on who you ask). We
will talk more about comping soon.

Any jazz chart conveys information, not necessarily instructions. Good musicians often
don’t follow everything in the chart.

Reading Chord Symbols

Chord symbols are an essential part of reading chord charts and playing jazz music. There are
three main kinds of chord symbols you will encounter, the names of which might be already
familiar to you (continued on page 8).

06
02
Major sevent
Can be represented by M7 or Maj
Sometimes you will see a triangle symbol
to denote major:
For example, Dmaj7 would instruct you to
play a D major seventh chord:

Dominant sevent
Always represented with a capital
letter plus the number seve
For example, A7 would instruct you to
play an A dominant seventh chord:

Minor sevent
The minor seventh chord is represented as m7 or just -
A lowercase m will always refer to a minor chord
The 7 indicates a lowered 7th from the major scale.
For example, E-7 or Emin7 would instruct you to play an E
minor seventh chord:

Ninth Chords

You’ll notice one other type of chord on the

lead sheet for Tone Up. This is an A7♭9
chord; the ♭9 refers to a flatted ninth:

08
In jazz, we form chords by taking every other note of the scale. Beginning from the root , we

create a triad by adding the third and the fifth, a seventh chord by adding the seventh, and a

ninth chord by adding the ninth. You may notice that the ninth is the same note as the

second (the ninth is always a whole step above the root). However, in jazz, we specify that it’s

the ninth because it needs to be voiced above the seventh in the chord. More on voicings will

come later in the lesson.

For an A7 chord, the ninth is a B♮, so the flattened ninth is a B♭. Since there is a B♭ in the

previous bar’s melody, we want to preserve that pitch in our ear at the following bar, adding a

♭9 to the A7 chord.

Again, because lead sheets do not provide specific instructions, we don’t need to play any

ninth for this chord. However, if we do play a ninth, it better be flatted; playing the natural

ninth over a ♭9 chord would clash and sound quite bad!

Voicings

What do we do in the left hand while playing the melody? We will cover voicings more in-

depth in a later lesson, but for now, just stack chords in thirds:

E♭ major 7th E♭ dominant 7th E♭ minor 7th

09
Assignment
It’s vital to get fluent and fast with these chord symbols. The following activity is a game Jeremy
developed to help with chord fluency. On the next two pages, you will find 36 flashcards, each with a
different chord and quality on them. Print out the pages and cut out the flashcards. Then, select
four random flashcards and play one after the other as if they were a chord progression in a tune.

Cmaj7 C7 Cmin7

D♭maj7 D♭7 D♭min7

Dmaj7 D7 Dmin7

E♭maj7 E♭7 E♭min7

Emaj7 E7 Emin7

10
Fmaj7 F7 Fmin7

G♭maj7 G♭7 G♭min7

Gmaj7 G7 Gmin7

A♭maj7 A♭7 A♭min7

Amaj7 A7 Amin7

B♭maj7 B♭7 B♭min7

Bmaj7 B7 Bmin7

11
Personalizing a Melody WATCH LESSON

In jazz, melodies are usually open to interpretation. Especially if we’re playing by ourselves, we
want to express the melody uniquely. Jeremy has six devices that can help you personalize a
melody:

1) Grace Notes

Grace notes, familiar from classical music, can help simulate a pitch bend on the piano. This is
useful because it allows us to mimic what a vocalist or horn player would usually do: slide into
a note by bending the pitch. On the piano, grace notes are generally a half-step below the
main note.

2) Octaves

We usually add octaves below the melody note. The first few measures of Tone Up, for
example, work great when adding an octave below.

3) Double Notes

Double notes are notes above a melody note. They should be a part of the chord so they
don’t stand out as dissonant. For example, B natural is part of the Em7 chord, so we can add a
B above the F-sharp in the first bar:

12
It’s sometimes cool to add both a double note and a grace note to a melody. Go through the
melody and decide which double notes you want to add.

4) Turns

A turn is an ornament usually added on a descending line. It consists of one note in the
opposite direction of the line and then back through the original note. Below is an example of
a turn in a G major scale, followed by an example in the first four bars of Tone Up:

Sometimes we can even double back to the next note in the arpeggio, as in the below
example from bars 9-12 of Tone Up:

5) Repeated Notes

Eighth notes in jazz are how we generate energy, so it’s usually quite effective to add more of
them in the melody! In measure 3, for example, we can repeat the A natural a few times:

13
6) Ghost Notes

Ghosts notes are extra, nearly silent eighth notes added to keep time. We usually add them
below the melody, frequently with the thumb. Ghost notes should be strong notes in the
chord so that they sound very consonant.

Nursery Rhyme Example

Now try these six expressive devices over the familiar nursery rhyme “Mary Had a Little Lamb.”
Get creative and think of as many unique ways to play the melody as you can.

Assignment

For your final assignment in this lesson, practice personalizing the melody of Tone Up. Use
these six expressive devices to come up with your own unique performance of the tune.

Dig Deeper

Are you interested in more tunes? The best place to get more tunes to practice is what’s
called a “real book,” a collection of lead sheets of well-known songs. You can find some to
purchase at the links below! Read some pieces and begin to personalize the melodies:

14
 WATCH LESSON
Swing Rhythm and Comping

Swing is the standard rhythm for jazz. There are a lot of other rhythms that frequently appear

in jazz, such as funk, samba, salsa, and straight-8ths, but swing is at the heart of the entire

jazz language. Straight eighth notes are what we use in classical music most of the time, but

swing is the opposite. Swung eighth notes aren’t equal; they have a 2:1 ratio with one

another. The eighth note on the downbeat is about twice as long as the eighth note on the

offbeat, creating a triplet subdivision:

written sounding

Swung eighth notes sometimes feel like 12/8 because of the triplet subdivision. Using this

analogy, everything happens on the first and third triplet of the beat.

Let’s look at the first measures of Tone Up. Since this melody is swung, the very first note

enters on the third subdivision of the triplet:

written

sounding

15
Articulation and Volume

Timing alone isn’t enough to create the sensation of swing. We also must add accents to the

short notes on the upbeats. This might feel backward at first , so practice playing scales with

a swing rhythm and accenting the short upbeats:

It’s also important to play our swung eighth notes completely legato, without any space

between the notes. Play the last eighth note before a rest short , with a percussive accent.

We use mnemonic devices (vocal syllables) to communicate jazz rhythms and

articulations to one another. The long eighth note takes the syllable “doo,” while the short

accented eighth note takes the syllable “vah.” As you play through a scale, the syllabic

pattern is “doo VAH doo VAH doo VAH.”

When we come to the end of a phrase, the mnemonic is “vah doo DIT,” the last note having a

louder emphasis than a normal offbeat. In Tone Up, be sure to use the “dit” syllable at the end

of bars 7, 10, and 12.

dit

dit
dit

16
Quarter-Note Articulation

Quarter notes are usually long, but they’re not legato like eighth notes. Instead, quarter
notes in jazz are fat, meaning they take up all the beat but have some space between
them. Consecutive quarter notes tend to speed up in jazz, so playing them a bit on the
slower side can prevent this from happening. In bar 14 of Tone Up, play the two quarter
notes long but not connected.

daht daht vah doo vah daht daht doo daht vah

This same rule applies to offbeat quarter notes (such as m. 1, which is just two tied eighths).
It’s metrically a quarter note, even though it’s two tied eighth notes. Quarter notes take the
mnemonic “daht.”

We don’t have much to do with a dotted quarter note or longer value. Keep these notes
legato, without any special accent. When long notes appear on the downbeat, give them the
mnemonic “doo,” and when they’re on the offbeats (such as the and of 4), give them the
syllable “vah.”

Remember that, in jazz, we almost always tap our foot on beats 2 and 4 – not beats 1 and
3! The drumset contains a drum called the hi-hat, which is two cymbals facing one another
that the drummer plays on beats 2 and 4. The entire band orients themselves to that beat.
Practice playing with a metronome on beats 2 and 4 so you can hear what the hi-hat would
sound like. It can be challenging to get used to this feel if you aren’t accustomed to it.

17
Left Hand

The left hand, as previously discussed, usually performs the role both of accompaniment and

complimenting the soloist (in our case, the soloist is the right hand). The chords we play are

the result of three different inputs

The lead shee

The style of the musi

The circumstances of the moment: Who is soloing? What’s happening to the energy and

the tempo?

Comping is never about filling in the blanks or performing a routine exercise; it’s always about

responding to stimuli.

Good comping is unpredictable, a bit like a good boxer – you want to be somewhat surprising

with your jabs but responsive to what your opponent is doing. Similarly, you don’t want to

comp the same way for every chorus, but you also want to respond to the moment.

Charleston

Below are two great comping patterns to start with to get used to it. The Charleston was a

dance craze in the 1920s, named after a piece by James P. Johnson. The first gesture

contains a quarter note on beat one followed by an eighth note on the and of beat two.

18
Each note should be equally short and crisp (writing the first note as a quarter note is just for

simplicity). Play about as long and as loud as a brush hitting a snare drum. Keep your dynamic

relatively low and play staccato.

A variant on the Charleston is the Reverse Charleston, which is a bit more relaxed. Practice

this pattern carefully with a metronome because it can be hard to rest on beat 1!

Assignment #1

Practice the chord sequence from Tone Up, first using the Charleston rhythm and then the

Reverse Charleston. When each of these is comfortable, practice mixing the two patterns.

Remember always to place the notes on the first and third triplets of the beat; the comping

patterns should still swing!

Assignment #2

Now we put it at all together. Create a performance of Tone Up where you mix the two

comping types while playing the melody and personalizing devices.

19
Appendix

Finally, if you find it challenging to coordinate your hands while playing these rhythms, the

following exercises can help. Practice these with all 12 major scales, and be sure to accent the

upbeats:

20
Drone Improvisation WATCH LESSON

Your first experience with improvisation should be a very simple task to focus on a small part
of the overall process first.

We will begin with a drone in C major. Sustain a C and a G in the bass octave of the
keyboard. Then, practice using the C major scale in the right hand to create basic melodies.
You do not have to play in time, nor should you use any chromatic notes at this step.

Perform this exercise with a one or two-minute timer. Since we aren’t practicing with a
particular goal in mind, it’s important to give ourselves an endpoint to feel like we’ve
accomplished something. Use these three prompts to reinforce good melodic habits. Focus
on each for a one or two-minute cycle.

Prompt #1: Are you listening actively to yourself while you’re playing?

Never let your hand run free without playing with intention. Don’t judge whether it’s good or
bad; just focus on listening to what you play.

Prompt #2: Play with phrases.

Phrases have clear beginnings, clear endings, and a dynamic arc. Avoid run-on sentences, and
try phrases of varying length with different amounts of rest in-between.

Prompt #3: Use wider intervals.

Classical pianists sometimes tend to stay in one five-finger position. This is limiting because
a fifth is the widest interval you’re capable of reaching. There is so much we can do to extend
the range of our right hand. Stretch out the hand to arpeggio position (pictured below), or
practice crossings as if you were playing a scale. For increased efficiency, make sure you’re
using all of your fingers somewhat equally.

21
We should also expand and contract our hands as we play. What’s the widest interval you can
reach? Are you covering enough ground as you improvise and getting away from the middle
of the keyboard sometimes?

Extra challenge: Try to get from the middle to the top of the piano in just one phrase. Then,
incorporate a variety of intervals into your phrases: fourths, fifths, sixths, sevenths, octaves,
and beyond.

Repeat these exercises in other keys, working on getting accustomed to some of these
good improvisational habits.

22
ii-V-Is Improvisation WATCH LESSON

One of the best ways to simplify chord progressions is to group them into patterns. The most
common pattern among jazz chord progressions is the ii-V-I pattern (pronounced “2-5-1”).
75-80% of jazz charts will contain ii-V-I patterns. The roman numerals work the same as they
do in classical music: ii-V-Is are chords based on the 2nd, 5th, and 1st scale degrees of a
major scale. The resulting chords are diatonic, meaning “from the key,” without added flats or
sharps.

In the key of C major, the result is a D minor seventh chord (D, F, A, and C), a G dominant
seventh chord (G, B, D, F), and a C major seventh chord (C, E, G, B). The pattern of ii-V-Is will
always be minor 7th to dominant 7th to major 7th.

We name the ii-V-I after the tonic chord (the I chord). Identify the ii-V-Is in Tone Up:

23
The first four bars contain a ii-V-I in D major, followed by a ii-V-I in C major. In bar 9, we see an

incomplete ii-V-I; C minor seventh followed by an F dominant appears to be a ii-V-I in B♭

major, but there is no B♭ major chord! This is no mistake–it’s very common in jazz to have

these “interrupted” ii-V-Is. If you’ve practiced ii-V-Is in all keys, you won’t have a problem

noticing when they appear in fragments.

Voicings

For our first ii-V-I voicing exercise, we will alternate between root position chords and second

inversion chords. See the following page for all 12 keys.

We’ll play Em7 in root position, then for A7, we’ll keep the E in the bass. This minimizes the

motion of voices, using a principle called voice-leading that is familiar to classical theory

students.

For extra practice, try practicing this progression beginning with Em7 in second inversion!

Assignment: Practice ii-V-Is in all 12 keys using this exercise (see following page)

This exercise moves from one ii-V-I to another by turning a major chord into a minor chord.

When the notes start to get muddy, leap up an octave as shown. This takes us through six of

the twelve keys. Part B of the exercise takes everything up one half-step to access the other

six keys.

24
02
Licks

A lick is a commonly used pattern we practice over specific chord progressions. Since ii-V-Is
are so common, it’s a good idea to practice licks that work over this progression. A lick is a bit
like learning a set phrase in a language, whereas great poets will invent their own clever
phrases. Of course, we must all begin with the basics of a language. Take a lick and run it
through ii-V-Is in all twelve keys as part of your practice session. The following two pages
contain an appendix of ii-V-I licks provided by Jeremy!

26
02
02
Improvising over ii-V-Is with Scales

The scale of the I chord can work for the entire ii-V-I. For example, the C major scale works

over Dm7, G7, and Cmaj7. You can begin improvising on any note of the scale, but resist the

urge to start on the first note of the scale.

D major scale

C major scale

B♭ major scale C major scale

D major scale B♭ major scale

29
Modes

Rather than say that we play a D major scale over an Em7, we refer to the mode of the D

major scale that we’re using so that our scale’s root matches the chord’s root.

Dorian mode contains the same notes of a major scale, but beginning on the second scale

degree. We use this over the ii chord in a ii-V-I; for example, here we’re using the E Dorian

scale over an Em7:

Mixolydian mode contains the same notes as a major scale beginning on the fifth scale

degree. We use this over the V chord in a ii-V-I, such as this A Mixolydian over A7:

We can also generate the Dorian mode by lowering the 3rd, 6th, and 7th scale degrees of a

major scale. Likewise, we can create the Mixolydian mode by lowering the 7th scale degree of

a major scale.

Drone Exercise

Remember the drone exercise from lesson 3? Repeat this exercise, this time using our ii-V-I

left-hand voicings. Use the same three focus areas: listening, playing phrases, and using

varied hand positions.

30
Arpeggios

Arpeggiating the chord we’re playing over is a simple way to treat each chord uniquely. For
example, we can arpeggiate a Dm7 chord over the fifth bar of Tone Up:

Be sure to leap between chord tones (don’t just arpeggiate them in a sequence), and mix in
some scales! Practice going fluidly between the scale and the arpeggio and creating
interesting, unpredictable lines!

Assignment: Practice improvising over the entire form of Tone Up using both scales and
arpeggios.

31
 WATCH LESSON
The Blues

Jazz and the blues are inextricably linked; they developed in tandem and one cannot be fully

understood without studying the other. The blues is also a chord progression used in jazz,

rock, and pop. 20-25% of jazz tunes use the chords from the blues.

Listen: Check out the blues music of BB King, Muddy Waters, and Jerry Lee Lewis.

The blues is a twelve-measure form, which is bizarre because western music generally occurs

in powers of two (2, 4, 8, 16, and 32-bar units). The blues has three 4-measure phrases, each

with a specific goal, though the chords vary depending on the style.

The first phrase hangs around the I chord, the second phrase goes to the IV chord and then

back to I, and the third phrase has some sort of cadence.

Even stranger than the odd form, we use dominant chords as our stable tonic sound in the

blues. Typically, the dominant is an unstable sound that wants to resolve, but not in the blues.

This is because the blues is not a western art form, so the same theoretical rules don’t apply.

Bars 1-4 Bars 5-8 Bars 9-12

Tonic (I) Subdominant (IV) Cadence

The blues also has one scale that goes with the entire form. Usually, we have to change scales as

we change key centers, but the blues scale works for all twelve bars (printed below in 3 keys):

32
Rock Blues Form

This is a form that would’ve been used by the Beatles, Rolling Stones, or Jerry Lee Lewis. It is
the simplest blues form, using only the I, IV, and V chords. Remember that the chords in
parentheses are turnarounds, and we don’t play them on the very last time through the form.

Jazz Blues Form

Jazz blues is a bit more complex. The third phrase goes to ii instead of V, creating a ii-V-I.
Notice that the I is never a major seventh in the blues!

33
Blues for Sammie

Blues for Sammie is a tune Jeremy wrote to help you practice blues form. Notice the ii-V-I in

measures 4-5 and the secondary dominant in measure 8. (While watching the lesson, pay

attention to the expressive devices Jeremy adds to the melody!) This tune is great to

practice comping patterns as well!

Challenge Assignment

Improvise an AAB blues. This means that whatever you play in your first phrase, repeat it for

your second phrase. Then, in your third phrase, do something contrasting (go in a different

melodic direction, don’t repeat as many notes this time, etc.) Blues for Sammie is an AAB

blues. Pay attention to what you played and leave space (otherwise, you won’t remember

what you did).

A helpful tip for improvising and phrasing over a blues is to “play 2, rest 2.” Play for about two

measures and then rest for two measures, only comping.

34
Blues melodies tend to have a high degree of personalization, especially grace notes and
double notes. This lick combines many elements of blues stylization into one phrase:

Listening: Oscar Peterson, Gene Harris

ii-V-Is Over the Blues:

Anytime you see a ii-V-I, we can continue using what we learned in the previous lesson. For
example, use the F major scale over measures 9 and 10. In measure 4, we can use the B♭
major scale. Arpeggios are always fair game, as well. The best soloists mix arpeggios with
major scales and the blues scale.

Assignment

Learn this blues melody, thinking about swing articulation, your comping rhythm, and
personalizing the melody. Then, improvise some AAB blues forms until you can remember
what you played and create a nice contrast. Then mix-and-match arpeggios, scales from the
ii-V-Is, and the blues scale.

35
Adding Colors WATCH LESSON

Most students of jazz are very eager to learn how to build rich, colorful, chords. Most of that
comes from adding upper extensions to chords.

We build chords in jazz by stacking thirds. We have already extended the seventh chord to
add a ninth. If we continue, we generate an eleventh and a thirteenth. The result is that every
note of the C major scale is now a valid extension over a chord. As we’ll explore shortly, we
don’t use these extensions in the same way over every chord type.

Major Chord Extensions

The ninth sounds great over a C major chord:

The thirteenth is also lovely (it’s the same

note as the sixth, but it goes above the
seventh):

36
In major chords, the eleventh really rubs against the

major third, so we almost always omit it.

Sometimes, however, we raise the eleventh by a

half-step for a very bright sound. We call this

extension a sharp-eleventh (♯11):

Dominant and Minor Chord Extensions

The rules for extensions on dominant chords are

the same as for major chords. To the right is every

typical extension of a dominant chord (9th, ♯11th,

and 13th):

On minor chords, we have a lowered third, so

we can use a natural eleventh. The other

extensions are the same:

37
Art of Voicing

With more notes in our chords, we need to arrange these notes into effective voicings.

Below are two standard voicings we can start with. In Type A voicings, the left hand has the

third and the seventh while the right hand has the fifth and the ninth. Type B voicings reverse

the notes: the left hand has the seventh and the third while the right hand has the fifth and

the ninth.

Let’s play some type A and B voicings for the first chord of Tone Up. Over the Em7, be careful

that the ninth is an F-sharp:

38
While playing voicings on the piano, we want to stay in a specific ideal range. If we play
too high, the voicings get in the way of the melody, but if we play too low, the voicings sound
muddy. The best range for voicings is between middle C and the C below middle C.

Now let’s use these voicings for ii-V-Is. Alternate between type A and type B voicings for
smooth voice-leading. We will cycle through all keys in the same pattern as before.

Assignment: Continue this pattern in all twelve keys.

Voicing with the Melody

While playing the melody in the right hand, our left-hand voicings can’t be as full. Now, Type A
will include the third, seventh, and ninth, while Type B will include the seventh, third, and fifth.
These three-note voicings express the chord quite well; they both contain the third and
seventh, which are essential to defining the chord’s function.

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Play-Alongs

Jazz musicians practice with play-alongs, or backing tracks, pre-recorded tracks of piano or

bass and drums. For Tone Up and Blues for Sammie, Jeremy has made his own play-alongs

for you at the end of this course!

TONE UP PLAY-ALONG BLUES FOR SAMMIE PLAY-ALONG

For other standard tunes, you can find play-alongs on YouTube if you search for the name of

the tune + “play-along.” There’s also a great app called iReal Pro with an extensive

collection of play-alongs where you can modify tempo and key.

Chord Alterations

Now that we’ve added extensions, we can alter them for even more color. Primarily, we alter

dominant chords. Remember the A7♭9? That’s an altered dominant chord.

You are permitted, without invitation from the lead sheet, to raise and/or lower the fifth

or ninth of any dominant chord by a half/step. Remember that the seventh and third are

essential to defining the quality of the chord, so we don’t alter those.

A7♭9 A7♯9 A7♭9♯9

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A flatted ninth creates a nice crunch with the root. We can also raise the ninth, resulting in a

sharp-nine, creating a dissonance with the third. This is a chord used in R&B and funk, which

might sound familiar from James Brown’s music. We can even use the ♭9 and the ♯9 together!

The same alterations are possible with the fifth. We can flat the fifth, raise the fifth, or include

both in a chord:

A7♭5 A7♯5 A7♭5♯5

We can even mix-and-match alterations of the ninth and the fifth for an even wider variety of

colors:

A7♯9♭5 A7♭9♯5 A7♭9♯9♭5♯5

Every time you reach a dominant chord in a tune, you can add alterations as you see fit. It’s

important, however, that our alterations don’t clash with the melody. For example, if the

natural ninth is in the melody, you probably don’t want to alter the ninth of the chord. The

fifth, however, would be fine to alter. Or, if there is a raised fifth in a melody, you probably

don’t want to add the natural fifth.

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Advanced Jazz Scales

Using Mixolydian over these altered chords will create quite an unpleasant clash. There are a
few new scales that can help us navigate these altered dominants more effectively.

The whole-tone scale, a favorite of Debussy, works really well when a chord has a raised and/or
lowered fifth, but a natural ninth:

To use the whole-tone scale over Tone Up, play E Dorian on bar 1, A whole-tone on bar 2, and
D major on bars 3 and 4.

The second scale is the diminished scale, also called octatonic. This scale is symmetrical
because it’s a repeating pattern of half-steps and whole-steps. It works well with any
dominant chord with a raised or lowered ninth.

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Our third scale is a combination of the two above. It’s called the altered scale because it
incorporates all four of the alterations we’ve talked about. It also goes by the super-Locrian
scale or the diminished whole-tone scale. This is because the first half of the scale is
diminished, and the second half is whole-tone:

These notes also happen to form the seventh mode of an ascending melodic minor scale. So,
an A altered scale contains all the notes of an ascending B♭ melodic minor scale.

We can use this scale in the second bar of Tone-Up:

Scale Fluency

Use these three steps to get comfortable with any new scale, especially these three that you
are likely not familiar with.

First, improvise out of time with each scale. Listen to what sounds consonant, what’s
dissonant, and where each note wants to go.

Second, come up with patterns, or repeated movements, through scales. Some common
ones include playing in thirds, skipping every other note, practicing in triads, and many more.
Get creative here!

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 Practicing scales is a bit like cooking chicken; as long as you do it thoroughly, there’s
almost no wrong way to do it!

Try what Jeremy calls his “World-Famous Scale Game.” Put on a metronome and play
continuous eighth notes without resting. You’re only allowed to use notes from a given scale,
but you can’t play the scale up and down or use any patterns. Move freely through the scale,
using a combination of leaps and steps to build interesting shapes. Push the metronome
higher and continue pushing yourself. Remember to use a timer and keep fingerings in mind!

Final Assignment over Blues For Sammy and Tone Up:

1. Figure out voicings. Use the Type A and Type B formulas and practice along with provided
tracks.

2. Go through every dominant chord in the two pieces and decide on a few alterations to
use. Remember not to clash with the melody!

3. As you prepare to improvise, think about interesting/colorful scales to use. Practice them
diligently and use Jeremy’s “World-Famous Scale Game” to build creative fluency.

Got questions? Ask the team at [email protected]

Jeremy’s new book “Playing Solo Jazz Piano” is now on sale! Click this link to purchase!

TONE UP PLAY-ALONG BLUES FOR SAMMIE PLAY-ALONG WATCH JEREMY’S PERFORMANCE

If you have any corrections, comments, or critiques relating to this

workbook, please send them to [email protected]. We strive to
deliver the highest quality enrichment experience. Thank you!