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Acknowledgments.

The Jamorama Piano series was created on behalf of Rock Star Recipes LTD.

Author & Music: Asheigh Southam.

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Welcome to Jamorama Piano’s Introduction to Jazz

Piano!

Do you want to learn to play jazz? Jazz is extremely difcult to play, but very rewarding. By

teaching yourself jazz, you are in good company! The earliest jazz musicians were almost

all self taught.

If you are a beginner, you should master the concepts in the Jamorama Piano guide to

playing the piano before you start. For this book you’ll need to understand intervals, major

and minor chords, and chord progressions.

In this book, I’ll give you a very simple explanation of how jazz songs work and are played.

You’ll learn to play jazz melody, jazz harmony, and jazz rhythm. Using just TWO tunes,

Using just two tunes I’ll show you how to break down a song into aspects like phrasing, feel,

and syncopation. You’ll learn exactly what makes a jazz tune, and the techniques to play a

piece in a jazz style.

Something to ponder: Wynton Marsalis, a Pulitzer Prize-winning African-American composer,

once said that jazz was “the hardest music to play that I know of.” He played a mean jazz

trumpet.

Playing jazz at an introductory level is not easy, so take your time and most importantly,

have fun!

I’ve also included the Jamorama Piano Progress Tracker so that you have a checklist of all

the techniques you can expect to learn in the course. Once you have mastered a lesson or Once you have mastered a lesson or

skill tick it off on the Progress Tracker, and move on to the next lesson! Commit yourself to

ticking off the skills you learn as you go and see your improvement instantly!

41

Hear a personal message

from Ruth!



Every time you see this

button, play the relevant

track!

01

01

Every time you see this

button, download and

play the relevant video!

Table O Contents

Welcome. 3

Table.of.Contents. 4

Jamorama.Piano.Progress.Tracker. 5

Chapter 1. A Brief History of Jazz ...................... 6

Chapter 2. Jazz Rhythm ...................................... 8The.Dotted.Eighth.Note. 8

Swing.Time. 9

Chapter 3. Seventh Chords .............................. 10

Major.7th.Chords. 10

Dominant.7th.Chords.11

Minor.7th.Chords. 12

Chord.Quality. 12

Chapter 4. Chord Progressions ....................... 14

Key.of.C.Major. 14

Key.of.B.Major. 15

Key.of.G.Major. 15

Chord.Progression.in.the.Minor.Keys. 16

Key.of.A.Minor. 16

Key.of.D.Minor. 16

Key.of.E.Minor. 17

Chapter 5. Building onto What You Know ....... 18

Minor.7.Flat.5.Chords. 18

Recap.of.7th.Chords. 18Chord.Progressions.Revisited. 19

Iv,.iii,.V,.I.Chord.Progression. 20

Chapter 6. Playing Chord Progressions .......... 21

Syncopation. 21

Chord.Displacement. 22

iii,.vi,.ii,.V,.I.Chord.Progression. 22

Chapter 7. Melody .............................................. 24

Syncopation.in.the.Melody. 25

Passing.Notes. 26

Review. 27

Chromatic.Notes. 28

Chapter 8. Real Jazz .......................................... 29

Conclusion. 32



Lesson or Skill Page # Date Signature

Jazz rhythm: dotted notes .......... ........... ....................

The dotted 8th notes .......... ........... ....................

Swing time .......... ........... ....................

Major 7th chords .......... ........... ....................

Dominant 7th chords .......... ........... ....................

Minor 7th chords .......... ........... ....................

Chord quality .......... ........... ....................7th chord progressions .......... ........... ....................

C major: Imaj7, IVmaj7, Vdom7 .......... ........... ....................

Bb major: Imaj7, IVmaj7, Vdom7 .......... ........... ....................

G major: Imaj7, IVmaj7, Vdom7 .......... ........... ....................

Chord progression in minor keys: .......... ........... ....................

Aminor Imaj7, ivmin7, Vdom7 .......... ........... ....................

Dminor Imaj7, ivmin7, Vdom7 .......... ........... ....................

Eminor Imaj7, ivmin7, Vdom7 .......... ........... ....................

Minor 7 at 5 chords .......... ........... ....................

v, iii, V, I progression .......... ........... ....................

Syncopation in chords .......... ........... ....................

Chord displacement: Anticipation, delay .......... ........... ....................

iii, vi, ii, V, I progression .......... ........... ....................

Syncopation in melody .......... ........... ....................

Passing notes .......... ........... ....................

Chromatic passing notes .......... ........... ....................

Jamorama Piano Progress Tracker



Chapter 1. A Brie History o Jazz

Before we plunge in, here’s a brief history of jazz. Did you know that some consider

jazz to be the rst original art form developed in America? Early jazz piano evolved fromragtime music popular in the last decade of the 19th century. Ragtime was fast, and one

of its masters was pianist “Jelly Roll” Morton.

Morton (1890 - 1941) lived in New Orleans. He was the leader of a band called “Jelly Roll

Morton & His Red Hot Peppers.” Surrounded by African-American, Creole, Latin, and

French inuences, he was a key gure in the development of jazz. In fact, many consider

him to be the rst jazz composer. By the 1920s, Morton and his band were creating jazz

albums that were considered classics of their kind. Morton even carried a business card

identifying himself as “Creator of Jazz and Swing.”

Jazz fused ragtime with the blues, and its end result was a style of music characterizedby syncopation, improvisation, and blue notes (or attened 3rds, 5ths, and 7ths). From

New Orleans, the new style spread to California, then to Chicago, where it was ofcially

christened “jass.” By the time “jass” made its way to New York in 1910, the word was

respelled to become “jazz.” (Supposedly, this was because posters advertising “jass bands”

were being modied by passers-by who scratched the “j” off ... creating advertisements

for “ass bands.”)

Although the 1920s was the ofcial Age of Jazz, jazz as a musical style is still popular

today. Celebrities like Clint Eastwood, Dustin Hoffman, and Dudley Moore all play the

jazz piano. Jazz pianists/singers like Nat King Cole, Harry Connick, Jr., Norah Jones, and

Diana Krall sell millions of albums. The great jazz pianist Ray Charles was even the toast

of Hollywood when an Oscar-winning movie about him, called “Ray,” was made.



If you want to listen to some great jazz pianists, here are some suggestions.

SWING-ERA JAZZ

Duke Ellington, Earl Hines, Count Basie, Nat King Cole, Art Tatum, Errol Garner, Oscar Peterson

BEBOP JAZZ

Bud Powell, Thelonious Monk, Horace Silver, Lennie Tristano

POST-BEBOP JAZZ

McCoy Tyner, George Shearing, Herbie Hancock, Abdullah Ibrahim

MODERN JAZZ

Chick Corea, Keith Jarrett, Kenny Barron

EXPERIMENTAL JAZZ

Anthony Braxton, Sun Ra, Cecil Taylor



Chapter 2. Jazz Rhythm

Let’s start out by looking at the distinctive rhythms used in jazz music.

You’ll nd many dotted notes in jazz music. If you recall, a dotted quarter note ( ) is one

and a half times the value of the original note.

= +q. e q

eDotted quarter notes are used frequently in conjunction with eighth notes ( ). You

will almost always see the combination of dotted quarter notes and eighth notes in jazz

melodies.

Dotted notes are important to describe the jazz “feel” in musical notation. Feel refers to

the underlying quality of the rhythmic movement of a piece. The feel of a piece results

from how the notes are played in terms of timing , dynamics or placement . A piece of

music may have a blues feel, a swing feel, a rock feel, and many more.

The musical notation of the rhythm is important to describe the feel of a jazz piece. For

example, swing feel is played using dotted notes. For this book, you’ll be playing a jazz

swing feel.

The Dotted Eighth Note

You should be quite comfortable with the dotted quarter note, but you may not have

played the dotted eighth note ( ) before. This note is important for a jazz swing feel.

A dotted eighth note, like all dotted notes, is one and a half times its original value. You

may nd it helpful to envision it as an eighth note tied to a sixteenth note.

e.

xe. e = _ Just as dotted quarter notes are often seen in the company of eighth notes, dotted eighth

notes are often seen in the company of sixteenth notes. The “tails” of the notes can be

connected together so that they look like this:

. . . .

42

e.



Swing Time

If you found that exercise difcult, you may nd an audio example useful. Listen to Track

01. It is an example of swing time played using a ride symbol. The ride symbol ( ) isfound on most drum kits.

/

/ . . . . . .

Did you notice that it is the same phrase as above? This type of phrase played on the ride

symbol is a common feature of keeping time in jazz.

(A phrase is a passage of rhythmic or melodic notes in music. It usually means a few

bars.)

Listen to as much jazz as

possible. Listening to jazz is the

best way of learning jazz!

Exercise: Familiarize yourself with the demands of dotted notes by counting aloud the

rhythm below. You may also want to try clapping the rhythm while counting aloud the

beats.

1 a and a 2 a and a 3 a and a 4 a and a 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and

. . . . . . 1 2 3 4

01



Chapter 3. Seventh Chords

Now that you know a little bit about the type of rhythms found in jazz, you need to know

about the type of harmonic structures you’ll nd in jazz music. In other words, you needto know the most commonly used chords.

Jazz depends on 7th chords. In this chapter, you’ll learn about three kinds: major 7ths,

minor 7ths, and dominant 7ths. First of all, though, you need to know what a 7th chord

is!

You already know that you’re playing a chord any time you play two or more notes

simultaneously. You know that you’re playing a triad when you play three notes

simultaneously. Quite simply, a 7th is when you add one more note to an already existing

triad so that you play four notes simultaneously.

Major 7th Chords

A triad is composed of a root note, the 3rd note above the root, and the 5th note above

the root. In a 7th chord, the 7th note above the root is added to the triad. For example,

look at the C major chord below.

There are so many different chords available to jazz musicians.

There isn’t room in this book for them all! Still, with the three

chords that I’m going to show you, you can play A LOT of jazz-

styled music.

● The 7th note, B, is a major 7th away from C.

● The 5th note, G, is a perfect 5th away from C.

● The 3rd note, E, is a major 3rd away from C.

● The root note is C.

So, relative to the root note, the C major 7th chord goes 1, 3, 5, 7. It looks like a C major triad on the bottom with a major 7 note added to the top.

root3rd

7th5th

C major 7th chord(root position)



Dominant 7th Chords

What happens when you add a minor 7th to the top instead of a major 7th? You get the

dominant 7th chord.

To get a dominant 7th, you will “atten” the major 7th chord that you have just looked at.

You should recall that when you atten something, you turn it into its minor version. The

way you atten the major 7th chord is by taking the major 7th note and dropping it a semi-

tone (for example, from B to B ). You may also think of it in terms of taking the interval

between the root note and the 7th note (a major 7th interval) and shortening it by a half

step, making it a minor 7th interval.

b

C dominant 7th chord

(root position)

● The 7th note, B , is a minor 7th away from C. This gives the chord its dominant

quality.


● The 3rd note, E, is a major 3rd away from C.


The second aspect that gives the dominant 7th chord its quality is the major 3rd in it. In

all dominant 7th chords, the 3rd in the chord is always a major 3rd.

So, let’s review. Relative to the root note, a dominant 7th chord goes 1, 3, 5, 7 . It looks

like a major triad with a minor 7th on top.

b

b

The ngering for playing 7th chords on the right hand goes 1, 2, 3, 5 OR 1,2, 4, 5, whichever is most comfortable for you. The ngering for playing 7th

chords on the left hand goes 5, 3, 2, 1 OR 5, 4, 2, 1, again whichever is most

comfortable for you.

b 13

75b



Minor 7th Chords

Minor 7th chords are a snap once you understand dominant 7th chords. Basically, a

minor 7th chord is a dominant 7th chord with a attened 3rd note.

To get a minor 7th chord, take the major 7th chord. Flatten the 7th note (which makes it

a dominant 7th). Then, atten the 3rd note. Look at the example below.

13

75

C minor 7th chord

(root position) bb

● The 7th note, B , is a minor 7th away from C.


● The 3rd note, E , is a minor 3rd away from C. This gives the chord its minor

quality.


Relative to the root note, a dominant 7th chord goes 1, 3, 5, 7. It looks like a minor triad

with a minor 7th on top.

Chord Quality

Now that you’ve learned the three most common jazz 7th chords, play through them and

listen to the chord quality of each.

The quality of a sound can be difcult to describe, but the three chords you’ve learned

often have the following descriptions applied to them.

● The major 7th chord can be described in many ways, but in general it has a happy

or romantic sound. It is also a quite complex sound, due to the extra 7th note that

adds interest and color.

● The dominant 7th chord has a certain movement to it. In other words, it feels

slightly unstable, as if the I chord should be played after it.

● The minor 7th chord has a sad feeling to it. Most minor chords, whether a 7th or

a triad, have this sad quality.

bb

b b

bb

43



Exercise: To train your ear to recognize the difference between major, dominant, and

minor 7th chords, play through the following chords. They aren’t grouped in any particular

order: they’re just examples to play and listen to. Think about the harmonic quality of

each chord. Then, try to identify whether each chord is a major, dominant, or minor 7th.

● Major 7th chord: 1, 3, 5, 7

● Dominant 7th chord: 1, 3, 5, 7

● Minor 7th chord: 1, 3, 5, 7

bbb

02

bb b

b

6

bb

b

bb

b



Chapter 4. Chord Progressions

Now that you understand the three kinds of 7th chords, you’re ready to apply it to the I,

IV, V chord progression.

Remember that when there is a progression in I, IV, V, the notes in the chords can only

be taken from the notes in the particular key that the progression is in. (You will know

what key it is in by the key signature.) For example, in the key of C major, the I, IV, V

progression chords can only contain notes that already exist in the C major scale.

If you know your scales, you’ll nd that this little tip will help you enormously to create your

chords! You know that the kinds of notes found in your chord will be limited to the kinds of

notes you nd in the scale. Once you know that, you can see whether those notes (1, 3,

5, and 7) are natural or attened according to the notes that appear in the key signature

or scale.

Key o C Major

Let’s take an example. Here’s the I, IV, V progression with the 7th chords played in C

major. It is in the root position so that it is easy to read.

Exercise: Play through the above chords several times. Listen to the major 7th quality of

the C and F compared to the dominant quality of the G dominant 7th chord.

5321

I major7

IV major7V dominant7

C major 7F major 7

G dominant 7

03

44



bb bb

I major7


Key o B Majorb

I major7


Here is the I, IV, V chord progression in G major . This time, the IV and V chords are

played in their second position. The second position makes the progression easier to

play, because there is less jumping around the keyboard.

Key o G Major

Remember that as you play a

seventh chord, your right hand position should go: 5

32 1

Now, here is the same progression, this time in the key of B . Notice that the chords allhave notes that are found in the key of B major. bb

04

05



Chord Progression in the Minor Keys

Now, let’s add some minor keys. Minor chords are played 1, 3, 5, 7.

The root notes should be played with the left hand. This gives the chords more stability

and makes them clearer. When the root notes are played with the left hand, it is said that

the left hand is playing the bass notes of the chord progression.

Key o A Minor

b b

Here is the A minor i, iv, V progression with 7th chords and the bass notes in the left

hand.

i minor7

iv minor7V dominant7

Here is the D minor i, iv, V progression with 7th chords and the bass notes in the left

hand.

Key o D Minor

i minor7

iv minor7V dominant7

b b

06

07



Here is the last i, iv, V progression we’ve looked at: E minor progression with the bass

notes played by the left hand.

i minor7

iv major7V dominant7

Key o E Minor

08

Good job! Now you can play and

recognise three different types of 7thchords. Go on to the next chapter and

learn about the last new 7th chord for

this book- Minor 7 at 5!



Chapter 5. Building on What You Know

In this chapter, you’ll learn about one more kind of 7th chord. You’ll also add a new chord

onto the I, IV, V chord progression you already know.

Minor 7 Flat 5 Chords

This is the last 7th chord you’ll learn in this book. With the addition of this chord, you’ll

have the vocabulary you need to cover the 7th chords in any major key.

Minor 7 at 5 chords are written minor 7 5 for short. To create one of these chords, all

you have to do is take the existing minor 7 chord (1, 3, 5, 7) and atten the 5th. In other

words, it will look like this:

1, 3, 5, 7

These chords sound quite unusual, and it may take a while to get used to how they

sound.

Here is an example. This is a C minor 7 5 chord in the root position.

bb b

b b b

b

C minor 7 fat 5

(root position) bb

b13

75

bbb

● The 7th note, B , is a minor 7th away from C.

● The 5th note is now attened from G to G . This note gives the chord its unique

sound.

● The 3rd note, E , is a minor 3rd away from C. This gives the chord its minor

quality.


Relative to the root note, a minor 7 at 5 chord goes 1, 3, 5, 7. It looks like a regular

minor 7 chord with a attened 5th note.

b b b

b

b

b

Recap o 7th Chords

Here’s a brief recap of the chords you have learned to play so far:

● Major 7th chord: 1, 3, 5, 7

● Dominant 7th chord: 1, 3, 5, 7

● Minor 7th chord: 1, 3, 5, 7

● Minor 7 5 chord: 1, 3, 5, 7

bb bb b bb

45



Chord Progressions Revisited

So much of jazz revolves around chord progressions. You should be quite familiar with

the I, IV, V chord progression by now. This is one of the most popular progressions inmusic across all genres.

However, there are other progressions in jazz that are also very common. As an

introduction to those chord progressions, let’s expand on what you already know about

the I, IV, V progression.

For every note in a scale or key, there is a corresponding chord to go with it. The chords

are named by a Roman numeral (upper case for a major chord, lower case for a minor

chord) corresponding to the position of the note in the scale. For example:

● The 1st note in a major scale is the root of the I chord.● The 4th note in a major scale is the root of the IV chord.

● The 5th note of a major scale is the root of the V chord.

Similarly, you can build a chord on EVERY note of the scale, as long as you just use notes

from that scale.

You’ve already learned the rules for constructing any of four kinds of 7th chords, as long

as you know the root note.

Take a look at all the 7th chords in the C major scale. Each chord is built up from a note

in the scale and only uses notes from the C major scale. Study the order of the chordsand notice how every chord corresponds to its location in the scale.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1

I major7ii minor7

V dominant7iii minor7IV major7 vi minor7

vii minor7b5I major7

C major7

D minor7G dominant7E minor7

F major7 A minor7B minor7b5

C major7

You have probably already seen most of these chords before. Now that you can identify

them correctly, you can make more interesting chord progressions. This is an important

feature of jazz music!



Iv, iii, V, I Chord Progression

Now that you know so many new chords, let’s apply them to chord progressions!

Let’s start by adding one of the new chords to the I, IV, V chord progression that you already

know. A common progression is a IV, iii, V, I progression. In C major, the progression

played as 7th chords looks like this:

The left hand will play the root notes of the chord progression as bass notes.

You can create this same progression for any of the other major keys we’ve looked at.

Just use the rules that you know about which chord number goes with which note in the

scale. You also know how to create any of the 7th chords that you may need to use in

the progressions.

IV, iii, V, I progression

in C major

V dominant7

iii minor7

IV major7

I major7

G dominant7

E minor7

F major7

C major7

These guidelines may seem complicated, but they

are an essential part of your learning to become an

awesome jazz player!

Usually, when you play chord progressions, they get looped in a cycle.

Exercise: Try playing the same chord progression as you looked at above, just repeated

or looped to extend over four bars.

IV iii V I IV iii V I

09

10

46



Chapter 6. Playing Chord Progressions

In this chapter, you’ll learn more about how to play chord progressions, including

syncopation.

In the last example, the chord progression only went for a few bars. Chord progressions

can sometimes be quite long, and often the length of the progression will change.

Here’s the same IV, iii, V, I progression that you just saw, except this time each chord

lasts for one bar.

Syncopation

Often, the change in placement of the chord will change within the bar. In other words, a

chord in the progression may come in at an irregular place with respect to where the other chords may be played.

Here is an example of the same IV, iii, V, I progression with the chords occuring at irregular

time intervals.

IV iii V I IV iii V I

.... ....

. .

IV iii V I

As you can see, this is a pretty complicated rhythmical pattern! This sort of thing occurs

a lot in jazz. It is called syncopation. Syncopation is a shift in the rhythmical placement

or accent of notes or chords.

11

12



Chord Displacement

Any variety of placement can be used, usually at the musician’s discretion. Here is an

example of how the IV, iii, V, I progression might go with various displacements of thechords with respect to their position in the bar.

.... ....

.... ....

. . . .

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1

I major7ii minor7

V dominant7iii minor7IV major7 vi minor7

vii minor7b5I major7

C major7

D minor7G dominant7E minor7

F major7 A minor7B minor7b5

C major7

The tune above also has a bit of the type of rhythm that is used in playing jazz chords.

Some chords are played only once, while some are played several time for effect.

As you can see, playing a chord progression is NOT always strict in jazz. A lot of jazz

gives the musician the ability to decide what to play when, using the guidelines of the

given chord progression as a reference point. Such improvisation is a very important

and fun quality of jazz music.

iii, vi, ii, V, I Chord Progression

The iii, vi, ii, V, I progression is a very popular chord progression in jazz. You’ll encounter

it in many different jazz tunes.

Right now, we’ll look at it in the key of C major, since it is the simplest key. It is a good idea

to practise these progressions in every key you know. Playing the progressions in every

key will get you familiar with the sounds and movement of the progression. It is also a

very good way of learning all the chords in each key.

Here are the 7th chords of C major again to remind you.

13

47



In the key of C major, the iii, vi, ii, V, I progression goes:

E minor 7, D minor 7, A minor 7, G dominant 7, C major 7

viiii V Iii

Play through the progression and listen to it closely. You may notice that it has a sense of

movement about it. Then, when it lands on the I chord (the C major 7), it feels resolved.

Take time to study and practice this progression. Again, it is one of the most used

progressions in jazz, so it is important to be familiar with it. Like the other progressions,

you can loop or repeat it.

viiii V Iii viiii V Iii

You can also apply some of the inversions and techniques for playing 7th chords that you

have learned to these new progressions. For example, here is the iii, vi, ii, V, I progression

in C major with inversions and left hand bass notes.

14

15

If you can understand and remember the rules about how to build the four types of 7th chords, as well as locate the name and number of a chord in a

progression relative to its key signature, you should congratulate yourself!

These concepts are the foundation of jazz playing!



Chapter 7. Melody

Melody in jazz is a combination of all the things we’ve been looking at so far. The rhythm

comes from dotted notes such as the dotted quarter and dotted eighth notes, while theactual melodic notes come from the chordal notes. A lot of the melodic notes in a jazz

tune will actually be taken from the notes that would be played in the chord.

Let’s take as an example the chord progression I, IV, V in C major. The melodic notes in

the rst bar (in which the C major 7 chord is being played) will be comprised of the chordal

notes of C major 7.

VI IV I

Each melodic note here is a chordal note.

In other words, every note here is oundin the C major 7 chord.

Now, here’s the same progression with a few more melodic notes. Notice that each notefrom the melody comes from a chordal tone of the corresponding chord played by the left

hand.

VI IV I

Exercise: Play through the progression.

This is a common feature of jazz piano: the left hand plays the chord progression while

the right hand is free to play the melody.

16



Syncopation in the Melody

Now that you know what notes get played in the melody, you need to know what timing

to use.

In jazz music, the notes become syncopated. Remember that syncopation is a shift of

the rhythmical placement or accent of notes. To do this, you’ll use dotted notes, such as

the dotted eighth note and dotted quarter note. This will give the melody a swing feel ,

which is a key characteristic of jazz.

It is easy to give a jazz feel to a melody. For example, take the melody that you just

played. All that you need to do is use the rhythmical phrasing of dotting the notes to make

them “swing” and sound like jazz music.

Exercise: Play through the previous exercise and the tune above. Listen to the changes

that occur in the rhythmical pattern. (Some extra notes have been added in the modiedphrase to ll in the bar.)

Now we have two contrasting rhythmical phrases.

Now that you understand melodic patterns and the swing rhythms used in them, you can

put it together with your understanding of irregular time intervals in chords. You’re going

to get music that sounds even more like jazz!

Here is the I, IV, V, I progression with the jazz melody, jazz harmony, and jazz rhythm all

put together. It is a very difcult phrase to play, so if you cannot play it at rst, that’s okay.

Just listen to Track 18 and notice the jazz phrasing.

17

181 5 1

5321

. . . . . . . . . ....

VI IV I

. . . . . . . . . . .

48



Passing Notes

Before going any further, you need to know that the rule you just learned - that the melodic

notes will come from the chordal notes - isn’t always followed strictly. To make the melodynotes more interesting, there can be notes that do not occur in the chords.

These notes are called passing notes. They act as a link between one chordal note and

another. In other words, they are passing t hrough from one chordal note to the next.

These passing notes are generally not as important in the melody phrase as the chordal

notes, so they usually do not fall on the beat or last for very long.

To make this phrase “swing” more, every note that falls on the off beat is accented. The

combination of dotted notes and accenting the off beat notes makes the phrase swing, so

that it sounds a lot more like a jazz phrase!

Let’s look at an example. Here is the I, IV, V progression in a swing feel, with passing

notes in the melody.

Exercise: Listen to both phrases and notice the difference. It may be very slight, but it is

integral to making the phrase swing. You should practice this technique. It will be very

difcult to learn at rst, but it is a very important aspect of jazz playing!

. .

.

.

.

.

.

. .

.

.

. . .

accented

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

non-chordal notes

o C major 7

(passing notes)

non-chordal notes

o F major 7

(passing notes)

non-chordal notes

o G dominant 7

(passing notes)

non-chordal notes

o C major 7

(passing notes)

19



Review

At this point, we’ve covered the three main types of playing:

● Jazz Melody

◊ chordal notes

◊ dotted notes

● Jazz Harmony

◊ major 7ths

◊ dominant 7ths

◊ minor 7ths

◊ minor 7 b 5

● Jazz Rhythm

◊ dotted notes

◊ syncopation of the chord progression

Exercise: Now, let’s put all three aspects together and practice a iii, vi, ii, V, I progression

using all three techniques. Use the ngering position for all left hand chords.

5321

viiii

V Iii

1 3 1

1

1 3 3

. . . . . . . .

.... 3

. . . . . . . . ....



Chromatic Notes

The last aspect of jazz music that you’ll learn in this book is chromatic notes. Chromatic

notes are fairly common in jazz. They appear in the melody and are also consideredpassing notes. Like passing notes, they usually do not fall on the beat and are brief in

length.

They are more unusual than passing notes, because not only do they not appear in the

chord, they also do not appear in the scale or key that the progression is in!

Let’s take the melody that you looked at earlier using the passing notes.

. . . . . . . . . . .

. . .

Now, let’s add chromatic notes as well as passing notes.

. . . b . . b . . b . . . . . b . .

non-chordalpassing note

passing notechromatic

non-chordalpassing notes









21



Chapter 8. Real Jazz

You’re ready for playing real jazz now! This introductory book has been short and sweet,

but you should now know just enough to give you a taste for jazz piano. The last twopages of this book are an original jazz tune, composed by me!

The following tune is quite complicated to play, so if you don’t get it right away, that’s

perfectly okay. Playing jazz, even at an introductory level, is not easy!



. . . . . . . . . . . .

29

. b . . . . . .

31

. . . . . . . . . .



Conclusion

You’ve done it! You have completed the Jamorama Piano Introduction to Jazz. Just think

of everything you can do now that you couldn’t before. You now understand so much

more about the fundamentals of jazz: Jazz rhythm, harmony and melody! You’re on your

way to becoming a great musician ... all you need is more practice!

That’s it for now.

Ruth

jamorama piano - introduction to jazz - web

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