Jazz Piano Tutorial: The Rhythm Changes

Рет қаралды 4,909

Күн бұрын

The 'rhythm changes' is the most popular jazz chord progression. In this piano tutorial I look at the progression in depth, going through the individual chords on the piano keyboard, and demonstrate a fairly standard piano improvisation that uses them. Then I talk about how you can use chord substitution and extension to get a cool sound more suited to jazz and cocktail playing than the bare chords. I also cover the basic right hand techniques you need to know - including some essential scales - so you can get to the piano and start working on your own improvisation ASAP.
I also cover key ideas like rhythmic anticipation - a really important skill in jazz - and a host of seemingly small things, like using the piano's sustain pedal and dynamic range to get the best possible performance. I also talk a little bit about chord naming conventions and some techniques you can use in your piano practice routine to make the best possible progression with this famous progression.
You'll get a lot out of this tutorial if you're a relative beginner on the piano, but you're going to find it easier if you have a basic competence on the keyboard and you're familiar with some elementary music theory concepts like time signature and key. For a more step-by-step approach to beginners' jazz piano, check out my jazz piano tutorial playlist, down below.
👉Improve your piano skills with my great value Piano Packs and 3 Ebook Bundle deal:
www.billspianopages.com/piano...
www.billspianopages.com/bundle
👉Revolutionise your music skills with my new book, How To Be A Better Musician:
www.bettermusicianbook.com
👉Join my Patreon community - we're a very friendly bunch of piano learners!
/ billhilton
👉My gear (in association with Sweetwater.com)
Nord Piano. Latest model is the Nord Piano 5: sweetwater.sjv.io/Gm3RNn
Rode NT-USB microphone: sweetwater.sjv.io/AWXR6a
Sony DCZV1/B digital camera: sweetwater.sjv.io/3erm1n
(Disclosure: I receive commission from Sweetwater if you click through and buy these or any other products from their website.)
Here's the full progression for the rhythm changes, in B flat major and 4/4 time. Remember these are the underlying chords, not the exact chords I played in the demo - that included lots of chord extension and substitution. Also bear in mind that other variations of the basic rhythm changes chord progression are available!
Bbmaj7, B°7 | Cm7, F7 | Bbmaj7, B°7 | Cm7, F7 |
Bbmaj7, Bb7 | Ebmaj7, Ebm7 | Bbmaj7, Gm7 | Cm7, F7 |
Bbmaj7, B°7 | Cm7, F7 | Bbmaj7, B°7 | Cm7, F7 |
Bbmaj7, Bb7 | Ebmaj7, Ebm7 | Bbmaj7, F7 | Bbmaj7 |
D7 | D7 | G7 | G7 | C7 | C7 | F7 | F7 |
Bbmaj7, B°7 | Cm7, F7 | Bbmaj7, B°7 | Cm7, F7 |
Bbmaj7, Bb7 | Ebmaj7, Ebm7 | Bbmaj7, F7 | Bbmaj7 |
BILL’S SOCIAL MEDIA
Facebook: billhiltonpiano
Twitter: / billhilton
Instagram: / billhilton
TikTok: / billhiltonpiano
Jazz piano tutorial series: • Jazz Piano For Beginne...
Blues piano tutorial series: • Blues piano tutorial s... (these are pretty old now, but a lot of people seem to still like them...)
00:00 The most famous jazz chord progression
01:25 Piano improvisation demo (annotated)
02:43 How the progression is organised
04:33 Individual chords demonstrated (A sections)
08:11 B section chords and the circle of fifths
11:21 Voicing jazz chords on the piano
12:50 Initial practice techniques (left hand focus!)
13:32 Right hand piano improvisation - scales and more
19:03 The simplest possible start to improv
21:14 Chromatic and whole-tone scales
23:17 Impressive (but fairly easy) scale run, plus grace notes
24:26 Benefits of my Patreon, plus some other products
25:55 My latest book, How To Be A Better Musician
26:53 More advanced left hand techniques, including passing chords
28:31 Check your rhythmic playing around against a metronome
29:37 Understanding chord extensions
31:26 Understanding chord substitution, plus rootless chord voicings
34:03 Chord names are less important than chord sounds
35:05 More worked examples of chord substitution/extension on the piano
37:03 Working this into your piano practice, plus other tips & jazz resources
#piano #jazzpiano #pianotutorial #tutorial #jazz #chords #pianochords #improvisation #pianolessons #pianoimprovisation #music #musician

Пікірлер: 18

@BillHilton 5 ай бұрын

👉Improve your piano skills with my great value Piano Packs and 3 Ebook Bundle deal: www.billspianopages.com/piano... www.billspianopages.com/bundle 👉Join my Patreon community - we're a very friendly bunch of piano learners! www.patreon.com/billhilton 👉My gear (in association with Sweetwater.com) Nord Piano. Latest model is the Nord Piano 5: sweetwater.sjv.io/Gm3RNn Rode NT-USB microphone: sweetwater.sjv.io/AWXR6a Sony DCZV1/B digital camera: sweetwater.sjv.io/3erm1n (Disclosure: I receive commission from Sweetwater if you click through and buy these or any other products from their website.)

@AlexanderChisholm-Loxley 8 ай бұрын

Really excellent tutorial Bill! Love the way you explain, early days but I think it has really helped me to bridge the gap between ‘classical’ theory and the seemingly much more aloof realm of jazz harmony. Deep down the similarities far outweigh the differences and it’s given me a foundation to build on. Thanks!

@sulynlam3562 5 ай бұрын

This is one of the meatiest tutorials. Much going over my head but there are so many little anchors that make sense and offer points of entry for drilling down.. That you said you’d been though a difficult process to get there was encouraging and the encouragement and practise tips you offer about leapfrogging the black hole of despair made me laugh out loud! Also the generous time you take to explain everything is riveting for a beginner. I got my How to Really Play Piano book out again. 😄

@BillHilton 5 ай бұрын

Really glad you found it useful! I think it’s important always to be clear that the Black Hole of Despair is (almost) universal. I’m *glad* I’ve found many aspects of piano such as struggle, because it makes it much easier to get into the headspace of people I’m trying to teach. Naturally brilliant musicians sometimes find that difficult!

@coloaten6682 11 ай бұрын

Really thorough video Bill, much appreciated. I'm really struggling with the left hand independence, getting it on autopilot while my brain thinks about improv is proving really difficult. Been stuck on this for a while, it's so frustrating!

@man0sticks 10 ай бұрын

It’d be nice if you would demo a two-hand comping version of this so that we can back other players-guitar, horn etc. while they work on improv.

@BillHilton 9 ай бұрын

That's not a bad idea for a tutorial, actually - watch this space and I might make it sometime soon!

@Drawlen 11 ай бұрын

Glad to see you, nice smile 😊 and of course those muscles 💪

@JonBushell 11 ай бұрын

Really good. Lol really simple. I think I’ll stop with Erasure for the moment and work up to jazz.

@JosesGarage101 10 ай бұрын

Great channel. Iam now a new subscriber. I’ve learn to playbthe piano by hearing and jazz piano bar is so great to listening and I’ve love to learn. Is All of me hard to play, difficult chords? Thanks for sharing.

@BillHilton 10 ай бұрын

Welcome aboard - I’m really glad you like my stuff!

@batner 9 ай бұрын

Thanks Bill! Wow, that was a long one. Lost you a bit there around 35min mark, but I will have to re-watch this tutorial anyways. I do have a question though. It is unclear to me how do I approach this in practice. Can I start with the chords as they are written or do I need to try to use the substitutions you have mentioned from the start?

@BillHilton 9 ай бұрын

Glad it was helpful! To start with I would use the basic forms of the chords just to get a sense of the progression's structure thoroughly implanted in your memory. Once you have a reasonably automatic/instinctive feel for it, begin to dig down into the extensions, substitutions and so on. Does that help?

@batner 9 ай бұрын

@@BillHilton That helps a lot. Thank you!

@BillHilton 9 ай бұрын

@@batner You're welcome!