2 Minute Jazz

Brazilian jazz pianist Helio Alves shows you a useful tip on how to get a great texture for your bossa nova piano playing.For full-length piano lessons with Helio Alves, check out https://www.openstudiojazz.com/brazilian-jazz-piano========================================================Hi everybody, Helio Alves here with Two Minute Jazz. One great texture for playing bossa nova piano is to play the whole groove in your left hand, and play the melody (or solo) in your right hand. An important thing to remember is the quarter notes that always have to be there, they always have to be present. Very important part of the groove. That can be with or without the roots of the chord. Basically the technique works like this: with shell voicings, like the root 6 and 3rd or root 7 and 3rd.So the quarter notes are very important. They're always there. I'm anticipating the chords, too. Without a bass note. The quarter notes are there. So that's a very cool technique to play bossa nova, very nice texture and very useful. Thank you again for listening. Happy practicing!========================================================Website: https://www.openstudiojazz.comFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/HeyOpenStudioInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/heyopenstudioTwitter: https://twitter.com/HeyOpenStudio See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Did you know that you're probably practicing pentatonic scales the wrong way? Peter Martin shows you an exercise to fix your fingering.For full length piano lessons with Peter Martin, check out https://www.openstudiojazz.com/piano========================================================What's goin' on everybody? Peter Martin here for 2 Minute Jazz. Want to talk to you about pentatonics. I've got a brand new exercise for you over C minor, or E flat major, however you wanna think about it. And we go through two different levels, three different rhythms for each one. The first thing we're doing, we're starting down here, an octave below middle C. Too many of you are practicing only in this [upper] range of the instrument and then you end up soloing only in these two octaves. We got great stuff down here. Great little tenor region of the piano we wanna explore. So if you wanna play it, you gotta practice in there, okay?So we're going up. And then we're (on four) coming down and here's our shape, skipping. Lots of use of the four. A lot of you are just playing with one two three and there's some false information goin' out here that you only have to use three fingers. We've got five fingers. If you're not gonna practice with the fourth and the fifth, they're never gonna get strong and independent and be able to at least come close to equaling one two three.So many situations, what we have to be able to play with strength and agility with our fourth and fifth finger, so we gotta practice it. So I've worked that into the fingering here. And we're just changing up the rhythm.Level 2A, same thing: goin' up straight. Pentatonic. Now we gotta new shape. And this is really based upon something a lot of players use. That's just going up a half step. So it gets your hand ready for that. And now we're introducing a lot of fifth finger. A lot of you are gonna wanna go four or three there. But the idea is we wanna keep that wrist smoothly gliding up and down.Pentatonics. Happy practicing!========================================================Website: https://www.openstudiojazz.comFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/HeyOpenStudioInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/heyopenstudioTwitter: https://twitter.com/HeyOpenStudio See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Modern Brazilian jazz monster Edu Ribeiro demonstrates how to take the samba school to the drum kit.For full-length drum lessons with Edu Ribeiro, check out https://www.openstudiojazz.com/brazilian-jazz-drumming========================================================Hi, I am Edu Ribeiro and welcome to Two Minute Jazz. Today, we are going to talk about samba. Bringing the lines of the percussion from the drum set, we have three special lines to put together here.The first one is the most important for the samba, and that's the surdo that keeps the time for everybody. And the surdo can be very simple, or it could be a little syncopated, but it's going to be hard to imitate with the bass drum. So it could be played less syncopated.The other instrument is the tambourine, the small instrument that people play in the school of samba. But we have a special clav like that. I'm going to try to put together the tambourine and the bass drum imitating the surdo.And another one that I'm going to play is the pandeiro that people play with two hands. I'm going to try to play all the sixteenth notes with my right hand on my hi-hat. Then I'll try to put it all together.There is another instrument called the agogô. I'm going to try to imitate two songs with my tom and my floor tom.Okay, happy practicing and see you next time!========================================================Website: https://www.openstudiojazz.comFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/HeyOpenStudioInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/heyopenstudioTwitter: https://twitter.com/HeyOpenStudio See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Edu Ribeiro reveals an exercise he created to add some swinging 16th notes in samba patterns.For full length drum lessons with Edu Ribeiro, check out https://www.openstudiojazz.com/brazilian-jazz-drumming========================================================Hi, I am Edu Ribeiro and welcome to Two Minute Jazz. When you see the 16th note written like a samba pattern, and you have just something that's so different, that when you have to play that rhythm. And the exercise that I created to make a real different 16th note with a little swing, it is something like that. You have to think, first, in the síncopa with the left hand. And two eighth notes with the right hand like that. And the other exercise, you think about three against two. Three with the left hand and two with the right hand. And now try playing two bars with the síncopa and two bars with the triplets against two. And now we have to take off the first note off my left hand of each tempo.I hope that's gonna help you to try to imitate that thing that people do in the school of samba. Just with your hi-hat. Okay, and that is something that you can find in my course from Open Studio. And you're gonna have more details there. And I hope you enjoyed, and see you next time.========================================================Website: https://www.openstudiojazz.comFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/HeyOpenStudioInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/heyopenstudioTwitter: https://twitter.com/HeyOpenStudio See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Patterns might be a dirty word in jazz, but Peter Martin shows you how to play them without making it obvious.========================================================What's going on everybody, Peter Martin here for 2 Minute Jazz. Wanna talk to you about patterns, which is a little bit of a dirty word for me, but there I said it. But I want to talk to you about how we can play patterns, without them sounding like patterns.Now, a pattern is anything that's repeated, it could be anything that you repeat and move around. So, how do we play them? Because actually patterns and art and music and nature are very important, and they form a great foundation for some of our great improvisations.So, I was kind of playing around on "Someday My Prince Will Come," and when I get this D flat diminished, a little bit of a problematic chord for many of you. So that's a place where sometimes we'll take a pattern, we'll take an easy phrase, and then repeat it.So we're just going up the diminished whole halves, I guess it is. In broken minor thirds. Over a little triplet thing. That's fine but it sounds a little corny. And then especially if we keep moving it into that C minor.So, there's some little things we can do though. So there I'm just I'm a little out of time, we'll pull it back into time, but I'm going up the scale, the diminished, but then I start going chromatic, and kinda change up the time also, so if I start out triplets, it makes it a little more organic, it makes it more like, you know, you'd sing it or something although you'd be a heck of a singer to be able to do that, but harmonically and melodically that chromaticism really kinda adds something I think nice.Other things you can do is to keep the same interval but then change direction, and doing it in a kind of random and organic way. And if you combine that with the chromatic, then it sounds like it's not a pattern, but it actually is.All right, have fun with that, happy practicing.========================================================For full length piano lessons with Peter Martin, check out https://www.openstudiojazz.com/pianoWebsite: https://www.openstudiojazz.comFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/HeyOpenStudioInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/heyopenstudioTwitter: https://twitter.com/HeyOpenStudio See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Peter Martin shows you a simple left hand comping technique that can add another layer of groove to your playing using only the root-5, 6, and 7.========================================================What's goin' on, everybody? Peter Martin here for Two Minute Jazz. Just wanted to throw one little left hand technique. We got a lotta cool things we can do over Chick Corea's "Spain" to get that groove going.But one that I realized I do sometimes, kinda wish I did it more, is just the concept of root and five, root and six, and root and seven. Real simple little melodic play.So it's just a little bit of a melodic concept. And you know, you gotta check on each chord which ones of 'em sound good, some of 'em sound better than others. But you can do 'em on almost every chord.And you know, different orders, playing around with them, but it's just a little bit of a melodic play, little countermelody thing to get a little action in the left hand that's a little different than some other things.All right, have fun. Happy practicing.========================================================For full length piano lessons with Peter Martin, check out www.openstudionetwork.com/pianoWebsite: https://www.openstudionetwork.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heyopenstudioTwitter: https://twitter.com/HeyOpenStudioFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/HeyOpenStudio See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Peter Martin shows you different movements and scales you can combine to add variety to your voicings.========================================================What's going on everybody? Peter Martin here, just wanna talk a little bit about two-handed voicings, use of fourths that can be so useful. Just playing around a little bit over "Autumn Leaves." And especially when you combine them with other types of voicings, maybe even kind of block chords situations. Kind of traditional stuff.And then when we play in the fourths, these are all perfect fourths and there's certainly a lot that you can do just moving around chromatically. But don't sleep on the diatonic movement with those fourths.What I mean there is we're just going up, C minor Dorian. You can throw in some chromatic chords too, but the idea being that we don't have to just do, we could do diatonic, just going up that C Dorian scale or B flat major scale.So, you wanna have those in your hands. You can go six notes, you can go five, you can go four. But when you combine them with other voicings, that's when it gets really interesting. Right?All right, happy practicing.========================================================For full length piano lessons with Peter Martin, check out www.openstudionetwork.com/pianoWebsite: https://www.openstudionetwork.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heyopenstudioTwitter: https://twitter.com/HeyOpenStudioFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/HeyOpenStudio See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Peter Martin provides some examples of taking inspiration from hand drums for your comping.========================================================What's going on everybody? Peter Martin here for 2 Minute Jazz. Wanna talk to you this week about two-handed rhythmic comping ideas. Now, it's so effective to comp with both hands, where we're linked up rhythmically.But what about if we can combine a little bit of two handed stuff? So the idea with this, and what I want you to think about for inspiration, is somebody playing the hand drums, right?So it's a little bit different sound, and we take that to the two hands. And we can go back and forth to being linked up. That's where it gets really fun.But the syncopation that we can create between the hands is really exciting.Okay, little idea for you. So just think about those hand drums. Alright, happy practicing.========================================================For full length piano lessons with Peter Martin, check out www.openstudionetwork.com/piano#2minjazz #openstudio #petermartin #jazz #piano #happypracticing #2handed #rhythmic #compingWebsite: https://www.openstudionetwork.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heyopenstudioTwitter: https://twitter.com/HeyOpenStudioFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/HeyOpenStudio See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Peter Martin shows you how to add passing tones to your lines to get a more authentic bebop sound.========================================================(piano music) - What's going on everybody? Peter Martin here for Two Minute Jazz. Got a quick tip for you today on bebop passing tones. So many different ways to get into an authentic and really satisfying bebop sound, but one of them that I love that really kinda comes from a harmonic concept that can inform your melodic bebop playing is passing tones, and I'm gonna just talk about two today.E flat major.(piano music)You know, if we improvise over E flat major.(piano music)And we just stick to the E flat major scale,(piano music)it's fine, but it gets interesting when we put in those passing tones. So if we look at the minor third,(piano music)that's the first one.(piano music)And you know, there's three basic ways of thinking about this. Start your line on the passing tone.(piano music)And normally we're looking at resolving that minor third up to the third or down to the ninth or the second. So you can start your line there or you can go to it immediately at the beginning of your line.(piano music)From the third, or you can do it from the second, I don't like that one as much.(piano music)Or the third way is to play it somewhere in the middle of your line.(piano music)And when you're running up a scale, this is a great time to do it, because I mean, it works aight, but it's kinda(piano music)if I just play the major scale, but if I do(piano music)and put that minor third resolving up to the major third in the middle of it, and then I mean, you know you can get (piano music) some rhythmic offsets, some syncopation, that's where it gets really nice.So the other one I like a lot is a minor sixth. Same thing, you can start your line there,(piano music)you can go right to it.(piano music)Or you can catch it in the scale.(piano music)Okay?So these are just two over the major scale, but they're fun to practice by isolating them. Each scale has its own, we'll get into those on other episodes, but for now, happy practicing.(soft music)========================================================For full length piano lessons with Peter Martin, check out www.openstudionetwork.com/piano#2minjazz #openstudio #petermartin #jazz #piano #happypracticing #bebop #passingtonesWebsite: https://www.openstudionetwork.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heyopenstudioTwitter: https://twitter.com/HeyOpenStudioFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/HeyOpenStudio See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Ulysses Owens, Jr. demonstrates the essentials of what it takes to play the drums with brushes.#2minjazz #ulysses #owens #openstudio #jazz #drums #tutorial #brushes========================================================(rhythmic drums beating)(hi-hat clinking)(brushes tapping)(brushes sweeping)- The brushes are my favorite thing to play. It's one of the most sensitive ways to play as a drummer and it's one of the coolest ways to really create amazing textures. When you play the brushes, there's a couple different rules that you have to apply by, but ultimately you can still make great music. The first rule is, left hand. Left hand is your sweeping hand, like a broom. You sweep, one, two, three, four. One, two, a-uh, uh, uh.(brush sweeping and tapping)This is with an accent. This is without an accent.(brush sweeping)We'll go back to the accent.(brush sweeping and tapping)Then you can take that right hand with the same spang-a-lang pattern you played in the right hand with the ride cymbal, you add that to the center of the drum, like this.(drum beating)(brush tapping)(brush sweeping)Then you can add the hi-hat in,(hi-hat clinking)(brush tapping)(brush sweeping)Then a little bit of bass drum.(Bass drum booming)Then sometimes you can add some fill.(rhythmic drums beating)(brushes sweeping and tapping)The cool thing about the brushes is that they're really used with great singers. You can use them in certain arrangements with big band. You can use them even in certain arrangements with horn players or you can just use them to play softer. For younger drummers and drummers that are playing around locally, you can use them in different venues, whether it's a restaurant gig, or club gig or whatever, but it's an art form that you've gotta really check out. There's some great drummers to check out, Vernel Fournier, Papa Jo Jones, Kenny Clarke, Elvin Jones and so many others. But I really love the brushes because it's a way to find your own, creative sound. And I have a lot of fun playing the brushes, but you've gotta really make sure you check out the brushes and make sure that you know how to play the brushes by themselves and with the hi-hat. So like this,(drum beating)(brushes sweeping and tapping)(hi-hat clinking)and also like this(drum beating)(brushes sweeping and tapping)(drum booming)So again the brushes are a great thing to have fun with and it's a great way and a true part of the jazz tradition of being a jazz drummer. I love the brushes.(fast, rhythmic, percussion music playing)(percussion playing)(melodic piano playing)========================================================For full lessons with Ulysses Owens, check out Open Studio Network: https://www.openstudionetwork.com/project/fyb-overview/Website: https://www.openstudionetwork.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heyopenstudioTwitter: https://twitter.com/HeyOpenStudioFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/OpenStudioNetwork/ See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Geoffrey Keezer provides some insight into how he emulates bass players with his left hand.Check out Geoffrey's course, Advanced Jazz Piano Concepts, at https://www.openstudionetwork.com/project/ajp-overview/=====================================================(jazz piano music)- Hey, this Geoffrey Keezer for 2 Minute Jazz. I'm gonna talk about playing bass lines with your left hand really briefly. I feel like when I listen to music, my hands, my right hand might be listening to the right hand solos of Herbie or Bud Powell or Chick or Wynton Kelly or McKoy, but my left hand, at the same time, is listening to the bass line. My left hand is checking out Ray Brown and Paul Chambers and Bootsy Collins and Jaco Pastorius and guys like that. When I sit down to play solo piano, my left hand is actually thinking like a bass player. This kind of bass line I'm playing on The Nearness of You is kind of a hybrid of something Ray might play and a Jaco-ish kind of thing.(jazz piano bass line)So when I got to the diminished cord(piano melody with right hand)I did a thing that Ray Brown did(funky bass line)That lick based on the diminished scale, but these are all things that creative bass players play. So, in addition, when you're transcribing don't just transcribe the right hand piano solos but actually transcribe what bass players are doing, what the horn players are doing, what the singer's doing, what the drummers are doing. All these kind of ensemble ideas you can work into your solo piano playing and it's gonna give it an extra dimension and more depth. It's gonna build up your left hand and make it stronger at the same time.(jazz music featuring piano)=====================================================#2minjazz #openstudio #geoffreykeezer #jazz #piano #basslines #lefthandWebsite: https://www.openstudionetwork.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heyopenstudioTwitter: https://twitter.com/HeyOpenStudioFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/HeyOpenStudio See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Peter Martin shows you 2 triads you can use to add some gospel flavor to your playing.=====================================================(soulful piano music) - What's going on everybody? Peter Martin here for 2 Minute Jazz. Hope you're doing great. Just wanna talk a little bit more about getting that gospel sound, that gospel feel, that gospel sensibility into your jazz and groove playing. I'm gonna give you just two triads. I'm gonna give you - they're already out there! We're looking at G-flat major.(soulful piano music)Little simple progression going down to B-flat minor. So a lotta ways to get there, but if you just take a D-flat major triad an an E-flat minor triad. And basically, you can do it with either hand, you should learn it in both hands. But if we just move up to the next inversion, so if we start, and this is over G-flat, okay? So we're in G-flat major.(soulful piano music)We're in G-flat major so we'll take a D-flat major triad first. And then we go E-flat minor triad, D-flat major first inversion, E-flat minor second inversion, I mean first inversion. D-flat major second inversion, E-flat minor, et cetera. You get it. And I mean, there's always opportunities to do some grace notes, a little bit of blues playing. But there's a lot of melodic applications for these same triads.(bluesier soul piano music)Okay, but just those two triads can take you far to get that sound. Happy practicing!(funky jazz music)=====================================================For full length piano lessons with Peter Martin, check out www.openstudionetwork.com/piano#2minjazz #openstudio #petermartin #jazz #piano #happypracticing #triads #gospelWebsite: https://www.openstudionetwork.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heyopenstudioTwitter: https://twitter.com/HeyOpenStudioFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/HeyOpenStudio See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.