Jazz Piano School

The 6 tips I teach in this lesson will drastically and instantly make your playing sound like and intermediate or advanced player. They are the bedrock to creating a more advanced sound and every beginner players should work to implement them today. They will change your life. If you're a beginner and want to develop a rock solid foundation and learn the fundamental principles you need for solo pi...

The voicing I get asked the most about in jazz piano is the drop 2 voicing. Why? Because it's a pro voicing. But trying to learn them the traditional way with two notes in each hand is difficult. How do I know? Because I tried it. With my 3 step system you'll easily learn drop 2's and you'll also set yourself up for bigger spread voicings, comping methods, and so much more. If you want to learn mo...

Most of the time beginner and intermediate students have a hard time creating a thick and lush sound while playing solo piano. And I don't blame them. It took me FOREVER to figure this out. But with these 3 tips you'll be able to create a large orchestral sound from your solo piano playing in no time. They're easy to learn and easy to integrate. If you want more in depth knowledge on following an...

Most of the time beginner and intermediate students have a hard time creating a thick and lush sound while playing solo piano. And I don't blame them. It took me FOREVER to figure this out. But with these 3 tips you'll be able to create a large orchestral sound from your solo piano playing in no time. They're easy to learn and easy to integrate. If you're interested in learning more about my solo...

This tip that I will teach you in literally one minute has the power to drastically change your solo piano sound instantly. Don't believe me? Well there is only one thing I have left to say...try it. It isn't for everyone because you might be well beyond this, but if you're playing LH root position chords with RH single note melody lines...then you absolutely need to watch this. Even if you think...

Daily Jazz Piano Practice: A 4 Step System

here is way more to improvising over the blues then just using the traditional blues scale. When I learned these other two blues scales, and combined them with the traditional blues scale, my playing changed forever. In this lesson, I'll teach you each blues scale, demonstrate how to use them, and then combine them so you can hear what the improvisation potential is when using these three blues im...

A fellow musician who is learning how to play jazz piano mentioned that all the voicings he uses sound to thin. I asked him what voicings he was using. He said he was using a lot of drop 2's and rootless voicings in the high register of the piano. BOOM. There is the issue. The number 1 issue in fact that students have when comping jazz on piano. Most videos, blogs, even teachers, teach about rootl...

Learning how to improvise can be extremely overwhelming. Most of the time you'll get very vague advice. In this lesson, I'll teach you the 2 most important fundamental steps to learning improv. These 2 steps will help you build a rock solid foundation and allow you to layer on more advanced concepts with ease. If you're interested in checking out my free improvisation masterclass with even more in...

WP & YT Summary: Most jazz piano students have no control over their left hand while improvising. This can drastically take away from your improvisation sound. Most students also don't even know HOW to fix this or what to do. In this video I'll show you 4 very easy patterns and methods your LH can use while you improvise to ensure you sound like a pro. Have you been trying to learn jazz piano with...

Red Garland was one of the greatest jazz pianists to ever live. This transcription analysis covers the tune, "A Foggy Day", and is off the album, "A Garland of Red". This analysis is taken from directly inside my brand new Improvisation Mastery Specialty course which is now available for purchase at a discount by going to the link below. Click the link below for more info. https://jazzpianoschool....

In this free lesson I'm going to walk you through how to improvise over the tune Like Someone In Love. This is taken directly from a live lesson that I gave to all the JPS members during the Tune of The Month Series that we do. If you're interested in learning more about improvisation, go check out my new specialty course that's being released called, Improvisation Mastery. Click the link below fo...

Summary: In part 3 of the 2023 planning series I'll be covering a full spectrum plan to crush all the jazz piano voicings you could possibly need in 2023. Voicings are necessary for all parts of jazz. Solo piano, improvisation, comping and so much more. When you have a solid plan to improve your voicings you will be making progress across the board which is fantastic. This will translate to everyt...

We're on to part 2 of our 2023 planning sessions. In this live stream lesson, I'll be covering the full solo piano blueprint and plan you need to make serious progress in 2023. If playing jazz solo piano is your goal, then you'll definitely want to take detailed notes on this episode. Don't forget to go to the link below to get our free planning guide because I'm referring directly to the steps in...

Jazz Piano Plan For 2023, Part 1

Sus chords can be mysterious but with the 3 different types of sus chords I'm going to show you today, you'll know exactly where, when and how to use them. The first sus chord will be more of a general, space sound you can use over the majority of dominant chords in tunes. The second one will be more for ballads to pull at the heart strings. And the third will be more for a dirty, gritty, soulful...

So if improvisation is spontaneous...how do we practice the art of spontaneity? There are a couple key points that make improvisation sound good. No matter how many fancy tools you throw on top like the blues scale, pentatonics, half whole, scale, lydian augemented scale, the foundation still applies. In this podcast I'll show you the BEST improvisation exercise you can use through out your entire...

The 3 jazz piano licks included in this lesson are important for a couple reasons. One, they contain both scalar motion and arpeggiated thirds. Most jazz piano improvisation contains both of these movements very frequently. Two, they contain chromatic motion. Chromatic motion is extremely important in bebop to slide into chord tones or move around them to create tension. Third, these three licks e...

These 5 improvisation strategies are continuations off the last tutorial on comping through a 3-6-2-5. Enjoy! To learn more about our secret Black Friday 2022 offer go to... https://jazzpianoschool.com/blackfriday2022

Progressions in jazz can get extremely boring. Especially if you're playing them the same every time. A common one that you'll see in so many tunes is a 3-6-2-5. If you're bored of playing a 3-6-2-5 the same or need some new ideas, I got exactly what you need. In this podcast I'll show you 5 easy ways to play a 3-6-2-5 that will sound COMPLETELY different and extremely hip at the same time. Here w...

The metronome can either be your best friend or your worst enemy! Practicing with the metronome is an essential way to develop your own internal sense of time. In this podcast lesson, Sterling will show you some tips and tricks to use the metronome in creative ways to test your sense of time and make room for improvement while making friends with the metronome!

Jazz doesn't always have to be hard. I swear. Sometimes one specific skill set can be broken down into 3 easy steps. I recently taught my special Accelerator Program students this easy 3 step process to thicken and fatten up their arrangements and they absolutely loved it! This process can be used over any tune and will serve you for the rest of your jazz piano career. It's well worth your time to...

When learning new tunes, it can often be tricky to know which notes to play over chords that are unfamiliar. By finding the home key and practicing improvising over chord progressions, you can be ready to play over chords to any tune. Follow along as Sterling shows you how to do it in this podcast lesson.

There are usually a handful of things in life that REALLY help you make some serious progress. This goes for almost everything in life. Golf, painting, riding a bike...literally anything. If you find the right drill or exercise you can unlock A LOT of doors. In improvisation, that one drill is this. And by this I mean the exercise that I give you in this podcast. Practice this a lot and I guarante...

It can be easy to get stuck using the same tired licks or sets of voicings. Here is a new way you can approach comping and improvising by incorporating the intervals of tenths and sixths. Sterling Cozza will show you in this lesson how to practice these intervals to seamlessly integrate them into your playing!