Peter Martin's Jazz Piano Lessons

This lesson addresses those difficult chords.  

Back to basics as Peter tackles Block Chords….   

This lesson focuses on developing finger independence & strengthening using the Phillips Exercises. Click the “Download Charts” button below to download the first page of the Phillips book, as well as a link to order the whole book. Want to leave feedback on this, or other lessons?  Click “Discuss” below.   

This lesson covers approaches to learning new tunes by focusing in on reference recordings instead of the fake book chart. Peter uses the song “Have You Met Miss Jones” as an example, and refers to the Frank Sinatra recording of the tune. Did you know you can download an audio version of all lessons to [...]

A primer on playing solo piano ballads using Gershwin’s “Embraceable You” as a tune example. I’m sure I’ll be revisiting this subject lots in subsequent lessons, there’s lots to cover! Here’s a link to the Ella Fitzgerald recording a mentioned towards the end: iTunes     

A practice pattern that uses a diminished pattern ascending, and a pentatonic pattern descending.  In this lesson, I discuss: arpeggios, chromatics, diminished, fingering, keys, Macfarren, patterns, pentatonic scales, triads.  Happy Practicing!