Peter Martin's Jazz Piano Lessons

Peter teaches with a tune made famous by Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five, Big Butter and Egg Man.     

Part two of a study in building up the essential elements of solo piano approaches to a standard tune, using Stella by Starlight as an example.  

Part one of a study in building up the essential elements of solo piano approaches to a standard tune, using Stella by Starlight as an example. Be sure to catch Peter’s example performance at the end of this lesson.   

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     

This lesson is on solo piano techniques. I use Johnny Mercer & Johnny Mandel’s great standard “Emily” as an example.  In this lesson I discuss: intros, keys, melodies, practice, root movement, roots, segue, shell voicings, solo piano, standards, symmetry, time, voicing melody and waltz.  Happy Practicing!