Yesterday, the jazz world lost a truly great pianist and music educator, Mulgrew Miller.  I was always impressed with the way he could balance the older styles of bebop, swing, and blues with a more modern and modal approach.   "Jazz is part folk art, part progressive art," he once said.  I just love this quote.

If you've never heard of Mulgrew Miller before, I'd recommend reading this article from the New York Times.  While you are at it, check out his solo record from 2010, a true testament to his genius.

Mulgrew Miller spent nearly the last decade of his life mentoring up-and-coming jazz musicians.  We are all fortunate to be left with many of his lessons, many of which were recorded and are available on YouTube for all to benefit from. 

In this clip, Mr. Miller discusses "comping," or accompanying other musicians.  In my opinion, this topic isn't discussed nearly enough when, in fact, it's what pianists spend most of their time doing!

He starts by talking about general comping concepts; don't miss 2:55 when he comps a blues, that's where the REAL LESSON is --  listen to that rhythm! 

Here's a few main points that I would take out of this lesson:

1.  Make the person you are accompanying feel comfortable.
2.  Support, but don't overwhelm, the soloist.
3.  Practice comping by yourself until the rhythm feels good!  It has to dance!

For those of you who really want to get into this, I'd recommend:

1.  Transcribe (and notate) the rhythm of Mr. Miller's comp over the blues
2.  Analyze what you see -- how often does he play upbeats vs. downbeats?  What rhythms does he repeat?  (A common problem I find with a lot of young players comping is that they play too many upbeats without enough downbeats -- remember, the downbeats GROUND the rhythm)
3.  Practice your own voicings using the rhythms that you just transcribed.  Try it a chorus at a time or break it down into smaller two or four bar phrases.  

Thanks to Mulgrew Miller for sharing your time and valuable knowledge to the next generation of jazz players.  You will be missed.

I recently wrote an arrangement of the traditional New Orleans tune, “When The Saints Go Marching In” for some beginner students, so I thought I’d share it with you all.  

One thing I like about this arrangement is that the melody is pretty straight-forward: the right hand stays in C position (that is, the thumb is on middle C and the rest of your fingers follow up, one finger per note, C-D-E-F-G).  Also, the left-hand can be read as-is and it will sound good, but also there’s lots of room for interpretation if you are a bit more advanced.

Here’s how I would go about learning this one.

FOR BEGINNERS:

1.    Read the note names (as in say the note letter names out loud for the right hand)

2.    Clap the rhythm – make sure to hold those half notes for two full beats.  Be careful with the rhythm on line 3, it can be a bit tricky.  Don’t fake it – remember, RHYTHM IS KING!

3.    Now that you are solid on the notes and rhythm, play the right hand alone. 

4.    Learn the left hand alone.

5.    Put it all together.

If you are a bit more advanced, try this to challenge yourself (make sure you learn the song as written above first – no faking it!)

1.    Play around with the rhythm of the melody – don’t add any notes, just make certain notes longer and others shorter – have fun experimenting – remember, when you are playing jazz and pop music, the music should be a GUIDELINE. 

2.    Play the left hand as quarter-note bass notes – This is a great way to improve your rhythmic feel and hand coordination.  Whatever the bass (or root note) of the chord is, that’s what you’ll play in the left hand.  If the chord is a “slash chord” (i.e. C/Bb) play the Bb in your left hand as the bass note. 

3.    If you know how to form triads and 7th chords with your left hand play the left hand using those chords instead of what is written.  Try whole notes for the chords first.  Then, you can try other rhythms such as quarter notes, or a dotted quarter plus an eighth note. 

Happy Shedding!

Someone asked me recently if Real book changes are accurate. Whew…now there's a loaded question.  So many ways to answer that. Here’s one (ask me tomorrow, and I’m sure I’ll have something different to say):

I think to really understand the answer to that question, or even the question itself (did I just blow your mind?) you have to know the history of the Real Book and the tunes.

Most of the songs in the Real Book are jazz standards, that is to say tunes out of the Great American songbook, originally written for Broadway by composers such as George and Ira Gerswhin, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, etc. Jazz musicians took these songs, which were popular music during the time they were written, and simplified (or altered) the changes so they could improvise over the forms and chord structures.

Some Berklee students in the 70's were listening to these jazz musician's interpretations of the tunes and wanted to play them with each other so they transcribed the changes off the record and wrote them down. The first Real Book was born.

So let's call the Real Book what it really is: Undergrads (often inaccurate) transcriptions of Great American Songbook tunes interpreted by jazz players. That may sound a bit harsh, but it’s not really meant to be. I just want you all to realize what the Real Book started as.

To further explain, let’s look at the life of “Bye Bye Blackbird” as featured in Real Book II.

1. Tin-pan-alley composer Ray Henderson writes the song in 1926. Chord changes are fairly complex, changing a few chords every measure.
2. Miles Davis plays the song in 1957. He wants to improvise over the chords so he simplies the chord changes – now there’s one chord for the first four measures, instead of eight.  Miles also alters the the chords of the Bridge in his new version of the tune.
3. A Berklee student, let’s call him “Johnny,” hears the Miles Davis version of “Bye Bye Blackbird” and wants to play it with other players. He transcribes the Miles Davis changes as best as he hears them and writes them in the Real Book.
4. Generations of young jazz players play “Bye Bye Blackbird” using the changes that “Johnny” transcribed 40 years ago.

See what's wrong with this? Often, up-and-coming jazz players get stuck playing songs thinking that the Real Book chord changes are the only way to play a certain song. When in reality, there are so many different ways to play the same jazz standard!

The chord changes to jazz songs are not meant to be set in stone. They are meant to be interpreted, to be improvised, to be living and breathing and alive! To really get inside the changes of a jazz standard and improvise them on the spot takes a strong understanding of theory and chord structures and goes beyond the scope of this blog post (maybe something on this in the future).

Here are a few things you could do to change the way you think about the Real Book changes:

First, you could go back to the original Broadway sheet music. Changes to these originals scores are often far more complicated (and cooler sounding) than anything you’d ever find in the Real Book. If you don’t believe me, try and find the original piano reductions to anything by Cole Porter or George Gershwin. Did you do it? You’re welcome.

Second you could try to read the changes right out of the Real Book. Just realize that what you are reading is someone’s transcription of one player or group’s interpretation of a tune. Often, in the Real Book, there’s a indication as to what version of the song the transcriber was listening to. Download that version and play along, listening for the accuracy of the chords. Hint: The Real book might not be right!

Also, consider what version of the Real Book you are using. Although there’s a feeling of nostalgia when I read out of my old ripped up illegal Real Book, oftentimes those transcriptions are downright wrong. Do yourself a favor and get the new legal version of the Real Book (Hal Leonard) or The New Real Book (Sher Music). In my experience, these are much more accurate.

Last, try this (slightly more advanced) exercise I picked up from David Berkman, a teacher of mine in graduate school.

1. Pick a jazz standard you like to play out of the Real Book.
2. Find three recordings (or 2 or 5) of the song and figure out the chord changes.
3. Get your mind blown when you realize that ALL THE VERSIONS of the same jazz standard have completely different chord changes.
4. Create a new version of the jazz standard that borrows your favorite changes from all the different versions.

The first step in recovery is admitting you have a problem. Once you know the Real Book for what it is, that’s half the battle. The Real Book chord changes are not always completely accurate, but that’s ok. Can you still use it to play through a tune? Yes. Can you bring it to a rehearsal and run tunes with a band? Of course. Just remember that the chords you see in the Real Book are not the only set of chords you can play for any given song.

Happy Shedding!