I recently had to learn the Earth, Wind, & Fire tune "Let's Groove" for a gig and thought I would share it with you all.  

I had a great time just learning the simple bass riff and chord changes and playing along with the recording -- sometimes it just feels so good to get in a rhythm and play along with a killer band.  It's sort of a like a meditation for me.   

Here's the sheet music and recording for you to check out and follow along to.  

As my students know, one of my favorite things to do is to extract a lesson from a song we are learning -- this I think is how the information really sticks!  One great thing to take away from "Let's Groove" is how to voice minor 7 chords.  Voice, for those that don't know, is just a fancy way of saying what order you play the chord tones in -- you can play a E minor7 chord a lot of different ways -- in different inversions, leaving out or adding certain notes, etc -- each is a different "voicing."  

When you are voicing a minor 7 chord on piano, the simplest thing to do is to play all the chord tones from the root up -- Root, 3rd, 5th, 7th.  If we take the first chord of "Let's Groove," Em7, that would be E, G, B, D.   Go ahead and play that in your right hand, with a bass note (E) in your left. Sure, that sounds ok, but the secret to really sounding pro is just a few steps away.  First off, take out the root from your voicing.  Now try to left hand playing the bass note, E, and your right hand playing just G, B, D.  Much better, right?  If you (or the bass player) is already playing the root, no need to be redundant.  Now change that G, B, D into an inversion -- try D, G, B (still with an E in your left hand).  Now this is a fantastic voicing for an Em7 chord that you hear pianists use all the time.  

Another way to think of this is to play the major triad a minor third up from the root note.  For example, in an Em7 a minor third up from E is a G.  So Em7 becomes G/E.   In an Am7, a minor third up from A is C, so an Am7 becomes a C/A.  

Notice in my arrangement of "Let's Groove" all the different ways of voicing minor 7 chords.  If you like the sound of a certain voicing, try it in all 12 keys!   

Happy Shedding!  

Autumn Leaves is a classic that every jazz pianist should know.  I first fell in love with this tune listening to the Bill Evans Trio version from the album “Portrait in Jazz.”

In case you don’t know it, I’m here to help with an easy piano arrangement that includes a notated rhythm in the right hand (so you don’t sound like a square when you play it for all of your friends) and some super easy left hand voicings, called “shell voicings”

Here is a video with step-by-step instructions and sheet music to go with it.  

In Step 1, we learn just the right hand melody.  It’s important to note here that I want you to play this rhythm exactly as it’s written.  This is a bit different than reading a melody off of a lead sheet (such as what you’d find in the Real Book) where you might interpret the rhythm.  One of the goals of this arrangement is to help you learn how to play swing rhythms that are typical for the style.  

Pay close attention to whether the notes fall on downbeats or upbeats and really make sure you hit it in the right place.  Articulations are very important:  a good rule of thumb for swing articulations is that quarter notes get played short and eight notes are played legato (connected).   And last, don’t forget to swing those eighth notes!  That’s not notated in the music, so you’ll just have to watch the video to get the feel. 

Once you have the melody down and can play it with a swing feel, try to really lock it in by playing with the metronome on beats 2 and 4, like I do in the video. 

Step 2:  Left hand alone.  The left hand uses “shell voicings” which are basically ways to play a chord that don’t utilize every note in the chord – sometimes they only have 2 notes in them!  The voicings I use in this arrangement are either root + 3, root + 7, or root + 6. 

In the arrangement of Beautiful Love I recently wrote for the Shed, I used some voicings that spanned a tenth in the left hand and I got a lot of comments that that was too big of a stretch.  Understandably so, a 10th is not easy for all to reach.  Well…the people spoke and I listened.  You’ll be happy to know that these voicings are much easier to reach, spanning a 7th at most. 

Step 3:  Put it all together.  Again, try it with a metronome on 2 and 4.

Step 4:  Embellish the rhythm.  Here’s where the fun starts.  Get creative – first keep the right hand as is and just play around with the rhythm of the left hand.  Then once you are comfortable with that, start to embellish the right hand.  Switch up the rhythm, heck, go crazy and add a few notes here and there.  Watch the video for inspiration. 

Step 5:  Improvisation over the Shell Voicings.  Shell voicings are great to use in your LH while you improvise.  They provide just enough harmonic and rhythmic support without being such loud and full voicings that they take up all the sound.  They really let the right hand sing without getting in the way.  No matter what your level of experience is, give it a try.  If you are new to improvisation, stick to using Bb major scale or even a G minor pentatonic scale just to get a feel for it.

There ya have it…Autumn Leaves in 5 easy steps. 

Happy Shedding!