I don’t usually feature jazz, rock or pop piano music here on this blog, but occasionally it’s fun to ring the changes. Acclaimed jazz pianist and educator Tim Richards has recently released five excellent tutorial videos to accompany his successful books Exploring Jazz Piano (Volume 1), published by Schott Music. These informative and engaging clips cover a range of jazz improvisation techniques, from chords, sequences and scale patterns to vertical and horizontal improvisation.

Exploring Jazz Piano, Tim’s  popular  two-volume  method,  has  helped  to demystify  jazz  for  many pianists.  The  new  videos  are  a  great  supporting  resource, bringing the book to life with practical advice and demonstrations direct from the author.

I’ve dipped into this book as part of a project I’ve undertaken this year, and it certainly shed light on aspects of improvisation and chord sequences for me (I know little about jazz or blues). For the classical pianist, jazz can appear an enigma, particularly improvisation. Instrumental teachers are often expected to provide knowledge and instruction on all styles of music, so with this in mind, volumes such as these accompanied by YouTube tutorials can be immensely valuable.

The following video links to a playlist of all five tutorials. I hope you find them useful and of interest. Tim has also published a volume entitled, Improvising Blues Piano, which has a similar series of related videos:

Publications

Melanie Spanswick has written and published a wide range of courses, anthologies, examination syllabuses, and text books, including Play it again: PIANO (published by Schott Music). This best-selling graded, progressive piano course contains a large selection of repertoire featuring a huge array of styles and genres, with copious practice tips and suggestions for every piece.

For more information, please visit the publications page, here.