Lines and Spaces: Journey Through The Real Book #212 (Jazz Piano Lesson)

A jazz piano lesson to help you learn Joe Lovano’s jazz standard “Lines and Spaces.”

Take your LH playing to the next level with my free ebook: Jazz Piano Left Hand Techniques: https://keyboardimprov.com/jazz-left-hand-techniques-ebook/

Getting beyond the “Lines and Spaces” when learning jazz standards 0:00
Working through The Real Book, tune by tune 0:42
The title “Lines and Spaces” 1:16
J.S. Bach’s advice to a student 1:44
Improvising counterpoint in the style of Bach 1:56
A Gerry Mulligan anecdote from my time as his assistant 2:30
Joe Lovano as saxophonist and composer 4:23
A harmonic overview of “Lines and Spaces” 5:05
The relative rarity of diminished chords in post-Swing Era jazz 5:25
Getting acquainted with the “strange” opening melodic motif 5:55
Comparing the chord progression to a typical ii/V/I sequence 6:28
The balance between traditional and non-traditional harmonic movement 7:00
Unifying elements in the composition 8:18
Using octaves and “stop time” to create a pianistic arrangement of a jazz standard 9:08
Learning how to improvise on a modern jazz chord progression 9:45
Using the melody to learn the musical language used when soloing 10:10
Mentally “smudging the ink” on the page 10:40
How a challenging tune can begin to “feel natural” over time 11:02
Using various pianistic textures when playing solo jazz piano 11:19
Jumping right in with the melody, in octaves between the two hands 11:36
Playing the melody over a left hand walking bass line 11:42
Letting the solo transition organically from the comping under the melody 12:57
Single-note soloing, using the melody’s opening motif 13:06
Quarter notes in the right hand, to mirror the bass line’s rhythm 13:22
Breaking up the rhythm in the right hand 13:27
Exploring various motifs, and varying their phrase lengths 13:38
Herbie! 14:12
A long tone, to establish a new melodic line 14:30
The Lennie Tristano influence comes out 14:35
An ascending chromatic line, a la Wayne Shorter 14:54
Gil Evans-style bluesy “crunches” 14:48
Single-note soloing again 15:14
An altered dominant voicing 15:20
Improvising with syncopated voicing 15:22
Herbie Hancock-influenced interplay between the two hands 15:27
A very pianistic texture, over the implied swing groove 15:35
Soloing with block chords 15:47
Evoking the glamorous Swing Era(?)15:55
Cool jazz 16:02
Walking the bass with attitude! 16:07
Single notes with some chords 16:26
A Latin-style chromatic “thumb line” 16:35
Block chords in the Dorian mode 16:44
Improvising a la Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme” 16:48
Letting the “Love Supreme” motif morph into something else 16:55
“Continuous development” 17:11
A 2-handed composite rhythm 17:52
Descending lines 18:02
Bebop-ish 18:08
Re-stating the tune’s melody 18:15
“Modern stride” 19:12
Left hand shell voicings 19:15
Fuller left hand voicings 19:28
Back to the melody 19:35
Jazz counterpoint 19:42
Walking the bass 19:52
Ending with a flourish and a “Monkism” 20:15
Exploring the unknown 20:23
Developing motifs a la Wayne Shorter and Ornette Coleman 20:29
Polytonality 21:00

Here are some more Free Jazz Piano Lessons for you at the KeyboardImprov website: https://keyboardimprov.com/free-beginning-jazz-piano-lessons/

If you'd like some fun jazz rhythm and ear training exercises, you'll enjoy this ebook I created: Essential Training For Jazz Pianists https://gum.co/OIPmy

Thanks for joining me on this musical adventure, and please LIKE, COMMENT and SHARE this video with your musical friends.

If you'd like to start my full video course, you'll find it here: https://keyboardimprov.com/get-started/videocourse/

For Zoom and Skype lessons, please email me at rondrotos@keyboardimprov.com.

Enjoy the journey, and "let the music flow!"
Ron