Blues Piano Applied: Voicings & Forward Motion
CoursePianoBluesBeginnerPart 3 of 3
Part ofPiano

Blues Piano Applied: Voicings & Forward Motion

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Duration29m
Modules19
LevelBeginner
LanguageEnglish

Lesson Plan (0h 29m)

About this course

Tim Richards has been a leading voice in UK jazz piano teaching for over thirty years. This course is part of his graded method, also published by Schott Music as a textbook of the same name. Full bio on Tim's artist page.

This is Chapter 3 of Improvising Blues Piano, completing the foundational volume. You'll bring the seventh chord into your blues vocabulary, learn to break it into three-note fragments for comping, thicken a melody with chord tones, work through Comping Style #4 (including the seventh), and master the concept of forward motion - playing toward the next chord rather than just on the current one.

By the end you'll comp confidently through any blues with seventh-chord voicings, thicken any melody you play, and feel the harmonic pull of forward motion in your soloing. Improvising Blues Piano Pt 2 is the natural sequel.

Who it's for

  • Pianists who completed Chapters 1 and 2 of Improvising Blues Piano
  • Self-taught blues players ready for seventh-chord vocabulary
  • Returning players wanting to play with real forward motion

What you'll learn

  • Comp the blues using seventh-chord voicings in three-note shapes
  • Thicken any melody with chord tones and approach notes
  • Improvise with forward motion that pulls toward each chord change

What you'll need

  • A piano or weighted-key keyboard
  • Comfort with triads, the blue third and shuffle comping
  • A few minutes most days at the keys

Explore the series · Improvising Blues Piano · Pt 1

Based on Improvising Blues Piano by Schott Music

  1. Blues Piano Foundations: Walking Bass & Triads
    01
    Blues Piano Foundations: Walking Bass & Triads
  2. Blues Piano Development: Riffs & Rhythms
    02
    Blues Piano Development: Riffs & Rhythms
  3. Blues Piano Applied: Voicings & Forward Motion
    03
    Blues Piano Applied: Voicings & Forward Motion
    You are here

Meet the Guru

Tim Richards

Tim Richards

Critically acclaimed jazz pianist and composer Tim Richards is one of Britain’s most experienced jazz educators, teaching piano privately for over 30 years, as well as at Morley College, Goldsmiths College, the University of Surrey, Premises Studios and other venues in the UK and abroad. He has produced numerous titles for Schott Music, including the best-selling two-volume Exploring Jazz PianoBlues, Boogie & Gospel Collection and the acclaimed Improvising Blues Piano. He is also co-author, with John Crawford, of Exploring Latin Piano and Brazilian Piano Collection.

More recently Schott have published Jazz, Latin & Modern Collection (15 pieces for solo piano), comprising Tim Richards originals alongside pieces by Duke Ellington and Thelonious Monk, and the two volume set Beginning Jazz Piano (now a two-part MusicGurus course).

“The real joy of Tim’s music… is that it is both hugely educational but also such great fun to play. Anyone with the slightest interest in learning to play or teach jazz piano should really acquire a set of Tim’s books.” PianoDao

As a performer Tim has been a presence on the UK jazz scene since the 1980s, also playing the blues with UK and US legends such as Otis Grand, Earl Green, Dana Gillespie, Larry Garner, Joe Louis Walker and Mojo Buford. He has released over a dozen albums as a leader (featuring many of London’s best jazz musicians including Pete King, Gilad Atzmon, Tony Kofi, Jason Yarde, Seb Rochford, Ed Jones, Dick Pearce and many others), and toured all over Europe with line-ups ranging from duo to nine-piece. His latest recording, the album ‘Telegraph Hill’ by the six-piece Hextet, was described in The Observer as "A true joy from beginning to end".

More info can be found on his website www.timrichards.ndo.co.uk

Published with

Schott Music

Founded by Bernhard Schott in Mainz in 1770, Schott Music is one of Europe's oldest and largest music publishers, with a catalogue of more than 30,000 titles. Over its 250-year history Schott has issued first editions of Mozart, Beethoven and Wagner, championed 20th-century voices from Hindemith and Schoenberg to Ligeti and Henze, and today publishes sheet music, books and educational materials from offices in Mainz, London, New York, Tokyo and beyond.
Schott Music

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