"The Nearness Of You" Beginner Tutorial
In this lesson we are going to arrange the tune “The Nearness Of You” using simple voicings containing the roots, 3rds, and 7ths.
“The Nearness Of You” is a true jazz classic and is a staple part of the jazz piano repertoire.
The Form & Harmony
The tune follows an AABA form which means that almost 75% of the tune contains the exact same chords and voicings.
The final A section does have a 4 bar extensions and so that’s an important point to remember.
The tune contains lots of common progressions including major 251s, minor 251s, and also 3625 turnarounds which can be voiced in many ways.
Lesson Downloads
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Major 251 Progressions PDF File Type: pdf -
Jazz Piano Foundations Practice Planner File Type: pdf
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Sus Chords Lesson Supplement File Type: pdf
Related Lessons
One of the intricacies of minor harmony is the variety of colours and tensions we can add to the chords in the minor 251 progression.
We start with simple two-handed voicings and then create interest by adding in upper structure triads, block chords & chord substitutions.
Minor harmony is much more complex than major harmony and so the minor 251 progression takes much more time and patience to master.
Practice Tips
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There are many vocal versions which you should check out before learning the tune.
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Studying the vocal versions of the tune helps us with the phrasing of the melody and adding creative ornamentation.
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Understand the role and function of the 3625 progression and how this is used in the final bars of the A Section.
- Learn the 3625 and 1625 progression in all 12 keys.
This is my first attempt at a jazz standard. One thing I noticed straight away is that until now when I’ve played songs, I’ve played chords in my left hand and the melody in my right hand. It seems with jazz that not only are you playing the melody in the right hand but you’re also playing parts of the chord.
I’m just trying to get my head around this concept. Are there any comments or guidance about this, or should I just get on and do it.
One thing that stems from this is that until now I was encouraged to practice each hand separately and then bring them together. With jazz, I guess you have to always practice hands together all the time.
I have a question : At the end of the ‘1st A Section’ chapter, you play the first couple of lines straight through. In bars 7 and 8, it looks like after playing the Am7 and Gm7 chords, you play some of the notes individually. Is that right ? It’s a bit hard to see in the video even when slowed down.
Hi Ivor,
I answered your question in detail in the forum area here: pianogroove.com/community/t/new-course-beginner-jazz-arrangements/3531/7
To answer your other questions:
When playing solo piano from lead sheets I feel that it’s a good idea to practice hands together. We often spread out the notes between both hands and so it would be impossible to achieve the same effect by practicing hands separately.
Finally yes that is correct that I play some notes individually during the turnaround (A-7 / D7 / G-7 / C7) in bars 7 and 8. All I am doing here is ‘toggling’ the notes of the chord and also notice that I am outlining the b7ths falling to 3rds in my right hand.
When the chord changes from A-7 to D7 which is a 25 progression, see that my right hand outlines the b7th of A-7 (G) falling a half step to the 3rd of D7 (F#).
When the chord changes from G-7 to C7 which is also a 25 progression, see that my right hand outlines the b7th of G-7 (F) falling a half step to the 3rd of C7 (E).
It can be nice to accentuate that voice leading which adds additional movement when the melody is static like in bars 7 and 8.
Hope this helps and any further questions let me know.
Cheers,
Hayden
Thank you, Hayden. That’s really helped – I can see what you’re doing now.
Great stuff, glad to help out Ivor.
The more of these tunes you learn the easier it will become for you.
Cheers!
Hayden
Hi Hayden,
About the approach to learn the Beginner Jazz Arrangements.
As there is Transcription for this song available, how much would you recommend using them to practice the song vs using just the Chord Chart?
I have background in classical piano so reading the Transcription is easier for practicing. But ultimately is it ok to practice on the Transcription alone? Or should I try to gradually drop the Transcription?
Or should I just straight away try to use only the Chord Chart as much as possible (but it is very mentally taxing when starting out to learn the piece and memorize)
Hi Peerapong,
My recommendation would be to try not to become overly reliant on the transcriptions. For students coming from a classical background it can be easy to just read the notes and not truly understand what you are playing.
The chord charts outline the chord changes and the melody of the song. These chord charts are used by jazz musicians when playing either solo or in a group setting. This is the graphic you see in the jazz standard lessons and the PianoGroove course is designed to teach students how to read and interpret chord charts and lead sheets.
My main advice would be to use the lead sheet, and the transcription only if needed.
In addition, we should try to memorise the chords and melody to our jazz standards as quickly as possible. That way we do not need to be reading anything and we can fully immerse ourselves in our playing.
I was recently talking about this in the forum here: pianogroove.com/community/t/melody-line-practice/3534/13 – there are some useful insights there that are worth reading over.
Hope this helps and if I can be of further assistance let me know.
Enjoy the lessons!
Hayden
Hi Haden, I’m really happy I found your program. I love the standards, esp. Hoagy Carmichael.
I’m not sure how to start on this. In the past I learned to play in steps: Melody, root and melody, then R-7/R-3. etc. It seems it would be better to learn a few bars at a time, chords and melody. Recognizing the progressions. I have been playing about 6 years. But I haven’t enough competence with building chords on the fly.
Thank you, Tom
Hi Tom,
Yes this is a beautiful tune, one of my favourites!
Regarding your question, firstly read my answer to Peerapong’s question above and check out the link I referenced about memorising the form of tunes: pianogroove.com/community/t/melody-line-practice/3534/13
Whether to start hands separately, I think it depends what you are comfortable with when learning new tunes. For complete beginners it can be useful to start with the melody and roots of the chord, or even just the melody.
For me personally, when I learn a new tune I jump straight in with both hands. I think this is the point we should aim to get to. Starting with roots, 3rds and 7ths, and the melody would be my main recommendation. Then start to layer in more advanced harmony and chord voicings.
A very important part of learning new tunes is listening to lots of recordings, particularly vocal versions. This will help you learn and memorise the melody and lyrics, and also give you lots of inspiration for how to play the tune.
The more tunes you learn to play, you will start to see how similar they are in their harmony and this also helps with the memorisation process, and picking up new tunes quickly.
Hope the above helps.
Cheers,
Hayden
Here is a sample of my playing. Can I post a video here?
soundcloud.com/tom-lacroix-70785936/stardusttlc012020
And here I do a little improv.
soundcloud.com/tom-lacroix-70785936/what-are-you-doing-the-rest-of-your-lifen
Thanks for sharing this Tom. Beautiful arrangements and improvisation. Congratulations.
We have a thread in the forum where we can share our videos and recordings. See it here: pianogroove.com/community/t/share-your-music-recordings-performances/1375/
Simply copy and paste your SoundCloud links into that thread and it will create a nice embed that we can all listen to and give feedback. You can also post YouTube videos in there.
We do have lessons on “Stardust” and “What Are You Doing The Rest Of Your Life”. Again 2 of my favourite tunes to play! 🙂 Check out the lessons here:
“Stardust”: pianogroove.com/jazz-piano-lessons/stardust-tutorial/
“WAYDTROYL”: pianogroove.com/jazz-piano-lessons/what-are-you-doing-the-rest-of-your-life-tutorial/
Cheers!
Hayden
Howdy Tom,
today i got my membership here and now i found your examples…. very very nice…Improv… so great dynamics.. i love so melancholical sound… thx for sharing and keep on
Musical Greetings
Nobby
Thank you for your nice comments, Nobby.
I WANT TO GIVE AS A GIFT THE B OOK YOU RECOMMEND UNDER RESOURCES…EAD BOOK 1….I THINK.
NEED A PHONE NUMBER THAT WORKS.
THANK YOU
LIBBY
Hi Libby 👋🏻
Check out this forum thread where I recommend the Real Book versions:
pianogroove.com/community/t/buying-the-fake-book/2320
Any other questions let me know.
Cheers,
Hayden
Thank you for the detailed response, Hayden.
What I love especially about your playing: you do not use the left hand just to bridge some empty space. All the chord tones you are using in the left hand move the song forward and support the melody. I don’t know, if I am clear with this statement. But I hear here a special way of playing which I also heard in other interpretations from you. This is especially what I am trying to learn for my playing, because this way, the song “speaks”.
Thanks for the feedback Gilbert and I’m glad you like the arrangement.
By emulating my arrangements that will rub off into your own style of playing. You will start to use similar voicing techniques on other tunes you are learning as the voicings and harmonising techniques are very relevant to most jazz standards.
In addition, the more tunes you learn, the quicker you will realise that many of them are in fact very similar in their structure and harmony.
I would also recommend you to listen to many versions of each song you are learning. Vocal versions in particular are great to learn the phrasing of the melody. Don’t just listen to piano versions but every instrument and make a playlist with your favourite versions. This is the ultimate source of inspiration for us when we are developing our own sound and style of playing.
I hope this is helpful and thanks again for your comments 🙂
Enjoy the lessons!
Hayden
I’m curious to know how a bar pianist can easily recall so many standards without looking at a chord chart. Is it because the chord structures are similar so they can work it out on the fly – or is it more a matter of playing the same tunes repeatedly so they stay in long term memory?
Another question: since this song is in F major – my understanding was that the chords should be diatonic to F major – but there’s a D7, which has an F sharp. How does that fit in?
Hi Myles,
Yes there are many similarities between tunes in the jazz standard repertoire. The more that we learn, the more similarities we will notice which makes memorisation much easier.
And yes one aspect of memorising tunes is to play the tunes many times. You may also find this tutorial useful where we discuss common jazz forms: pianogroove.com/jazz-piano-lessons/common-jazz-forms/ – memorising the form of tunes gives you the basic structure and blueprint for the harmony.
Regarding the D7, this is the VI7 chord in the key of F Major. What we are seeing here is a 3625 progression repeating which is A-7 / D7 / G-7 / C7 –> leading back to F.
You might like to check out this lesson where we explore the 36251 progression in detail: pianogroove.com/jazz-piano-lessons/1625-436251-progressions/
When playing jazz standards, it’s common for the harmony to modulate to different key centres before finally resolving back to the key of the song, and so many of the chords that we find will not always be diatonic to the key of the tune.
Let me know if you have any further questions.
Cheers,
Hayden
Thanks Hayden.
Hi Heyden,
Just want to let you know how valuable these “simplified” lessons are for me. I take private lessons from a professional jazz player and I am using your site for the bulk of my material. These simplified lessons are great ways to get started with a tune and have it sound pretty good right out of the gate. It is especially helpful when you notate little fills and arpeggios here and there to help me add those features to my playing. Keep them coming.
Hi Just to say really enjoying this course, this is such a beautiful tune, its taken me awhile to “get it” I’m 64 years young and its such a joy to be learning like this. Learning the stave as I go, ha,ha, so quite slooow!
thanks. Howard
Thanks Howard – glad to hear you are enjoying the course.
If you have any questions with the materials just let us know.
Cheers,
Hayden
THE PAST COUPLE OF DAYS I HAVE ONLY BEEN GETTING THE VISUALS….NO SOUND.
THE SOUND IS FINE ON OTHER SITES….IE THE MET.
ANY SUGGESTIONS?
tHANKS
LIBBY
Hi Libby,
That does sound unusual.
Please excuse me if I’m wrong here, but sometimes students don’t see the volume controls on the video player. This is the vertical bars just to the right of the video time. Please check that first.
Next please can you try using a different browser? Sometimes these issues are browser specific and that can help us to identify the problem.
I have also sent you an email to get some more information on the device you are using. This will help us to identify and fix the issue asap.
Cheers,
Hayden
How do you include a “D” in the Fmajor last measure? It sounds good but “D” is not part of FM7. I guess i should really ask how we as beginners would know it’s OK to do that?
Hi Richard 👋🏻
Good question!
D is the 6th or 13th of Fmaj7.
When ending a tune (particularly when the root is in the melody) the major 6th chord is a good choice. This is because there is just a half step interval between the major 7th, and the root, and this creates dissonance in the voicing. if we drop the major 7th down to the 6th, it removes this half step interval and makes the chord sound much more consonant and pleasing.
For any major chord we can voice it as a major 6 chord, or a major 7 chord. If we have both the 6 and the 7 in the chord, then the 6 becomes the 13. We explore this in more detail in our course on chord extensions: pianogroove.com/jazz-piano-lessons/chord-extensions-9ths-11ths-13ths/
A very nice voicing is the major6/9 voicing. Try this to end the tune:
Left hand: Root and 5th (F and C)
Right hand: 3-5-6-9 (A-C-D-G)
Also try running up the piano with the 3-5-6-9 in your right hand to create a nice effect.
Hope this helps Richard and check out the course above for more information on chord extensions.
Cheers,
Hayden
That was very helpful.. i am not bad at playing notes, but learning the piano this way is NOT easy. Thanks.
Hi Richard 👋🏻
Yes learning jazz piano is challenging to begin with, but the more tunes you learn, the easier it becomes.
Once you have built a repertoire of 10 or 20 tunes, you will feel much more comfortable with jazz harmony.
There are many discussions in community area that i think you will find useful, be sure to check out the 3 forum threads below:
1) pianogroove.com/community/t/where-to-go-from-here-for-a-beginner/3838
2) pianogroove.com/community/t/brand-new-and-looking-for-advice/1840
3) pianogroove.com/community/t/melody-line-practice/3534
Stay safe and enjoy the lessons!
Cheers,
Hayden
Hi @hayden
Amazing tutorial – I love to study on these beginner tutorial since it is giving me a chance to apply my own advanced stuff that I have learned in the past 2 years in PianoGroove.
For example on the on the fourth bar on Bmaj7 I play the melody notes A and G with a harmony one step above bmaj7. So I play the Bmaj7 as you do in the tutorial, and I add B dominant chord (B D# A in the melody). and one step above I simply play C7 dominant chord with G in the melody.
Am I correct with this progress?
To me it sounds nice anyway 🙂
Thanks.
Ariel.
Hi Ariel 👋🏻
Glad you liked the tutorial.
I think it’s brilliant that you are revisiting the earlier tutorials and applying your own theory. I find personally that when I experiment and figure things out myself, they stick in my memory better than if someone showed me. So yes you are very much on the right path.
Yes I like your reharmonisation. It sounds interesting to me because it creates contrary motion, ie. the melody is falling, and the harmony underneath is rising from B to C. You could also try adding a b9 on the C7, (Db) and that sounds nice to my ears.
When I am reharmonising these kinds of melodies, I usually try to stick to 25s, descending dominants by a half step, and 25s with tritone subs also work well. For example, the target chord here is Bbdim7, so we would try to find voicings that work for C-7 –> F7 –>Bb or perhaps C-7 –> B7 –> Bb or perhaps C7 –> B7 –> Bb. This doesn’t always work, but it’s fun to try to figure out voicings that fit with the melody.
I do this extensively in my recent tutorial on “Pure Imagination”, check out the 3rd Chapter “2nd A Section” and you will see how I apply passing chords based on the 25 of the target chord. Here’s the lesson:
pianogroove.com/jazz-piano-lessons/pure-imagination-tutorial/
You might also like to see this forum post where Wendy was asking about passing chords for this tune: pianogroove.com/community/t/passing-chords-and-something-else/4149
Her lead sheet is in the key of Eb Major, not F Major, but it could be a nice exercise for you to transpose this tune.
In her example, she reharmonises the descending melody in the first bar with 2 upper structures. To transpose that into F major, the first bar would be Fmaj7 of course, then harmonise the descending melody with D7#5#9 and Db7#5#9 (both times the melody is the #5, the voicing is major triad off the #5 with the UST in it’s 1st inversion to get the #5 on top) which then leads nicely into C-7 to start the second bar.
Hope this helps Ariel and be sure to share any of your cool reharms in the forum area.
Cheers!
Hayden
At 0:14 you’re still holding the F key down. Why do you not let it go? Do you not use the sustain pedal then? This is just an example place, you do that quite often. In genera, it would be helpful if the videos also showed pedaling.
Hi Wojciech 👋🏻
Good question.
If we can avoid using the pedal it makes our harmonies and melodies clearer, which is why I hold down the note F at 0:14
We can certainly create a lesson on pedal usage and how to pedal correctly when playing jazz standards in different styles.
As general rule of thumb, if we can play the harmony and melody without using the pedal and achieve a smooth legato sound, that is ideal scenario. Be aware that it can be easy to become overly reliant on the pedal and it can hide bad technique.
Of course, sometimes we need to use the pedal when it is difficult to hold down all the notes in the chord due to the spacing of the notes, and this is different for everyone due to the size of our hands and other physical constraints, so we must use our judgement on when this is most appropriate.
Let me know if you have any further questions on this.
Cheers,
Hayden
On second thought, it would be most helpful if you made the .midi files available for the lessons. Not only could I look at them in a DAW but maybe also open them in KlavarScript. I’m kinda dyslectic, I find the traditional notation challenging.
Hi Wojciech 👋🏻
I have just added a MIDI file of the performance for you. You can find it in the “Downloads” section above.
If you need this for any other lessons just let me know.
Cheers!
Hayden
At 0:32 I cannot reach Bb – C. C is melody (fixed), Bb is 3rd (important chord tone). What are my options?
Hi Wojciech 👋🏻
In this case you could try to ‘roll’ the notes of the chord – with either hand – I explain more in this lesson pianogroove.com/jazz-piano-lessons/kenny-barron-voicing/
This is also a case where we could use the pedal to create a smoother sound when rolling the notes.
You could also move the root up an octave, so your left hand would be playing G-Bb (but the G is an octave higher) and right hand playing F and C.
You could play the voice leading in the right hand (F falling to E from G-7 to C7) and then when moving to C7, your left hand moves down to play the Root and b7 (C and Bb).
Try that out and let me know if it works for you.
Cheers,
Hayden
Hey Hayden,
Great tutorial.
Quick question about the first bar: The first chord is an Fmaj7, which presumably should have an E in it (the major 7th). But you played it as F-C-A; any reason for leaving the E out?
Hi Albert 👋🏻
Good question and apologies for the late reply here.
When we have a major 7th chord, we can always simplify it to just the major triad. Sometimes this will sound strange but in this case it works fine. This is a beginner arrangement and so we are trying to keep the voicings as simple as possible.
When we include the major 7th in the voicing, it does make it a little trickier to make the jump in the right hand melody.
As a general rule of thumb, if the lead sheet asks for the 7th in the voicing, we should include it, but we do have the creative freedom to omit notes and also add other notes… as we explore in the upcoming courses.
For example, we could play F6 instead of Fmaj7 and it creates a slightly different texture.
For F6, we would have the notes F-A-C-D … we could play F and C in our left hand, and then A-D-A in our right hand.
Compare this to playing Fmaj7 with F and C in our left hand, and then A-E-A in our right hand and you will hear that it creates a slightly different sound.
So to answer your question, the reasoning was mainly to simplify the arrangement but also understand the options we have over major chords as outlined above.
I hope this helps Albert and any other questions let me know.
Cheers,
Hayden
Hello Hayden. I have played tune up which is composed with root, 3ds and sevenths. But here in this tune I see that you chose to play a simple triad in the first chord, instead of playing the Fmaj7 chord. Is this just a personal interpretation for each pianist? Or there is a certain rule to apply 5th, or thirds, etc. Thank you.!
Hi Nelson 👋🏻
I recently answered a very similar question above, if you scroll to the comment above yours you will see it.
To repost a section of it here:
When we have a major 7th chord, we can always simplify it to just the major triad. Sometimes this will sound strange but in this case it works fine. This is a beginner arrangement and so we are trying to keep the voicings as simple as possible.
Using the example of the first chord (Fmaj7) … When we include the major 7th in the voicing, it does make it a little trickier to make the jump in the right hand melody.
In terms of a ‘general rule’:
A good process to follow is to play the root of the chord in our left hand, the melody note in our right hand, and then the 3rd and 7th of the chord in between trying to space them out to create a balanced sound. Sometimes the melody note will be either the 3rd or 7th and so half of the job is already done for us.
The next most important thing is to apply good voice leading, so in 25s and 251s, we always want to be outlining the half step motion of b7ths dropping to 3rds when changing chords. This creates a very smooth sound.
Let me know if that helps.
Cheers,
Hayden
ps. the major scale fingering resource is almost finished. I should have it done today and I will email it to you.
Thank You Hayden for your fast reply, and i can understand what you say. I’m very happy to be switching to jazz piano. As i go through the beginner lessons, i can see the clear difference with classical piano. The room for creativity in jazz piano is vast. It goes from chord arrangements to soloing. It is really great and this is what is was looking for. its a long journey that i am enjoying so far!
Hi Nelson,
Yes that’s exactly it, we have so much creative freedom that it can be a little overwhelming to start.
Once you can play 20. or so jazz standards you will have a much better understanding of the devices and techniques we can use.
Of course listening is very important so create playlists with all of the jazz tunes you are working on and study how your favourite artists arrange tunes and add fills.
The next step is to try to work things out with your ears directly from the recordings. We have lot of ear training exercises here in the forum to get your ears up to speed: pianogroove.com/community/c/improvisation-exercises/30
Also the major scale fingering sheet is finished, you can download it here: pianogroove.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Major-Scale-Fingerings.pdf
Let me know if you think it could be improved in any way.
Cheers and enjoy the lessons.
Hayden
Thank you so much!
Hayden do you recommend we practice jazz standards in all 12 keys, or at least in a couple? Or just keep going for another after finishing a song?
Hi Mike,
Good question!
If you are new to jazz piano, I would recommend building out your repertoire of jazz standards as a priority.
It’s a great exercise to take tunes into different keys but I wouldn’t say this is a top priority as a new student.
Building out a repertoire of say 20 or so tunes is the best way to expose yourself to different harmonies and common progressions in jazz music and so as a beginner, this should be your main goal.
Let me know if you have any further questions on this.
Cheers,
Hayden
Hi,
in the first measure you don’t play at the end the B and the A. Is it a personal choice of style?
oh, i saw you played them after …sorry
Hi,
at the start with the Cm7, F7 , Bb maj 7 you say there is a 2, 5, 1 progression. Is it changed the scale in that point? Is the new scale is a Bb Harmonic Minor?
i found it! it’s a Bb major scale for the 2,5,1!