Summertime Jazz Piano Tutorial
In this 3-part lesson we explore George Gershwin’s Summertime.
We start by playing through the form with left hand voicings to get a good grip of the melody and chord changes. We’ll then add in some bigger voicings and passing chords to create a fuller and more interesting sounding arrangement.
In part 2 we introduce a simple walking bass linewhich outlines the root and 5th of the chord. This is a nice way to get started with walking bass lines and is also very effective device when playing solo piano.
In part 3 of the tutorial we analyse a section of an improvised solo and play this over the bass line.
Finally, we will talk about the importance of transcription and why it is an essential element of your jazz piano study.
Related Lessons
In this lesson we are going to look at some alternative ways to voice minor 251s with our left hand. We introduce the -11b5 chord and its inversions.
Minor harmony is much more complex than major harmony and so the minor 251 progression takes much more time and patience to master.
Rootless voicings sound more professional than root based 7th chords and they voice lead much more smoothly in a 251 progression.
Practice Tips
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Notice how passing chords are used in this arrangement.
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The form is short and repetitive and so passing chords are a useful tool to add variety to the changes.
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Use the iRealPro app as a backing track and set the drums to "click on 2 & 4"
