What Time Is It?

Since jazz music includes such a wide range of styles, it can be tempting to think of each sub-genre as having a relatively narrow spectrum of variety. To put it another way, since bebop sounds so different from modal jazz, we sometimes think that all bebop sounds the same and all modal sounds the same. … Read More

Like much of the music world, I was saddened by the recent passing of Eddie van Halen. His rock group, Van Halen, released their first album in 1978, when I was playing keyboards in a middle school rock band myself. Since Eddie instantly established himself as a “rock guitar god,” it surprised many listeners when … Read More

Take a quick moment and imagine how you’d like to be playing piano. How does the music sound? How does it feel to play like this? Yes, all want to get to the next level with our piano playing. The big question is: how do we get there? How do we need to practice in … Read More

Sometimes we get so wrapped up in our piano playing that we don’t see the “bigger picture” regarding our musical development. To help us see this, it’s often easier to put our musical development in perspective when we’re studying a non-musical subject, like learning language or a sports event. I was reminded of this while … Read More

Every once in a while, we hear a piano solo that’s so bold it stops us in our tracks. Roland Hanna’s piano solo on Concierto De Aranjuez is one of these solos. Have you ever heard this solo? It’s on guitarist Jim Hall’s jazz adaptation of Rodrigo’s classical guitar piece Concierto De Aranjuez, which they … Read More

When we hear people talk about the Rolling Stones, we tend to hear them use phrases like “The world’s greatest rock band.” Rarely, however, do I hear them described as being “creative.” (That platitude is usually reserved for their 1960s colleagues The Beatles.) If we really examine their music, however, we begin to see a … Read More

When choosing a piano teacher, it’s very important to understand the various teaching styles in order to find someone who’s right for you. Basically, there are three types of advice piano teachers give, and you’ll want to make sure you identify how a particular teaching is giving you instruction and if this is the way … Read More

There’s a feeling we get while playing ballads that’s very special and we don’t get while playing at faster tempos. I love playing ballads, and I always feel a nice connection with other musicians who feel the same way. It could be someone like be the doctor I know who hosts evening jam sessions at … Read More

Here’s a question that we pianists can ask ourselves: When we learn a new chord voicing, scale, or technique, what’s the next step we feel we need to do in order to play better? If you’re like most pianists, your answer goes along the lines of: “I’ll learn something a little more challenging.” Although that’s … Read More

I get emails all the time about my Journey Through The Real Book video series on YouTube, saying things like “I loved your video on such-and-such a tune – I’ve been waiting for that for months!” Well, this week I finally got up to tune #167, which is the one that I’ve been waiting for … Read More