Different topics covered like stride technique and improvisation ideas. Nov 27th session.

Lesson for advanced students.

Lesson for beginner students.

In this lesson you will learn how to identify and create different intervals. I will also be covering chord tensions. There is no sheet music for this lesson.

PLEASE WATCH THIS LESSON! Do you suffer pain from playing the piano? Have you hit a wall in your playing speed? Is your body tense while playing? If you answered yes to any of these questions…this lesson is for you! In this lesson I will show you how to overcome pain and tension in your playing using the techniques that I’ve learned over the past 25 years. These exercises and concepts will also help improve your technique and how fast you can play. Please note: there is no sheet music or MIDI files for this lesson.

In this 2nd volume, we will be learning how to build a solo over the Norah Jones song, "Don't Know Why." These techniques work well for most pop/rock songs so you can easily take what you learn in this lesson to other songs. We will also learn about rock piano articulation which gives your improvisation more of a 'pop' and helps your lines stand out.

In this lesson I'm going to show you a technique to break up scales into tetrachords. This technique makes it easier to find scales "on the spot" that will work over a set of chords. This is another way of looking at scales to get a deeper understanding of how they are made...and how to use them!

In this first volume, we will work on getting down the chords and the groove for this song that Norah Jones made famous. If you want to accompany yourself or others while singing, the chapters on how to break up the chords up the chords with be extremely valuable to you. In volume 2 we will work on improvisation.

One of the top requested concepts that students are interested in learning more about is improvisation. In this improvisation lesson we will focus on the standard "Have You Met Miss Jones."

In this lesson we will cover four important uses of diminished harmony: 1) Diminished chord reharmonization, 2) Harmonizing melodies using diminished chords, 3) Using diminished scales for improvisation and 4) Diminished and Slash Chords. These four techniques are practical because they are most often used in live situations and are important for any gigging musician to know. We will use the song "It Could Happen To You" as an example.

In this unique lesson, I am using 5 student-submitted videos as a Master Class. You will see each student video followed by a response from me with tips and tricks on how to improve their playing. The sheet music for this master class follows the chord chart from the Green Dolphin Street lesson.

In part 2 we pick up where we left off in the song and breakdown some more Bill Evans concepts. In the chapter on scales in 3rds, an important Bill Evans technique, I show you how to practice and create scale-in-thirds exercises that will help with your harmonic fluidity. We will analyze what we are playing so that you not only know how to play the song...you also know WHAT you are playing.

After our Unforgettable Part 1 lesson, students were asking for more ways to fill out the accompaniment with improvisation, fills and runs. In this lesson we will cover different ways of creating fills and runs over a small section of the song. If you want to know how to fill the "dead air" between chords, this lesson will show you how to create your own fills and runs in both the right and left hands.

In this lesson you will learn how to play Adele's song Someone Like You. The song will be broken down into 4 parts and is taught slowly, so it is well suited for new students. The second-half of the lesson will show you advanced methods for manipulating the song with more of an improvisational feel.

In this lesson we will focus on the stride technique that we ended on in part 2. We will work through an easy and more advanced stride pattern along with licks and a new Minor Blues Stride song. The licks in this song can be applied to many other blues songs both in Major and in minor!

I'll show you how to play the first 16-measures of Bill Evan's beautiful song Waltz For Debby. Using techniques right from Bill Evan's recordings, you'll learn some of the gorgeous piano chord movements that Bill and his trio used. After each section, I'll analyze what is going on so you can see how it all fits together. Future lessons will cover the rest of the song.

In this lesson, I'm going to show you how to come up with cool, funky and interesting chord progressions on the spot. We're not going to be using traditional chord progressions, so these chords will add a very unique flavor to your playing.

This lesson is designed to help students understand how to form and play triads. We will cover the 2 ways to form triads and most importantly discuss how to create and USE inversions. Students will also be given some valuable exercises to increase the speed in which they can move between chords. If you are interested in Rock/Pop piano, this lesson is a must! You need to know the information in this lesson inside and out before moving on to any of our more advanced lessons. This lesson also pairs well with our Rock Basics lesson.

In this first lesson of a multi-lesson set, we will begin by covering how to improvise over Green Dolphin Street. This lesson is marked advanced, but students of all levels interested in improvisation can benefit from the chapters on how to make improvisation lines. Willie will also be conducting a Master Class in a future lesson based upon student input.

In this second part, we will be covering improvisation techniques. The concepts in this lesson are extremely important for improvisors of ALL levels. In particular the sections on starting and ending notes are a great way to analyze your improvisation and gain concepts that will carry over to many other songs.

In this song by Joe Zawinul, we are going to learn the song step-by-step while also learning some improvisation and groove techniques in the latter half of the lesson.

In this 2-part lesson we are going to work through a common progression with a walking bassline and comping chords. Part 2 we will improvise over the bassline. Solid walking basslines are an important skill for any keyboardist and this lesson will show you techniques that I use to this day on gigs. Lesson is done on an organ but is great for all pianists!

In this last step we will learn how to go from scales to improvisation. Using these simple exercises and concepts that I've laid out, you are able to create improvisation lines from the scales that we created in step 4.

In this lesson, we will cover all of the scales for improvisation. How often do you get confused when it comes to making these scales start to sound like improvisation? Well in this lesson, I'll show you some techniques that will help you make more musical sounding lines from scales.

In this 3rd step we are focusing on intros, endings and accompaniment. Wether you're interested in accompanying yourself while singing or you're working with others, these techniques in this lesson will help you be more effective and 'clear' in your accompaniments.

In step 2 I am going to show you how to re-harmonize the song using some simple concepts at first, then moving into more advanced techniques. The first part of the lesson (part 1) is great for beginner - intermediate level students. Part 2 is perfect for those intermediate and advanced students who want a few more "tools" for their arranging toolbox.

In this 4-step mini course we will cover different ways to arrange, improvise and accompany oneself using George Gershwin's standard Someone To Watch Over Me. Step 1 is perfect for beginner and intermediate level students who want to learn how to arrange standards. But I like Gospel or Rock or Latin music, is this lesson for me too? Oh yes. These techniques are important no matter what style of music you play. I explain why in the lesson!

We are covering the B section and the final A section. The B section holds some very nice runs that are quite a challenge! I will also show you how using these runs under different chords will give you runs like Oscar Peterson!

In this lesson we will be using the 3/4-time song Alice In Wonderland to cover some very important comping techniques. This first part of the lesson will cover the first 16 measures of the song. In upcoming part 2, we will finish the song. This approach will give you the perfect balance between having a challenge and being overwhelmed, thus allowing you to really get the first part of the lesson down pat before moving on.

In part 2 we will finish up with the organ solo. I'll also show you how to practice the left-hand bass and bring that into the solo. We will end by covering some more advanced improvisation techniques that will take the solo outside of the rock style and bring in some other stylistic elements.

In this second part, we are going to cover how to create your own blues composition in four different styles: Shuffle, Swing, Rock and Stride. This lesson makes it easy to create a blues composition that will have a clear structure which you can then easily improvise over. We will also cover an introduction and ending for all four styles of blues that we covered.

In this series, I break down how to create a blues song using my ABC approach. A stands for accompaniments and style, B is Building a Solo and C is chords and progressions. This part 1 will cover parts A and B.

In this 2-part lesson we are going to cover Ray Manzarek's epic solo on the Door's song: Light My Fire. There are many great tips to gain from this solo and it is a great example of how to build a solo using few notes and rhythmic elements. Using the A dorian scale, this lesson will also give you pointers on how to improvise using your dorian mode.

Following in the style of Dr. Ethel Caffie-Austin, this lesson is a transcription of a gospel introduction as performed by Ethel Caffie-Austin. This lesson will focus on learning, note-for-note this very hip sounding gospel progression. Included is a fantastic gospel chord exercise which is important for anyone wanting to improve their gospel piano skills.

In this lesson, I will show you note-for-note Fats Waller’s performance of Ain’t Misbehavin. This lesson will be broken into 2 parts. Part 1 (this lesson) will focus on the song introduction and the first 2 A sections. In “Ain’t Misbehavin” – Vol. 2 we will finish the song. This lesson is real fun if you like this stride piano sound then this lesson is definitely for you because you can take these techniques and apply them to other songs in your repertoire.

In this high energy lesson, we will be working through some rocking, gospel-flavor Gene Harris licks. I’ll show you some pretty advanced licks that will bump up the intensity level of your solos. I’ll also show you how to prevent hurting yourself while performing these intense licks.

In this lesson we are going to focus on how to better coordinate your two hands at the piano. If you've said: "I can't play hands together!" Well, this lesson is for you. You will learn several techniques that will help to improve your coordination. We are going to use several Blues riffs as examples so you'll get both better coordination and some cool Blues licks too!

In this multi-part "mini course" I will show you how to create beautiful new-age progressions. In this part we will focus on alternate bass motion and fluidity of chords. The next part will dive into improvisation. Each part will come out a few weeks apart.

In this multi-part series, we will use the song Unforgettable to dive deeper into a multitude of concepts. This first part focuses on the arrangement of the song along with techniques to create an arrangement that has motion in it. If you are a beginner, there is an important chapter for the beginner that has valuable tips. Future parts of this lesson will be released in weeks to come thus giving you time to master this lesson before starting the next.

In this second part of the Moondance lesson, we will be focusing on the improvisation. In this lesson, I'll show you some of the licks played on the recording as well as new licks that you can use over this song and others. This is a great lesson for triplet exercises and also triplet groupings. If you want to learn how to improvise in a rock setting, you'll want to go through this lesson! The song lesson is also available on the site, just do a search.

In this lesson we will cover the new age piano style. I will use George Winston's Colors/Dance as a springboard to create our own improvisational piece. I'll show you some exercises to help you put your hands together and make your improvisation flow more.

Student questions answered. Nice discussion on how to move chords around to fill space.

This Meter's tune is a great song to help round-out both organ players and pianists alike who want to play a bassline groove while improvising in the right hand. Some important scale techniques are discussed in this lesson which benefit both pianists and organists. This lesson is categorized under improvisation because of the valuable improvisation techniques covered in the second-half of the lesson.

In part 2 we are going to finish up creating 3 options for lines 5-8 for the song. We will also cover some "options within the options" like tri-tone substitutions and other 'goodies'. Finally, we will discuss different endings. This is a definite 'must-do' lesson if you are interested in cocktail piano playing.

In this lesson we are going to focus on the improvisation for Swing Low, Sweet Chariot. We are going to work on soloing over a 6/8 pattern and using polyrhythms like 2 against 3 in our soloing.

In this lesson, I am going to show you three "options" for each line of the song. We will go through line-by-line Cole Porter's Night And Day and you will learn different techniques that you can stack, mix and move around to create your own arrangement. Part one will show you the first two A sections. Part two will cover the bridge and endings.

In this original composition, I will show you how I organized this song for a gig that I had later that night. I will show you the techniques that I used to create the composition and how to solo over it. If you are interested in writing your own original compositions, you will find many useful techniques and "tricks" that you can apply from this lesson to your own songs.

Picking up where volume 1 left off, we will cover more sight-reading exercises and I will show you more tricks on how to effectively read a piece of sheet music correctly. At the end of the lesson, I will give you some ideas on where to go from here to improve your music reading ability.

Reading music is essential to becoming what I call a "Total Musician." In this 2-volume series, I will give you important exercises, examples and tips on how to read a piece of music. Even if you can already read music, I'm sure that you will get some new ideas from these lessons.

The Gospel Piano Riffs lessons (1 & 2) will show you how to play gospel-flavor licks along with bassline accompaniment. In this first part, we are going to focus on learning a few basslines and chord patterns. We are also going to cover how to approach a new or "foreign" key and generate "key tones" that will allow you to more quickly improvise in a new key.