Lessons - Jazzedge Academy

In this fifth session of the "Confident Improviser" class, we focus on solidifying your left hand's baseline while exploring rhythmic variations and the full blues scale. Students will learn how to maintain a steady left hand for seamless improvisation, while addressing common fingering errors. This lesson emphasizes gradual progression in improvisation skills, encouraging participants to celebrate small victories and build confidence. Join us to enhance your musical creativity and comfort at the keyboard, as we take steps toward mastering jazz, rock, and blues improvisation.

Come join me for an engaging live coaching experience unlike any other. In this dynamic new format, I'll be calling on each student individually to discuss what they've been working on, share their progress, and get personalized guidance on their biggest challenges.
This isn't a passive session where you sit back and listen – it's an interactive coaching session designed to keep everyone engaged and accountable. Each participant will have the opportunity to be in the hot seat, receiving direct feedback and actionable advice tailored to their specific situation and goals.

Chord Play will show you how to get the most music out of even the simplest chord progressions. You’ll learn how to take a basic two-chord loop and turn it into something rich, colorful, and full of movement. Step by step, we’ll explore different ways to “arrive” at a chord, how to break apart and re-build progressions, and how to combine the chords you already know with new ones borrowed from other keys for fresh, exciting sounds.
You’ll also discover how different chords create different moods—and how you can use those moods to spark your improvisation. By the end of the course, you’ll have a set of practical tools to make your playing more interesting, your arrangements more engaging, and your improvisations more expressive, all while deepening your understanding of harmony in a fun, hands-on way.

We will work on creating upbeat and downbeat improvisational lines.

In this beginner class, we will dive into the concepts of upbeat and downbeat lines while reinforcing foundational skills. We'll begin by reviewing essential techniques, including steady playing with a drum or metronome track, and practicing various rhythms. The focus will be on creating simple lines based on five-note scales, emphasizing the importance of starting notes on and off the beat for effective syncopation in improvisation. By the end of the session, you'll gain confidence in blending rhythmic elements and applying them to your improvisational practice. Join us to enhance your musical creativity!

In this sixth class of the "Confident Improviser" series, beginners will transition from foundational skills to exploring pop rock music. Focusing on the 1-6-4-5 progression, students will learn techniques for creating fuller sounds while maintaining clarity in their playing. The lesson emphasizes the integration of bass notes into chord progressions without overshadowing the bass player. Participants will gain practical insights into effective fingering, pedal usage, and rhythm to enhance their improvisational skills across various styles. This engaging session promises to deepen understanding and build confidence in playing pop rock music.

Learn the Beatles classic in a 3-part format. Creative Pianist Toolkit is divided into three different classes: Theory, Arranging & Improvisation. Learning these three elements separately helps you to master the entire song by giving you all the tools needed to analyze, play, memorize and improvise over each song.

Learn this funky tune in three parts. Can be played on organ or piano! Creative Pianist Toolkit is divided into three different classes: Theory, Arranging & Improvisation. Learning these three elements separately helps you to master the entire song by giving you all the tools needed to analyze, play, memorize and improvise over each song.

Learn the blues from the ground up. After this class with Paul, you will feel confident in your understanding of the blues and how to create your own blues improvisation.

Learn Chelsea Bridge with advanced jazz piano techniques.

Using the song "Our Love is Here to Stay", learn how to create a basic arrangement with shells.

Fill out your chord shells.

Group playing uses rootless chords, learn how to create and use them.

Learn how to accompany yourself or others.

Basslines are a great way to keep the rhythm moving in a solo situation.

Learn some basics of how to improvise over standards.

Learn this standard using my Super Simple Standards approach. Great for beginners and advanced players alike!

Refine your use of space and dynamics while enhancing your work with the addition of broken shell patterns.

Discover the charm of this classic by exploring basic chord shells to create a smooth and elegant accompaniment.

Dive into the iconic progression of this standard, crafting rich sounds with simple shell-based voicings.

Use shells to emphasize rhythmic bounce and swing, making your arrangement lively and fun.

With this exciting blueprint, you'll learn how to use simple chord shells to create simple arrangements for jazz standards. The best part? Once you've mastered this technique, you can apply it to a wide range of tunes and even use it for improvisation. Comping and jazz rhythm will also be covered. This blueprint is a great stepping stone into my larger Standards by the Dozen™ program.

Get ready to master major and minor triads with proper fingering, technique, and inversions in this beginner chords blueprint. Building a strong foundation with triads is crucial to learning advanced chords like seventh chords, rootless chords, and upper structure triads.

In this blueprint, you will learn an easy way to create major seventh, minor seventh, and dominant seventh chords using triads as a foundation. You'll also learn different inversions, exercises to practice, and how to apply these chords to actual songs. By the end of the course, you'll have the skills to create a full and impressive sound on the piano and play thousands of different songs.

This blueprint focuses on creating your major, minor, and dominant seventh rootless chords, with a step-by-step process to form them. Rootless chords can be used in both group and solo playing and are a staple of any jazz piano players vocabulary. Be sure to have mastered the Beginner and Intermediate Chords Blueprints before beginning this blueprint.

Learn how to play both jazz and even pop/rock standards (popular songs) using a simplified approach with chord shells. This is a great place to start, especially for beginners, and this is knowledge that you can build upon to create even more advanced arrangements.

With this incredible blueprint, you'll learn how to practice using a multimodal approach which means you'll learn your theory, chords and scales FASTER than any other method. Based on years of research and practical application with hundreds of students, you'll improve your knowledge of theory at the piano faster than ever before.

Learn how to play different kinds of blues like shuffle, swing and stride. You'll learn both accompaniments and licks and learn how to move between both to create your own signature sound!

Learn the techniques to play your favorite rock songs whether playing the melody yourself or accompanying yourself or others while singing.

Use shells to capture the song’s lighthearted, whimsical character with ease.