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Next video: Jazz Piano in 20 Minutes

0:00

Intro

0:32

Step 1: 2-5-1 Progression

1:28

Step 2: Chord Shells

2:36

Step 3: Scale for Improv

3:52

Step 4: Upper & Lower Neighbors

5:53

Other chords

7:15

Step 5: Build Lines

12:17

Step 6: Build Lines on 2-5-1

15:57

Play with backing track

17:06

Play at tempo

17:42

Conclusion

Jazz Piano in 20 Minutes

Jazz Piano in 20 Minutes

Channel: Jazz Tutorial | with Julian Bradley

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[Music]

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do you want to learn how to play bebop

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piano like that well many teachers would

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tell you that you first need to learn

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your bebop scales before you can play

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piano like this but i think a better

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approach to getting started playing in

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this style is to learn your upper and

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lower neighbor concept and that's what

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i'm going to teach you in today's lesson

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so let's go ahead and dive in all right

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the first step to playing bebop piano is

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to learn the most common progression in

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jazz music it's called the 2-5-1 so

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we're briefly going to talk about this

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chord progression and then i'm going to

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teach you the best scales to use and

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then the upper and lower neighbor

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concept so the 2 5 1 is a very simple

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chord progression we're going to play

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this in the key of c first chord is a d

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minor 7 chord it's built on the second

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note of the c major scale so we call it

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a two chord okay then we go to the five

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chord that's going to be your g seven

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and then we go to our one chord which is

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c major seven and then we're gonna add

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one more chord called a c six just to

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fill it in so we have four full measures

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okay so once more two

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five

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one

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one okay so it's a very simple chord

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progression all right before we move on

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if you're enjoying this video please hit

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the like button and if you're new to the

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channel be sure to subscribe for more

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videos just like this alright step

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number two is to play the chords in a

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more interesting way and most jazz

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musicians will not play these big block

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chords like this instead they'll play

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something like this

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okay instead of playing these kind of

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big bulky chords they'll play just two

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notes from the chords we call these

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chord shells and it's a much easier way

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to maneuver between chords so first

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chord d minor seven we're just going to

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play the d and the f

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second chord g7 we play the g and the f

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and then the c chord we're going to play

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the c and the e okay they're chord

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shells because we're only playing two

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notes from the complete chord now it's

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fun to put a little groove on these

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chords one of my favorite grooves is the

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charleston groove super simple basically

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i'm going one and two and three and four

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okay so kind of practice this in your

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left hand you want to get nice and

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comfortable with this before you start

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adding your scales all right are you

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ready for the next step the next step is

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to learn the best scale to get started

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in the bebop style and mini pianist

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would tell you you need to learn all

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these bebop scales so on the d minor

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seven chord you need to learn your minor

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bebop scale and your g7 chord they would

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tell you well you need to learn your g

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dominant b-bomb scale and what happens

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is you end up having to learn all of

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these different scales and this can be

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very overwhelming for a student who's

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just getting started playing bebop piano

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so in my opinion the best place to start

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is actually to use only one scale when

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you're playing bebop and that is your c

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major scale okay so your c major scale

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is all white notes and the beautiful

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thing is this scale actually sounds

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really good on the two five one chord

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progression

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right so that's kind of the best place

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to start with bebop is just use your c

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major scale and you'll get some really

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nice sounds but here's the problem if

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you're just playing white notes on the

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251

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it's a nice place to start but your solo

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can start to sound a little bit vanilla

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and you might want to get some more

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interesting sounds in your solo and so

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this is the next step and i would say

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the most important step to playing bebop

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piano is to start using upper and lower

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neighbors and this is where you can

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start to get some black notes in your

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improvisation

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right isn't that a cool sound and so i'm

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using this upper and lower neighbor

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concept to get these sounds so what am i

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doing well i'm first going to explain

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upper and lower neighbors and then i'm

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going to teach you a little exercise to

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practice these so upper and lower

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neighbors are basically when you target

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one of our chord tones by using a

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neighboring tone either a half step

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below or a half step above that chord

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tone so for example on the d if i wanted

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to target that d in my solo i can target

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it by coming up to it from the lower

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neighbor it's just a half step below the

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d okay so that's the lower neighbor and

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then we have an upper neighbor which is

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a half step above and you can do this on

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all of your chord tones so for the f you

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come down a half step to the note and

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then if you want to come down from an

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upper neighbor you do like that same

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with the a

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right lower neighbor to a upper neighbor

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to a and then same with the c lower

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neighbor to c upper neighbor to c okay

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and so the first thing to do if you want

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to use lower and upper neighbors is to

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actually practice the lower and upper

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neighbors for each one of your chord

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tones and so i put a little exercise

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together here for you this is the d

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minor seven exercise where you basically

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start on the lower neighbor and then you

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grab your chord and then go to the upper

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neighbor and then on the f lower

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neighbor upper neighbor

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and then on the a lower neighbor

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grab the note upper neighbor and then on

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the c

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and we finish like that okay and if you

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were to speed this up

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and this will really help you start to

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see these lower and upper neighbors now

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you can also do this exercise on the

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other chords so on the g7 same thing we

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have a lower neighbor to g

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upper neighbor

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and then for the b we have a lower

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neighbor upper neighbor and then the d

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same thing and then the f

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like this okay and again you want to

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speed this up

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just like this okay and then finally we

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play our c major seven chord which is

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going to be down below and again we want

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to target our chord tones these are our

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chord tones with the lower and upper

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neighbors so we start with the b below c

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and then the e

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and then the g

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and then the b natural

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like this okay and again you can speed

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it up

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right you're doing a great job and in

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the next step i'm going to show you how

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you can use these upper and lower

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neighbors to start improvising your own

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lines but before we do this if you're

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enjoying this lesson and you want to do

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a deep dive on upper and lower neighbors

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check out our course 251 soloing with

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upper and lower neighbors in this course

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we do a deep dive on this concept and i

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show you a bunch of great exercises plus

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examples for how to use these ideas in

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your solo so i'll put a link to that

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course below all right congratulations

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you are ready to start improvising your

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own lines using upper and lower

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neighbors now many teachers would jump

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into the final step of having you

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improvise over the full 2-5-1 but i

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think it's a lot better to actually just

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focus on each chord using upper and

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lower neighbors before you improvise on

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the full two five one so that's exactly

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what we're gonna do here we're gonna

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focus on each chord and build some lines

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so our first chord is d minor seven

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and so here's the basic idea i'm going

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to play the c major scale which is

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basically all of the white notes if you

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started the scale on d you would call it

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d dorian but you know just keeping

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things simple you can think of it as the

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c major scale and anytime you are

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approaching one of the chord tones like

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the f you could use an upper or a lower

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neighbor to target that note so as an

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example if i'm going up to my f

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i can come up to the upper neighbor to f

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and then land on the f okay or let's say

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i'm coming down let's say i'm coming

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down from that c and i'm coming down to

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the a which is a chord tone i can use

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the upper neighbor

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to the a or i could kind of surround the

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note

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and use the lower neighbor to a okay and

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that's the basic idea of upper and lower

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neighbors anytime you're coming up to a

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chord tone you can use the upper note or

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the lower note

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now oftentimes when i'm coming down i'll

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use an upper neighbor to one of the

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notes for example if i'm coming down

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to my c which is the seven i'll use an

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upper neighbor to the c or if i'm going

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up the piano and let's say i'm starting

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on the f and i'm targeting the a well

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i'll use the lower neighbor to a which

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is the a flat or g sharp

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all right so let's go ahead and practice

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some little lines on the d minor seven

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the first line is the notated line here

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in the lesson sheet music it goes like

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this

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okay really cool little line it's

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actually not too hard to play so for

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this line we're starting on the third

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the f

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i'm gonna use an upper neighbor to f

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we're gonna walk it up

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and then i'm gonna grab the c

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lock it down and i'm gonna use a lower

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neighbor to a okay that's it and so this

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is what i recommend that you do is just

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practice creating your own lines on the

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d minor seven chord here's another

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example line

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okay what i did there is i came down

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from the a

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and i did a little enclosure which is

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actually an upper neighbor and a lower

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neighbor and so in this case upper

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neighbor lower neighbor to f and then i

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continue down the piano okay i'll do a

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couple more lines here's another one

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okay and so this is how you should

00:10:13

practice building your lines now i

00:10:15

encourage you to do this for each chord

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so you can do the same thing on the g7

00:10:19

here's a little example line on the g7

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okay really nice little line and so for

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this line i'm starting on my high g and

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then i'm using the upper neighbor to f

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and then i'm continuing down

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and then i'm using a lower neighbor to d

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okay and then we end our line

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b g

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upper neighbor to f and we land on f

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okay so really nice little lines here

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here's a couple more examples on g

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okay here's another line

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and so you really want to practice each

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of these lines by the way you can play

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short lines like when i'm playing you

00:11:04

can also play longer lines

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right that was a pretty long line so

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have fun with each of your lines and

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then the final step i recommend is to

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practice lines on your c major seven

00:11:20

chord so here's the little example line

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okay pretty nice little line here

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basically i'm just playing my c major

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chord starting on the e

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lower neighbor to g

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okay and actually for this one i'm going

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to do a little surround here okay so f

00:11:36

sharp a and then we finally resolve to

00:11:39

the g so you can think of it as a lower

00:11:41

neighbor

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except we're going to delay the rate the

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resolution by going to the a

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and then we continue up

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to the c sharp upper neighbor to c

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and then we come down g and then lower

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neighbor to e with the d sharp up to e

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okay here's a couple more lines on the c

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major chord

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[Music]

00:12:06

and here's another one

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okay lots and lots of really cool ways

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to improvise over each of these chords

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all right you're ready for the final

00:12:18

step which is to combine all of your

00:12:19

chords for your two five one chord

00:12:22

progression and now you should be able

00:12:24

to start using your upper and lower

00:12:26

neighbors in your lines so first thing

00:12:28

is i encourage you to simplify your left

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hand to play your simple chord shells

00:12:33

this way you can focus on your right

00:12:35

hand and practice improvising some nice

00:12:37

lines and basically what you're going to

00:12:39

do is you're going to play any of the

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white notes as your scale but anytime

00:12:43

you're approaching a chord tone you can

00:12:45

use an upper or a lower neighbor so

00:12:47

here's a little example line that you

00:12:49

could play on the 2-5-1 i'll play it and

00:12:51

then i'll break down what i'm doing

00:12:57

right really cool little line and i'm

00:12:59

basically just using the c major scale

00:13:02

with some upper and lower neighbors okay

00:13:04

so here's what i just did started on my

00:13:06

d minor seven chord on the high f

00:13:09

locked it down

00:13:10

lower neighbor to d

00:13:12

i'm gonna do a little surround on the d

00:13:15

and then we're gonna come down and we

00:13:17

need to go to our g7 chord i'm going to

00:13:19

use a lower neighbor to the b

00:13:22

right sounds nice

00:13:24

kind of outlining the g chord

00:13:27

and i'm going to use an upper neighbor

00:13:28

to the f that's the seventh of the chord

00:13:31

and now we're going to resolve to c

00:13:34

let's see if we can go to that g which

00:13:35

is the fifth of the chord we're gonna

00:13:38

use an upper and a lower neighbor to the

00:13:41

g

00:13:42

and then we're gonna come up in triplets

00:13:45

and then we're gonna walk it up

00:13:47

lower neighbor to e

00:13:49

do a little surround there and we're

00:13:51

gonna end

00:13:53

upper neighbor to c

00:13:55

okay and so this is the way that i like

00:13:56

to think of these lines and so as you

00:13:58

speed up your lines you get some really

00:14:00

nice sounds here's another example line

00:14:03

and then we're going to play with the

00:14:04

backing track here's how this one goes

00:14:11

doesn't that sound amazing and once

00:14:13

again i'm just using the white notes

00:14:15

from the c major scale with these upper

00:14:17

and lower neighbors targeting the chord

00:14:20

tones so we're starting on the d minor

00:14:22

seven chord and i'm just walking up the

00:14:25

full chord like this

00:14:28

i'm using my thumb on the c and then i'm

00:14:30

using the upper neighbor to d

00:14:32

and i'm surrounding that d

00:14:35

like that okay now we go to our g7 chord

00:14:40

isn't that nice

00:14:42

lower neighbor to g i'm gonna delay the

00:14:44

resolution and i'm gonna surround it

00:14:46

going a a flat g there's our chord tone

00:14:50

and then i'm gonna come down and then

00:14:52

i'm gonna use the lower neighbor to e

00:14:55

because we're going to a c major chord

00:14:58

so we do a little surround there and

00:15:00

then our c major chord

00:15:02

we're just going to come up the notes i

00:15:04

kind of outline a c6 coming down like

00:15:06

this and then we're going to use a lower

00:15:09

neighbor to the a which is a chord tone

00:15:11

from the c6 chord so we come

00:15:14

a g sharp b

00:15:16

a little surround there and then we go e

00:15:19

and then a lower neighbor to g that's

00:15:21

our f sharp and we do another surround

00:15:24

there to the e okay so this is a little

00:15:26

more of an advanced sounding line we're

00:15:28

using a lot of surround notes also we're

00:15:30

anticipating chord tones by going to the

00:15:33

upper and lower neighbors early but it

00:15:35

sounds really nice when you speed it up

00:15:36

alright let's practice improvising some

00:15:38

lines over the included backing tracks

00:15:40

this lesson comes with 12 downloadable

00:15:43

backing tracks plus you can download the

00:15:45

lesson sheet music you're seeing up here

00:15:46

on the top left of the screen you can

00:15:48

even change the key of this entire

00:15:50

lesson with the click of one button with

00:15:52

our smart sheet music so i'll put a link

00:15:55

to all of that below and let's go ahead

00:15:56

and play with the backing track we'll do

00:15:58

it nice and slowly and here we go okay

00:16:01

starting on the d minor chord let's

00:16:02

start nice and simple

00:16:04

[Music]

00:16:11

there's our line

00:16:16

[Music]

00:16:28

let's do a couple more

00:16:30

[Music]

00:16:40

do

00:16:42

[Music]

00:16:55

and once you have it at that tempo

00:16:56

you're going to want to speed it up and

00:16:58

once again if you want to learn more of

00:16:59

these tricks for improvising your lines

00:17:01

check out our full length course on

00:17:03

upper and lower neighbors i'll put a

00:17:04

link to that below and here we go we're

00:17:06

going to play this at 130 bpm this is a

00:17:09

medium tempo

00:17:11

here we go

00:17:12

[Music]

00:17:21

[Applause]

00:17:23

do

00:17:41

hey thanks for watching and if you

00:17:43

enjoyed the lesson please let me know in

00:17:44

the comments and be sure to check out

00:17:47

pianowithjohnny.com we have over 1 000

00:17:50

step-by-step lessons for all playing

00:17:52

levels where you'll learn your favorite

00:17:54

songs styles and how to improvise at the

00:17:56

piano thanks for watching and i'll see

00:17:58

you in the next one

Description:

► Get your FREE Top 5 Piano Tips Guide: https://pianowithjonny.com/top-5-tips/ ► Download this Quick Tip lesson sheet and backing tracks: https://pianowithjonny.com/piano-lessons/how-to-play-bebop-piano-in-6-steps/ LESSON SUMMARY In today's lesson, you'll learn to play bebop piano with the classic improv sound pioneered by players such as Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonius Monk and Bud Powell. In particular, you'll learn to play bebop lines that use neighbor notes, adding a touch of chromaticism to your piano sound. This lesson includes: -2-5-1 Jazz Chord Progression -Chord Shells for Jazz Piano -1 Parent Scale for Bebop Piano -8 Chromatic Neighbor Notes -3 Neighbor Note Exercises -5 Sample Improv Lines using Neighbor Notes ►2-5-1 Soloing with Upper & Lower Neighbors: https://pianowithjonny.com/courses/2-5-1-soloing-with-upper-lower-neighbors/ Chapters: 00:00 - Intro 00:32 - Step 1: 2-5-1 Progression 01:28 - Step 2: Chord Shells 02:36 - Step 3: Scale for Improv 03:52 - Step 4: Upper & Lower Neighbors 05:53 - Other chords 07:15 - Step 5: Build Lines 12:17 - Step 6: Build Lines on 2-5-1 15:57 - Play with backing track 17:06 - Play at tempo 17:42 - Conclusion === ► Get your FREE 14-Day Trial to PWJ here: https://pianowithjonny.com/ ►FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/unsupportedbrowser ►INSTAGRAM: https://www.facebook.com/unsupportedbrowser ►TIKTOK: https://www.tiktok.com/@pianowithjonny ►TWITTER: https://twitter.com/PianoWithJonny Happy practicing! Jonny May

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UDL Client program (for Windows) is the most powerful solution that supports more than 900 websites, social networks and video hosting sites, as well as any video quality that is available in the source.
UDL Lite is a really convenient way to access a website from your mobile device. With its help, you can easily download videos directly to your smartphone.

Which format of "Wanna Play Bebop Piano? Start Here 🏁" video should I choose?

The best quality formats are FullHD (1080p), 2K (1440p), 4K (2160p) and 8K (4320p). The higher the resolution of your screen, the higher the video quality should be. However, there are other factors to consider: download speed, amount of free space, and device performance during playback.

Why does my computer freeze when loading a "Wanna Play Bebop Piano? Start Here 🏁" video?

The browser/computer should not freeze completely! If this happens, please report it with a link to the video. Sometimes videos cannot be downloaded directly in a suitable format, so we have added the ability to convert the file to the desired format. In some cases, this process may actively use computer resources.

How can I download "Wanna Play Bebop Piano? Start Here 🏁" video to my phone?

You can download a video to your smartphone using the website or the PWA application UDL Lite. It is also possible to send a download link via QR code using the UDL Helper extension.

How can I download an audio track (music) to MP3 "Wanna Play Bebop Piano? Start Here 🏁"?

The most convenient way is to use the UDL Client program, which supports converting video to MP3 format. In some cases, MP3 can also be downloaded through the UDL Helper extension.

How can I save a frame from a video "Wanna Play Bebop Piano? Start Here 🏁"?

This feature is available in the UDL Helper extension. Make sure that "Show the video snapshot button" is checked in the settings. A camera icon should appear in the lower right corner of the player to the left of the "Settings" icon. When you click on it, the current frame from the video will be saved to your computer in JPEG format.

What's the price of all this stuff?

It costs nothing. Our services are absolutely free for all users. There are no PRO subscriptions, no restrictions on the number or maximum length of downloaded videos.