A stride piano tutorial with chord based improvisation in the right - great for jazz piano beginners
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ก.ย. 2024
- www.billspianop...
Stride is a really useful technique if you're starting to learn jazz piano. It's particularly associated with early jazz styles from the early twentieth century, but it's so incredibly flexible you can use it with a variety of styles, from blues piano to cocktail.
Stride gets its name from what's going on in the pianists' left hand: by alternating a single low note a couple of octaves or so below middle C with a block chord closer to the middle of the piano, you create a rhythmic, driving style that, in effect, mimics a rhythm section.
I use some very basic jazz chord extensions in this tutorial, like sixths, sevenths and ninths, so it's worth being familiar with chords, and especially how they're used in a jazz piano context. In particular, if you're new to playing stride, work very hard on the left hand first - it's important that it's very precise, with few bum notes, and that you maintain a regular, steady tempo.
In the right I'm taking advantage of one of the piano's most important characteristics - it's very easy to play chords. In this sort of style of piano playing, you can save yourself a lot of mental effort by avoiding melodic, scale-based improvisation, and basing all your improvisation around chord shapes, creating interest by varying the rhythm and attack - treating the piano, at times, as if it were a percussion instrument as well as one designed for melody and harmony.
Thanks! This is a really helpful intro to stride technique and so well broken down! Will add a lot to my playing!😄
You’re very welcome, James - and thanks for the superthanks!
ok, I've been working on this style now for a few days, thanks to your awesome tutorial Bill.
and this is what I have to say now:
I have had more fun playing piano (working on this style) than I have in many years.
the fun, and the spark are there. the magic is there.
thank you again Bill.
+tritone12 Glad you like it - thanks very much. It's always good to know that people really get something from what I'm doing :)
+Bill Hilton
hey, really, invaluable.
no words to express the joy I have in playing again.
I am so grateful, man.
thank you Bill.
would you please let me know if you want to do a Skype lesson thing?
we talked about it a while back, and you said maybe someday.
Thanks for the great videos as always. I started with 0 knowledge of the piano watching your videos and 8 months later I've improved lots
1000 excuses, I had not seen the other one delivers cocktail portfolio! I have just bought him and thanks to the video which accompanies him, I finally understood the functioning. Thank you to Bill!
Pas de problème - I hope you find it useful!
Hello Bill. Yes, I bought the book cocktail(cocktail party) piano and I found this passage which I looked for. You have other examples of the same style to be sent to me svp, it me, would really very please. See you soon, cordially. Gérard
Hello Bill. Yes, I bought the book cocktail(cocktail party) piano and I found this passage which I looked for. You have other examples of the same style to be sent to me svp, it me, would really very please. See you soon, cordially. Gérard cafouniette@gmail.com
THANKS for the clear lesson especially enjoyed the rhythmic druming and tremelo demonstration and explanations...Thank you for giving such a well thought out helpful lesson...may thr Good Lord continue to bless you and your skills talents and sharing...good job
Thanks very much Steve - I'm really glad to have helped!
One thing I don't typically see mentioned when discussing stride is its natural fit for reggae style songs, whether played straight or jazzed/cocktailed up with reharmonization and extended chords.The popping 2nd and 4th beats really stand out in both styles. Sublime's Santeria comes to mind as a good candidate.
+Daren Graham I had *never* considered that, but you're absolutely right. Reggae (and ska, dancehall etc etc) is a really fascinating musical ecosystem (sheesh, listen to me: geek central). I'm going to go and do some listening, and I might talk about it sometime soon. Cheers!
+Bill Hilton That would be great. It seems that the more genres we can incorporate into our playing, the more likely it is that we can hold people's (and our own) interest.
This is probably a topic for another post, but related to keeping everyone's interest, I've been messing around with sneaking bits of melody lines from other songs into pieces. That always makes my ears perk up when I hear someone do it, but I've not really seen any videos talking about how to incorporate that trick.
Thank you for all the time and effort you've put into all these tremendous videos and books. Yourself, Duane Shinn (How to Play Piano) and Brendan Kavanagh (Dr. K's Boogie Woogie) are absolutely the best resources out there for non-classical players, beginner and beyond. Years of wonderfully detailed instruction for free here on TH-cam (but buy some of their materials too!)
stride works well for all things offbeat accented, i like the concept to arrange chords over electronic beats.
This video comes at a good time for me, love the style. Thank you.
Aaaaaah excellent! Quand on a un niveau moyen, c'est difficile de trouver une vidéo qui n'est ni pour grands débutants, ni pour joueurs très expérimentés. Limpide et efficace! chapeau ^^
Merci beaucoup Antoine! J'espere que vous trouverez touts mes videos utile. Si vous avez des questions... just ask!
Great Bill. You've given me a totally new perspective on playing and cords! Just ordered the book. Wish I'd known more about this years and years ago!
+John Marshall Thanks John - always good to know! Hope the book's useful!
How I wish, many years ago, that my piano teacher had shown me what you've shown me here in this one video: the style and technique I wanted to learn back then. Instead, my dad - who played stride quite well, attempting to emulate my uncle, who was a master of the style - took me to a piano 'teacher' who was a fan of the classics. I got Chopin, Beethoven, Brahms, etc., rammed down my throat to the point at which, eventually, I point blank refused to go any more, and never touched a piano again for 30 years. Then I bought a Technics keyboard - with auto accompaniment - and unwittingly developed a 'lazy' left hand. Showing, and explaining, as you have done here, has finally enabled me to begin to master the style I love so much. A very big thank you.
No problem, John - it's a pleasure! Your experience is very far from typical: I love the classics, and they're also incredibly useful for developing technique, but teaching them to the exclusion of all else is daft, especially in this day and age...!
thank you Bill.
just an absolutely super excellent valuable awesome tutorial.
you are the BEST teacher, man!!!
+tritone12 *blushes* thanks!
Very helpful tutorial! As always :) Thank You very much!
Great video! Loving your improvisation videos, very inspirational!
i have been on youtube for years and this is the first time im commenting on a video to say this is amazing and subbed
Great video, might be a bit advanced for a guy like me, but you did a great job breaking it down!
Thank you for the right hand advices. Great video.
You're welcome, Julio!
Sounds really good! Thanks for explaining each of the more complicated chords. Quality work here.
Bill - This was very helpful for beginners like myself. Is there a follow-up video to build on these skills?
Thank you for this lesson great not to fast please keep them coming Drummer N.C studying piano
You're welcome! I will!
I love the way you teach!!!!
Thanks Jameson!
Good stuff William, very helpful.
I love it!... very good lesson, thank you!
Thanks Charlotte!
Great stuff, thanks so much Bill
It's a pleasure!
This sequence, especially the first four chords, does make me think of the chorus of Dream a little dream of me :)
+Jeroen van Kleef Of course I should have used.....HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
+Bill Hilton thanks! That would be something indeed :)
Not certain about the points made but ,if anyone else is searching for how to learn how to play piano online try Dalz Perfect Play Discovery (do a search on google ) ? Ive heard some awesome things about it and my mate got cool success with it.
thank u very much for this great lesson!!
No problem, Sonja - glad you liked it!
Great video!
Bill, Thanks for the great (as usual) tutorial.
When you are striding from low root note to full chord with your left hand, are you actually looking to where you place your fingers or should this be done only through feel, accepting some of the inevitable inaccuracy of such large jumps.
+David Nichols No problem, David, glad you liked it.
Hmmm, good question - I've actually just gone and sat at the piano and thought about how I do it. Mostly it's feel, but for trickier chords I take a glance at the keyboard. In general, it's good to be able to play without looking at the keys as much as you can, for those times when you might have to (e.g.) read music, sing, look at other performers and so on.
Can stride piano be used to harmonize a song? The way the left hand moves fast shows that you can not use the left hand to harmonize a song since some songs might be 4 beats per bar, usually represented by one chord. The left hand pattern can play two chords in a bar because it's more like a rhythm thing than harmonizing a song. So I will like to know if you can use the left hand striding to harmonize a song?
Yes you can, but it relies partly on an illusion - the listener mentally filling in the harmony on the on-beat notes if there isn't enough contextual information from the right hand - and partly on you, the pianist, filling in harmonic information in the right so the listener isn't left for too long without a full picture of the harmony. Does that make sense?
Dear Bill,
I LOVE this sequence. But I think a lot of the magic is not the stride left hand or the rhythm in the right. It's the chords themselves. I've been trying to play "I've been working on the railroad" in stride style for a month and I just can't find the right combination of substitutions to give it sparkle. Any suggestions?
Hi Bill, I dont have good english level, sorry if this text have errors, for this, I dont understand all you say in your videos and I have question of strides and in your web I dont find the solution.
How I know what chords push after first single note of left hand? there are any web on I can see correct chord after C for example ?
Thank you for your videos, I learning much jazz and blues improvissation.
Sugestion: Some times we cant see with clarity notes you press because your hand is in front or you are so many speed. You could use some software like Synthesia to see clearly the notes you play? Thank you again, Greetings from Spain.
+javie sanchez No problem, Javie - your English is much better than my Spanish! The first chord after that left hand C is just a regular C chord in the octave below middle C - the notes C, E and G. Is that what you meant to ask?
Re: Synthesia, yes, I've thought about it, but I have avoided it so far because I find it tends to clutter the screen, and relative few people ask for it. However, I might use it in future: I shall certainly remember that you have asked!
Hello I bought your book(pound) last year, this demonstration in the minute 1.38 not e appears not in the book. Have you the pdf of this passage svp?
Hi Gérard. You're right, that stride pattern isn't in the book. I'll happily score out the left hand for you though (the right hand is quite complicated...). Just drop me an email at billhiltonmedia@gmail.com so I know the address to send it to :)
Love ur voice tho
I placed this video with a shortcut at my desktop . . . to find it easily!
Glad you like it, René!
Where does this Chord progression come from? Great Video as always!
+Thore T. I just thought it up, though it's very typical of lots of progressions from the early jazz era. The theme from The Muppet Show (!) is pretty close, actually, although that uses a full bar of G rather than the Dm7, G, except in the vamp section at the start, and also - I think an Ab+7 ("Ab augmented with an added minor seventh") where I use a regular Ab7.
+Thore T. And thanks! :)
and why an E as the bass of C7, can we put any note of the chord in the bass?
Why is it C6 and not Am7, I've always wondered. Is it dependant on the key or the voicing?
+Xtant Audio Good question. It's most dependent on the voicing - if there's a C in the bass, it usually gets labelled C6, although that sometimes slips if there's an A as the lowest note in the right hand (and, therefore, it looks like a m7 chord in its most obvious inversion in the right). If there's an A in the bass, then usually Am7. If it's in a position in a progression where a name suggests itself, it may also get that name. So, for example, in the progression C6-G-Am7-F in the key of C, the first and third chords could end up all but identical in some realisations, but the progression suggests that labelling. The basic rule is that chords are directions for people to play from: if it makes sense to the performing musician, then whatever label you use is fine.
Thank you
Bill,
I’ve tried ordering your book and it won’t process. Is it still available?
Thanks...enjoy your videos!
Morning! Sorry - I thought I replied to this last night, but it seems to have disappeared! Have you managed to get the order to work now? If not, let me know and I'll see what I can do to sort it out :)
@@BillHilton Yes, I changed browsers. Thank you
Bill Hilton I ordered your cocktail piano book, finally received it after some difficulties, but now it has disappeared from my “book” library on my iPad. Was there a time limit on this purchase? Thanks.
@@riemcobldg.co.6250 Sorry to hear you've had more problems! No, there isn't a time limit on it. Please could you drop me an email at billhiltonmedia [at] gmail [dot] com and I'll sort out a permanent link you can download it from? That way if it disappears again from your iPad you'll always be able to get it again. (I suspect this may be a browser problem on your iPad, by the way, but it's hard to say for sure.)
Hey what piano do you use
9:53
hi bill I bought ur book and It won't download
+paul bentley Yup, got your email - sorry about that! I've just pressed "send" on an email with the file attached. Could you let me know if/when it arrives please? :)
Got it thanks a million
Could you read me a bedtime story?!! Pleeeeeease!
use a little bit of "robarto" ??? what?
"Rubato" - short for "tempo rubato" (I'm guessing you can pronounce it better than me...)
In the loosest sense musicians just use it to mean playing against a fairly free beat, slowing down and speeding up as necessary - "robbing" time from one beat and giving it to another, as it were.