jazz piano lesson: left hand practice

For a jazz pianist I often think that using your left hand effectively is one of the most difficult aspects of the idiom. This was really "shoved in my face" when I started to play gigs on organ. Playing bass lines and stride can really help with your time feel even when you are not playing left hand bass. Playing bass lines has also helped me work on some more unusual rhythmic concepts too as you have a point of reference. Great masters of the art like Kenny Kirkland sound like they have 2 totally independent hands operating harmonically and rhythmically separately even when playing with a bass player. I thought of this exercise today and I think it's going to be useful for me so I thought I would share it ... It's still in the very beginning stages so it sounds pretty clunky at the moment! Maybe I will repost in a few months to show my progress and redeem myself . I would advise trying to practice this concept within the form of a song eventually.

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Howto & Style

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• lesson
• jazz

[DaveSolazzo]

I like that!!