Piano I
This entry-level course for absolute beginners serves to guide students through a comprehensive, gradually paced introduction to the piano focusing on technique and reading. Concurrent enrollment in Beginning Music Theory is highly recommended. Recommended texts: Mastering Piano Method 1A, Mastering Theory 1A, Hal Leonard, available in the Jazzschool Books & Records store.
Saturdays 10 – 11:30 am
KATHERINE WESTINE (10 weeks) $365
Piano II
A continuation of Beginning Piano I, this beginning/intermediate course focuses on technique and reading. Instructor also covers basic functional harmony with an emphasis on scale and chord theory providing students with a solid harmonic foundation. Recommended text: Bastien Piano for Adults II, available in the Jazzschool Books & Records store.
Prerequisite: Piano I or equivalent.
Saturdays 11:45 am – 1:15 pm
KATHERINE WESTINE (10 weeks) $365
Piano III: Applied Keyboard Harmony
Through innovative and fun exercises, this hands-on class serves to acquaint students with playing tonic-dominant, basic turnarounds, and chord inversions in all keys. Students then play standard tunes using those basic progressions, in lead sheet format. This class prepares students for Jazz Piano I and is designed to free note-reading pianists from the printed page. Other instrumentalists can gain a deeper understanding of jazz harmony. Instructor provides handouts.
Prerequisite: Piano II or equivalent.
Saturdays 1:30 – 3 pm
JEANNE WALPOLE (10 weeks) $365
Jazz Piano I
This hands-on class provides students with a basic understanding of jazz piano. This course covers rhythmic, melodic and harmonic terminology as applied to jazz — including all aspects of interpreting a “lead sheet”— and provides several basic approaches to jazz improvisation. More specifically, this course provides an overview of the harmonic functions in major and minor keys; an exposure to a variety of structural forms such as AABA “song form” and 12-bar blues; a palate of chord voicings, including root position, inversions, simple open voicings, rootless voicings, and chord extensions; and an introduction to voice leading. Instructor coaches students in developing their sense of time and “swing feel” at the piano. Students listen to a number of pianists in different settings from solo piano to sextet, and are given specific practice skills to develop the ability to understand what they hear.
Prerequisite: basic piano proficiency, knowledge of major scales, and ability to read treble and bass clefs.
SECTION I (BEG/INT)
Wednesdays 6:30 – 8 pm
BOB KARTY (10 weeks) $365
SECTION II (BEG/INT)
Saturdays 3:15 – 4:45 pm
BEN STOLOROW (10 weeks) $365
Jazz Piano II — Poryes
Continued study of voicings, extensions and voice leading and a presentation of strategies for improvisation including the use of chord tones, blue notes, scales and chromaticism. A closer look at functional harmony including secondary dominants and other secondary functions. Making solo piano arrangements as well as learning comping techniques for playing in a group. With use of accompanying CD, analysis of several different kinds of tune structures and the study of various time feels of a range of pianists and styles to help build an individual approach. Maximum enrollment: 10 students.
Section 1 Fridays 11:30 am – 1pm
DEBBIE PORYES (10 weeks) $365
Jazz Piano II — Levine
An in-depth study of voicings and voice leading, guidelines for improvisation focusing on major and minor tonalities, patterns, comping techniques, modal concepts, and development of style through analysis of various modern jazz
pianists. Maximum enrollment: 10 students.
Prerequisites: Jazz Piano I or equivalent; and the ability to interpret a lead sheet. Telephone consultation required.
Section II Saturdays 11:45 am – 1:15 pm
MARK LEVINE (10 weeks) $365
Bebop Piano
Learn to play in the bebop style over blues, rhythm changes, and jazz standards.
Class draws from early bebop pianists including Bud Powell and Al Haig to 1950’s
mainstays Wynton Kelly, Red Garland, Tommy Flanagan, Barry Harris and Sonny
Clark among others. Students focus on the linear 8th-note approach to soloing characteristic
of the bebop style.
Prerequisites:ability to play major and minor scales and read through a lead sheet with the melody in
the right hand and chords in the left.
Mondays 8:15 – 9:45 pm
ADAM SHULMAN (10 weeks) $365
Solo Jazz Piano
Solo jazz piano has a long and venerable tradition with outstanding practitioners in each era of jazz history from the Harlem stride school through the swing and bebop eras of the 30s and 40s to the present day. This class for intermediate to advanced pianists covers the skills necessary to become a proficient solo jazz pianist, including basic technique, playing in time, creating intros, interludes and endings, the use of dynamics, and balance between the hands. Phone consultation required.
Required text: Solo Jazz Piano: The Linear Approach, Neil Olmstead (available at Jazzschool Books and Records).
Saturdays 10 – 11:30 am
ADAM SHULMAN (10 weeks) $365
Salsa Piano
An in-depth, hands-on introduction to the montuno, the infectious piano pattern at the heart of salsa/Afro-Cuban music. In an interactive, ensemble-like setting, students learn basic montunos, bass lines, and percussion rhythms, and how they fit together and relate to clavé. As you absorb this unique musical language, you'll gain a deeper awareness of rhythm, which will help improve your playing in any style.
Prerequisites: Jazz Piano I or equivalent.
Wednesdays 8:15 – 9:45 pm
BOB KARTY (10 weeks) $365
Blues Piano
In this hands-on class, students learn to play and improvise in the traditional piano blues, boogie-woogie, and jump/swing blues styles. The 12-bar blues form, bass lines, chord voicings, typical licks, turnarounds, and some classic repertoire and players (Jimmy Yancey, Duke Ellington, Ray Charles, Red Garland, for example) are all covered. Students play both together and individually (with headphones). This course is well suited to players at a variety of levels, from beginning to advanced. Transcriptions, listening CDs, and lots of handouts are provided!
Prerequisites: None. All are welcome!
Tuesdays 4:45 – 6:15 pm
JENNIFER JOLLY (10 weeks) $365
Gospel Piano
A class for pianists focusing on gospel
style music. Techniques include the 12/8 “rolling” feel, bass lines, full chord voicings, standard gospel chord progressions with turnarounds, and “walk ups.” Both accompanying and solo gospel styles are covered. Students listen to gospel greats including James Cleveland, Richard Smallwood and Ricky Grundy. Instructor has 19 years of experience playing for church services on organ and piano. Prerequisites: intermediate proficiency on piano.
Saturdays 1:30 – 3 pm
ben flint (10 weeks) $365
Rhythm, Time and Feel for Pianists
This interactive class builds rhythmic chops and awareness through exploring various rhythmic feels/traditions: rock, funk, swing, gospel, New Orleans and second-line, reggae, Caribbean, Afro-Latin, minimalism and more. This class covers rhythmic concepts including the ground beat, time-feel, displacement, polyrhythm, degree of swing, over-the-barline, anticipation, syncopation, phasing, etc. Students also learn fun and helpful ways of working with rhythm (“body rhythm,” vocalization and percussion, for example); play grooves in unison and in interactive ensemble form; learn about additive rhythms, odd time signatures; and more. Prerequisites: Ability to read standard keyboard notation.
Thursdays 8:15 – 9:45 pm
JENNIFER JOLLY (10 weeks) $365
The Piano Trio
This hands-on performance class for intermediate to advanced pianists focuses on how to play most effectively in the traditional jazz piano trio format. Maximum class size: four pianists. Accompaniment provided by a professional bassist and drummer. Please note: class available on a first come, first served basis.
Prerequisites: ability to play and improvise over a jazz tune in time.
Section I Mondays 5:00 – 6:30 pm
Section II Mondays 6:45 – 8:15 pm
Section III Mondays 8:30 – 10 pm
PETER HORVATH (10 weeks) $390
NEW CLASS!
Accompanying Singers — for Jazz Pianists
Accept the ultimate challenge for the jazz pianist and help the singer shine! Develop skills in solid chord voicing, instant re-harmonization, key transposition and arranging, interpreting lead sheets, broadening the piano’s orchestral pallette, and intensified listening. Taking cues from singer-pianists Shirley Horn, Diana Krall, Nat Cole and others, and the exceptional piano/vocal pairings of Ellis Larkins with Ella Fitzgerald, Jimmy Jones with Sarah Vaughn, and Bill Evans with Tony Bennett, student pianists work with singers weekly, building strengths in a breadth of accompaniment styles.
Prerequisites: some proficiency in playing standard tunes, familiarity with lead sheets.
Wednesdays 8:15 – 9:45 pm
ken french (10 weeks) $365
Pianist Ken French is musical director for internationally touring artist, Clairdee, having performed, arranged shows, produced and recorded CDs together since 2000. With two decades of experience as an accompanist, arranger and copyist (for numerous northern California singers), solo pianist, as well as leader and composer for his jazz piano trio, Ken’s passion for jazz and education is immediately apparent in his classes and workshops.
Related workshops
The How and What of Practicing the Piano: A Holistic Approach
Do you often feel stuck when you are practicing? This workshop dives into the subject from several vantage points. Students are introduced to tools for efficiently practicing the piano as well as various materials designed to help pianists get unstuck and further along in their studies. Additionally, participants discuss some of the habits and stories musicians tell themselves that get in the way of the presence and patience that it takes to be consistent and disciplined.
Sunday April 11
11:45 am – 1:45 pm
DAN ZEMELMAN
$30 Jazzschool students/$45 others
Jazz Piano Workshop with Michele Rosewoman
A 3-part workshop covering:
INTEGRATING THE HANDS: Jazz pianists’ right and left hands are often relegated to playing rigid roles. Rosewoman details a method of maximizing their full potential to achieve a fuller sound and unlock a wider range of technical possibilities.
VOICINGS: Pianists learn to play fully-voiced melodies. Rosewoman introduces methods of developing fluency in voicing a wide range of chords across the entire range of the instrument.
RHYTHMIC DEPTH AND INDEPENDENCE: Students deepen their understanding of rhythm and the ability to apply rhythmic ideas to their playing and are given specific exercises to refine their ability to develop rhythmic independence between the left and right hands.
Sunday April 18
11:45 am – 1:45 pm
Michele Rosewoman
$30 Jazzschool students/$45 others
Jazz Flamenco — A 3-day workshop
Open to everyone (beginner, intermediate, and advanced level). Students gain knowledge of the different rhythms and harmony
of flamenco including bulería, seguiriya and tangos flamencos, as a basis for improvisation. Students should bring their instruments and an audio recording device (optional).
Day 1 Topics Covered:
• Introduction to flamenco and its history
• Tangos flamencos: history, rhythm, harmony
• Listening to a transcription from Camarón with Paco de Lucía or
Niña Pastori (harmony, rhythm and cues)
• Claps for tangos flamencos.
• Jam over tangos flamencos.
Day 2 Topics Covered:
• Review of tangos flamencos
• Bulerías: history, rhythm, harmony
• Listening to a transcription (harmony, rhythm and cues) of Diego Amador, Chano
Dominguez, and Paco de Lucia
• Claps for bulerías.
• Jam over bulerías rhythm
Day 3 Topics Covered:
• Review of tangos and bulerías.
• Seguiriya: history, rhythm, harmony
• Listening to transcriptions (harmony, rhythm and cues)
• Claps for seguiriya
• Jam over the seguiriya rhythm
Sunday May 2
A 3-part workshop • Sundays May 2, 9, 16 • 2 – 4 pm each Sunday
alejandro carrasco
$90 Jazzschool students/$105 others
The Pianist’s Toolbox: Intermediate/Advanced Harmonic and Rhythmic Ideas to Inspire You!
Have you been wanting to dive into some new harmonic/rhythmic tools that will help inspire you to get to the next level in your solo or ensemble playing? This workshop does just that. Concepts covered include: alternate harmony, playing beyond the bar line, left hand/right hand independence, and poly-tonality. Detailed handouts and explanations of all topics provided.
Sunday May 16
11:45 am – 1:45 pm
DAN ZEMELMAN
$30 Jazzschool students/$45 others
Jazz Comping Masters
Piano comping techniques from Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk to the present. Mark discusses and demonstrates various styles, including those of Herbie Hancock, McCoy Tyner, and Mulgrew Miller.
Sunday June 6
11:45 am – 1:45 pm
mark levine
$30 Jazzschool students/$45 others
