Jazz Articles
Jazz Harmony: Learn This Cool Chord Progression Trick
Would you like to learn more about jazz harmony? Want to learn a cool move you can use to spice up hundreds of the songs you play? Well, you’ve come to the right place! In today’s jazz harmony lesson I’m going to teach you a really tasty way you can reinvent the #1 chord progression in jazz.…
Read MoreLearn Jazz Piano Comping
Would you like to improve your jazz comping skills? Want to learn some sweet jazz piano chords that you can use to comp over hundreds of jazz tunes? Well, you’ve come to the right place. In today’s free video lesson I’m going to show you how to play 3 tasty jazz comping voicing. Plus, I’ll…
Read MoreHow To Become A Better Musician
As I mentioned in my last article, I recently celebrated my 15th year anniversary as a full time professional musician. After playing over 1500 gigs I’ve learned tons of musical lessons over the years (both good and bad!) That’s why today I want to share 5 more pieces of musician advice. These tips will show you how…
Read MoreProfessional Musician: What I Learned From Playing Over 1,500 Piano Gigs
About 2 months ago I celebrated my 16th year as a full time professional musician. Time definitely goes by quickly! In honor of my ‘anniversary’ I thought I’d create a list of important things I’ve learned from playing 1500 gigs in 16 years. Although, I could fill an encyclopedia with all the lessons I’ve learned, I…
Read MoreJazz Piano School: Fast Learning Online
Welcome to our 21st century jazz piano school! I’m pleased to announce that Freejazzlessons.com site has has been completely redesigned! My goal has always been to provide the best learning environment possible to up your jazz piano game. So, we’ve made the pages are a lot cleaner looking, the lessons are now easier to read,…
Read MoreThe 7 Day Piano Practice Challenge & New Jazz Piano Courses
Hey jazz piano fans. We have a ton of things to talk about today so make sure you read this whole article. The 7 Day Piano Practice Challenge Update It’s now been 7 days since we started the 7 day piano practice challenge. In my last article I revealed the story of how I overcame…
Read MorePiano Practice – How To Build Better Habits
Today I want to teach you about a really useful piano practice technique that I’ve started using in my life. I’ve found a lot of benefit from it in both my music and in my personal life. It’s easy and I think you’ll really enjoy it as well once you start using it too. (We’re also…
Read MoreJazz Theory Cheat Sheet: The ii V I In All 12 Keys
As you continue to develop your jazz theory skills you’re going to want to make it a goal of being able to instantly play a ii-V-I chord progression in all 12 keys. Since you’ll hear the ii V I chord progression in so many great jazz tunes it’s vitally important that you learn how to play it quickly. It’s…
Read MorePiano Rhythm – 3 Strategies To Improve Your Rhythm Today
Want to improve your piano rhythm? Well, one of the cool things about learning jazz piano is there are so many different things you can practice that will help you improve your piano rhythm skills. Jazz is a very deep art form and there’s always something new and fun to explore. For example, you can spend time learning…
Read MoreChristmas Jazz Piano Super System Thank You Video
Hi Everybody! Just wanted to take a quick and thank everybody who’s already order the Christmas Jazz Piano Super System so far. I’m so humbled and honored by the response so far. It’s truly been amazing. While I was packaging the orders I thought I’d create a little video and personally thank you all. You…
Read MoreHow To Play Christmas Songs On The Piano Using Jazz Arrangements
We have finally opened the doors again on the “Christmas Jazz Piano Super System“. To celebrate the relaunch of the 2 DVD set, I wanted to share an exclusive sample video right from the actual course (below). I’ve also gotten a TON of emails about the course so I’m also going to answer some of the most…
Read MoreWhat’s The Most Important Thing You’ve Learned Studying Jazz?
One of my favorite parts of studying jazz at Berklee was that there were lots of great musicians around me to learn from and share ideas with. The sense of community was very helpful! We had so many like minded people working together on a common goal to become better jazz musicians! This created an incredible environment…
Read MoreJazz Piano Chord Substitutions Lesson
In this jazz piano tutorial we’re going to learn a cool technique that you can use to decorate chords that are held for long periods of time. If you’re just getting started learning check out this guide: How To Play Jazz Piano – The Ultimate 5 Step Beginners Guide. This technique will work particularly well…
Read More2 Ear Training Exercises – Hear Chord Progressions More Easily
This lesson is the first in a series which presents a method for learning tunes while also developing your ear. The tune “Autumn Leaves” is used as an example. I first learned this ear training method in a masterclass taught by the great alto saxophonist, Phil Woods. Phil sat down at the piano and played…
Read MoreJazz Piano Practice Strategy Guide Part 1
If you’re reading this lesson there’s no question that you have a love, a passion, and a commitment to learning jazz piano. You and I have a lot in common in that way! Part of my job, as an online jazz piano teacher, is to help keep you motivated and focused on your musical goals. Now, I…
Read More10 Most Popular Jazz Piano Tutorials Of 2013
I thought it would be fun and useful to share a list of the most popular jazz piano tutorials that were published on this site in 2013. I was able to go back and look at my analytics for FJL and see what pages people visited the most. It’s a pretty cool feature and the…
Read MoreYour Free Guide To 15 Jazz Piano Legends
If you truly want to learn jazz piano you have to listen to the right people. As your online jazz piano teacher, I want to make sure you are listening to and learning from some of the best jazz pianists who’ve ever lived. What we listen to definitely influences what comes out of our ears…
Read More13 Killer Practice Tips To Ignite Your Playing Today
Hey Everybody! I’ve been thinking a ton about motivation and inspiration recently. I’ve been super focused creating all the new content for this month’s Premium Jazz Lessons Membership update. I’ve also been doing quite a bit more touring and local gigs recently too. To say that I’m motivated right now would be an understatement! For…
Read More4 Completely Bizarre Gig Stories That You Need To Read To Believe
As I’m sure you can imagine, doing music for a living can be very fun. Although, 95% of the career has been really enjoyable there have been times that have not always been filled with sunshine. In fact, after 2,000+ gigs around the world there have been a fair share of completely bizarre and utterly…
Read More5 Classical Pieces That Helped Me Become A Better Jazz Musician
In today’s jazz lesson I wanted to go in a bit of a unique direction and discuss something I haven’t talked about too much before on this site…classical music. As I’m sure most of you know, 90% of my gigs these days are in the jazz, blues, and rock genres of music. It’s what I…
Read MoreJazz Ear Training – 5 Tips For Hearing Chord Extensions
Today I want to tell you how I drastically improved my musical ear by using jazz ear training. Chord extensions, tensions, alterations, color tones, whatever you want to call them, I am always interested! I can’t write enough about this subject of jazz ear training because it’s so important for mastering jazz piano. As pianists…
Read MoreJazz Masters Method Special Video Blog Thank You
Hey everybody! Today’s post is going to be short but sweet. I’m truly humbled right now. I’d like to thank everybody who’s ordered the Jazz Masters Method DVD so far during this launch week. The response has been simply been AMAZING. I am truly blessed! Thank you!! I prepared a quick little video blog as I…
Read More11 Tips On Playing Piano For Your Career
A few days ago I received an interesting email from a reader of this site by the name of Jake. Jake asked,“Hey Steve! What are the basic skills a piano player needs to play piano for a living, even a very basic one?” I knew this would be a question many of the readers here…
Read MoreGold Medal Jazz Piano Practice Challenge FAQ
Hey everybody! Hope you’re having a fantastic day so far. Ok, so far I’ve received a ton of emails asking me questions about the Gold Medal Jazz Piano Practice Challenge. (If you’ve new here you can check out the link right above.) I find it very cool that there are so many people interested in…
Read MoreThe Gold Medal Jazz Piano Practice Challenge
Hey jazz fans! Hope you’re having a fantastic day today. Ok, in today’s post I’m going to share an exciting new practice challenge I’ve just taken up. This is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. Some people will call me crazy after this but that inspires me even more! 🙂 I’m sharing…
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