A jazz piano lesson to help you learn Duke Ellington’s quintessential jazz standard “It Don’t Mean A Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing).”

Take your LH playing to the next level with my free ebook: Jazz Piano Left Hand Techniques: [ Ссылка ]

You'll find my book, The Inner World of Piano Improvisation, on Amazon.

Understanding how to learn jazz standards 0:00
Taking our place in the jazz tradition 0:35
Art Tatum’s effect on the jazz piano world 1:20
Duke Ellington’s great tunes of the 1920s-30s 1:58
The musical structure and key relationships in “It Don’t Mean A Thing” 2:55
Jazz standards that go from relative minor to relative major 3:25
Rhythm in the Swing Era 4:08
Harmonies in the bridge 5:08
Some substitute chords for the first ‘A’ Section 5:19
How to personalize a jazz performance 6:02
Beginning with a G pedal point 7:44
Bringing in some melodic improv 8:18
Improvising with modal voicings 8:36
Big band-style block chords 8:45
Playing outside the changes 9:06
Improvising around the tune’s melody 9:16
Beginning the melody 10:00
Using a chromatically-ascending tenor voice in the left hand 10:11
Parallel 10ths 10:24
Substitute harmonies 10:40
Beginning the solo by evoking the intro 10:45
Thinking of my piano teacher, Billy Taylor, during the bridge 11:06
Getting bluesy 11:17
“Full out” stride piano 11:28
Improvising around the chromatic bass line 11:39
Bebop on the bridge 11:50
Bringing in more syncopation and flowing lines 12:15
Returning to the melody 12:56
Simplifying the texture 13:04
Extending the ending 13:38
Explaining some of the techniques used 14:00
Letting the music flow 14:15
Using the circle of 4ths for the extended ending 14:30
The spirit of musical exploration 14:55
Listening to Duke Ellington’s piano playing 15:43

Here are some more Free Jazz Piano Lessons for you at the KeyboardImprov website: [ Ссылка ]

If you'd like some fun jazz rhythm and ear training exercises, you'll enjoy this ebook I created: Essential Training For Jazz Pianists [ Ссылка ]

Thanks for joining me on this musical adventure, and please LIKE, COMMENT and SHARE this video with your musical friends.

If you'd like to start my full video course, you'll find it here: [ Ссылка ]

For Zoom and Skype lessons, please email me at rondrotos@keyboardimprov.com.

Enjoy the journey, and "let the music flow!"
Ron

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