This page contains a Flash digital edition of a book.
1) The “Charleston,” in which the pianist plays on beat one and the “and of two,” 2) The “Red Garland” rhythm, in which the pianist plays on the “and of two” and the “and of four,” anticipations of the two places where chords typically change.


fifths-type motion, meaning that there are clear op- portunities for tension and release moving from one chord tone to the next. Rarely should any part of the chord move more than a step to the next chord.


In Figure 4, I give you popular “shell voicings” that have the third and seventh in the left hand and the fifth and ninth in the right hand. These are pleasingly spaced and commu- nicate the harmony effectively.


Figure 2 Basic swing style rhythms for comping


Once students master these rhythms, I instruct them on how to make slight variations. For example, a pianist can play either of these rhythms with all short, staccato chords, all long, held chords, or with one long and one short. They can also create a variation by leaving one of the chords out or leaving a whole measure out. When adding a chord, I instruct students to first add a chord on the beat right before one of the off-beats of their comping pattern, like beat two preceding the “and of two.”


Figure 4 Sample ii-V-I voicings Comp-clusion


Playing piano in a jazz band is an incredibly difficult and demanding task, but it is teachable with the right informa- tion. If you’re interested in further reading on rhythm, voicings, and lots of pieces to practice with, I wrote a book called Jazz Band Pianist, which deals with exactly these issues. Happy comping!


References Figure 3 A simple rhythmic variation - Charleston


Teaching comping rhythm as a theme-and-variations rather than as a free-for-all guarantees that the pianist’s rhythm will be stylistically appropriate, providing the right kinds of accents to make the rhythm section really swing.


Voicing Basics


Pianists spend a lot of time obsessing about voicings, and not everybody agrees on the “best” voicings for jazz piano. Below are a few suggestions that – as far as I’m aware – are universally agreed upon:


1) The pianist should not play the bass note because the bassist is already playing it. 2) Avoid the root position “stack of thirds.” Open- ing up the voicing so that there are wider intervals between each note creates a more stylistically appro- priate sound. 3) Place the chord’s third and seventh in the tenor register. These two notes define whether the chord is major, minor, or dominant and should be placed where they can have the most impact. The octave below middle C is the best place for these important tones to cut through. 4) Pay attention to voice leading. Most jazz chord progressions involve primarily diatonic, circle of


33


Siskind, J. (2014). Jazz band pianist: Basic skills for the jazz band pianist. Hal Leonard.


Jeremy Siskind is the winner of the 2012 Nottingham International Jazz Piano Competition and the second place winner of the 2011 Montreux Solo Piano Compe- tition. As a pianist, he’s performed both jazz and classical music at Carnegie Hall,


the Kennedy Center, in Japan, Switzerland, Thailand, England, India, France, and China. His 2012 CD, Finger-Songwriter, was placed in emusic.com’s Top 100 CDs of 2012 (in any genre) and hailed as “the most exciting musical project I’ve heard in a long time” by the weblog Jazz Police. His upcoming CD, Housewarm- ing, features Grammy-winning vocalists Kurt Elling and Peter Eldridge. He’s been the chair of the Piano Department at Western Michigan University since 2014. As a pedagogue, Siskind has six publications with Hal Leonard, including a new instructional book, The Jazz Band Pianist. He’s a frequent contributor to Cla- vier Companion magazine and has presented workshops at the Music Teacher’s National Association conventions in New York, Anaheim, and Chicago. Siskind was recently named the Artistic Director at the brand-new American Jazz Pianist Competition in Melbourne, Florida. A proud Yamaha Artist since 2013, he holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music (Jazz Performance and Music Theory) and Columbia University (English and Com- parative Literature). His primary teachers include Fred Hersch, Sophia Rosoff, Harold Danko, Tony Caramia, Tamir Hendelman, and Scott McBride Smith. Siskind can be reached at Jeremy. siskind@wmich.edu.


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40