Piano With Willie: Piano Lesson Variety

Explore basic triads and seventh chords, learn major and minor keys, and practice a five-finger scale with whole and half steps, plus diminished and augmented triads and chord symbols.

Adopt proper piano posture by centering on the bench with sit bones, relaxed shoulders, and loose wrist alignment. Use body cues, video feedback, and Alexander Technique to prevent pain.

Learn the three essential seventh chords—major seven, minor seven, and dominant seven—through interval patterns, root-based voicings, and practical arpeggios and left-hand bass lines.

Explore triad inversions across major and minor chords, mastering root position, first and second inversions, fingering patterns, and slash chords for smooth chord movement.

Explore slash chords and poly chords, learn inversions and bass placement with C over G, D over F sharp, F over C, and two-chord stacks for richer harmony.

Explore chord shells, two-note voicings using the root with the third or seventh, to improve voice leading, ease hand and brain strain, and simplify improvisation, especially in bebop contexts.

Explore chord shells to add melody with left-hand chords, move from block chords to open voicings, and master root–third–seventh voicings and Satin Doll measures.

This piano lesson adds a third or seventh in right hand to Satin Doll’s melody, while the left hand uses root and seventh or third, showing two chords per measure.

Explore how tensions and upper structures shape jazz harmony, moving through 9, 11, and 13 on major, minor, and dominant sevenths, and learn to spread voicings for rich chords.

Explore guide tones—the third and seventh—and learn rootless chord voicings, voice leading, and blues progressions to improvise with a piano trio without a bass.

Explore rootless chord voicings in blues piano, using the third and seventh as guide tones, then color with the ninth or the 13th on dominant seventh chords.

Explore rootless voicings over a 2–5–1 progression using guide-tone thirds and sevenths, with added ninths and thirteenths for smooth voice leading, in keys like C and G.

Explore turnarounds and endings for the wee small hours tune, including a 1-6-2-5 turnaround and alt endings, with diatonic chords and major seventh options that return to the melody.

Explore basic and advanced blues progressions in a 12-bar form, using three chords (C7, F7, G7) or added dominant sevenths, with the blues scale for improvisation.

Explore approaches in piano playing, including half-step, whole-step, above, below, and double chromatic patterns, applied to the C major triad and C7 with chord tones and baselines.

Learn to craft a jazz bass line over blues progression by hitting chord roots on changes, keeping a four-beat pulse, and using root, fifth, and seventh with half-step approaches.

Explore how major scales define keys and relate to minor keys, and learn modes—ionian, dorian, phrygian, lydian, mixolydian, aeolian—and dorian, natural minor, and harmonic minor scales.

Explore major and blues scales for improvisation, and apply minor scales and chord tones to outline diatonic harmony while avoiding tense notes.

Learn to play over blues shuffle, blues funk, and jazz blues by applying triplet and swing feels to the 12-bar blues in C–F–G, with practical practice tips and play-along ideas.

Learn basic harmonisation by applying 1-4-5 chords (C major, F, G) to simple melodies in 4/4, creating accompaniment with rhythmic patterns and inversions.

Explore fourth voicings for major seven, minor seven, and dominant seven chords, built on the ninth, third, and sixth, including sharp nine and flat 13 tensions.

Explore four funky piano grooves, blending gospel-inspired triads with C-7 to C7 sharp nine progressions. Practice vamping over accompaniment track with space and arpeggios to shape a versatile funk sound.

Explore the altered scale and the lydian flat 7 scale, using a two five one in C to improvise with major, altered, and lydian flat 7 sounds and tritone substitutions.

Explore easy two-five-one patterns across six keys with five-finger right-hand lines, learn rootless and shell left-hand voicings, and develop improvisational flow you can transpose to Satin Doll.

embrace piano as a lifelong journey, record yourself to track progress, stay patient, listen actively to each instrument, practice consistently, and treat piano as a language learned through repetition.

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