← All exercises
Exercise
— switch — The Cycle Shells with Color Rootless Voicings Bud Powell Left Hand The Turnaround Tritone Substitution Reharm the V Diatonic Sevenths Secondary Turnaround Minor ii–V–i Minor ii-V-i with ♭9 Minor Turnaround Diatonic 7ths in Minor Backdoor Progression Twelve-Bar Blues Minor Blues Bird Blues Blues Stride LH Blues Walking Bass Rhythm Changes Boogie Blues Shuffle Rhythm Changes Bridge Blues Rootless (Evans) Coltrane Changes Blues Pedal Point Standard Intro Blues Block Chords Two-Handed Comping Blues Freddie Green Charleston Comping Bebop Blues Comp Freddie Green Comping Blues Guide Tones Walking Bass Charleston Blues Tritone-Sub Walking Bass Bud Powell Blues Drop Two Two-Handed Modern Blues Stride Bass Stride with Melody Quartal Voicings Upper Structure Triads Hybrid Voicings Kenny Barron Voicing Sus Chord Vamp The Mu Chord Maiden Voyage Chord 4-Way Close Pedal Point Lydian Vamp Phrygian Vamp Bossa Nova Guide Tones Bebop Scale Dominant Bebop Dorian Bebop Bebop Minor The Enclosure ii-V-I Lick Pentatonic Patterns Plain Locrian Melodic Minor Dorian ♭2 Lydian Augmented Lydian Dominant Mixolydian ♭6 Locrian ♮2 Altered Scale Harmonic Minor Phrygian Dominant Half-Whole Diminished Whole-Tone Scale Minor Blues Major Blues Aeolian (Natural Minor) Dorian Mode Ionian (Major) Lydian Mode Minor Pentatonic Mixolydian Mode Phrygian Mode Whole-Half Diminished
(MED. SWING ♩=80 )
41
Jazz Piano · Solo Piano Mode
Stride with Melody
Stride LH plus sustained RH melody, twelve keys
Play exercise
Stride alone is the LH skeleton; once it's automatic, the
RH is free to sing a melody on top. Here the melody is the
top voice of the LH shell , transposed up an
octave and held as a whole note for the full bar. It mirrors the
shell's voice leading exactly: when one voice in the shell moves
a step, the RH melody moves the same step a fully octave above.
This is the simplest possible "melody-over-stride" pattern,
and it sounds complete even in this stripped-down form. Real
performances will ornament the RH (turns, grace notes, fills
between melody notes) and improvise the LH bass walking patterns
— but the architecture is just this .
LH Stride: R on 1/3, shell on 2/4.
RH Top voice of shell, one octave up, held as a whole note.
Jump to
C F B♭ E♭ A♭ D♭ G♭ B E A D G
C
3
2
X
O
O
O
D
m
7
2
1
1
X
X
O
G
7
3
2
1
O
O
O
3
2
1
X
X
O
F
1
3
1
1
1
1
3fr
G
m
7
3
2
4
1
O
O
C
7
B
1
3
2
4
X
X
1
3
1
2
1
X
3fr
C
m
7
F
7
1
3
1
2
1
1
E
1
2
3
4
X
X
1
3
1
1
1
1
F
m
7
1
2
1
3
1
X
B
7
A
1
1
1
3
X
X
1
3
1
2
1
X
B
m
7
E
7
1
3
2
4
X
X
4
3
1
1
1
X
D
1
2
3
4
X
X
E
m
7
1
3
1
2
1
1
4fr
A
7
G
4
3
2
1
X
X
1
3
1
1
1
1
4fr
A
m
7
2
3
1
4
X
X
D
7
B
1
3
2
4
X
X
4
2
1
X
O
O
C
m
7
1
3
1
2
1
1
F
7
E
3
1
2
O
O
X
F
m
7
1
3
1
1
1
1
2
1
3
4
X
O
B
7
A
2
1
3
X
O
O
1
3
1
2
1
X
B
m
7
2
1
O
O
O
O
E
7
1
2
3
X
X
O
D
2
O
O
O
O
O
E
m
7
A
7
1
3
X
O
O
O
4
3
2
1
X
X
2fr
G
2
1
X
O
O
O
A
m
7
2
1
3
X
X
O
D
7
The Daily Drill
Sing the top voice
4 min Play the LH stride alone for one bar. Then play just the RH whole note for one bar. Then both together. The first time the hands fit, that's the whole technique unlocked. 10 min Cycle three keys at a time, ♩ = 70. The melody is the most-prominent voice — let the LH stride support it rather than competing. 3 min Replace the held RH whole note with something more melodic: a half-note, then an ornament (turn, grace note, neighbor tone). Tatum did this all the time over his stride patterns. 4 min Improvise the LH bass slightly: instead of root → 5, try root → 3 → 5 (three beats with the chord shell on beat 4). The RH melody stays the same; the LH gets more conversational. Why the melody traces the shell The shell's top voice in the LH is the chord's defining "colour" tone (the 3 or 7). When that voice voice-leads from chord to chord by half-step or whole-step, the chord-quality information moves with it. Doubling that top voice in the RH an octave higher (as we do here) makes the harmonic motion audible — you hear the chord changes happening in the melody itself. That's why even with just stride and a single whole-note melody, the music sounds harmonically complete: the melody is literally singing the changes.
Bass, chord, melody. Three roles, two hands, one piano.