Play C - skip D - play E - skip F - play G - skip A - play B. So the chord is a stack of 3rds - it plays every other note from the scale:Į.g. Most chords you see in your real book will be 7th chords - they have a ‘7’ on the end of them.Ī '7th chord' is a normal major or minor triad (C E G) with a 7th added on top (B). Now you’re ready to learn the different types of jazz chord. However, if you’re new to intervals, click hereto watch my 'Interval Arithmetic' video first. If you already know the 12 intervals and you can count these from all 12 notes, then continue reading. shows you the top 4 real books I use and recommend.īefore learning jazz, you'll first need to know how to count intervals - because everything we're about to learn is going to be some sort of interval pattern:Įvery jazz chord, every chord voicing, every jazz scale, and every melodic pattern (or 'lick') is going to be an interval pattern.Īre you familiar with the following intervals? ‘Tritone’, ‘major 3rd’, ‘minor 3rd’, ‘minor 7th’, major 7th’, ‘minor 6th’, ‘major 6th’. You’ll need to understand what all jazz piano chord symbols mean in order to play songs from a real book, and I’ll explain these in a moment.įREE RESOURCE: Download my Complete Guide to Real Books. The jazz pianist can ‘voice’ these chords in many different ways, so instead of telling you which chord voicings to play, chord symbols gives you the freedom to choose. Then chord symbols will be written above the melody line (most chords will end with a '7'):

In jazz, songs are notated using a single melody line in the treble clef (there’s no bass clef usually). However the notation will look slightly different to that of most western music (like classical music).

To play jazz piano you'll need two things:Ī real book is a collection of lead sheets to different jazz songs. In this article I'll show you everything you need to know to play jazz piano! Real Books However if you want to play jazz, then you have to understand some theory, chord symbols, and notation markings in order to play. To play most styles of music you only have to read music.

Chords charts jazz piano