Learn This Killer Samba & Bossa Nova Technique for Jazz Piano

Have you ever listened to bossa nova or samba tunes and wondered how to achieve that sound in your own playing?

I'm going to explain to you a technique that will immediately improve your ability to employ these feels in your own solo piano playing. This is a technique that I personally use all the time whenever I am playing a bossa or samba tune without a band.

There are a few different pieces to learning this concept:

1. First, you'll want to solidify your left hand feel. I'm starting by alternating between two maj7 chords one half step apart (Fmaj7 to Gbmaj7). You can play this pattern in intervals of fifths or major sevenths, and the rhythm is explained in the following video.

2. Secondly, you'll want to focus on the right hand pattern. This can be a bit trickier, so let's split our hand into two parts: the bottom three fingers (1, 2, 3) will be playing chords, while the top two fingers (4, 5) play melody notes. To practice this, try leaving out the chord fingers and playing a melody on top of your left hand pattern.

3. Now, it's time to add in the middle chordal piece to this pattern. Essentially, what you want to do here is fill in some more of the chord tones depending on what notes your left hand is playing, and intersperse them with the bass line so that you achieve some syncopated rhythms. Feel free to get creative here!

I highly recommend you practice this technique with a metronome and slowly build up your tempo and control until both hands feel comfortable playing with each other.

Once you have a good grasp on the pattern with only two chords, try arranging one of your favorite bossa tunes in this style: keeping the melody in your upper fingers, comping with your inner right fingers, and keeping that bass groove in the left hand.

This is a really useful rhythmic pattern that you can apply to a lot of tunes, and is especially helpful to know when you are playing solo piano.

For a more in-depth tutorial on this technique, check out this video:

Improve Your Diminished Chord Voicings: Dim(maj7) Fully Explained

I want to show you an invaluable voicing and also tell you why it’s one of my favorites.

But first, I have a question for you:

Have you ever found diminished voicings to be a bit trickier than others, or found yourself at a bit of a loss when it comes to making your diminished voicings interesting?

The reason I ask is because I’ve struggled with that quite a bit. It took me a long time to figure out how to make diminished voicings interesting, but

I put together a bunch of voicings for you, starting with this one:

It’s built 1 6 | b3 b5 7.

So this voicing has both the 6 (which is technically a bb7), as well as a natural 7. So,

Where can you use it?

It works as a great substitute for a more typical diminished chord. So, for example, if you have a BMaj7 going to the ii (Dbmin7), you could insert this Cº(maj7) in between those two instead of a normal Cº7. Now,

That's just one of many interesting ways to make your diminished voicings sound more professional and interesting, so...

If you’re ready to fix the gap in your playing making both diminished and half-diminished voicings a strength and not a weakness, I have a full Modern Piano Voicing Dictionary of top-notch voicings for you to check out, well-organized so you can easily implement them right into your playing.

Click Here if you want to strengthen your piano skills.

Happy Holidays,

Noah

P.S., If you're interested in purchasing a Limited-Edition Vinyl of my upcoming album Dream Cycles, I have some great deals available at this page as well!

Click Here to check them out.

The Right Way to Use Diminished 7 Chords for Jazz Piano

How do you use diminished chords & harmony in a way that actually sounds good?

In this jazz piano tutorial, we answer that question.

Using the diminished sound can be a surprisingly tricky piece of the jazz piano equation. Here are some exercises that will help you quickly improve and advance your chord progressions and technical skills!

So how do you feel about your confidence with diminished chords and improvisation?

I have to admit— it took me a really long time to get it down.

Let's put an end to that lack of confidence! Check out the full lesson here:

P.S. I've been having a blast chatting with you all on strategy calls!

These are short zoom calls that you can actually book completely free with either myself or one of our Neo Jazz Coaches (who I trained and are awesome musicians and people).

If you need a little help clarifying your next steps for how to improve your skills, you can schedule a quick call with us and we'll discuss your goals, what's holding you back, some next steps you can take, and whether it makes sense for you to join any of my programs.

Worst case scenario, you'll leave the call with more clarity about what you need to work on and how to approach it. Best case scenario, maybe we can work together in some capacity!

Schedule your free call here.