If you want to play fast effectively, and
effortlessly, countless hours of
concentrated practice is essential. But
what to practice? Technical exercises by
Czerny and Hanon, as well as accelerated
four-octave scales, certainly help build
chops and endurance. But that type of
practice won’t be much help when you’re
called upon to rip through a set of changes
at a breakneck tempo. For that you need to
amass a backlog of jazz vocabulary that
you can call upon at a moment’s notice.
That is not to imply that you need to be on
autopilot. On the contrary — having a strong
vocabulary will enhance your ideas, and
enable you to quickly negotiate a set of
changes without running out of notes.
As you can see from the examples, you
need the technical prowess as well as
enough good notes to fill the harmonic
space. At faster tempos, start to feel a
longer pulse — first just concentrate on
feeling beats 1 and 3, then just beat 1 of
each measure. Additionally, the faster you
play, the less swing there is, until the
notes gradually become even. When playing
fast, relax the hand, use more wrist
motion, and play with a lighter touch.
Practice hard and unleash your inner
speed demon!
Ex. 1. To play fast, start slow. This quarter-note line over the changes of the first four bars of “Lover Man” is a good place to start. The line is composed of chord tones,
passing tones, and one chromatic tone, the #11 in the final measure. In situations like this, rootless voicings played on the first beat of the measure are common and
sound good. Experiment with placing them on different beats, and play them with both long and short rhythmic values. Use a metronome set at 60 beats per minute and
gradually increase the tempo. When you get it up to 120bpm, move on to the next example.
Ex. 2. You can take the same phrase and halve the note value (quarter to eighth). As you can see, each chord gets two beats now, instead of four.
Start your metronome at 90bpm. Gradually tick that up to 145bpm, then move on to Example 3.
Ex. 3. To get back to our original harmonic rhythm and still play eighth-notes, we need more notes. The second and fourth measures introduce a new melodic component,
which fills the space with scale tones arranged as an enclosure of the third, which resolves down to the root. Start the metronome at 110bpm, and gradually
take it up to 150.
Ex. 4. Using the same principle, we now move to sixteenth-notes. Once again, the harmonic rhythm is cut in half. Start the metronome at 80bpm. In small increments,
increase the tempo to 100. Now you’re playing fast! Keep up the momentum and move on to the next example.
Ex. 5. Again, to get us back to our original harmonic rhythm while playing sixteenth-notes, we need more notes! Measure 5a shows another bop-oriented phrase to play
over these changes, still two beats apiece. Set your metronome with a quarter note at 80bpm and gradually move up to 100. Next try this similar phrase in 5b, with the
addition of an ascending arpeggio. Again, start the metronome at 80bpm and move up to 100.
Ex. 6. By combining all the melodic elements you’ve been practicing, you now have enough notes to play a continuous sixteenth-note line through the original harmonic
rhythm. Start at 70bpm and gradually increase until you’ve reached your personal limit.
Hear what Andy’s teaching on recordings by these
outstanding artists:
Michel Camilo:
Spirit of the Moment
(Telarc)
Miles Davis:
Four & More
(Sony)
Phineas Newborn, Jr.:
The Great Jazz Piano of
Phineas Newborn, Jr.
(Original Jazz Classics/
Contemporary Records)