I'm a pretty experienced pianist (i.e. good enough to make money off it, as I have in the past, but I prefer it to be a hobby) and lately my favorite things to play have been what I vaguely define as smooth jazz. I know my blues scales, I can do a good amount of 12-bar blues and those are fun at mid- or high-tempos, etc. But I'm looking for stuff that's a more mellow jazz.
Some examples:
- I always play a lot of Christmas carols arranged by Vince Gueraldi. I love it but I'm not great at getting beyond the sheet music. I can improv a bit off of it, but it's not like I could take another song and make it more jazzy.
- I ordered a book of Dave Brubeck Christmas carols and found them way too discordant (I don't want to hear a D-major chord with an E-major chord in the base).
- Another example: I've been trying out the chord progressions from Eric Satie's 1st Gymnopedie, and Patty Griffin's song "Servant of Love". It's that smooth, bitter-sweet melancholy I'm trying to go for.
- I think of all these people (including my family) that listen to the "ambiances" on YouTube, hours of smooth jazz for Christmas, or fall, or to imitate a cafe or something.
Again, I can read music no issue, but I want to go beyond learning lots of individual songs. I don't want a book recommendation if it's not a real explainer.
How do I go from being able to play certain jazz songs to the point where I can really just glide? How do I learn that deeper skillset?
Submitted November 14, 2021 at 11:17AM by Athruil https://www.reddit.com/r/Learnmusic/comments/qtqpvy/looking_for_resources_for_easylistening_smooth/?utm_source=ifttt
Javier Rodriguez
Sunday, November 14, 2021