The Solo Piano GAME CHANGER

[music] One of the most important things that you can learn as a pianist, the three [music] zone concept.

>> I wish I'd known about the three zone concept when I first [music] started playing solo jazz piano. Same cuz I just sort of stumbled upon it like I think a lot of us do. Uh but once you understand

the architecture of it, the system of it, what the framework is, [music] it really can open up um well beyond just this region, it opens up the whole instrument, [music] the spontaneous

arrangement, improvisation, and really just being able to sound good over basic standards.

It's the melody.

>> Yeah, >> that's the top zone.

>> Zone one. Yeah. [music]

>> Some baseline, some root movement.

>> Zone two.

And then everything that's in the between [music] >> is zone three.

>> Zone three.

>> That's right. Yeah. We talk about this like we have two hands, but there are three zones between the hands.

>> Dual monos.

>> Peter, I wonder if you could put your hands just rest them at on the keyboard there. So, as you can see here, the sort

there. So, as you can see here, the sort of top three fingers on Peter's right hand is zone one. And often times that's what we play [music] melodies with. Now,

the bottom three fingers on his left hand are zone two. And that's where you would play a lot of your root movement, your bass movement. and then split between the middle parts of both hands from his thumb, his first finger, his

second finger, and then that sort of swing finger there, the third finger.

That's zone three. And you can cover chords on your left hand, on your right hand, or using both hands. And that's

what I want to talk about. So maybe play a little more tuneup. And now folks can kind of see what that would look like in real time.

[music] >> [music] >> Yeah.

So, what why do you play like this? Why

do you like this style?

>> Well, I think you know if you break it to the outer zones, zones one and two, >> that [music] almost gives you all the information you need, right?

>> Yeah. Yeah, for sure.

>> But adding in [music] >> that's where it starts to get interesting, right? Later on there's all

interesting, right? Later on there's all sorts of things we can do additional zones but [music] you can do a lot and then when [singing] we improvise

it it really comes out of also of something that I think when we're playing trio style that we're imagining the bass doing that's so we're doing two zones left hand accompanying right hand

improvising or playing the melody.

>> [music] >> and then having that at the same time.

So, this is a way to combine all three of those together.

>> Nice. So, I love that you mentioned the outer zones because I think like that's the way into this, right? If you take any tune [music] and you just play the melody

>> y >> and the root movement, [music] >> right? It's like we're imagining what's

>> right? It's like we're imagining what's on the inside, right? You can kind of hear your way to fill [music] in [music] that zone three. And I noticed with you,

Peter, and what I just did there, too, when I'm when I'm playing solo piano, like zone three, we we're we're talking about it like it's harmony or chords, but it can be a lot more than that. like

you're playing like a lot of counter melodies in there. You can actually play the melody there in that middle hand and play chords or counter melodies above it too when you get really skilled at this, >> right?

>> You can any zone can do any of it, >> right? And it's like I always like to

>> right? And it's like I always like to think about it as a flexible thing like it it can move out, it can move closer together and then our zones become compressed

where you really just start with one hand, one zone and then two zones >> together. But this is the first jazz

>> together. But this is the first jazz [music] [music] where you can start to to experiment with some independent things happening with three different plays instead of just two. And it just gets us out of that thinking of like the zones

have to be attached to one hand or the other.

>> Yeah, you definitely cover a lot of ground like on the keyboard dynamically.

You're up here, you're down here, but the everybody's still playing its role.

Like you're still having the role here, the role here, and then the role in the middle.

>> Adam, can we take a quick break? I got

to shed on something.

>> Absolutely.

>> Okay, >> while we're taking a quick break, I want to talk to [music] you a little bit about YouTube. It's great, right? We all

about YouTube. It's great, right? We all

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Even just from a physical standpoint, we start to think about like the first level is moving everything, you know, and if you talk about the these three maybe being the outer zone and these two or you said like the third finger being

not only for flicking people off but being flexible between the zones. So

it's like >> then zone four, zone four, [music] >> right? Right. Zone four. Um but as we

>> right? Right. Zone four. Um but as we move up and down we start moving the same but then later on it can be that comes in more. you know, these go apart more as they move and then even the

zones can move out like that.

>> Well, if you're curious of how you can use these zones and maybe even taking on a tune is is too much at first, I have this little exercise, Peter, that I want to share with people. We're going to go through all of the diietonic chords in

the key of C. The one chord C major, the two [music] chord D minor, the three chord E minor, [music] the

four chord F, the five chord G7, little [music] sus chord, the six chord A minor, and the seven chord B minor 7 flat 5. [music] Now, the formula that

flat 5. [music] Now, the formula that we're going to use to practice this is we're going to put the fifth, as you just heard, we're going to put the fifth of each chord as the melody in zone one.

We're going to put the root of each chord as the bass [music] movement in zone two. And then we're going to do a

zone two. And then we're going to do a few different kinds of voicings in the middle. So for the C major, we've got

middle. So for the C major, we've got the third in the left hand, zone three, and then we've got the seventh and nine in the [music] right. Uh for the two chord, we've got that same formula.

[music] For the three chord, we've got something a little different. In the zone three middle hand, we've got the 11 in the left, and we've got the seventh and third in the right.

>> [music] >> For the four chord, we go back to our formula.

Third in the left, seven and [music] nine in the right. For our five chord, we're going to do like a Gsus thing. So,

we're going to do the sus four in the left and then the seven and nine in the right. A lot of seven and nines in the

right. A lot of seven and nines in the right on this. For the six chord, we've got in the the middle hand there, we've got the third in the left and [music] the seven and nine in the right. And

then for the seven chord, we've got the third in the left and the seven [music] and root in the right. So, Peter, I wonder if you can just play this warm-up all the way through in time for the

people. 1 2 3 4.

people. 1 2 3 4.

[music] [music] Beautiful. So, don't forget, you got

Beautiful. So, don't forget, you got zone one, the melody, you got zone two, the root movement, and you got zone three, everything in between. Chords,

[music] counter melodies. If you want to go on a deeper dive, you can start your free trial by clicking on the link in the description. Happy practicing.

the description. Happy practicing.