Solo Piano
Posted on | August 5, 2010 | 3 Comments
I played two three-hour solo piano gigs in the past couple of weeks at Portland’s good old landmark Brasserie Montmartre. It’s been quite some time since I did that on a regular basis and it was an illuminating experience. Solo piano is obviously difficult because of the lack of accompanists, though I have been playing frequently without a bassist in The Ocular Concern. Somewhat to my surprise, this hadn’t really adequately prepared my left hand for a lengthy solo excursion. However, it was a fun experience and I certainly have a longer list of things to practice now. Interesting how easily very general aspects of playing a “normal” jazz piano gig can get left by the wayside after playing so in many composition-heavy projects over the past few years, even ones where the tunes are quite challenging, such as the Ocular Concern.
Yesterday I was teaching a lesson to a student who wanted to work on solo ballad playing. We listened to a bunch of examples of the way in which different great solo pianists approach ballads and, of course, this added to my reflections on the art of solo jazz piano. I immediately noticed something which Randy Porter used to emphasize very frequently in lessons: the importance of playing all the notes in a chord simultaneously. The difference is really striking between a pianist who arpeggiates chords either out of habit or discomfort and a pianist who confidently states the chord voicing in a big block. I was especially aware of this while listening to Bill Evans and Brad Mehldau yesterday, though when I started to check out a few Fred Hersch tracks, who I really consider to be one of the greatest masters of solo jazz piano, I was surprised to notice how much arpeggiation was going on. Upon further listening however, I began to notice the very subtle choices he was making regarding individual subsets of notes that he played together, rather than blanket arpeggiation of the whole chord.
It’s really interesting to consider small factors like these in regards to one’s overall perception of a musician. Fred Hersch, Brad Mehldau, and Bill Evans all exude confidence while playing solo piano, due obviously to many elements of music they have mastered besides just hitting notes at the same time. Similarly, my recent difficulties playing long solo gigs stem from numerous issues both technical and musical, but at least I have discovered one concrete element to work on in the quest to improve!
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3 Responses to “Solo Piano”
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August 6th, 2010 @ 10:56 am
This is very interesting, though I’m confused by one thing. Why is it “important” to play chords in which all the notes are voiced simultaneously? Why is arpeggiating a sign of “discomfort” or “habit,” while block chords are a sign of “confidence”? Can’t one arpeggiate confidently? Doesn’t all of this depend on the context, song, player, etc.?
August 6th, 2010 @ 11:58 am
Of course it is indeed contextual. I think what I was trying to say is that it is important to be able to do it, in other words, if someone is arpeggiating or playing chords in a disjointed manner because they don’t know them well enough or are not confident enough to be able to play them all at once, the effect doesn’t come across. If it’s a conscious choice as you say, and is done confidently, then it sounds great of course. With the pianists I mentioned in the post, I feel that you can hear their confidence in the way they place the block chords even though all of them also arpeggiate for effect, though sometimes I hear pianists playing ballads and never once hitting a chord confidently on the beat, which is more the point I was trying to get across. Does that make sense?
August 6th, 2010 @ 12:28 pm
Totally. Thanks for clarifying.