The top #4 steps you need to know to play an F Blues (solo piano)
5 "Awesome" C Altered Licks
Want a cool chromatic piano exercise to play like Mc Coy Tyner?
The first 2 steps to playing solo jazz piano you can't miss
10 - II - V - I - Licks in C for Piano - free guide
Play jazz piano now with - Somewhere Over the Rainbow - Arranged by Greg Lloyd just for you. Get the sheet music FREE below
PRESS PLAY TO WATCH & LISTEN to Greg’s solo piano arrangement of this ‘awesome’ tune. Then DOWNLOAD the FREE sheet music below and play all the notes yourself…it’s all written out for you ready to go!
Chromatic Walking Bass Line for Piano on a C Jazz Blues for you - By Greg Lloyd
I’ve been getting lots of great questions from you, so I’m doing a new series of videos called #askgregmusic to answer these for you.
I’ll pick one of your questions and do a video to answer it.
I’ll continue to answer as many as I can by email to so keep sending me all your questions.
Sara was asking: How do I make my left-hand bass lines sound more “jazzy” ?
Find out my answer below in the free video lesson and grab the FREE sheet music below!
Already SUBSCRIBED ? Then click here to get your FREE PDF
Play These Cool Rootless Piano Voicings with Your Band - By Greg Lloyd
I’ve been getting lots of great questions from you, so I’m doing a new series of videos called #askgregmusic to answer these for you.
I’ll pick one of your questions and do a video to answer it.
I’ll continue to answer as many as I can by email to so keep sending me all your questions.
Mark was asking: 1. Which voicings should I use, when playing in a band with a bass player?
2. What should I play in each hand?
Find out my answer below in the free video lesson and grab the FREE sheet music!
#askgregmusic @classicaltojazzpiano
Got a question for Greg on music, blues or jazz?
Leave a question below in comment area or email greg at: greg@classicaltojazzpiano.com
Start playing jazz piano today with "Monk's Mood" By Thelonious Monk - Arrangement by Greg Lloyd
Hi Folks,
I was playing around with "Monk's Mood" the other day and came up with this (out of time) solo piano arrangement, my own take on this wonderful tune by Thelonious Monk.
Grab your full PDF of this arrangement in the video above now!
Thelonious has been a huge inspiration to me over the years, one of the most influential composers and players of all time. He never gets boring to listen to, always full of musical surprises. I hope you enjoy this arrangement.
LIKE and SUBSCRIBE.
Take it easy,
Greg.
Play jazz today with - Improvisations on 'Flamenco Sketches' - by Evans/Davis - Improvisations played by Greg Lloyd - Get the free sheet music below
I have had many people email and comment asking me if I have the music notation (a transcription) for this improvisation above in the video...well I do now ! - CLICK ABOVE - to get it!
All the notes in the video above are written out for you as sheet music. Then watch the video over and over to help you learn it.
To CHECK OUT - page one - SCROLL down to bottom of this page.
All I ask is that you LIKE it, SUBSCRIBE, leave a COMMENT BELOW and enjoy the beauty of the music.
I do not own the copyright for this song. © 1959 Jazz Horn - Sony/ATV - I am improvising on five chords and modes in the style of this awesome tune.
I have always loved this tune. I wanted to try to capture the space the tune represents in my improvisation and share it with you all. It was a weird experience transcribing yourself playing. I took the time out over Covid-19 to venture into this improvisation/piece I recorded a few years back for a week.
I would like to point out that this is my version of 'Flamenco Sketches' by Bill Evans/Miles Davis. I have changed the 2nd chord to Eb-7 instead of Ab7sus as I like the root movement and sound of Eb Dorian a little better.
Wikipedia says: "Flamenco Sketches" is a jazz composition written by American jazz trumpeter Miles Davis and pianist Bill Evans. It is the fifth track on Davis's 1959 album Kind of Blue and an innovative experiment in modal jazz. The track features Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley, Paul Chambers, Jimmy Cobb and Bill Evans. The piece has no written melody, but is rather defined by a set of chord changes that are improvised over using various modes. Each musician separately chose the number of bars for each of the modal passages in his solo. Davis gets credit for the song form, but Evans is credited with the opening 4-bar vamp over Cmaj7 and G9sus4, which is the opening theme to his ballad improvisation "Peace Piece". Because of the presence of this vamp, "Flamenco Sketches" is usually played as a ballad.
The five modes used in "Flamenco Sketches" are as follows:
C Ionian (natural major scale)
A♭ Mixolydian (Major with a minor 7th)
B♭ Ionian
G Harmonic Minor over D Phrygian Dominant (alternates over bass notes D and E♭)
G Dorian
This version by Greg Lloyd is a Live solo piano improvisation on the tune "Flamenco Sketches" written by Bill Evans & Miles Davis from the album 'A Kind of Blue" by Miles Davis. I have always loved this tune.
For more information about me please check out: greglloydmusic.com.
Hope you enjoy it.
Take it easy,
Greg.
Play all 12 Diminished 7 Chords as Broken Chords and Chords on the Piano (2 hands - 2 Octaves ) By Greg Lloyd - FREE Sheet Music below
For me this exercise is a great “chops” builder, I still do it today. It is also a great way to learn what the 12 diminished 7th chords are while working on your technique at the same time.
So what is a diminished 7? A diminished 7 is a interval produced by narrowing a minor seventh by a chromatic semitone which is en-harmonically equivalent to a major sixth.
A good way to look at the diminished 7 chord is to think of it as all minor thirds. For example the C˚7 (Cdim7) chord the C to Eb is a minor 3rd, then Eb to Gb is a minor third and Gb to A is another minor third. The diminished 7th is a 6th.
Sometimes you see the diminished chord written with the double flat (bb) on the b7th note shown below:
I like to make the - double flat - a 6th instead to make it easier to read and that is what is in this exercise below.
Both ways of looking at it are of course correct as you get the same result.
The diminished 7th chord is a special chord as it can be more than one chord depending which note you start on within the chord. So C˚7 could be - C˚7, Eb°7, Gb°7 and A°7 as all these chords are made of the same notes! Db˚7, E˚7, G˚7 and Bb˚7 are all made from the same notes PLUS - D˚7, F˚7, Ab˚7 and B˚7 are…yes! You guessed it, all made up from the same notes!
So this exercise in the FREE PDF moves through these inversions/chords of the 3 diminished chords using C˚7, Db˚7 and D˚7 as a starting point. Have a look below…
If you move the above exercise up a half step (semi-tone) to Db you will get 4 more diminished chords.
Then do the same exercise again up another half step to D and you will get the last 4 diminished chords.
Above are all 12 Diminished 7 chords as broken chords.
If you play the 4-notes under the diminished chord together you will get the Diminished 7 chord. How cool is that!
One last thing is that I have seen this chord written a few ways on chord charts:
dim7
˚7
sometimes only with the ˚
Later in future videos I am going to deep dive more into this topic and show you how to use these exercises in your playing on the piano so stay-tuned for that!
So for now check out the full exercise BELOW and GRAB all three C-Db-D diminished exercises on the FREE sheet music above now!
Grab this exercise in C - Db and D diminished above in FREE PDF.
Take it easy,
Greg.
P.S. If you have a question or a topic you would like me to cover leave a comment below or email me at: greg@classicaltojazzpiano.com
My secret tip to playing Rootless major II - V - I in all 12 keys - II min 7 (9) - V 7 (flat9) (flat13) - I maj7 (9) in all 12 keys - By Greg Lloyd - free sheet music below
This lesson is for the more advance jazz player. Jazz is full of the II - V - I progression. To be a jazz pianist you really have to be able to play all the 12 major and minor - II - V - I's and be able to produce variations of these II - V - I's in the required key in real time when required. Jazz pianists are always looking for variations with chord voicings so I thought I would share some voicings I use. This lesson is showing you a cool rootless (no root notes) major - II - V - I in all 12 keys with a 9 on the II minor 7 chord, a b9 and b13 on the V dominant 7 chord and a 9 on the I major 7 chord. This is a great major II - V - I and I still use it today.
Notice the semitone movement in the right hand. This will help you play it fluently.
I hope it helps.
Take it easy,
Greg.