Arts & Entertainment, Music
The Two Basic Jazz Forms
Lesson time 07:44 min
Countless jazz tunes are built around one of two simple harmonic patterns. Practice Herbie’s licks and improv ideas, and discover new opportunities to use them.
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Topics include: Learning Blues Licks • Blues Players to Draw From • Improvising Over Rhythm Changes
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In jazz, there are only two formal forms. One is called the blues. And at this point, there's 12-bar blues. And we can start in the key of C. And it's-- [PIANO PLAYING] It's like, the C-7. [PIANO PLAYING] Maybe I should count for you-- [PIANO PLAYING] --1, 2, 3, 4-- 1, 2, 3, 4-- 1, 2, 3, 4-- 4, 2, 3, 4-- 5, 2, 3, 4-- 6, 2, 3, 4-- 7, 2, 3, 4-- 8, 2, 3, 4-- 9, 2, 3, 4-- 10, 2, 3, 4-- 11, 2, 3, 4-- 12, 2, 3, 4. It's 12 bars, 12-bar blues. That's one of the forms. The other form was created by George Gershwin. And it's called rhythm, or rhythm changes. So the basic form of that sounds like this. [PIANO PLAYING] That's the second form. And a lot of tunes have been written with that form. If we take the blues-- OK, right now we're in the key of-- [PIANO PLAYING] --of F, which happens to be one of my favorite keys. I don't know why. Now this is very basic. But there are what I call the blues notes. And that's a-- [PIANO PLAYING] --a minor third-- [PIANO PLAYING] --in this case, A flat. [PIANO PLAYING] I did a turn on that. [PIANO PLAYING] And the other blue note is the-- [PIANO PLAYING] --the seventh-- [PIANO PLAYING] --which is E flat. [PIANO PLAYING] And it sounds like I'm playing in minor key. But-- [PIANO PLAYING] --down here, I'm playing a major key. [PIANO PLAYING] You know, that's the color that's in there. [PIANO PLAYING] And the B natural is another thing that's a note for-- [PIANO PLAYING] --part of the blues style, kind of basic blues style. Blues style guitar players use it a lot, use all those things-- this minor third, you know-- [PIANO PLAYING] --and the seventh-- not major seventh, but natural seventh, which is an E flat. [PIANO PLAYING] I mean, a lot of these things I got from listening to records by other people. You know-- [PIANO PLAYING] You can listen to Oscar Peterson. You can listen to-- there are old records of even Nat King Cole. Before we know him as a singer, he was a piano player. There's other people like Les McCann, who was great with the blues. Horace Silver had his own way. One thing to listen to is guitar players, blues guitar players. You know, you got BB King and a whole bunch of people that piano players kind of try to emulate on the piano. Because you can't bend notes on the piano. So instead of bending them, we just go back and forth between them. And so is our attempt to make it sound like it's bending, you know? [PIANO PLAYING] Right? That's kind of a blues technique. [PIANO PLAYING] You see that? [PIANO PLAYING] It's an attempt to make it sound kind of guitar-like. So along the way, you're going to be asked to play some of the two forms of jazz that exist now, the blues and rhythm changes. And there are thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of examples of that. But there are some interesting ways to approach the blues and to approach playing rhythm c...
About the Instructor
Herbie Hancock's jazz career started in his family's living room, listening to his favorite records and trying to play along. Now, he's one of the most celebrated musicians in the world. Join Herbie at the piano as he shares his approach to improvisation, composition, and harmony. Gain access to 10+ original piano transcriptions, including 5 exclusive solo performances.
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Herbie Hancock
Learn to improvise, compose, and develop your own sound across 25 video lessons.
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