Jazz Piano for Classical Players
Lesson 1: From the score to a lead sheet
Goal: read a lead sheet, understand what it’s asking you to do, and know which classical habits to keep and which to drop.
What a jazz pianist actually reads
A classical score tells you every note. A jazz lead sheet gives you only two things:
- The melody, written on a single treble staff.
- Chord symbols above it, such as Dm7 or G7, telling you the harmony under each bar.
Everything else (the left hand, the voicings, the rhythm, the intro, the ending, the solo) is up to you. The famous Real Book collections are just hundreds of lead sheets bound together. A whole standard usually fits on one page.
That can feel like being handed a recipe that only lists the ingredients. The rest of this course is the method.
How to read a chord symbol
A chord symbol has two parts: the root (the letter) and the quality (everything after it).
| Symbol | Say it | Notes on C |
|---|---|---|
| C | C major | C E G |
| Cm | C minor | C Eb G |
| Cmaj7 | C major seven | C E G B |
| C7 | C seven (dominant seven) | C E G Bb |
| Cm7 | C minor seven | C Eb G Bb |
| Cm7b5 | C half-diminished | C Eb Gb Bb |
| Cdim7 | C diminished seven | C Eb Gb A (strictly Bbb) |
| C6 | C six | C E G A |
Lesson 2 goes through these properly. For now, two traps:
- “C7” is not a major seventh. A plain 7 always means the flattened seventh (Bb on C). Only “maj7” gives you the B natural.
- The same chord has several spellings. Cmaj7 might be written CM7, CΔ7 or CΔ. Cm7 might be C-7 or Cmi7. Cm7b5 is often Cø. Cdim7 is often C°7. Lesson 15 has the full list.
A slash chord such as C/E means “C chord with E in the bass”.
Classical habits to keep
- Reading. You can sight-read the melody, which most self-taught jazz players can’t. That’s a big head start.
- Technique and touch. Evenness, control and a good legato all carry over. Bill Evans studied classical piano at university and it shows in everything he played.
- Knowing your keys. Every scale you practised as a kid is useful again.
- Listening to balance. You already know how to bring out a melody over an accompaniment.
Classical habits to let go
- Playing the root in the bass all the time. In a band the bass player has it. Your left hand plays the middle of the chord instead (Lessons 3 and 6).
- Even eighth notes. Jazz eighths swing: long, short, long, short (Lesson 5).
- Heavy sustain pedal. Jazz piano uses much less. Most uptempo playing has none at all. Ballads use short, half pedals.
- Waiting for permission. Nobody has written the left hand for you. Whatever you choose, if it fits the chord symbol and you play it with confidence, it’s right.
- Fear of the wrong note. Discussed in the intro. A clash you resolve is a feature.
How a jazz tune is played
Most small-group jazz follows the same shape, and knowing it takes a lot of the mystery out:
- Intro (optional): a few bars, often the last four bars of the tune or a repeated vamp.
- The head: the melody, played once through the whole form (often 32 bars).
- Solos: each player improvises over the same chord sequence, round and round. One pass through the form is called a chorus.
- The head again, then an ending.
So the chord sequence repeats many times. Learn it once and you can play it all night.
Exercise 1
Find a lead sheet for a tune you already like (Lesson 14 lists legal sources; free charts for “Autumn Leaves” are easy to find). Without playing anything, read through it and name every chord quality: major 7, dominant 7, minor 7, half-diminished or something else. Then play just the melody, slowly, with the right hand. That’s it for today.
Sources
- Mark Levine (1989), The Jazz Piano Book, Sher Music: chapters 1 to 3 on chord symbols and basic voicings
- Mark Levine (1995), The Jazz Theory Book, Sher Music: chord symbol variations and song form
- Wikipedia, Lead sheet and The Real Book
- Wikipedia, Bill Evans: classical study at Southeastern Louisiana College