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Stride piano is a simple, but very flexible style that crosses genres, from jazz to blues, to showtunes to country, gospel and more. Developing your skills with stride will make you a much more flexible pianist, as stride helps the piano act like a rhythm section as well as a melody instrument: a solid left hand stride defines the beat, keeps a song moving, fills in a bass line AND thickens out the harmony. It allows you to make the most of the piano’s range without creating a muddy, messy sound with lots of low chords.
In this tutorial I take you through the basics of stride then explore the technique in detail in the context of a D minor jazz/blues improvisation. Along the way we also think about issues relating to chord extension and development, melodic improvisation, tonality and more — while, of course, focussing on the essentials of stride and some of the variations you can use to add colour to your basic stride technique.
Download the chord progression here (PDF): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1USvihFh8pzsmqkHdlliHosaxb8a-VjKm/view?usp=sharing
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00:00 Introduction
01:57 How stride works
06:28 Chord progression for the improvisation
08:26 Improvisation playthrough
10:29 “A” section chords explained
12:46 “B” section chords explained
14:34 Tonality issues
20:18 Melodic improvisation in the right hand
24:49 Other right hand techniques, inc. licks
27:47 Other techniques to use in left hand stride
30:46 Improvisation walkthrough
42:12 Outro