The Well-rounded Pianist Plan

Welcome to the Well-rounded Pianist Plan

“I have access to more than 300 lessons, what should I do now?”

If your goal is to become a pianist, this practice plan is for you. We will cover Jazz, Blues, Pop, Contemporary Piano, Funk and Latin music. My experience is that you need to know a little bit of everything in order to survive as a musician 😉

Let’s start.

Goal NÂș 1

CheckPoint 1: Blues Improvisation

I see many beginner students who want to improvise over difficult (jazzy) chord progressions, where they have to follow the standard AABA form and change the scales after every 4 seconds. So they learn a bunch of scales, licks, voicings. They learn everything about the theory, but in the end, they still not able to improvise. Why? There is no way that you are going to be able to do that if you are not able to improvise freely with one single scale! So don’t worry about the theory, don’t over analyze music, just play!
To reach the level of improvisation that presented in the video, follow the following practice plan.
If you are an absolute beginner I recommend you to spread this program out over 3 to 6 months.

I. Sight Reading & Coordination Exercises
II. Improvisation
III. Sight Reading & Coordination Exercises
IV. Improvisation
V. Sight Reading & Coordination Exercises
VI. Improvisation
VII. Sight Reading & Coordination Exercises
VIII. Rhythm Workout
IX. Expanding Rhythm Vocabulary for Improvisation
X. Challenge
XI. Licks
XII: Jam with your friends
XIII: Songs (My Compositions)
XIV. Composition
XV. Rhythm Workout (Two-Feel Bass Lines + Jazz Trio)
XVI. Revisiting Checkpoint No.1
Test your skills, and decide if you are ready to move to the next section:
Congratulation. If you went through all these lessons, you can stop calling yourself a beginner.

Goal NÂș2

We are not done with blues, but let’s put it on hold for a while, because I don’t want you to get tired of it.
Time to change the genre, tonality, express melancholy and improve your left-hand techniques.
To reach Goal no. 2 will take over 3 or 6 months. However, I believe it is going to be quite effortless and fun.

I. Sight Reading & Coordination Exercises
(From Lesson 66 to Lesson 73)
II. Basic Improvisation Exercises
(From Lesson 74 to Lesson 77)
III. Sight Reading – Low Intermediate Approach
(From Lesson 78 to Lesson 83)

NOTE: If the speed of the demonstration feels very slow to you, jump to Sight Reading – High Intermediate Approach

 

IV. Sight Reading – High Intermediate Approach
V. Compositional Improvisation
  • MAKING MUSIC WITH THE CORE LESSONS
    Collect your favorite parts from the etudes you have learned so far, and mix them up. You can’t go wrong. All the core lessons are in the key of E minor, so whatever you decide to glue together, will fit, no worries. Feel free to change things around to your taste, also, you might want to add parts, that wasn’t in the curriculum. That is completely fine. I did that too.
VI. Left-Hand Accompaniment
(Lesson 84 – Lesson 85)
VII. Improvisation
(From Lesson 86 to Lesson 92)
VIII: Rhythm Workout
(From Lesson 93 to Lesson 96)
IX. Duet Part
(Lesson 97)
X. Improvisation (Mindset)
XI. Reading lead sheets
XII. Improvisation
XIII. Songs
(From Lesson 98 to Lesson 105)
XIV. Piano Fingering Exercises
XV. Checkpoint

Test your skills, and decide if you are ready to move to the next section:

Goal NÂș3

Checkpoint 3: Blues Challenge (Explosive)

If you are at an intermediate level, I recommend you to spread this program out over 3 to 6 months.

I. Scales
(From Lesson 113 to Lesson 115)
II: Improvisation
(From Lesson 116 to Lesson 120)
III: Creative Practicing 101
(From Lesson 121 to Lesson 128)
VI. Powerful Chord Progressions
(Lesson 129 – Lesson 130)
V. Rhythm Workout – 8th Note Rest Workout
(Two-Feel Bass Lines + STRIDE + Jazz Trio)
VI. Test your skills
Congratulation! Now you can play blues just like me.

Are we done now? No, no… We are just getting started.

Goal NÂș4

 This section is just about having fun playing the piano.

I. POP-BLUES
II. FUNK
III. JAZZ
VI. FOLK
V. POP & CONTEMPORARY

Goal NÂș5

Time to be a beginner again.  We will even revisit some lessons. Since you have good control over the piano, you have to look the core lessons from an entirely different perspective now. Therefore I strongly recommend you to start here:

Keeping that Jazz Beginner Mindset, you will find even the absolute beginner lessons useful to you.
When you open a lesson, you will see the video on the top and under that, you will find a practice plan. It helps you to get the best out of the lesson. I expect you to complete everything that written in the description. If you only do what shown in the video, you will not get very far. However, if you follow my advice and work through all the additional exercises, in 6 months, you will be a well-rounded jazz pianist.

I. Five-Finger Scale and Improvisation Exercises
II. Chords – Major Triads
III. Composition
IV. Pop Improvisation (Composition) in all 12 Major Keys
V. Advanced Five-Finger Routines
VI. Ear Training – Transposition – Composition
VII. Theory – Basics – Workout
VIII. Jazz-Blues Improvisation
(Major Pentatonic and Major Blues)
IX. Jazz Routines & Jazz Hanon
X. Walking Bass
XI. Major Triad Etude
XII. Ear Training
XIII. Minor Triads Etude
XIV. Arpeggios – Major
XV. Arpeggios – Minor
XVI. Jazz-Blues Workout in the key of Bb
XVII. Jazz-Blues Workout in the key of F
XVIII. Rhythm Workout (Two-Feel Bass Lines + Stride + Walking Bass + Jazz Trio)
XIX. Elements of Jazz Improvisation 
XX. Advanced 12 Bar Jazz-Blues Workout in the key of Bb
XXI. C Jazz-Blues Workout

 

Keep an eye on this list, because it is growing every week in every direction.
To make it easy to spot the new lessons, I will highlight it for a week, adding a big “NEW!” sign next to it, or something… you will not miss it, no worries 🙂

Final Words...

If you are still not sure where to start or how to approach these lessons, feel free to contact me. In order to give you good advice and guidance, I would need the following information from you:

  • Your name, age, and main motivation.
  • A link where I can see or hear you playing any of my exercises from this practice plan. (Unlisted youtube link, mp3 file, etc.) If you are not a member yet, please chose a lesson from my Youtube Channel. Play the entire exercise from the beginning to the end with a steady beat and let me know how long time did it take you to complete the lesson. If the recording is about improvisation, please improvise at least for 1 minute (with a steady beat).
  • How much time do you have for practice?
  • Are you working on the additional exercises too?
  • What lessons have you already completed or are still working on?
  • What is your next short-term goal? Is it ok if I tell you that you should change that goal?:)

 

Most of the time you think that your problem will be solved if you learn more about theory, scales, and licks, but then I come and tell you that all you have to do first is to keep the rhythm.