April In Paris: Journey Through The Real Book #19 (Jazz Piano Lesson)

Relaxed stride jazz piano on this beautiful jazz standard from the 1930s!

Take your LH playing to the next level with my free ebook: Jazz Piano Left Hand Techniques:
https://keyboardimprov.com/jazz-left-...

azz piano solo and musical/historical discussion of the 1930’s jazz ballad “April In Paris,” which was composed by Vernon Duke.


You'll find my book, The Inner World of Piano Improvisation, on Amazon.

Taking a Journey Through The Real Book 0:00
History of “April In Paris” 0:19
Relaxed, stride piano as played by my teachers Billy Taylor and Hale Smith 0:38
Harmonizing the melody with block chords 2:12
Chromatic inner-voice movement 2:31
Improvising fills between melody phrases 2:38
Bringing in a slow stride feel with the left hand 2:57
Walking 10ths with the left hand 3:06
A left hand melodic fill 3:21
Building an improvised solo around the song’s melody 3:39
Embellishing the melody during the bridge and last ‘A’ section 4:21
Improvising with right hand octaves 4:49
Using tremolos 5:06
Romantic-style chordal textures 5:38
A semi-rubato pianistic interpretation 6:25
A 1930’s-style ending 7:34
A chromatically descending chord sequence 7:41
Playing the main melodic motif to finish 7:46
The value of playing a jazz tune for one full hour 7:55

Here are some more Free Jazz Piano Lessons for you at the KeyboardImprov website:
https://keyboardimprov.com/free-begin...

If you'd like some fun jazz rhythm and ear training exercises, you'll enjoy this ebook I created:
Essential Training For Jazz Pianists
https://gum.co/OIPmy

Thanks for joining me on this musical adventure, and please LIKE, COMMENT and SHARE this video with your musical friends.

If you'd like to start my full video course, you'll find it here:
https://keyboardimprov.com/get-starte...

For Zoom and Skype lessons, please email me at [email protected].

Enjoy the journey, and "let the music flow!"
Ron