I Can't Get Started: Journey Through The Real Book

A jazz piano lesson on "I Can't Get Started," using 1930's-40s jazz piano techniques such as stride and bebop-style reharmonization sound great on this "chestnut" from the Swing Era, which was a favorite of Bunny Berigan, Billie Holiday, and Lester Young.

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History and background for the jazz standard “I Can’t Get Started” 0:00
Bunny Berigan’s 1937 recording of “I Can’t Get Started” 0:31
The legendary 1930’s collaborations of Billie Holiday and Lester Young 0:58
The “Swing Song” tradition 1:13
The musical and personal friendship between Lester Young and Billie Holiday 1:29
A Billie Holiday/Lester Young story told on WKCR by Phil Schaap 1:41
The use of the “Heart and Soul” chord progression on jazz standards like “I Can’t Get Started” 2:14
Jazz harmonic variations of the “Heart and Soul” chord progression 2:22
The “Bebop chord changes” commonly used to reharmonize “I Can’t Get Started” (Bm7 E7/Bbm7 Eb7/Am7 D7/Abm7 Db7) 3:30
A very typical Swing/Bebop piano intro, beginning with a #iv half-diminished 7th chord 4:36
A medium-slow swing piano solo rendition of “I Can’t Get Started” 5:01
Playing the melody over a stride left hand accompaniment 5:09
Breaking up the left hand rhythms, for variety 5:15
A melodic fill during the turnaround 5:24
Left hand “suspended time” trills, inspired by Art Tatum 5:33
Playing the bridge’s melody while thinking about Billy Holiday’s rendition 5:46
Using the “I Can’t Get Started” bebop changes 6:10
A G pedal point in the bass during the turnaround 6:19
Improvising with block chords, in the style of Milt Buckner and George Shearing 6:23
Returning to a steady LH accompaniment, with “shell” voicings 6:58
Disguising the underlying beat, again inspired by Art Tatum 7:11
Hinting at the song’s melody 7:14
Soloing over the bebop reharmonization of “I Can’t Get Started” 7:19
A Duke Ellington chord voicing 7:33
Soloing with octaves in the right hand, in the style of Earl Hines 7:45
Developing motifs 8:00
Chromatic inner-voice motion during the bridge 8:07
The final ‘A’ section 8:25
Tritone substitutions 8:31
Going “out of tempo” 8:35
Jazz piano reharmonization in the style of Billy Taylor and Art Tatum 8:38
Returning to the Introduction’s chords for the ending 8:42
Quoting the main melody to finish 8:51
Immersing ourselves in jazz recordings from the 1930s-40s 8:59


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

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