How to Reharmonize a Melody in REAL TIME

Today I'm covering one of the most sought-after skills an aspiring jazz pianist can have: how to reharmonize any melody on the spot. The ability to do so can completely open up your sound and expand your creativity over any tune you find yourself playing.

This exercise should help you to really hear alternate harmony at a more advanced level; I am also going to show you how to take a single melody note and find nearly endless harmonic options to play underneath. In other words, you'll leave today's video having the tools to create a unique chord progression under just one note.

To begin this exercise, you're going to want to choose one single melody note which is going to become the top note for all of our voicings. I've chosen F here, but I encourage you to try many different notes in your practice. Underneath this top melody note, we are simply going to move our bass note up chromatically, trying different options to harmonize with the melody. Once you have these two outer voices covered, we will fill in the space between with different chords. Continue moving the bass note up, and test your knowledge of what chords work with the two outer notes that you have playing together. As you go on, you'll being to see how our top melody note begins to take on different roles in each of the chords you create - from the root note, to the major seventh, a minor third, a sharp eleven, and so on.

The exercise doesn't have to stop there! Try some variations in the left hand changes - can you complete the same exercise, but moving up in whole steps instead of half steps? What about moving the bass note up in major thirds? These are all great ways to continue challenging yourself to come up with new chords and progressions beneath the same melody note.

For a more in-depth tutorial on how to implement this concept into your practice, check out this video:

7 MORE Sick Runs & Arpeggios Every Jazz Pianist Should Learn

In today's post, I want to take one of me previous video topics one step further by outlining seven more modern jazz piano runs and arpeggios. These selections come from my PDF bundle "20 Sick Modern Jazz Piano Licks" which you can find here for downloadable versions of these licks.

In this video, I'm going to highlight a few more of my favorite examples from this collection. These licks really focus on expanding your right-hand modern jazz vocabulary while also providing some great left-hand voicings and progressions to follow.

You might be asking yourself: What makes a lick modern? In my definition, these licks are going to include more intervallic structures as well as dissonance formulas (formulaic ways to play "out"). I really like to break these licks down into small building blocks so that you can not only learn the vocabulary, but understand why these patterns work. That way, you are more equipped to implement the theory and structures rather than simply reuse and duplicate these exact licks each time you play.

Check out the full video below to learn all seven of these licks:

6 Must-Learn Neo Soul Improv Licks

Have you ever listened to artists like Robert Glasper or Cory Henry and wondered how to get that modern, neo-soul sound in your playing? While these players have had years of playing and experience, one of the fastest ways to achieve this sound is to learn some jazz vocabulary that fits the genre. Not only will this give you ideas to draw upon during your own improvisation, but it will attune you to the different patterns and inflections involved in the captivating neo-soul style.

In today's featured video, I'm highlighting a few of my favorite excerpts from my jazz piano PDF guide, 20 Neo Soul Improv Exercises: Exercises for Mastering Neo Jazz Improv and Harmony (super clever name, I know!). If you want to check out the full PDF, you will find the exercises transcribed and written out in all keys.

These licks are going to help you focus in on all aspects of neo-jazz influenced harmony and improvisation. They are heavily inspired by the current greats of the neo-jazz style. Here are a few aspects of your playing that will be strengthened by practicing these exercises:

1. Technique

2. Improvisational right-hand vocabulary

3. Sense of harmony

Check out the video to hear the licks and practice alongside me: