With cocktail you can just start with your chords and your lead and sort of put together an arrangement on the fly. The turnaround progression chord shells rootless voicings. Repertoire in general, pianists should have about 1 hour of material that they can play competently before being ready for a solo piano gig. Jazz piano solos series volume 46 and millions of other books are available for amazon kindle. I first added a video about cocktail piano to my youtube channel in 2010, and i. Cocktail piano learning a song in cocktail piano style youtube.
Cocktail piano by various softcover sheet music for piano. Individual part, lead sheet, piano reduction, solo part. Fun piano video sessions, free articles, and lots of help youre sure to appreciate. First 50 classical pieces you should play on the piano. My repertoire is too large to be able to list here in its entirety so i have listed below the songs i am most frequently asked to play. Cocktail piano jazz piano solos series volume 31 hal. Ive tried to include the most popular requests along with my favorites. Jazz cocktails published by santorella publications is designed for the skilled pianist, who is able to read quite well, but is no oscar peterson when it comes to improvisation. I had only played a few songs from this book but a few days later played i left my heart in san francisco. Cocktail pianist on cruise ship repertoire, advice so, recently i received an offer to become cocktail pianist on cruise ship, first contract starts in june.
Well look at the basics of chord extension, basic chord substitution. Cocktail piano is a collection of brilliant arrangements of jazz, pop and even classical standards that are simply too good to be kept in the background. Ive learnt some lessons along the way and i will share them here in my blog. Cocktail piano by various softcover sheet music for. If one of your goals is to learn how to play cocktail piano and understand how to read from a fake book, then this is the most important lesson to begin with. Most requested cocktail piano tunes cocktail piano lessons. When used together, the books give students a deep understanding of the art of music, performance practices, and the necessary skills to play the piano with technical ease. Its mostly an issue of learning how to decode chord symbols the way you might decode notes on regular sheet music. I could do with some of your collective wisdom ive been asked to play some background piano music at an event where people will be chatting over the music and milling around. Level 3b offers appealing repertoire for a smooth transition to the intermediate level.
Cocktail pianist on cruise ship repertoire, advice. These volumes are the ultimate resource for examinations of the royal conservatory certificate program, recitals, festivals. Piano solo, easy piano easybeginner digital download composed by johann pachelbel 16531706. Misty fly me to the moon happy birthday over the rainbow unforgettable what a wonderful. I was asked by some friends if i would play the cocktail hour at their wedding i dont usually do that sort of thing its generally just a hobby for me alone and i agreed.
American piano repertoire, level 1 by book sheet music. The exploring piano classics series pairs motivating performance repertoire with thoughtful technical studies. As a classical musician and teacher, ive dabbled in some pieces like gershwin, big band and such, but this is a fabulous book. Watch these short videos to find out all about this unique approach. I suggest we use it as a place to discuss the technical challenges of playing background piano in lounges, bars, and hotel lobbies. A tutorial for all those people who have been asking for more material on cocktail piano. An introduction to cocktail piano bills piano pages. A great collection of 15 piano solo arrangements along with audio tracks of al demonstrating each arrangement. Thats probably between 1015 tunes, and its best if theyre memorized. Finally, for everyone whos been asking for the past year and more. Even today, after more than 5 million views and 41,000 subscribers, i probably get more requests for information about cocktail than anything else. It was a very nice stint there, i got along very well with the friendly staff and guests. There are some tunes in the cocktail piano repertoire that are more traditionally thought of as pop, but have a very distinctive jazz or pianocentric. Maurice hinson, senior professor of piano at the southern baptist theological seminary and was founding editor of the journal of the american liszt society.
Learn some basic chord progressions before you learn standards. As my my long term 710 years goal is to be a cocktail pianist i am still in the beginning stages i was wondering if we could compile a list of songs every cocktail pianist must know. Much better than the normal song books which have the melody. He played for about 5 hours and skillfully performed a repertoire of holiday classics and a perfect mix of standard classics which added to the holiday flair. We will work step by step through this chapter on elementary basic principles. Can you drop your hands on a ii v7 i in g or bb without much thought. Hello cocktail pianists of the future, this thread is a response to requests ive received from readers of the lets talk weddings thread. I approach the majority of my jazz repertoire by lumping tunes into a few different categories. My accompanist found a lovely book of jazzy piano versions of jazz standards. Jazz piano solos series volume 31 and millions of other books are available for amazon kindle. Ive seen a few posts about people playing restaurants and parties for the first time and asking about styles repertoire, and i figured this might be a good resource.
Level 3b product categories faber piano adventures. He is known for his many books on piano repertoire, more than 100 articles, videos, and lecture recitals, especially on early american piano music. In this lesson, youre going to learn 3 exercises to master cocktail jazz piano improv. If single volumes of repertoire are desired at each of the 11 levels, the essential piano repertoire books. Great jazzy transcriptions and not impossible to play for an average pianist cocktail piano. It would mean ive to drop my current notmusic related job, but its other story. Cocktail piano is one of the most popular styles i talk about on my youtube piano channel. A tutorial for all those people who have been asking for.
Piano repertoire preparatory a to level 10 the piano repertoire books provide a representative collection of pieces from the baroque, classical, romantic, and contemporary style periods. Eric recently played our baby grand piano during a christmas party, and he was a delightful addition to the festive atmosphere. Each level contains a repertoire book with cd and a technique book, both with convenient pagebypage correlation. Shop and buy american piano repertoire, level 1 sheet music. When i play in public for older crowds, this is definitely the book of choice because it has more songs they easily. Cocktail piano standards by softcover audio online sheet. Blitzbooks rote repertoire combines the concepts of rote and reading, as well as teaching the invaluable skills of listening, analysing, memorising and composing. Enter your mobile number or email address below and well send you a link to download the free kindle app. I guess technically cocktail is usually improvised, but not in the same sense that a jazz solo over changes is. To be able to develop your own stylish piano arrangements from songs you first need a good fundamental knowledge of harmony. Bill hilton has released a 60 page annotated cocktail piano e book and accompanying 1. Jazzheavy tunes generally speaking, i dont play tunes like giant steps, impressions, donna lee, or 262 on the average solo piano.
As i say in the tutorial, the main thing is to know your chords well, and feel comfortable with all the different inversions under your fingers on the piano keyboard. Diatonic harmony by diatonic harmony, we mean the chords that can be created using the notes of the normal major scales. Blue moon cocktails for two dream a little dream of me fly me to the moon in other words georgia on my mind hey there i left my heart in san francisco im in the mood for love the lady is a. Knowing how to make the five basic jazz chord types from any given note is fundamental to your evolving understanding of playing piano by chord concept. Hal leonard cocktail piano standards bookcd piano solos. Backgroundcocktail bar piano repertoire viva piano forums. I am a classical pianist and have been playing for over 20 years. Jazz piano cocktails volume 1 arranged by bob kail is where this entire series began. This one covers a basic exercise that you can use to practise cocktail and lounge piano. I first added a video about cocktail piano to my youtube channel in 2010, and i was surprised how popular it was. Compiled to suit everyones tastes, these tunes are collated in a handy, spiralbound book making each song a pleasure to play. It definitely gets the job done and have received many compliments on the performed pieces.