Lounge Pianist....

[You]

....after just watching "Part Troll", a stand up show by Bill Bailey (legend), I was inspired to learn how to be a lounge pianist:)

Part of his act said about being a lougne pianist, and he went off doing all this jazz sort of stuff that sounded really good, but I'd like to learn stuff like that.

If you go to his webside, http://www.bill-bailey.co.uk/downloads/video.php, you can watch a video of him doing that :)

What kind of scales and chordal progressions should I be using to do stuff like that?

Cheers, You x

[AmericanWeiner]

....after just watching "Part Troll", a stand up show by Bill Bailey (legend), I was inspired to learn how to be a lounge pianist:)

Part of his act said about being a lougne pianist, and he went off doing all this jazz sort of stuff that sounded really good, but I'd like to learn stuff like that.

If you go to his webside, http://www.bill-bailey.co.uk/downloads/video.php, you can watch a video of him doing that :)

What kind of scales and chordal progressions should I be using to do stuff like that?

Cheers, You x

get a boooook :X or go read the jazz forums

[Glimmer]

I love Bill Bailey!! He combines understated humour with true musical talent. Another joke about his "temporary" jobs was his stint as a church organist at funerals. He got bored and started playing "Take Five"(Dave Brubeck) but soon realised that the "..unusual time signature detracted from the solemity of the occasion"

I think that excerpt maybe from his Bewilderness DVD.

Good heavens, Lounge Lizard, eh? you could try searching for Fake books or Real books that contain jazz standards if you already have some basic jazz piano training. If you're just starting out you could try "Jazz-Blues Piano" or "Smooth Jazz Piano" books by Mark Harrison, for example, to give you a start. Once you get reasonably proficient you might start your own jazzy chord substitutions on easy listening classics.

[Crumbumonkey5]

Isn't that the kind of stuff you just play, no books and lark.

[gaslight]

Not at all, if you want to be that kind of working musician you need to put a lot of effort into having a large and versatile repetoire.

[Firecracker]

That sounds amazing, I wish I could play Jazz piano, though I guessed I would need pretty strict lessons, as I'm being trained classicalish, but I learn DT in my spare time. Strange, Jazz is something I would really love to play though. Only specific kinds of jazz though.

Bill Bailey is grand.

[Crumbumonkey5]

Fair enough. I play jazz piano a bit and I've never read any books or had any lessons, but i was never classically trained in anything so that might help. If you just have some theory to back it up, and some jazz to listen to you can pick it up.

That's what i find to be the most important thing when you want to play a new idiom; listening to it a lot and going to gigs and just picking uo the general vibe rather than learning from a book.
Each to his own

[pianoplyr77]

Learn how to read leadsheets with chords and a melody, any fakebook will do. This might be a little bit hard to do without a teacher or book if you don't know any theory. The Jazz Piano Book by Mark Levine is a good resource. Listen to solo or trio jazz piano playing, Bill Evans is good to get a sense of what sounds good. It's going to take a lot of work to get to get good, so make sure you have practice time. Good luck, jazz is very, very difficult to play well, but is very, very fun to play.

[thickasabrick]

Yeah books are generally the way to go. You can study "music theory" off of the internet and out of books or courses...but you can also buy books that focus more on a specific genere and stuff. There are tons for various types of "lounge music" which you could learn like swing, ragtime, blues or jazz-blues, smooth jazz

I have one book that is part of a series and it's absolutely great. I skipped the beginner book (although I'm thinking I might as well buy it for the hell of it) and bought the intermediate and it taught me a fair amount about playing and writing and improvising for all different sorts of jazz...like funk and bebop and jazz-blues or swing. I think think it's targeted more towards guitarists for some reason because it's called Jazz Guitar but it explains everything in terms of notes and keys and uses Standard Notation and everything. It could be used for any instrument really although I don't remember if it included the bass clef. Guitars don't usually use the bass clef.

[Chameleon]

Good luck with this! This kind of music is amazing to listen to and if you're any good at it, you can make a decent amount of money per night for doing a couple of hours in a cocktail bar or restaurant.

[Glimmer]

Yeah, the professionals make it look easy and effortless alright.