We publish free piano lessons and tips. Late Beginner to Early Intermediate: You have some familiarity with the basics of music, and have learned a few pieces. For more great solo ideas, check out our popular 10-Lesson Blues Challenge (Level 2, Level 3) courses. Smartsheets provide audio playback, light-up key notation, transposition, looping, and other learning tools. Art Tatum and especially Nat King Cole were important influences on Peterson’s style.. Oscar Emmanuel Peterson was born on August 15, 1925, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. . A fter the piano virtuoso Art Tatum died in 1956, Oscar Peterson - … The Minor Blues scale is a 6-note scale consisting of the notes C  Eb F F# G Bb. At age six, Peterson was already receiving formal training in classical music, but as he grew he wanted to play in the looser, more improvisational style of the great swing bands and their pianists, such as Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Teddy Wilson. Not too difficult, huh? You'll learn beautiful jazz chords, fills, and more. This scale is commonly used when soloing over Dominant chords. Excellent! No one will ever be able to take his place.”, Dave Brubeck, a modernist five years Peterson’s senior, said in an email that after first hearing Peterson, “I was in awe. Oscar Peterson - Jazz Exercises, Minuets, Etudes & Pieces for Piano: Jazz Exercises, Minuets, Etudes and Pieces for Piano - Kindle edition by Peterson, Oscar. It is often played in 8th notes with the Major 7th occurring as a passing tone on an upbeat causing all the downbeats to outline the chord tones of a Dominant 7th chord. Let’s look these ingredients one-by-one. Submit your request below and we'll add it to our workshop request list. Sometimes the trio was completed with a drummer, most frequently Ed Thigpen. A great way to create variety and build excitement in a solo is to use harmonized lines. He was associated with Granz for most of the rest of his career, touring Oscar Peterson Trio Newport Jazz Festival, Rhode Island, July 1959 Oscar Peterson had the greatest regard for the playing of Art Tatum and both pianist had many things in common one of them being an abundance of technique. He was a master of boogie, blues, ragtime, stride, swing, gospel and bebop. This is simply arpeggiating the chord. Submit it below and we'll include an answer in our upcoming Q&A Submissions video. Get them delivered to your inbox. In 1973, Times of London music critic John S. Wilson wrote, “For the last 20 years, Oscar Peterson has been one of the most dazzling exponents of the flying fingers school of piano playing. Are you ready for the next ingredient? (For readers unfamiliar with Tatum, I highly recommend this youtube.com example of his piano mastery on the Jerome Kern standard “Yesterdays.” Peterson’s initial exposure to Tatum was supposedly so confidence shaking that the young man ceased playing entirely for a period of several months. Check it out. He is considered one of the greatest jazz pianists, and played thousands of concerts worldwide in a career la… He mastered the balance between technique, hard blues grooving, and tenderness. Learn how to play the classic Holiday song Chestnuts Roasting On an Open Fire in a jazz ballad piano style. If these scales are less familiar to you, you can get a refresher in our Quick Tip entitled Essential Blues Piano Scales: Major & Minor Blues Scale. He even had to learn how to play the blues.”. By his mid-teenage years, Peterson’s prodigious performances led to talent show awards and almost legendary status with bands and in venues around Montreal and Toronto. 2014 Miles Davis Flamenco Sketches . Oscar Peterson learned piano from his father, beginning a career in which he became world famous for his strong technique and powerful sense of … Oscar Peterson, Canadian jazz pianist best known for his dazzling solo technique. For a note-by-note guide on analyzing and constructing solo ideas, check out our courses on Breaking Down A Jazz Solo (Level 2, Level 3). London House was the Peterson that finally made me a big appreciator. oscar peterson: boss piano! I hope you enjoyed today’s lesson. Oscar Peterson Biography by Scott Yanow + Follow Artist. They are available for digital viewing and print purchase. Oscar Peterson On Piano Jazz Oscar Peterson was one of the giants of jazz piano. He will be dearly missed, but always remembered. Genuine artistic expression takes varied forms. Peterson continued to perform publicly until quite recently, despite arthritis that required the frequent use of a wheelchair. On others, it was rounded out by a guitarist, usually either Herb Ellis or Barney Kessel, the instrumentation used by the Nat King Cole trio. . A native of Montreal, the Canadian pianist began performing professionally as a teenager, including an appearance at Carnegie Hall in 1949 at age 16. In 1949 Peterson went to the United States, where he appeared in one of jazz promoter Norman Granz’s concerts at Carnegie Hall, New York City. I remember the first time I heard Oscar Peterson play the piano and I thought, “I want to play jazz just like that!” Ever since, he has been one of my favorite jazz pianists. Oscar was probably the most prodigious piano player ever in the history of jazz in terms of technique. Somewhat isolated from the artistic cauldron of New York City, where the basic tenets of jazz rhythm and harmony were undergoing critical reworking by musicians roughly his age (including the brilliant pianist Bud Powell—1924-1966), Peterson assimilated and perfected a more traditional style based on boogie-woogie, stride and other four-to-the-bar techniques. Submit a video and get feedback from Jonny in the monthly Student Assessment. After his passing in 2007, a Los Angeles Times article recounted his vast musical contribution with acknowledgements from jazz pianists Herbie Hancock, fellow Canadian Diana Krall, Dave Brubeck, Marian McPartland and producer Quincy Jones. Next we have an ascending G Augmented triad over a G7 chord. Decades later Peterson would pay homage to Cole—the piano great turned pop star—by recording a piano album featuring vocals that sound remarkably like Cole himself. Born with a naturally perfect pitch, he learned to play classical piano from his older sister Daisy, who also taught piano to Montreal pianist Oliver Jones. For the Amazon.com link, click here.). Our first example is an ascending F# fully-diminished 7th chord. International Committee of the Fourth International. All rights reserved. art tatum: king hell! There is no question that Peterson has been a driving force in building the audience for straight-ahead jazz, but at the same time he has done relatively little to expand its artistic parameters. Thanks for learning with me, and see you in the next piano Quick Tip! Mon 4 Jul 2005 06.54 EDT. They can be used for both playing the head of a tune and also for accompanying yourself when you’re improvising. In the next lick, Oscar Peterson combines notes from the Minor Blues Scale and the Major Blues Scale, using both the 6 and the ♭7. They are all instantly downloadable. Oscar Peterson is one of the greatest piano technicians of all time. Peterson’s first JATP performance was at a 1949 Carnegie Hall concert, where—although added to the bill so late that he was not even advertised—he brought down the house with his amazing technique and energy. Our next scale is closely related to the Mixolydian Scale. Oscar Peterson was a famous jazz pianist who won eight Grammy Awards throughout his long and illustrious career. Peterson was himself somewhat critical of Powell, perhaps the most influential modern jazz pianist, calling his playing “uneven and unfinished.” Peterson was a perfectionist—there is not a mistake or bad measure in the thousands of hours he recorded—but at the same time there is a noticeable absence of those special moments that only someone willing to risk sounding “uneven” or “unfinished” can realize.