Getting started. Practice tips ; Developing your ear ; Recommended listening ; Styles ; Jazz standards ; The form of a tune ; The structure of a typical jazz performance ; The pianist's role in a jazz group
Essential theory. The chromatic scale ; The whole tone scale ; The major scale ; Intervals ; The cycle ; Swing eighth notes
Basic chords and voicings. Triads ; Four-note chords ; Shell voicings and concepts of voice leading ; Diatonic chords ; The iim7-V7-Imaj7 progression
Repertoire. Learning tunes ; Interpreting a lead sheet ; Endings ; Applying voicings
Beginning improvisation. The blues scale ; Feeling time ; The blues progression ; Improvising with chord tones ; The modes of the major scale ; The Mixolydian mode ; The Dorian mode ; Thinking about scales
Dominant vocabulary. The dominant bebop scale ; Arpeggios ; Resolution to the third ; Application to the blues ; More dominant ideas ; More about accents ; Rhythmic variations ; Phrasing
Major vocabulary. Major scale improvisation ; The major bebop scale ; Resolution to the third and fifth ; Arpeggios and other melodic ideas ; Rhythmic variations ; Improvising over common progressions ; Application to "Afternoon in Paris"
More harmony. Upper extensions ; Altered dominant extensions ; Two-handed voicings ; Harmonizing tunes ; Rootless voicings ; Comping rhythms ; Comping behind a soloist ; Soloing with the chords
More scales. The harmonic minor scale ; The Jewish or Spanish scale ; Minor II-V-I ; The Locrian mode ; The jazz melodic minor scale ; The altered scale ; The diminished scale ; Improvising with whole tone scales ; Putting it all together
More repertoire. Variations of common chord progressions ; Jazz blues ; Rhythm changes ; "Autumn leaves."