My Lesson Plans
COURSE
Date:
Chris English’s Final Lesson Plan
Lesson Plan:
1. Tune Integration & Solo Piano
Goal: Refine your ability to arrange and improvise over full tunes and smooth out hesitations.
Step #1: Practice both block chord and broken styles for each tune.
Step #2: Phrase the melody multiple ways to create space and breath.
Step #3: Incorporate feathered comping and light RH fills
Step #4: Develop walk-ups, transitions, and tritone motion into new sections.
Step #5: Build simple intros/outros (4-8 bars) for performance flow
Step #6: EXTENSION COMBINATIONS (9ths, 11ths, 13ths): Practice applying these to your RH voicings to explore color and richness.
Step #7: Play through new ballads every day.
*New Tunes To Explore:
– You Don’t Know What Love Is
– Skylark
– Detour Ahead
– The Peacocks
– When I Fall In Love
2. Drop 2 & Diminished Movement
Goal: Strengthen control of spread voicings and harmonic motion.
Step #1: Continue to practice drop 2 movements with and without bass notes
Step #2: Focus on accuracy and voice leading in both directions
Step #3: Dive deeper into diminished setups for reharms, and voicings.
Step #4: Try using these movements inside solo piano arrangements.
3. RH Improvisation & Rhythm Control
Goal: Build stronger phrasing control through rhythm subdivision.
Step #1: Practice over ballads using iRealPro with even 8ths (no swing) Move in and out of pocket
Step #2: RH Only: Develop phrasing in 8ths, triplets, 16ths, and quarters.
Step #3: Gradually add LH components: bass notes, shells, full voicings as a support then remove ireal pro.
Step #4: Use any sort of fun improv scales like altered, half whole, blues, pentatonics, hexatonics.
4. Dexterity & Awareness
Goal: Improve finger independence and voicing fullness.
Step #1: Practice RH shapes with attention to your index finger: it should fill harmonic gaps
Step #2: Focus on slow movement control. Don’t rush transitions
Step #3: Refine subtle dynamics and voice balance between fingers.
* Recommended Listening:
These recordings will help you absorb ballad phrasing, voicing density, and elegant solo piano language.
– Bill Evans *Alone* (voicing nuance, slow phrasing)
– Keith Jarrett *The Melody At Night, With You* (space & lyricism)
– Red Garland *Groovy* (block chord articulation)
– Oscar Peterson *Tracks* (voicing clarity, swing)
– Fred Hersch *Songs Without Words* (modern textures)
*Final Encouragement*
You’re building a great foundation; now the work is about refinement. Continue prioritizing phrasing, time, and clarity. Use your arranging instincts to make even simple tunes sound elegant and complete.