Learn jazz by listening, understanding, and playing.

42 practical guides from Jazzify for jazz pianists and curious listeners.

• 20 Essential Jazz Pianists: A Listening and Style Guide

  Meet 20 essential jazz pianists, compare their styles, find a gateway recording for each, and turn close listening into practical piano study.

• 3 Essential Wayne Shorter Albums: A Discography Guide

  Compare three essential Wayne Shorter albums across acoustic post-bop, Brazilian collaboration, and 1980s ensemble writing, with piano practice cues.

• 5 Essential Bill Evans Albums: A Listening Guide

  Discover five essential Bill Evans albums with verified dates, personnel, listening notes, and practical lessons for jazz piano trio study.

• 5 Essential Bud Powell Albums: A Bebop Piano Listening Guide

  Explore five essential Bud Powell albums with verified recording and release history, personnel, and practical lessons for bebop piano study.

• 5 Essential Cannonball Adderley Albums: A Discography Guide

  Explore five essential Cannonball Adderley albums with accurate credits, personnel, recording context, listening cues, and jazz piano lessons.

• 5 Essential Chick Corea Albums: Acoustic, Electric, and Beyond

  Explore five essential Chick Corea albums with verified dates, credits, personnel, and lessons from acoustic jazz, fusion, and Latin rhythm.

• 5 Essential Herbie Hancock Albums: From Acoustic Jazz to Electric Funk

  Explore five essential Herbie Hancock albums, from modal Blue Note sessions to Head Hunters, Future Shock, and a modern acoustic tribute.

• 5 Essential John Coltrane Albums: A Discography Guide

  Explore five essential John Coltrane albums with verified release context, personnel, listening cues, and practical lessons for jazz piano study.

• 5 Essential McCoy Tyner Albums: A Listening Guide

  Explore five essential McCoy Tyner albums with verified dates, leader credits, personnel, and lessons in quartal harmony and pentatonic playing.

• 5 Essential Miles Davis Albums: A Guide to His Changing Sound

  Explore five essential Miles Davis albums in chronological order, from acoustic hard bop and modal jazz to orchestral and electric studio music.

• 5 Essential Oscar Peterson Albums: A Listening Guide

  Explore five essential Oscar Peterson albums with verified dates, trio formats, personnel, and lessons in swing, blues, block chords, and touch.

• 5 Essential Sonny Rollins Albums: A Discography Guide

  Compare five essential Sonny Rollins albums and learn how his themes, rhythm, trio formats, and calypso language can shape your jazz practice.

• 5 Essential Thelonious Monk Albums: A Listening Guide

  Explore five essential Thelonious Monk albums with verified dates, formats, personnel, and lessons in space, dissonance, motif, and timing.

• 5 Essential Wes Montgomery Albums: A Listening Guide

  Explore five essential Wes Montgomery albums, compare his small-group and orchestral periods, and translate his guitar ideas into piano practice.

• 5 Essential Wynton Kelly Albums: A Listening Guide

  Explore five essential Wynton Kelly albums with verified dates, leader credits, personnel, and lessons in swing, blues, and piano comping.

• Best Apps for Jazz Practice in 2026: Piano, Ear Training, and Improvisation

  Compare the best apps for jazz practice in 2026, including tools for backing tracks, transcription, rhythm, listening, and guided piano study.

• Blue Train by John Coltrane: Album Guide and Listening Notes

  Explore John Coltrane’s Blue Train album with verified personnel, the original five-track program, and focused notes on Moment’s Notice harmony.

• How to Build Jazz Piano Voicings with Chord Tensions

  Learn how to build jazz piano voicings by identifying chord tones, choosing available tensions, avoiding clashes, and applying a diatonic practice formula.

• How to Learn Jazz Piano by Yourself: A Beginner’s Roadmap

  Learn jazz piano by yourself with a clear beginner roadmap covering goals, chords, rhythm, ear training, repertoire, improvisation, and weekly practice.

• How to Transcribe Jazz Piano Solos: A Practical Beginner’s Method

  Learn how to transcribe jazz piano solos with a beginner-friendly method for choosing excerpts, hearing rhythm and pitch, analyzing phrases, and applying ideas.

• Jazz Chord Tensions Explained: 9ths, 11ths, and 13ths

  Understand jazz chord tensions, including natural and altered 9ths, 11ths, and 13ths, available tensions, avoid notes, and practical piano examples.

• Jazz Piano Block Chords: Passing Diminished Chords and Drop 2 Voicings

  Learn jazz piano block chords with locked hands, passing diminished chords, bebop scale harmonization, Drop 2 voicings, and practical song examples.

• Jazz Piano Chords for Beginners: What to Learn First

  Learn jazz piano chords for beginners in a practical order: intervals, triads, essential seventh chords, inversions, ii-V-I progressions, and chord practice.

• Jazz Piano Left-Hand Voicings: Diatonic 7th Chords with Tensions

  Learn jazz piano left-hand voicings for diatonic seventh chords, including rootless shapes with 9ths and 13ths, voice leading, and transposition practice.

• Jazz Piano Technique for Beginners: What Actually Matters

  Build jazz piano technique for beginners with practical work on time, accuracy, touch, chord movement, articulation, coordination, and a focused routine.

• Kind of Blue: Album Guide, Personnel, and Listening Notes

  Explore the Kind of Blue album, with verified recording dates, track-specific personnel, the original track list, and focused listening notes.

• Maiden Voyage by Herbie Hancock: Album Guide and Listening Notes

  Explore Herbie Hancock’s Maiden Voyage album with verified session details, personnel, original track list, and focused piano listening notes.

• Moanin’ by Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers: Album Guide

  Explore Art Blakey’s Moanin’ album with its original title history, verified personnel and track list, plus gospel, blues, and rhythm notes.

• Music Intervals for Piano Beginners: A Practical Guide

  Learn music intervals for piano with simple keyboard exercises. Count note names correctly, handle sharps and flats, and practice intervals above and below.

• Portrait in Jazz by Bill Evans Trio: Album Guide and Listening Notes

  Explore the Portrait in Jazz album with verified session details, personnel, original track list, and notes on voice leading and trio interplay.

• Red Garland: Biography, Piano Style, and Block Chords

  Explore Red Garland’s biography, Miles Davis years, leader albums, blues-based comping, and distinctive seven-note block chord piano style.

• Saxophone Colossus by Sonny Rollins: Album Guide and Listening Notes

  Explore Sonny Rollins’s Saxophone Colossus album with verified dates, personnel, original track list, and practical jazz listening notes.

• Secondary Dominant Chords: How They Work in Jazz

  Learn how secondary dominant chords temporarily tonicize diatonic targets, how to label V7 of V and other dominants, and how to find them in jazz.

• Somethin’ Else by Cannonball Adderley: Album Guide and Listening Notes

  Explore Cannonball Adderley’s Somethin’ Else album with verified personnel, the original track list, Miles Davis’s role, and piano notes.

• Speak No Evil by Wayne Shorter: Album Guide and Listening Notes

  Explore Wayne Shorter’s Speak No Evil album with verified recording and release details, personnel, original track list, and piano notes.

• The Altered Scale for Jazz Piano: Notes, Chords, and Practical Uses

  Learn the altered scale for jazz piano: its notes, Super Locrian and melodic minor connections, altered V7 uses, and tritone-substitute applications.

• The ii–V–I Progression: A Jazz Piano Beginner’s Guide

  Learn how the ii V I progression works in jazz, build it in major keys, recognize temporary key changes, and practice it on piano in all twelve keys.

• The Seven Jazz Modes on Piano: A Practical Guide

  Learn the seven jazz modes for piano with interval formulas, parent major scales, keyboard examples, chord connections, and a practical modal routine.

• Two-Handed Jazz Piano Voicings: Tension and Resolution

  Learn two-handed jazz piano voicings with Drop 2 shapes, top-note choices, altered dominant colors, tension and resolution, and progression exercises.

• Type A and Type B Rootless Voicings for Jazz Piano

  Learn Type A and Type B rootless voicings for jazz piano, choose between 3-5-7-9 and 7-9-3-5 shapes, and connect ii-V-I chords smoothly.

• Waltz for Debby by Bill Evans Trio: Album Guide and Listening Notes

  Explore the Waltz for Debby album with its verified Village Vanguard date, trio personnel, original track list, and focused piano notes.

• Your First Jazz Jam Session: A Beginner’s Preparation Guide

  Prepare for your first jazz jam session with a practical checklist for tunes, form, comping, soloing, stage communication, etiquette, and recovery.