Cocktail Piano

In this lesson I will break down my basic steps for learning cocktail piano techniques!

We will use Fly My To The Moon as a learning vehicle to breakup concepts into: Introductions, Accompaniment & Style.

By working on these concepts, you will start to unravel how to play in a cocktail piano style.

So what exactly do I mean by Cocktail piano style?

This means you know how to create introductions, endings, solos and change styles for any lead sheet. To get the most out of this lesson, you should be familiar with how to read songs from a lead sheet.

I will show you how to create three different types of introductions for the song. You’ll learn how to create swing-, ballad- and latin-style introductions using a 2-5 pattern and a line-cliche pattern.

Never heard of a line-cliche? Well, it is very popular and you’ll know the sound once you hear it!

After creating our introductions for the song, I’ll show you six different types of accompaniment styles. You’ll learn ballad, swing, bassline, rag, latin and bassline accompaniment styles which you can bring into your own arrangements.

You’ll be excited to see these concepts applied to the same 4-measures of the song because it lets you really see and hear the differences that subtle changes can make to your arrangements!