Jon Cleary
Jon Cleary is a British-born American funk and R&B musician based in New Orleans, Louisiana, where he has studied the musical culture and life of New Orleans for 35 years.
June 21 · 2023
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Seminar Description
Seminar Description
A beginner’ guide to funk piano with Grammy winning blues and funk specialist Jon Cleary. Ask questions live or submit in them advance and tune in to listen to some funky New Orleans Blues.
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Beginner’s Guide To Funk Piano
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Hey everyone,
Tomorrow I will add the light-up keyboard and improve the mic/piano balance.
Cheers,
Hayden
Wow. Great seminar! Going to get stuck into this v soon.
That was a fantastic seminar and really brought a smile to my face! Thank you!
for someone who just joined, what is the recommended path of courses to take to be able to play funk piano?
Hi Renan,
From a harmonic standpoint, I recommend the following courses:
Extended Harmony: https://www.pianogroove.com/jazz-piano-lessons/extended-chords-voicings/
Rootless Harmony: https://www.pianogroove.com/jazz-piano-lessons/left-hand-voicings/
Altered Harmony: https://www.pianogroove.com/jazz-piano-lessons/altered-harmony-upper-structure-triads/
This harmonic theory is essential for playing any style of modern improvised music (jazz, blues, gospel, funk, Brazilian, cuban etc…)
I would also recommend to study walking bass lines to develop a strong left hand: https://www.pianogroove.com/?s=walking+bass
Finally, learning from our favourite recordings is very important, particularly with a rhythmically-nuanced style like funk music, and so working through our ear training exercises will help you to transcribe bass lines and chord voicings from your favourite recordings so that you can play along with them and emulate the grooves: https://www.pianogroove.com/exercises/
We don’t currently have a funk course for beginners – it’s just covered here and there in seminars – but I have added this to our upcoming lesson schedule. I will keep you posted on developments.
Talk soon,
Hayden