In A Mellow Tone: Journey Through The Real Book

A jazz piano lesson to help you learn Duke Ellington’s jazz standard “In A Mellow Tone.”
Take your LH playing to the next level with my free ebook: Jazz Piano Left Hand Techniques: keyboardimprov.com/jazz-left-...
You'll find my book, The Inner World of Piano Improvisation, on Amazon.
Learning every tune in the Real Book 0:00
Duke Ellington as encompassing the whole history of jazz 0:41
Ellington’s 5-decade-long career 1:07
The wide variety of techniques that Duke Ellington used in his piano playing 1:43
Ellington’s smooth, sophisticated stylings 1:51
The “primal” aspect of Ellington’s piano playing 2:14
Duke’s use of double-diminished 7th chords 2:28
Steam whistle imitations in Ellington music 2:48
Ellington’s love of polychords 3:00
“Broken” stride patterns in Ellington’s piano playing 3:08
Duke Ellington’s chord voicings derived from the diminished scale 2:29
Ellington’s influence on Thelonious Monk 3:50
Duke Ellington’s music ranges from the roots of jazz to the avant garde 3:58
Ellington’s “In A Mellow Tone” piano intro as an early example of rootless left hand chord voicings 4:03
The piano intro to “In A Mellow Tone 4:45
A typical Ellington piano flourish 4:55
Call-and-response, inspired by Ellington’s orchestration 4:58
2-part counterpoint in a jazz context 5:26
Beginning the improvised solo 5:58
Left hand chords on the upbeats 6:09
Ellington-like use of chromatically-descending chords 6:24
Bluesiness 6:42
Stride piano 6:58
A pointillistic piano texture 7:14
Contrary motion 7:25
Playing “outside” the changes 7:28
Big band-style block chords 7:41
Improvising with Ellington-like diminished voicings 7:53
A left hand melodic phrase 8:02
Pseudo-stride textures in the left hand 8:05
Quartal voicings 8:20
Returning to the melody 8:26
Using colorful chord voicings under the melody to “In A Mellow Tone” 8:28
Parallel major 2nds, a la Clare Fischer 8:35
Walking bass 8:42
An extended ending 8:56
A touch of boogie woogie 9:12
Bitonality 9:22
A Count Basie ending, with an Ellington-style harmonization 9:25
A recap of pianistic styles used in the performance 9:29
Duke Ellington’s resistance to being “pigeon-holed” to any single musical style or concept 10:05
Here are some more Free Jazz Piano Lessons for you at the KeyboardImprov website: keyboardimprov.com/free-begin...
Thanks for joining me on this musical adventure, and please LIKE, COMMENT and SHARE this video with your musical friends.
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Enjoy the journey, and "let the music flow!"
Ron

[@stevestone7085]

That was awesome! Like you said you’ve got all of the Ellngtonian stylings in there. Gives me something else to work on during this exciting pandemic!

[@rondrotoskeyboardimprov9453]

Thanks Steve! Have fun using these concepts in your piano playing!

[@BobMazzo]

Love this lesson man. You're really swingin' !🎼

[@rondrotoskeyboardimprov9453]

Thanks Bob - much appreciated!

[@brendaboykin3281]

Love it, MusicBrother!!!! 😎

[@davesax11]

I've been an Ellington fan since my Dad purchased the Festival Session LP for me in 1960. Always loved his piano. But the peak was the extended works: esp the Far East Suite.

[@rondrotoskeyboardimprov9453]

The Far East Suite is one of my favorites, too - along with Such Sweet Thunder.

[@isabellasjazzjourney3624]

Wow! Is there anything you can't do on piano?! That was so much fun!

[@rondrotoskeyboardimprov9453]

Thanks Isabella, I'm glad you liked this. And congrats on your own CZcams channel!

[@isabellasjazzjourney3624]

Thank you! I'm looking forward to going through your Big Book series.

[@brendaboykin3281]

Thanx, Maestro 🌹🌹🌹

[@davidgerber9317]

Great performance and commentary. I missed the last couple of videos, but I see that you are up to 7.2K subscribers. I hope that number continues to grow. By the way, I got a chuckle out of the Basie ending on an Ellington tune!

[@rondrotoskeyboardimprov9453]

Thanks David. The Basie ending just "happened," but with a little spice thrown in harmonically!

[@pamtebelman2321]

One of my all-time favorite tunes! You would enjoy Maynard Ferguson's wonderful arrangement at 1991 Bern Jazz Festival on CZcams. Also, guitarist Graham Dechter's version and an amazing guitar solo with his quartet featuring Jeff Hamilton on drums and Tamir Hendelman on piano. - Pam

[@simondekkerlinnros2594]

Nice rendition! Loved the mixing of different techniques and approaches

[@almodo5]

Great!

[@rondrotoskeyboardimprov9453]

Thanks Guy!

[@pb-pw4lw]

You are a great pianist. Have you heard the rendition of this from the "DIgital Duke" album? It is my favorite version.

[@rondrotoskeyboardimprov9453]

Thanks - I'll check out that version!

[@imranganiy2836]

This was very inspiring.
I’m currently picking through the information on the real book, just a note is that I found “In a mellow tone” on page 206. I am using the “6th edition”, maybe it’s a different version anyway?

[@rondrotoskeyboardimprov9453]

Thanks, Imran! It's the 176th tune in the Real Book and is found on p.206.

[@marcosquitopianolounge6350]

Excellent !!!!
But in didactics terms I get lost when you give up playing chords w left hand and you go crazy walking bass...
It sounds great but I dont understand...

[@rondrotoskeyboardimprov9453]

Start by listening to some bass lines on jazz recordings. They'll gradually start to make more sense to you. Good luck!

[@fejfish]

Far too much waffle!