Tomas Jochmann

Ve středu 4. listopadu hraju v Liberci na prvním turné Šimona Biliny. 🎹 tomasjochmann.com/live

Hear it. Name it. Play it. Ear training for jazz harmony: intervals, chords, scales and voicings, level by level. earonman.com

V úterý 20. října hraju v Obecním domě na Miro Žbirka Symphonic Night. 🎹 tomasjochmann.com/live

V úterý 20. října budu hrát na klavír na Miro Žbirka Symphonic Night v Obecním domě. Těším se.

Hear it. Name it. Play it. Ear training for jazz musicians: intervals and triads, then chords, scales and voicings, then guide tones and harmonic function. Hear how harmony moves, not just names. earonman.com

Even out the vocal, don’t squeeze it. Seven seconds of a lead vocal, as recorded and after one pass through Faderhand. No compressor. €9, Mac and Windows. faderhand.com

Stop playing the root - the bass player has it. Every root your left hand adds is a note fighting theirs, and one you could have spent on the 9th instead. Mark Levine's A and B forms, in one picture.

The Herbie Hancock m11 voicing rings because one note appears twice: the 11th sits in the middle of the chord and again at the very top. That octave is the detail most transcriptions miss.

Upper structures sound like the hardest thing in jazz harmony and use the easiest material. Left hand plays a C7 shell. Right hand plays plain D major. Read against C that is 9, #11 and 13.

The Kenny Barron voicing: C G D in the left hand, Eb Bb F in the right. Both are stacked fifths, and the right hand is just the left moved up a minor third. One shape, six notes.

G7 and Db7 sit as far apart as two roots get, and share the same two notes. B is the 3rd of one and the 7th of the other. F is the 7th of one and the 3rd of the other. That is the whole substitution.

A chord needs two notes. The root and fifth are identical in major and minor - only the 3rd and 7th change, so they are the only pair that can tell you what you are hearing. Everything else is colour.

Drop 2 in one sentence: take the second voice from the top and drop it an octave. Same four notes, and the chord stops fighting itself. Works on every seventh chord, in all twelve keys.

Earonman 1.11 is live. You could already sing your answer instead of tapping it. Now you can play it: MIDI keyboards over USB, or Bluetooth paired inside the app. Tap it, sing it, or play it.

A jazz chord change hangs on two notes: the 3rd and the 7th. Everything else is decoration. The test: one chorus of Autumn Leaves, ears only, tracking just those two. Reply with how many bars you survived.

Kind of Blue is 67 today. Tonight's move: play it front to back and follow one instrument the whole way through. Same five tracks, a different record every time you switch. Which one would you shadow - Miles, Trane, Cannonball, Evans, Chambers, or Cobb?

Transcription secret nobody sells: you can't write down what you can't sing. Get the phrase into your voice first and the notes show up almost on their own. Do you sing it before you write it?

Earonman update is live: Czech, Spanish, Chinese and Japanese support, 251 levels with gentler bridges across the hardest jumps, and failed runs now count toward stats and streak. iOS + Android.

A metronome can tell you you're on time. It can't tell you you're getting anywhere. Some days the most honest practice is the floor, the ceiling, and a record you've heard a hundred times. When did a record teach you more than a drill?

Oscar Peterson, Count Basie, Wayne Shorter, Lester Young and Charlie Parker were all born inside the same two weeks of August. No other month even tries. Which of the five gets your whole weekend?