stride piano
Left-hand jumping style
Stride piano is a jazz piano style that emerged in the 1920s, characterized by the left hand "striding" between bass notes on beats one and three and chords on beats two and four, while the right hand plays melody and improvisation.
The technique creates a full, orchestral sound from a solo instrument.
Fats Waller, James P.
Johnson, and Art Tatum were among its most celebrated practitioners.
He studied stride piano to understand the roots of jazz keyboard playing.
Manhattan neighborhood, cultural landmark
- rent partyFundraising event for housing costs
- walking bassStepwise rhythmic low accompaniment
- left handBody's sinister appendage
- tenthsTen equal portions
octaves · oom-pah · parlor · cutting contest · tickler · professor · barrelhouse · honky-tonk
Post-WWI American decade
- Jazz Age1920s American cultural heyday
- ProhibitionConstitutional alcohol ban era
- speakeasyIllicit liquor establishment
- Roaring TwentiesProsperous 1920s era
Harlem Renaissance · vaudeville · ragtime · New Orleans · swing era · rent parties · Savoy · nightclub
Stressed unexpected beats
- improvisationSpontaneous, unplanned creation
- embellishmentDecorative addition or exaggeration
- runsMoves fast on foot
- fillsOccupies completely
dynamics · voicing · arpeggios · glissando · rubato · phrasing · ornamentation · call and response
One who performs for audiences
- standardsAccepted levels of quality
- Great American SongbookCanon of classic American songs
Harlem
Manhattan neighborhood, cultural landmark
- rent partyFundraising event for housing costs
- walking bassStepwise rhythmic low accompaniment
- left handBody's sinister appendage
tenths · octaves · oom-pah · parlor · cutting contest · tickler · professor · barrelhouse · honky-tonk · shout
1920s
Post-WWI American decade
- Jazz Age1920s American cultural heyday
- ProhibitionConstitutional alcohol ban era
- speakeasyIllicit liquor establishment
Roaring Twenties · Harlem Renaissance · vaudeville · ragtime · New Orleans · swing era · rent parties · Savoy · nightclub
Fats Waller
syncopation
Stressed unexpected beats
- improvisationSpontaneous, unplanned creation
- embellishmentDecorative addition or exaggeration
- runsMoves fast on foot
fills · dynamics · voicing · arpeggios · glissando · rubato · phrasing · ornamentation · call and response · block chords
The Entertainer
One who performs for audiences
- standardsAccepted levels of quality
- Great American SongbookCanon of classic American songs
- jazzbebop, swing era, hard bop, soul jazz, cool jazz
- 1920s Musicjazz, ragtime, Charleston, Dixieland, blues
- American Rootsblues, bluegrass, country, folk, jazz
- Black Musicblues, jazz, gospel choir, hip hop, R&B
- Early JazzNew Orleans jazz, Dixieland, hot jazz, ragtime, Louis Armstrong
- keyboard playingfinger technique, hand position, legato, staccato, arpeggios
stride pianoboogie-woogie
Driving bass, freewheeling treble
block chords · honky-tonk piano · barrelhouse · classical piano · ragtime
piano, stride, stepping, pianist, pianos, striding, strides, pianists, upright piano