Sharps
1 G major or E minor
2 D major or B minor
3 A major or F# minor
4 E major or C# minor
5 B major or G# minor
6 F# major or D# minor
7 C# major or A# minor
Flats
1 F major or D minor
2 Bb major or G minor
3 Eb major or C minor
4 Ab major or F minor
5 Db major or Bb minor
6 Gb major or Eb minor
Q: When I comp behind a soloist, should it be plain and simple block chords, or should it be based on roots and shells?
A: They're both correct! You get to choose. How do you want it to sound? What's the other musician playing? It's all just different idioms of jazz, and you and the other musicians in the combo decide what your sound is going to be.
Q: How can I make my walking basslines more interesting than just using chord tones?
A: On the first beat of a new chord, you should probably play the root of the chord. Then, instead of playing just arpeggios, try filling in between the chord tones, so that you get some "walking" action. When the harmony should sound more static, lean toward arpeggios. When you want the harmony to have more motion, try to use more stepwise motion.
Q: When I listen to players like Billy Joel and Elton John accompany themselves, they make their playing sound so rich with a lot of fast fillers that are difficult to hear clearly. They seem to do so much with just their two hands, and I can't figure out how they make it work. What are they doing to make their playing sound so full?
A: It's rhythm -- the groove. This is a difficult question to answer, because, as you know, the effect is something you hear and feel in the music. I'll do my best.
Those notes you can't hear very well --- the actual notes are not all that important. They are rhytmic fillers. They just help keep the groove going.
The key is that the pianist is using the piano as a rhythm instrument as well as a melodic instrument. The pianist sometimes strums the keyboard, almost as though it were a guitar, or beats the keyboard, almost as though it were a drum. That's when you get long runs of notes, or little fillers of fast-moving notes, or just percussive chords.
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