Naima: Journey Through The Real Book #252 (Jazz Piano Lesson)

A jazz piano lesson to help you learn the jazz standard “Naima,” composed by John Coltrane.

You'll find my book, The Inner World of Piano Improvisation, on Amazon.

Taking a deep dive into “Naima” 0:06
Getting beyond the notes on the page 0:15
1959 in jazz 0:47
The sometimes unappreciated “ballad” side of John Coltrane 1:29
An unusual song form 2:21
Coltrane’s use of pedal tones 3:58
The evolution of John Coltrane’s music 4:20
The tune’s harmonies 4:46
Historical use of Maj7(#5) chords 5:39
The Wynton Kelly/Herbie Hancock connection 7:02
Herbie Hancock’s influences 7:40
Various musical possibilities 8:39
Analyzing the ending of “Naima” 8:48
The meaning of the title 9:19
Starting “Naima” out of tempo 9:35
Herbie Hancock-style arpeggiation 10:10
A fuller sound, with repeated notes 11:10
Suddenly sparse, with steady quarter-notes 11:30
Keeping the steady pulse going, while adding chords 11:38
Adding some 8th and 16th notes 11:56
Introducing triplets 12:22
Repeating the m3rd interval 12:33
Melodic improvisation 12:45
Keeping the quarter-note pulse going with the LH 13:28
Combining 2nds with larger intervals in the RH improvisation 13:46
Scales and arpeggios 14:03
Repeated notes 14:10
Diminished-scale voicings in repeated notes 14:14
Improvising with voicings 14:20
A Ravel-like pianistic texture 14:23
A harp-like right hand 14:43
Jazzy right-hand lines 14:52
John Coltrane’s “sheets of sound” 15:02
Developing various motifs 15:19
A fuller, more “pianistic” texture 15:48
More expansive phrases 16:11
A calm conclusion to the solo section 16:29
Returning to the main melody, with repeated notes 16:48
Contrapuntal imitation 17:07
A melodic LH accompaniment 17:29
Full voicings 17:47
Flourishes 18:02
Shimmering textures 18:07
More passionate 18:16
Tranquil, with some repeated notes 18:24
Trills 18:43
Repeated LH chords 18:48
Moving into the ending 18:53
LH countermelody during the coda 19:12
Concluding with the main motif 19:48
A peaceful feeling 20:06
Leave a comment 20:28

Thanks for joining me on this musical adventure, and please LIKE, COMMENT and SHARE this video with your musical friends.

Enjoy the journey, and "let the music flow!"
Ron

[johngeast]

Oml bro cold wit it. Wise insights, deep knowledge. Doesn't coddle and hold your hand, but celebrates the song with excellent play

[rmmm]

ron, your intros to tunes and especially ballads fascinate me. i have your intro on autumn leaves and blue and green in mind, loved them very very much.
thanks a lot for doing these videos, they are everything I search for when going on youtube and learning a new tune.

[songnight]

A beautiful meditative approach. Gtreat choices.

[insidejazzguitar]

Have always thought this is one of the most beautiful tunes. Loved what you did with it. So imaginative.

[Eldorias]

I love that tune and your version is beautiful !

[Jazzinthecountry]

What an evocative and tender journey. Well done, Ron! I just dig John's chord changes so much on this one.

[brendaboykin]

Beautifully playing, Ron. What a tender song. Thank you for the historical background.

[Remi-B-Goode]

ah yes thank u interesting, but i will need to transpose it in order to use the open string basses (guitar) to make the bass note over the chords; quite complex stuff anyway

[dsosa]

I enjoyed this performance very much. Beautifully played, I can listen to it over and over. This Dario by the way. I took piano lessons from you.

[tomaspa]

Beautiful version thanks. I learned to play Naima with blocked chords but harmonizing every note can become a drag and sound clunky. Any advice on which notes to harmonize and which to play single-note style? Target notes vs passing or pick-ups? Thanks again

[gwendeseminatr]

Macaroni with cheese with paprika sounds great actually

[jazzwest]

In bars, two and four of the bridge real book says B-flat, seven flat, nine, flat 13, but the melody note is G natural 13. What do you make of this?