The Easy Way to Play Bossa Nova (Helio Alves)

Brazilian jazz piano master Helio Alves shows you how to get a great texture for your bossa nova piano playing.

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Hi everybody, Helio Alves here with Two Minute Jazz. One great texture for playing bossa nova piano is to play the whole groove in your left hand, and play the melody (or solo) in your right hand. An important thing to remember is the quarter notes that always have to be there, they always have to be present. Very important part of the groove. That can be with or without the roots of the chord. Basically the technique works like this: with shell voicings, like the root 6 and 3rd or root 7 and 3rd.

So the quarter notes are very important. They're always there. I'm anticipating the chords, too. Without a bass note. The quarter notes are there. So that's a very cool technique to play bossa nova, very nice texture and very useful. Thank you again for listening. Happy practicing!

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#2minjazz #openstudio #helioalves #jazz #piano #happypracticing #brazilian #bossanova

[realquirkyvideos]

Wonderful great simple exercise.. thank you so much for sharing this!

[daveaustin]

thank you so much ..beautiful explanation of such wonderful music

[jazzyoutfit]

hi Helio,
am I right that you think of bossa nova (and samba as well?) being in 2/4 ?
if so, the common lead sheets of bossa novas (e.g. in fake books) in 4/4 would not be quite correct ? - or should - if maintaining the note values - show 2/2 ? best Andy

[reikohasegawa]

What notes do you play on you right hand at 0:19? I tried and tried but gave up 😅 beautiful code 💜

[ZARATHOUSTRAM]

You didn't mention about the use of the sustain pedal. The less there is, the better sound you'll have.

[rachelthomas]

Thank you, it sounds lovely and I would like to invest this but...I can only span 1octave, any tips on how to get this done without spoiling the sound ?