Beginner Jazz Piano Lesson (Chords, Intervals & ii–V–I Explained)
Prefer to watch? Here's my complete guide to learning Jazz piano:
Learning jazz piano can feel overwhelming at first — but the truth is, beginner jazz piano becomes much simpler when you focus on the right fundamentals first.
In this beginner jazz piano lesson, I’ll show you the essential skills you need to start playing real jazz piano:
Reading music for jazz →
Understanding chord symbols →
Chord inversion →
Applying it to real songs →
If you’ve ever wondered how to learn jazz piano from scratch, or felt confused by jazz chords, scales, or progressions — this lesson will help you build a clear foundation.
To start playing jazz piano, you’ll need the following skills:
1. Reading Music for Jazz
To play jazz, you must be able to read treble clef, because every real book will notate its melodies using traditional notation (reading bass clef isn’t essential for jazz).
The good news is that jazz relies much less on reading music than other styles of music (where you must read both hands in two clefs). Most jazz melodies are straightforward to read and play.
2. Understanding Chord Symbols
To play a jazz song from a lead sheet, you’ll need to understand the chord symbols displayed above the melody line.
Most of jazz is made up of three types of 7th chord - the 'major 7' chord, 'minor 7' chord, and 'dominant 7' chord.
Here's how these three chords look built from C:
- C major 7 = C E G B - a 7th chord built from C major scale.
- C minor 7 = C Eb G Bb - a 7th chord built from C minor scale.
- C dominant 7 = C E G Bb - a major chord with a minor 7th.
Roughly 80% of jazz is made up of the three chords above - so you need to learn these from all 12 notes first.
TIP: Do not try to memorize the note names of each chord ('C E G B' for example). Instead, you must carefully count the interval pattern of each chord every time (major 3rd + minor 3rd + major 3rd for example).
Here are the unique interval patterns of each 7th chord:
- The major 7 chord is a major triad (major 3rd + minor 3rd = C E G) with a major 3rd on top (B).
- The minor 7 chord is a minor triad (minor 3rd + major 3rd = C Eb G) with a minor 3rd on top (Bb).
- The dominant 7 chord (written 'C7', or 'Bb7', 'or 'D7', etc.) is a major triad (C E G) with a minor 3rd on top (Bb).
PRACTICE TIP: Practice playing these three chords in your left hand, from all 12 notes. Here's how they would look built from F:
Here's how they would look built from Bb:
And you can continue playing them from all 12 notes (see if you can them note-perfectly from all 12 notes: C - F - Bb - Eb - Ab - and so on).
In this beginner lesson, I’m not going to cover all types of jazz chord - but you can download my free ‘Chord Symbol Reference Guide’ which shows you all types of jazz chord - including 9ths, 11ths, and 13ths.
3. Chord Inversion
As a beginner, I suggest that you play each chord exactly as it’s written - so for a C major 7 chord you would play C E G B, and so on (no fancy chord voicings needed for now).
However, it’s sometimes useful to use ‘chord inversion’ - which means to play the notes of the chord in a different order.
So instead of playing C major 7 as C E G B (this is called 'root position') - you could play C major 7 as G B C E instead (this is called 'second inversion').
To play any chord in second inversion - just take its top two notes and move them down an octave.
Here's how you could play a ii-V-I (the most common chord progression in jazz) using chord inversion on the V7 chord (G7):
Chord inversion can help you minimize your hand movement, while also creating a smoother sound (rather than jumping around by big leaps).
4. Apply It to Real Songs
Go to your real book (or purchase a lead sheet of a jazz song you like).
- First, learn the song's melody in your right hand.
- Next, add chords in your left hand. Count each chord’s interval pattern carefully, and use chord inversion when needed (especially for V7 chords in the middle of a 2-5-1).
This way you can play an authentic jazz piano arrangement of any song.
I've made a list of 33 Jazz songs that are easy to play (ideal for beginners):
Want to learn jazz piano properly from the ground up? Watch my Ultimate Guide to Jazz Piano next.
Next step
Get all the sheet music and resources from this lesson:
✔ ii–V–I in all 12 keys
✔ 29 Jazz Piano Licks
✔ Interval Counting Guide
✔ Chord Symbol Reference Guide