MICHAEL GUNDLACH

THE

COCKTAIL P I A N O
METHOD

 VOLUME

T  E C 
H N 
I Q U 
E S 
O F 
S T  Y  
L I S 
H  P I A
N O 
E N 
T  E R 
T  A I N M 
E N 
T  

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Table of Contents

Explanation of Contents .......................... 6 ’S Wonderful  .....................................................48

Harmony – Part 1 Harmony – Part 6

Diatonic harmony .....................
..............................
..................
..................
........... 8 Passing tones dominant (6,#5,5) ......... ..................
..............53
.....53
Basic rules of piano entertainment ......... ..................
........... 9 The ’sus’ chord ................
..................................
....................................5
..................555
Leaving notes out .............
......................
..................
..................
..................
......... 9
Adding notes .......................................................12

Typical Harmony Sequences – Part 1

Chord insertions – Part 1...............
1.................................
.....................57
...57
Harmony – Part 2 Passing chords major / dominant seventh ......58
Minor passing chords dominant seventh ......... .........15
15
Diatonic passing chords ....................................17

Fills – Part 2
Oh, Lady Be Good ..........................................22 Fill / augmented triad with chromaticism ........6
........600
Fill / diminished with chromaticism ..................63

Harmony – Part 3
Possibilities for the left hand ............................26
Rhythm for the left hand .................
...................................
...................28
.28 Strike Up The Band  .....................................66

Harmony – Part 4
Altering notes ................
..................................
....................................
...................29
.29 Ending “Basie-Fill”  .....................................72
Adding the sixth to the chord .................
...........................32
..........32

Harmony – Part 5 Harmony – Part 7

The diminished chord ................
..................................
.........................34
.......34 Dominant augmented with b9 ............................74

Fills – Part 1
Possibilit ies with fills .................
Possibilities ...................................
.........................39
.......39 Harmony – Part 8
Fill / minor7 th  chord..............................................40 The half diminished chord ..................
.................................76
...............76
Fill / major7 th  chord..............................................43 II – V – I – minor cadence ..................................76
Fill / dominant seventh chord ............................44
Fill / dominant seventh #5...................................45
Fill / diminished chord ........................................46

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Fills – Part 3 Cocktail Piano Christmas

Fill / Blues scale ................
..................................
.................................
............... 79 Silent Night ..................
....................................
....................................
....................113
..113
We Wish You A Merry Christmas ....................119

Summertime  ......................................................84
Cocktail Piano Classic
Lullaby .................
...................................
....................................
.............................12
...........1222
Liebestraum .......................................................126

Typical Harmony Sequences – Part 2

Chord substitut
substitutions
ions .................
...................................
............................88
..........88

Cocktail Piano Gospel

This Little Light Of Mine ..................
...................................
.................130
130
Swing Low, Sweet Chariot .................
...............................1
..............131
31
I Got Rhythm ......................................................91

Tips and Tricks ..............................................136

Typical Harmony Sequences – Part 3
Chord insertions – Part 2..............
2................................
......................95
....95

Chord Symbol Glossary ..........................139

Swanee River...................................................98
The Intervals ...................................................142

Fills – Part 4
Fill / four-note progressi
progression
on ................
..............................1
..............103
03
Blues scales
In All Keys .......................................................144
Intros, Transitions
Transitions / Bridge
Passages, Endings
Secondary intros ..................
....................................
.............................10
...........1055
Free-style intros ................................................106 Chord Tables  ...................................................145
Transitions / bridge passages .........................108
Endings ...............................................................110

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Harmony – Part 1

To be able to develop your own stylish piano arrangements from songs you first need a good fundamental knowledge
of harmony. We will work step by step through this chapter on elementary basic principles.

Diatonic harmony

By “diatonic harmony“, we mean the chords that can be created using the notes of the normal major scales. We
will start with the key of C major and the accompanying C major scale:

C major scale

If you form a four-part chord with each note, or each step (scale degree), of the normal major scale you get the
following chords:

C maj7 D m7 E m7 F maj7 G7 A m7 B m7b5

I II III IV V VI VII 

Steps (scale degrees) in Roman numerals 

Almost all the chords that you need, to play popular songs, are at your disposal in the major scales. To understand
 them better,
bett er, let’s
let’s look at which
w hich chords are on which
whi ch step (scale
(s cale degree).
degree) .

Step Type of Chord

I + IV Major7 chord (= major triad with major seventh)

II, III + VI Minor7 chord (= minor triad with minor seventh)
V Dominant seventh chord (= major triad with minor seventh)
VII Half diminished chord (consists of two minor and one major third)

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1a C M aj7 A m7 D m7 G7 CMaj7

c . j
& œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœj œœj œœ œœj œœ œœ . œœ ˙˙ ..
 ? c . jœ ˙ jœ œ . j . jœ ˙
œ. œ. œ œ.

1b

. œ œj
F M aj7

œ j j
D m7 G m7 C7

jœ œ œ . œ
FMaj7

& b c œœ œœ œ œ œ œœ œœ œœ œ œ œ œ ˙˙ .
 ? b c . œ . œj ˙ œ. œJ œ . œj . œ . jœ ˙

1c

#
G M aj7

œ œ œ j jE m7 A m7
jœ œ œ
D7 GMaj7

& c . œœ œœ œ Jœ œ œœ œœ œœ œ œ œ . œœ ˙˙ ..
 ? # c . œ . Jœ ˙ œ. œJ œ . œj . œ . Jœ ˙

1d D M aj7 B m7 E m7 A7 DMaj7

# # c . œ œj œ j j j
& œœ œœ œ œ œ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ . œœ ˙˙ .
 ? # # c . jœ ˙ jœ œ . j . jœ ˙
œ. œ. œ œ.
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Oh, Lady Be Good Music: George Gershwin

Lead sheet

G C7 G G dim A m7
3 3

1 2
D7 G D7 G7
6 

Fine

C D7 C /G G D /F
10

Em E m/D E m/D E m/C D7

14

D.C. al Fine

We’ll practice what we just learned with the song “Oh, Lady Be Good”. If you bought a songbook in which you
have only the melody and chord symbols to work on, the song would be notated as in the above lead sheet.

Parts of the melody can be played very well with the fourth sixth chords of the major scale. Because the piece is
in the key of Gmaj, we need the chords from the G major scale:

Fourth sixth chords of the G major scale

G Am Bm C D Em F mb5

I II III IV V VI VII 

Already in the first bar we can use these triads in the right hand:

notated in bar 1: what you can play:

G G

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In bars 9 and 10 we have the dominant of the key of Cmaj and must therefore use the fourth sixth chords of the
C major scale.

notated in bars 9 and 10: what you can play:

G7 C G7 C

As we have already learned from page 15, the dominant can be varied in the right hand with three minor chords.
In the key of Gmaj the dominant is a D7 chord and Am, Bbm and Bm are the three variation chords, that can be
used in bar 8 and also in bars 16 and 17 due to the chromatic melody.

notated in bar 8: what you can play:

D7 D7

notated in bars 16 and 17: what you can play:

D7 D7

In two bars of “Oh, Lady Be G ood” we find a dominant with a ninth in the melody-voice. Thus the dominant with the
ninth, which we learned on page 12, inevitably comes into practical use:

notated in bar 2: what you can play:

C7 C7

notated in bar 11: what you can play:

D7 D7

Tip: Try to put into practice that which you have learned from the lead sheets from “Oh, Lady Be Good” before you
attempt to play the complete composition!

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Oh, Lady Be Good Music: George Gershwin

Arr.:.: Michael Gundlach
Arr

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Harmony – Part 4

Altering notes

Single notes of a chord can be raised or lowered a half-tone. In technical jargon we call this “alteration”. In
 this chapter, for the time being, we want to concentrate
c oncentrate on the
t he altered
a ltered fifth of the chord. A lowering
lo wering of the fifth
is shown by the sign “b” before the number (b5) and sometimes with a minus sign before the number (-5). An
example:

D m7b5

The raised fifth is notated with a sharp sign before the number (#5), or with a plus sign before the number (+5).
Sometimes we see a plus sign without a number after the chord symbol (e.g. “G+”). The raising of the fifth in the
dominant seventh chord adds a wonderfully new tone color to the music, very popular among cocktail pianists.
Therefore we want to examine this altered dominant chord more closely. A G7 chord with a raised fifth looks like
 this:

G 7#5

The upper three notes of the chord are played with the right hand and the root is played with the left hand:

G7#5

& # ww
 ? w
The three notes of the right hand can be played in two inversions:

1st inversion 2 nd inversion

G7#5 G7#5

& # ww & # ww
 ? w  ? w
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Certainly the most attractive fill for many pianists is inventing his own little melody. The question naturally arises,
which notes can I play and how can I best put them together? The last example shown on page 39 already gives us
an indication: The notes of the triad in the right hand have been separated into single notes and played one after
another.. A variation of the melody fill exists therefore in the use of the single notes of a chord.
another

Fill / minor7 th chord

Let’s take a Dm7 chord:

D m7

In a Dm7 chord there is, apart from the root “D”, an F major triad:

Dm7 chord 

Root F major triad

F major triad separated into single notes

The three notes of the F major triad lend themselves very well to playing a fill with a Dm7 so we want to practice
 this extensively.
ex tensively. Every one
o ne of the following
f ollowing examples consists of three
thr ee exercises,
exer cises, each with
wi th two
tw o bars. In the ex-
amples 14a – 14c we will practice the fills in an ascending movement, while the examples 15a – 15c are given in
a descending movement. Furthermore, in each case the examples are printed in three keys.

14a D m7

œ œ œ œ
G7

w
D m7

œ œ œ œ w G7 D m7
4
G7

‰ œjœ œ
4 2

& c ‰ œj œ œ œ œ œ w œ œ œ œ œ
4 1 2 1
1 2 4 1 2 4 2 1 1 2 4

 ? c ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙˙
° ° ° ° ° °
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Typical Harmony Sequences – Part 1

If you analyze the songs of popular music, you will often find the same, or rather similar harmony sequences
(cadences). If you know these (and can master them and play them well) your own interpretation of songs will be
much easier.

Chord insertions – Part 1

Typical harmony sequences are often already notated in a lead sheet. If such cadences are not already available,
 these can be created through inserting additional chords later and therefore enriching the song harmonically.
Let’ss assume we would find in the music score a C major chord that was in three consecutive bars (key of C maj,
Let’
Ist scale degree):

C C C

The first alternative (in order to avoid boredom) would be to insert just one chord, for instance the dominant:

1 st  variation  C G7 C

Instead of the dominant you could insert a sus chord

2 nd  variation  C F/G (Gsus4) C

These two variations have already been practically implemented in “’S Wonderful” (page 50 bars 15–17) with the
chords Eb, Ab/Bb and Eb.

With cocktail piano, the dominant with the raised fifth also fits nicely:

3 rd  variation  C G7#5 C

If you have one and the same chord over a longer period of time you can, of course insert more chords. So our
 three bars of Cmaj can
ca n be augmented
augmen ted with a II. and V. scale degree:
degre e:

I II V I  
4 th  variation  C Dm7 G7 C

In addition to the II. and V. scale degree, the VI. Scale degree could also be inserted:

I VI II V I  
5 th  variation  C Am7 Dm7 G7 C

It is a matter of personal taste as to which of the five variations are employed. You must consider, however, that
 the melody
m elody must
m ust fit with
wi th the
th e newly inserted chords. If this
t his isn’t
is n’t the case, melodies can be modified and made
ma de to
fit in.

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Swanee River

Swanee River is one of those songs that display, in it’s

it’s original, a very simple harmony, as the lead sheet shows:

Swanee River Traditional

Lead sheet 1

C F C G7

5
C F C G7 C

9
G C F C

13
C F C G7 C

The song is in the key of C major and in the original version, uses the chords of the I., IV. and V. degrees. The ob-
vious suggestion, therefore, is to insert the new harmony sequences from the previous chapter. Although there
are only 16 bars in the complete piece, you can use this harmony sequence several times. If you analyse “Swanee
River”, you will find the harmonic sequences from the I., IV IV.. and I. degrees altogether four times, in the bars 1–3,
5–7, 10–12 and 13–15:

I VI I  
C F C

Transformed into the typical harmony sequence, the three bar cadence looks like the following:

C C7/E F F#dim C/G

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Besides inserting the typical harmony sequence, we will also insert (in bars 3 and 4) a VI chord and a II chord
converted into a dominant (compare “Typical
“Typical Harmony Sequences – Part 2”, explanation to the variation No. 5,
pages 89–90):

written in bars 3 and 4 a ug m en t ed h ar m on y s eq ue nc e

C G7  C/G Am7 D7 G7

If you notate all of the explained chord augmentations in the music, the lead sheet will look much more interesting:

Swanee River Traditional

Lead sheet 2

C C 7/E F F dim C /G A m7 D7 G7

5
C C 7/E F F dim C /G G7 C

9
G C C 7/E F F dim C /G G7

13
C C 7/E F F dim C /G G7 C

Before you play the following piano arrangement of “Swanee River”, try to play through this second lead sheet,
with the new additional chords.

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Swanee River Traditional

Arr.:.: Michael Gundlach
Arr

61

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