11 Cocktail Piano Exercises And Drills To REALLY Get Your Fingers Moving

Get “An Introduction to Cocktail Piano” today: www.billspianopages.com/cocktail
Everyone loves cocktail piano - the lush, chilled-out sound that echoes from every piano bar in the world - so in this tutorial we're going to go through a bunch of drills and exercises that will help you take your cocktail playing to the next level. There are eleven cocktail piano exercises in total, in three categories. First are six broken chord exercises, great for finger control and mobility around the piano keyboard (essential for cocktail piano, which uses a TON of space on the keyboard); then come four chord jumping exercise to help with your finger placement, especially on tricky chords with lots of black notes (popular cocktail piano songs are often in "flat" keys with many black notes); finally there's an exercise that takes a common chord progression and moves between keys to help you develop a feel for how different keys and their chords work on the piano keyboard.
If you’ve liked this and you want to find out more about cocktail piano, I've made lots of other tutorials on the subject. Here’s a playlist of my other cocktail piano tutorials: • Cocktail piano tutorials
....and don't forget to check out “An Introduction to Cocktail Piano”, because if you've liked this tutorial, you'll love it - find out more here! www.billspianopages.com/cocktail
You might also like my Jazz Piano For Beginners series of KZbin tutorials, which you can find here: • Jazz Piano For Beginne...
MY OTHER BOOKS
Seven Studies in Pop Piano: www.billspianopages.com/seven...
An Introduction To Cocktail Piano: www.billspianopages.com/cocktail
Book bundle deal: www.billspianopages.com/bundle
All six of my Piano Packs for £16.95: www.billspianopages.com/piano...
My Patreon page: / billhilton
SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS
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00:00 Why cocktail piano is so useful
02:56 Basic C major broken chord exercise
04:26 Black note broken chord exercise
05:25 Focussing on evenness and control - critical for cocktail piano
06:16 Basic four-note broken chord exercise (Ab)
06:40 Advanced four-note broken chord exercise (Abmaj7)
07:20 Broken chords on diatonic sevenths over two octaves (Eb major and C major)
08:56 Basic arpeggio runs using different chord shapes
09:46 Fast cocktail-style arpeggio runs
10:52 Basic chord jumps, white note chords
11:54 Basic chord jumps, awkward chords
12:14 Jumps in inversions, white note chords
12:46 Jumps in inversions, awkward chords
13:07 Key changing exercise using simple chord progression
14:58 How to work out key transpositions
16:51 Wrap-up and further info
#piano #cocktailpiano

[@deirdreleggett5764]

Fabulous, thank you Bill

[@BillHilton]

You're welcome, Deirdre - glad it helped!

[@IndecisionTelevision]

A new book coming. Good to hear! and as always good to see you back. I hadn't realized how much i've missed your voice until hearing it now

[@BillHilton]

Thank you! Original plan was for release in November, but it looks like it will be early next year. More tutorials coming soon!

[@Nenitakimu]

Muy bonito cover! Buen trabajo! 💚

[@Rustyjamesman]

love cocktail piano!

[@Squirrel_eater]

Love to see you back. Much love

[@nikhilmalik62]

Hi Bill, Wanted to let you know that your videos have been an immense resource. I am a guitarist of 25 years that only recently delved very deep into scale/chord theory harmony, chordal substitution, etc and how to apply it to my instrument. All the theory in your "chord theory epic video" was so well laid out and logical on the piano with one landing place for each note compared to the guitar... that I got inspired to take up a second instrument. Bought a roland fp-30x, currently systematically learning each of my hands together 4 octave scales and before moving to the next, mastering 1654 broken extended seventh chord exercises and arpeggios using your videos. Also using sightreadingfactory and Tenuto as like a typical guitarist, I have no background in sheet music. My poor significant other barely sees me in the evenings!

[@BillHilton]

Excellent - really glad to hear my stuff's making a difference for you! Don't let me throw a damper on the enthusiasm (!) but do watch out for overuse injuries - they're (unfairly!) common among people who start the instrument and really throw themselves into it, so make sure you're warming up well (while you'll know about from guitar) and not overdoing it. A day off practice every week will also help. Good luck, and let me know if you ever have any questions/need any help!

[@Mire3212]

Amazing content as always! I LOVE your cocktail piano information. Thank you for this great stuff!

[@BillHilton]

Glad you enjoy it - you're really welcome!

[@tomatoclark]

These are just the kind of exercises I was looking for to add to my daily practice. Over the long term I’m sure it will really add to my ability. Thank you Bill!

[@BillHilton]

You're welcome, Clark!

[@donk.5730]

Thank you Bill. Looking forward to this style. Laid back, and somehow feels empowering when listening to this style ( at least the way you play it !) . Well Done, considering your Cocktail/Lounge Piano eBook soon. Cheers, Dk.

[@elayne4334]

Thank you. Great tutorial!

[@BillHilton]

Thanks Elayne!

[@misseleanorg]

Excellent video 😀!

[@BillHilton]

Thanks Eleanor - glad you like it!

[@GBloom-zt8vp]

Excellent video! Thank you so much!

[@BillHilton]

You're very welcome!

[@mrdjangofreeman5560]

Thx Bill, crystal clear explanations and examples/exercices 😊

[@BillHilton]

You’re welcome - glad it helped!

[@darkarmy5914]

Very helpful sir 👍 👌 thank you so much 🙏

[@BillHilton]

You're welcome!

[@lawrencetaylor4101]

Just bought your books, but haven't had the time to dig in. That will change. Great lesson, so calm.

[@BillHilton]

Thanks Lawrence!

[@idklol7558]

Missed you man

[@ArtRodent]

Great stuff here, Bill. I need to get back to your cocktail piano e-book. I have been revisiting "How to really play the piano" recently.

[@BillHilton]

Thanks Stephen - glad you like it!

[@abhishekinmusic]

I have recently joined your channel. And I really like your way of teaching piano. Learning so much. Thank you dude 😎👍

[@BillHilton]

Thanks very much indeed, and welcome aboard!

[@abhishekinmusic]

@@BillHilton yup exploring your ebooks. I wish to buy your 7 styles of pop piano book after I learn the basics of sheet music. I hope to get better in my piano alongwith your tutorials. And especially the way you teach becomes more engaging.

[@wongjin8382]

Cheers to lucky ears! TQ

[@BillHilton]

Thank you too!

[@modernmusicstudio303]

Great patterns for getting the fingers moving!

[@BillHilton]

Glad you like them!

[@ladys8615]

Clicked liked before I even started with the video.

[@gummifer]

Liked before I read your comment

[@patriciaann6380]

Hi Bill , good to see & hear you , another great tutorial , can't wait for the new book when is it due out ? Cheers Patricia 😊

[@BillHilton]

Thanks Patricia! New book was going to be out just ahead of Christmas, but for one reason and another (it's been a bit of a chaotic year, obviously) it's now looking like March. Rather than rushing I'm making sure it's exactly how I want it! Should have a fixed date soon.

[@scottfoster3643]

Fantasztikusz!

[@BillHilton]

Cheers Scott!

[@robertosanabria15]

Great brother video is very helpful as all videos !! you can do something about chords with 6 and the uses of semi-diminished and diminished chords

[@BillHilton]

Thank you! Great suggestion Roberto - I'll add that one to the list!

[@GUPRPEET-Singh]

Love your videos ❤️. You should also do live streama once in a while That would also be very helpful and appreciated 👍🙏

[@BillHilton]

Thanks Gurpreet! I actually did a couple of livestreams earlier this year and they worked well. I'm thinking of doing more, so it's good to know people are interested!

[@bhushansatam]

Thanks Bill, this is very useful.

[@BillHilton]

Glad it was helpful!

[@bhushansatam]

@@BillHilton i am bit confused in selecting which book to buy, how to play piano or cocktail tricks, i am elementary level and following Michael Arron book and ay grade 2 level

[@BillHilton]

Good, question, Bhushan. On the face of it, I would say "How To Really Play The Piano" would be the best choice. If you're at Grade 2 level you should be able to use it: basically the only technical demand is that you can read both treble and bass clefs to a reasonable level. If you'd like to "try before you buy" to check it's OK for you, just email me at billhiltonmedia at gmail dot com :)

[@Varsitelle]

I don't know if its the camera or the audio interface recording the sound. But it's clear that the keys make a bit of sound. But overall it's a really nice video that gives you lots of tips.

[@BillHilton]

...it's the audio interface! The fundamental problem is the combination of relatively noisy keyboard (the Nord is meant for gigging rather than home use, so it's designed to be robust rather than quiet) and the problems of mic placement. The only thing that really fixes it is using a Lavalier mic (pain to setup, can't move around much) or a head mic (sounds weird). Overall I like the open sound of a cardioid mic, which also gives me the freedom to move around a lot. The downside is a certain amount of key noise. Anyhow, I'm really glad you liked it!

[@andyh2561]

Hi Bill, I ordered your cocktail piano book yesterday and it is great. One thing I was hoping to see at the end was a list of popular cocktail piano songs to play. Would you be able to make a video with a list of songs that students can practice with the book? Thank you!

[@BillHilton]

That‘a quite an interesting one, Andy: it’s probably not the sort of thing that would work in a tutorial (it would seem a bit pointless mentioning songs without playing them, and then we’d potentially get into dodgy copyright territory) but it’s something I could certainly consider doing as a separate PDF, perhaps at some point to be incorporated into the book itself. Thanks for buying it, by the way, and I'm glad to hear you like it!

[@andyh2561]

@@BillHilton Thank you!

[@BillHilton]

Don't forget to check out my ebook, *An Introduction To Cocktail Piano* - Find out more at www.billspianopages.com/cocktail You might also like my other books: *How To Really Play The Piano* (print and ebook): www.billspianopages.com/how-to-really *Seven Studies In Pop Piano* (print and ebook): www.billspianopages.com/seven-studies

[@BillHilton]

@Carl Grainger It certainly is, Carl! Btw, if you haven't seen it there's a bundle deal running on these at the moment (and it's likely to keep running for quite some time...). Three for £18.95, or two for £12.95 or £13.95 (depending which ones you want). More details at www.billspianopages.com/bundle - obvs, as always, shout if you have any questions!

[@marcuslarsen3007]

Hey Bill Your guides have really been helpful! Which of your videos in your cocktailplaylist covers the 7 chords you were talking about in this video? Hope you have a great day

[@BillHilton]

You’re welcome Marcus - glad they have helped! Hmmmm, I always dread people asking questions like that, because the honest answer is “I can’t really remember!”. The basic principle I’m talking about is the way the diatonic chords of a key (of which there are seven, one for every note of the scale, major or minor), can be extended upwards to create 7th chords of various types - eg Cmaj7, Dm7, Em7, Fmaj7, G7, Am7, Bdim7 (or half dim 7 if you want to be fully diatonic). There's some stuff on it in this tutorial: kzbin.info/www/bejne/mZulnXRtZa6hrLM and also here www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1i-cFx7 -- give me a yell if any of that confuses more than it enlightens!

[@marcuslarsen3007]

@@BillHilton Thank you so much Bill, that was excatly what i was looking for! You're the man!

[@jacksonamaral329]

cool. gonna pay to learn arpegios patterns at any time. watching you here from brazil.

[@BillHilton]

Thanks Jackson - and hello from North Yorkshire!

[@jcretok]

youre so cool😁

[@misslyndylou]

Hi is it possible to buy your books in paper version as opposed to e books ? My problem is storage on my iPad … I would prefer a book 📚

[@BillHilton]

Morning Lynda - thanks for your interest! The answer is a partial “yes”: How To Really Play The Piano and Seven Studies in Pop Piano are both in print, and you should be able to order them from most bookshops and online bookstores: Amazon, Waterstones (if you’re in the UK, as I guess you may be, looking at the time you’ve posted this comment!) and similar should all be able to get them. The exception is An Introduction To Cocktail Piano, which is only available as an ebook (for the moment). I know a lot of people print it out, and if you go down that route it doesn’t take a huge amount of paper. If there’s anything I can do to help, do feel free to drop me an email: billhiltonmedia at gmail dot com.

[@calutron008]

Hi Bill i find that Ribbon I nThe Sky by stevie wonder is a great jaz piece to play on piano as it's only a few chortds and a simple mmelody over the top. Eflat minor seventh to f minor seven back and forth it transposes too. I am blind and i wondeer why you use a keyboard instead of an old school piano i only have a piano at my place no keyboard sadly. Can anyone tell me where to buy one cheap? Thanks from Andrew in Sydney

[@BillHilton]

Hey Andrew! I use a digital piano simply because it's easier to control the sound levels and get a clearer sound in my videos. I do most of my practice downstairs, on my old-fashioned, upright piano! Your best bet for cheap digitals is eBay: second hand stuff from Roland, Yamaha and other good manufacturers is often widely available at good prices. Let me know how you get on!

[@thedanphillips]

I miss my piano. Haven't had the money to get a new one so I've been out of piano for years now.

[@jorm1010]

Bro that sounds so sad :( music is so important for ur mental health. Why did u have to get rid of it?

[@AmandaScottTV]

Dan try pianoadoption.com

[@shashankatrey531]

Noicee

[@giovanymartinez3359]

What kind of piano is that?

[@BillHilton]

It's a Nord Piano 2, Giovany :)

[@giovanymartinez3359]

@@BillHilton Thank you!