What You'll Learn

Learn to Improvise Jazz Piano Like Herbie Hancock

Unlock Herbie Hancock’s Secrets to Jazz Piano Improvisation

Do you love Herbie Hancock’s jazz piano style? Learn all about it from the Royal Academy of Music Jazz Piano Professor (Liam Noble).

Want to improvise with the same freedom, colour, and creativity that made Herbie Hancock’s My Funny Valentine legendary? This self-study masterclass course uses in-depth analysis by Liam Noble, transcribed licks, grooves, and projects that reveal Herbie’s techniques—and shows you how to make them your own.

Perfect if you

admire Herbie Hancocks’ improvisation skills and wonder how he did it,
want to use his piano techniques to become an even better jazz pianist,
want to know why he is such a famous pianist and why his piano style is so unique.

This Jazz Piano Course is for…

This is a very advanced jazz piano course for diploma pianists upwards and certainly suitable for diploma, degree and undergraduate/postgraduate students looking for something to really get their teeth into. It’s also perfect for semi-professional and professional jazz pianists as well as extremely keen and dedicated amateur pianists.

What You Will Learn in this Herbie Hancock Piano Course?

Understand the thinking behind the musical genius of Herbie Hancock, the jazz piano legend who transformed modern jazz piano and jazz trio and ensemble playing.

You’ll learn how to:

🎶 Bluesy jazz piano licks and two-handed grooves
🎶 Modal improvisation techniques inspired by Bill Evans, Bud Powell and others
🎶 Drop 2 chords, polychords & parallel movements for rich harmonies
🎶 Bebop and Phrygian dominant cadences for advanced jazz vocabulary
🎶 Pedal notes as harmonic freedom and structural devices
🎶 Cross rhythms & floating polymetres to transform your timing
🎶 Circle of 5ths with modern twists using diminished & melodic minor

By the end, you’ll understand how Herbie played, why it worked—and how you can do it too.

Liam is such an expert in Bill Evans and Herbie Hancock, it’s amazing. He takes you through snippets of analysis of Herbie Hancock’s improvisation on My Funny Valentine. You embark upon various jazz piano improvisation tasks in the style of Herbie Hancock along the journey. Then, you will take the wonderful Jazz Standard, Fly Me to The Moon and recreate it using Liam’s additional exercises so that you sound like Herbie Hancock. You are sure to sound amazing and to learn a lot!

A Step-by-Step Path to Herbie Hancock Style Jazz Piano Improvisation

INTRO: Who is Herbie?

Start Improvising Like Herbie Hancock Today

Take the step beyond jazz piano exercises, go beyond what books and transcriptions can tell you and unlock the creativity of true improvisation. Herbie Hancock’s genius is now your roadmap.

Your Maestro Teacher

Who is Liam Noble?

Liam is Professor of Jazz Piano at the Royal Academy of Music. He became the regular pianist with Stan Sulzmann (as a duo and in a quartet).

He has worked with the bands of greats such as Anita Wardell, Harry Beckett, Tim Whitehead and John Stevens. He has even toured with the minimalist composer Moondog.

Liam has published four volumes of transcriptions of The Bill Evans Trio and a book, “An In Depth Look At the Styles of The Masters”, both published by Hal Leonard.

What are Our Music Masterclasses Like?

Our music masterclass courses are self-study digital courses embedded with information, interactive music software (scores), exercises, objectives, tasks, teaching pedagogy and videos of celebrities and international level musicians explaining and demonstrating key skills. Certificates are awarded at the end of each course.

Our Platform: How do we teach and you learn?

🎵 Why Choose Our Music Learning Platform?

Unlock a rich, flexible, and inspiring music education experience designed for musicians of all levels. Whichever area of musical learning inspires you, our world-class performers offer it all.

A Quick Look at a Typical Masterclass Course

Sample Interactive Score

Course Dashboard with Progress and Points

Thorough Musicianship
Creativity, improvisation, and ear training are seamlessly integrated with popular, gospel, classical and jazz melodies to help you achieve true musical freedom.

Unique Learning Journey
Our tailored methodology emphasises improvisation and aural skills first, with notation used to support—not restrict—your creativity.

Certification
Courses include clear objectives, tasks, and fun quizzes that lead to downloadable certificates—perfect for motivation and recognition.

Gamification
Track your progress and climb the league tables by earning certificate points and logging in regularly.

️ Interactive Software
Our custom music software links visual notation with sound to enhance your creativity and understanding.

Celebrity Masterclasses
Learn from internationally acclaimed musicians and award-winning performers through high-quality video lessons and real-world demonstrations.

Expert Pedagogy
Each self-study course is structured with professional teaching principles, goal-setting, progress tracking, and step-by-step tasks.

Flexible Learning
Study from home, at your own pace. Affordable monthly fees and no need to travel—music learning that fits your lifestyle.

Human Touch
Get personalised support from our expert team and request custom courses tailored to your goals.

Personalised Experience
Receive bespoke course recommendations and guided learning plans based on your interests and skill level.

For All Levels
A wide range of self-study courses, celebrity masterclasses, and optional 1-1 lessons designed for adult and teenage musicians, university/conservatoire students, home schoolers, and music therapists.

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A Quick Look at a Typical Masterclass Course

• Celebrity video lessons
• Objectives & exercises
• Progress tracking
• ️ Interactive music software
• Certificate on completion

Student Feedback

“Liam explains Herbie’s approach clearly. I found the sections on Phrygian-dominant cadences and drop‑2 voicings particularly useful. Practising the My Funny Valentine licks in multiple keys helped me apply these ideas in my own improvisation.”

— Laura P., Conservatoire Student

“The pedal note exercises changed how I think about harmony. Using pedals to connect chordal sonorities and explore dissonance was really practical. The rhythm modules, especially cross‑rhythms and polymetres, gave me new ways to structure my solos.”

— Mark S., Amateur Jazz Pianist (but I’ve played for years!)

“I liked how the course links bluesy licks to modal and diminished-scale techniques. Liam shows how these elements work in context rather than in isolation, which helped me understand harmonic movement and chordal extensions better.”

— Rita T., Working Musician

“Having backing tracks in multiple keys made the exercises much more useful. Learning linear sequences, ii‑V‑I progressions, and two-handed grooves this way helped me gradually build my own phrasing and improvisational ideas.”

— Chris J., Jazz Enthusiast

“The polychord exercises helped me hear how different harmonic layers interact. Liam explains how to connect sonorities with pedals and how to create tension and resolution, which makes improvising complex changes much clearer.”

— James K., Postgraduate Jazz Pianist

“I found the phrygian dominant and diminished-scale modules very practical. Liam demonstrates how to use them over dominant chords and ii‑V‑I progressions, and practising the exercises in multiple keys made it easier to internalise the patterns.”

— Nina L., Music Teacher

“The course’s approach to rhythm is very hands-on. Working with cross-rhythms and floating polymeters helped me structure my solos better and gave me new ideas for phrasing in a much more mature sense.”

— Alex R., Working Musician

“I liked how the licks and grooves are presented with their musical context. Of course, Herbie doesn’t reproduce licks per se as he is so brilliant at spontaneously coming up with new ideas, but these snippets gave me the tools to start my own journey. Studying the bluesy phrases and seeing how they shift in and out of modal or chromatic ideas made it easier to experiment and develop my own style.”

— Sophie M., Undergraduate Jazz Student