Jazz piano: accompanying oneself

Question

My goal is to be able to by ear play a jazz standard, with improv sections.

When keeping an accompaniment in my left hand (say, a walking base or similar) while soloing with my right, then I stall. My idea of solving this is to break it down, lower the tempo, practice, practice. But maybe someone know good etudes/exercises/approaches for this? As a previous violinist I find this multi tasking demanding, to say the least.

Answer 1

Make the accompaniment as simple as possible, but no simpler. Since your aim is to get a feel for chords, you'd do well to play a full 7th chord in the LH, either sustained or staccato, and solo using appropriate scales and motives. Because of the challenge of multitasking, I'm guessing that motives starting on the offbeat will be easiest at first.