Mel Bay's You Can Teach Yourself Jazz Piano [Paperback] Review

I have a few piano books, and this is the best one. I think this is the best way to learn Jazz piano, without a private teacher.

I should say that my main instrument is guitar, and as I manage to get a private guitar teacher shortly after I got this book, I have not used it extensively. On the other hand, I have made huge progress on jazz guitar with a similar approach.

The book consist of two parts. A section of tunes in an easy jazz arangement. With the acompanying CD you can hear how it is supposed to sound. This is a quick way to make your piano playing sound like jazz.

But to really play jazz is not play ready made arrangements. So the other part of the book is a fake book. I'd like to see some more well known standards there but that is ok. More important is the section on how to approach a tune in the fake book. Here are ideas about how to play the left hand. Note that unless you are already quite good at the piano, it takes a lot of practise to use those ideas.

I tried some of them, like a simple idea of playing arpeggios on the left hand and the tune in right hand. I only manged to play two notes per measure when I should play the tune at the same time. But the result sounded surprisingly jazzy on some tunes.

It may not be right for the absolute beginner at the piano, and not for those who already know some jazz piano. And be warned, working with the fake book takes time to progress. It may not sound right the first time you try, but working consistently should move you in the right direction.

Recommended.

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Product Description:
This book is the perfect introduction to jazz piano fro those who are already somewhat proficient as pianists but aspire to playing in the jazz style. The author emphasizes the importance of chords in playing jazz music and offers a comprehensive dictionary of traids, dominant sevenths, half and fully diminished seventh chords, plus ninth, and thirteenth chords. Chord symbols and voicings as well as modal and blues scales are also addressed. The last half of the book includes a generous fakebook and a songbook consisting of several of the authors progressively arranged compositions.

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