Progressive Rock Keyboard: Hal Leonard Keyboard Style Series [Paperback] Review

I don't why anyone has'nt written a review for this book yet. Its perfect, and the accompanying CD is so helpful to help learn the rhythms of progressive rock keyboard. I would greatly recommend this book if you are sick of playing yankee doodle or any other book with boring sheet music. Contained in the book is an adequate description of the genre and presents perfect examples that you can learn. I found this book very satisfying and not too hard. I also have the rock keyboard and find that one great as well. So do buy these books.

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Product Description:
From the classic sounds of the '70s to modern progressive stylings, this book/CD provides you with the theory and technique to play and compose in a multitude of prog rock styles. You'll learn how soloing techniques, form, rhythmic and metrical devices, harmony, and counterpoint all come together to make this style of rock the unique and exciting genre it is. Also included is an introduction to classic and contemporary keyboard instruments and sounds, and how they can be used in different combinations to produce authentic-sounding keyboard parts. The accompanying CD features many of the examples covered in the book, as well as six complete progressive rock songs recorded by a real band.

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Barrelhouse and Boogie Piano (Music Sales America) [Paperback] Review

The transcriptions of some of the greatest barrelhouse and blues pianists such as Jelly Roll Morton, Meade Lux Lewis, Memphis Slim, along with their history are in this music book.
There is also a tantalizing CD of samples of the pieces in the book as played by the great blues pianists. This gives essential information as to how the syncopation and rubato sounds in the hands of the masters. The only problem is that as the snippet gets going, you really want to hear the entire piece and whammo! It's only a few seconds per piece, 12 minutes in all. Why oh why couldn't they put at least a few complete works on the CD?
Other than that quibble, this is a great book for blues piano, though greats such as Roosevelt Sykes are to be found in a companion volume, not in this one.
A must for blues lovers who play keyboard.

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Product Description:
An important instruction guide to the blues-style piano by the author of Six Blues Roots Pianists. Complete with music transcriptions and excerpts from the original recordings of 22 piano greats.

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Blues, Jazz and Rock Riffs for Keyboards (Instructional) [Paperback] Review

This is a good book for anyone who hasn't played much rock or blues.The book is full of riffs - however, I found that there were sometimes riffs that were almost identical.You might play 2 pages of riffs, but it really is 2-3 riffs with some variations.

I'm not saying that this is particularly bad - especially if you would benefit from working on and perfecting some good finger patterns.These are mainly usable riffs and if you got used to playing them, I think you'd find that you use them a lot.

One of my favorite parts of this book happens to be when Mr. Eveleth writes short compositions that use these riffs one right after the other.This really gives a feel as to how you might go about using these riffs in a practical setting.

Also, almost everything is in the key of C.There are some benefits to this - but if you're going to get your money from this book, better be ready to either write out transpostions, or better yet, learn to transpose in your head.If you get all these riffs down in C, F, G and perhaps Bb and Eb, you will be able to play them without problem in most of the songs you'll come across.

I didn't personally spend much time with this book.I read through it once at the keyboard - played around with the compositions a bit, played the riffs that I liked in a few keys and otherwise, I only get it out once in a while to find a new finger pattern or idea.

This is a pretty good book if you take into consideration a few of the limiations I've mentioned!I would recommend it!

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Product Description:
This book presents a practical approach to improvising through a system of patterns in a traditional blues style. Because so much of today's popular music has its roots in blues, the material included here is a vital component of jazz, rock, RandB, gospel, soul, and even pop. The author has compiled actual licks, riffs, turnaround phrases, embellishments, and basic patterns that define good piano blues and can be used as a basis for players to explore and create their own style.

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FASTFORWARD: 12-BAR BLUES PIANO (Fast Forward (Music Sales)) [Audiobook] [Paperback] Review

This book provides a painless introduction to playing blues piano in six styles: Basic Shuffle, Boogie Woogie, Walking Bass, Stride, Jazz,and Rock. It presents the left and right hand parts separately, then throws them together. Each example has two tracks on the CD, with and without the piano part. The left hand parts are quite complete, but the right hand parts are a little thin, leaving out slides, crushed notes and tremelos. However, the backing tracks on the CD are outstanding. Once you master the material in the book, you can reuse the CD backing tracks with licks from other books like David Bennet Cohen's Blues Piano or Mark Harrison's Blues Piano. Had the author included more material, this could be a 5 satr book.

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Product Description:
Learn to play the 12-bar blues using authentic techniques to get the real blues sound.

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Jazz Piano Voicings Skill [Paperback] Review

When my teacher recommended I buy this book, I found not too many people know about it. It was hard to find. That's too bad, this is really a great book.

This book is basically a collection of piano voicings for many different types of chords, in all keys. There's not too much explanation, just the guidelines so we can use the exercises properly and learn how to voice open chords. This is not a Chord Dictionary, it's about how to voice chords. You must know how to read music to benefit from this.

If you are a beginner at jazz piano, this is a great tool to learn open chords.

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Product Description:
Jazz Piano Voicing Skills by Dan Haerle. APPLICABLE FOR ALL INSTRUMENTS. A graded course on piano voicing skills, starting with simple block chords over Major and Minor and logically and methodically progressing into more exotic and advanced polychords and substitutions. Includes 123 skills in all twelve keys, designed to initiate a feel and understanding of piano voicings and how they work. Each new chapter includes a page of concise instructions for the teacher or the student. Works well for both classroom or individual study. The 156 spiral bound pages allow the book to open fully and easily on your keyboard music rack

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Jazz Piano Best of Bk/Cd (Signature Licks) [Paperback] Review

I don't remember exactly what I was thinking when I purchased this book, but it had something to do with learning licks and styles from accomplished jazz musicians. That is to say, I was looking for a shortcut. I'm finding out what I already suspected, however: there are no shortcuts. What this is then is a road map, with signposts giving a clear concise sampling of solos and riffs in differing styles from eleven great jazz pianists. There are some easy runs and some hard runs, and some slow songs and some fast songs, bits of fifteen different songs in all. There's no fingering marked in the text, so having an instructor to point things out will make this book more practical. The book is staple bound so it works well on the music stand. As near as I can tell, this contains only pieces of songs, so the serious musician will definitely have to have a songbook handy (but what jazz pianist doesn't already have The Real Book: Sixth Edition?). The highlight of this book is the CD that comes with it, which contains samples of the songs, usually both with a backing band and without, as well as examples of the solos at a slower pace and at speed. Fast forwarding through them and back to them is a bit of a chore (there are 94 sample tracks), but having that resource is really great, and the book includes markings for where each track is used, making the pair way more useful. There are also brief biographies of each of the musicians covered, which I think is a nice touch. In short, it is hard not to like this book and CD set. It is well thought out, well executed, interesting, and productive. No, it isn't a shortcut and you will still have to practice. (Sorry.) And though it might not fit every pianist's concept of a learning tool, it fits mine to a `T' and I will get a lot of use out of this book for quite some time.

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Product Description:
Learn the piano styles and techniques of Bill Evans, Oscar Peterson, Errol Garner, Nat "King" Cole, Ahmad Jamal, and more with this great book/CD pack. Rizzo teaches the styles using examples from actual songs, 15 in all. Includes: Caravan * Come Rain or Come Shine * How Deep Is the Ocean (How High Is the Sky) * I'll Remember April * In a Sentimental Mood * It's Only a Paper Moon * No Moon at All * On a Clear Day (You Can See Forever) * Satin Doll * Speak Low * St. Louis Blues * Stompin' at the Savoy * Take the "A" Train * There Is No Greater Love * Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams (And Dream Your Troubles Away). CD includes demonstrations of each.

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Jazz Piano Masterclass with Mark Levine - The Drop 2 Book [Spiral-bound] Review

This book is a welcome follow-up to Mark Levine's Jazz Piano Book. The only frustration I had with the Jazz Piano Book is that it could not tell me EVERYTHING. The Jazz Piano book only introduced Drop 2 techniques, leaving the voracious student wondering where to find more information. The Drop 2 Book fills that void with the same clarity and pace that made the Jazz Piano Book so useful and popular. The book explains major, minor and dominant progressions, tweaks to make chords sound "modern", applications, problems and work-arounds, soloing, comping, the Altered Bebop Minor Scale, and suggested practice routines. Jazz Piano Masterclass with Mark Levine(With CD) can also be purchased with recorded examples. Most students at this level could hammer out the examples, but the relative volumes of the left and right hands are important to this technique. Such nuances cannot be expressed clearly with standard music notation, so the CD is more than just a nice afterthought. If you have worked through the Jazz Piano Book and feel ready to explore Drop 2 voicings in greater depth, this book will take you there. Buy it and recommend it to all your friends so that we can see more Masterclass books by Mark Levine.

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Product Description:
The 'Drop 2 Book' is the first and only publication to explore the 4-note, block-chord approach to jazz piano playing---as used by piano masters like Kenny Barron, McCoy Tyner, Barry Harris, Cedar Walton and Bill Evans. In this book, world-renowned educator and pianist Mark Levine gives the reader a comprehensive, step-by-step, beginning to advanced Masterclass on this fascinating approach to voicing chords. Included in the book are complete chapters on: The basic Drop 2 approach More advanced Drop 2 techniques Soloing and 'comping in Drop 2 Techniques for practicing Drop 2 Plus a CD is included of Mark demonstrating each exercise! An invaluable insight into the harmonic minds of some of our greatest piano players, by the author of "The Jazz Piano Book".

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Jazz, Blues, Boogie & Swing for Piano [Paperback] Review

I'm a self taught amateur who can just about crash through a hymn at about 1/4 speed third or fourth time around sight-reading-wise, but, these arrangements I can play (apart from the left hand tenths)given about two months per tune, (doing two or three at once) because they don't seem to get boring even after the 100th attempt. There is enough "guts" in the arrangements to hold my attention long enough for me to learn them.
They are particularly "easy" to memorise, that's the trick and also they are short.
If you don't want too simple or grindingly chromatically brainy but do want the "open" clean sounds of happier times from honest nostalgia to gutsy-slow-blues to brain-twisting-makes-ya-grin-boogie then this is for you!

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Product Description:
Various A collection of the original sheet music for 48 songs from the era, featuring the arrangements of 'Fats' Waller, Art Tatum, Duke Ellington, James P. Johnson, Albert Ammons, Pete Johnson, Count Basie, Clarence Williams, Jay McShann, Billy Kyle, Zez Confrey.

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Mel Bay Jazz Piano Scales & Modes [Paperback] Review

What separates this scales book is that the author lays out each mode or type of scale by key. Not only does it contain all the "church scales" (Aolian, Dorian, Ionian, etc.,), it also has the major and minor pentatonic, the blues scales, Bebop, and many others including Neapolitan, Japanese, Hungarian Minor scales, again, all in notation form and in every key! I've been looking for this for a long time. My only wish is that it would be in spiral binding. Other than that, this is better than any of the other scales books I've purchased.

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Product Description:
Following the best-selling Jazz Piano Chords, this informative volume provides a scale reference and practice tool for any pianist wanting to learn to play jazz. Starting with diatonic, pentatonic, symmetrical and exotic scales, more advanced composer and jazz scales are introduced. The following discussion of polytonality, alternating scales, using scales with chords and scale chords represents the dominating concepts of contemporary jazz. The book ends with extensive 12-key libraries of scales, and scales arranged by chords. Learning to use these scales will help any pianist play with more tonal and modal variety, color, freedom and interest.

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Bebop Jazz Piano: Hal Leonard Keyboard Style Series [Paperback] Review

I have a few of the other books in this series and find them all great! John Valerio is a wonderful composer and teacher and has a very similar style to Mark Harrison (another composer in this series). This book includes important information about chords, voicings, harmony, chord progressions, scales, tonality, melodic figures and patters, comping, characteristic tunes, styles of Bud Powell and Theolonious Monk...anything that is used in any type of bebop jazz. It goes through the history and evolution of Bebop. The book moves quickly but provides the information that is important. It comes with a very handy CD which allows to hear what it's supposed to sound like. I highly recommend this book and have found that using it with some of the other books in the series is beyond helpful!

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Product Description:
In this book in the Hal Leonard Keyboard Style Series, author John Valerio provides essential, detailed information for bebop and jazz pianists on the following topics: chords and voicings, harmony and chord progressions, scales and tonality, common melodic figures and patterns, comping, characteristic tunes, the styles of Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk, and much more. The accompanying CD features many of the examples in the book performed either solo or with a full band. Also included are combo performances of five of the tunes featured at the end of the book.

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The Fifty Greatest Jazz Piano Players of All Time: Ranking, Analysis & Photos (Book) [Hardcover] Review

Ranking musicians/artists is wrongheaded but some of these picks are just beyond the pale.He ranks the number 1-4 top jazz pianists of all time as Oscar Peterson, Bill Evans, Bud Powell and Art Tatum.Reasonable picks.So who's number 5?Gotta be along the lines of Chick, Herbie, Keith, McCoy, Cecil, Fatha Hines, Teddy Wilson, Fats, or Jelly Roll, right?Get this- Monty Alexander!and who's number 6?Benny Green!I was in disbelief.As you wade through the rest of the picks you realize that the closer a pianist comes to duplicating Oscar's style the higher he is rated (Gene Harris rates 12 if I recall).Now I have plenty of Monty Alexander and Benny Green recordings and enjoy their playing, but they are hardly the sort of original pianists that would merit their rubbing shoulders with these giants.This book may familarize the jazz piano enthusiast with some players they didn't previously know but a better book in that regard would be Robert Doershuk's "88: The Giants of Jazz Piano."Doerschuk's book features more pianists, is more informative and comes with a CD.I will say that Rizzo's book has some nice photos.

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Product Description:

Handy resource for jazz listeners and hardcore fans.Spanning players from eighty years of history, this bold book steps forward and claims who are the greatest. Compiled from an extensive survey conducted with the best jazz minds in the ed



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Post-Bop Jazz Piano - The Complete Guide with CD!: Hal Leonard Keyboard Style Series [Paperback] Review

As a jazz enthusiast, this book was something new that went beyond all other jazz teaching books that I have come across.It has given me a new outlook on the jazz of the 1950's.Left-hand voicings, two-hand voicings, scales, tonality, modality are just some of the main ideas that this book goes through.One thing that really caught my eye, is the in depth look at the impression Bill Evans, Herbie Hancock, McCoy Tyner, Chick Corea, and Keith Jarrett use in their music.The book is a great option for those looking to expand their jazz knowledge and incorporate their own style.The book moves quickly but provides the information that is important for those of us looking to play.It comes with a very handy CD which allows to hear what it's supposed to sound like. I highly recommend this book.

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Product Description:
This comprehensive book and CD package will teach you the basic skills you need to play post bop jazz piano. From comping to soloing, you'll learn the theory, the tools, and the tricks used by the pros. The accompanying CD features many of the examples in the book performed either solo or with a full band. THE HAL LEONARD KEYBOARD STYLE SERIES provides focused lessons that contain valuable how-to insight, essential playing tips, and beneficial information for all players. Comprehensive treatment is given to each subject, complete with a companion CD.

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Complete Jazz Keyboard Method: Intermediate Jazz Keyboard [Paperback] Review

I bought "Mastering Jazz Keyboard" at a local music store and found that it was just a little too advanced for me, though I liked the tone and pace of the book. So I ordered "Intermediate Jazz Keyboard," and so far, I've found that it's just what I was looking for.

I'm a classically trained pianist looking to branch out into jazz improvisation. I sightread really easily, I know my major and minor scales inside and out, but I was always a little confused by chord markings like "Emin7b5" and "Csus". I knew what they meant, but I didn't really get what you'd use them for. What Baerman does is explain when - and why - to use advanced chords.

The best part of the book is the accompanying CD. After reading a few pages, you'll find yourself wanting to try things out but not quite knowing how. Every topic has at least one example track on the CD, usually more than one. And all the tracks are written out in notation, so those of us who are used to reading music won't feel too disoriented.

All in all, this book has a great balance of theory and practice, with a good sense of humor and bits of jazz history thrown in to boot. The only thing that would make it more complete would be a few worksheets or tables to fill in, just for practice constructing chords or scales.

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Product Description:
This book is great for keyboardists who have learned the basics of jazz harmony and improvisation.Topics include a brief review of concepts and skills from Beginning Jazz Keyboard, and continue with the modes of the major scale, chord extensions, making the changes, using chromatic tones and guide tones, chord substitution, ""rhythm changes,"" the blues, altered dominant chords and more.Continuing the format of Beginning Jazz Keyboard, new concepts are reinforced by etudes and songs for practice.Packed with hundreds of harmony and improvisation ideas, this book is essential for any serious student of jazz keyboard.The CD includes examples and opportunities to play along.

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88: The Giants of Jazz Piano [Hardcover] Review

A bonus 11-track cd comes with this portrait of eighty-eight pioneers and players of jazz piano, from Jelly Roll Morton to Benny Green. Here are insights on lives, techniques, and changing perspectives on jazz piano styles and artistry, enhanced by the author's personal experience as a jazz pianist and his original interviews with many of the players. Avid fans of the genre will find The Giants Of Jazz Piano positively absorbing.

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Product Description:
This handsome, insightful hardcover volume delves deep into the music of 88 visionaries who have made an indelible mark on the world of jazz through their mastery of the pianoÃ-s 88 keys. This engaging collection describes the intriguing personality and performance characteristics of each pianist. Seven major figures are covered in depth: Jelly Roll Morton, Earl Hines, Art Tatum, Thelonious Monk, Bud Powell, Keith Jarrett and Cecil Taylor. Other featured artists include: James P. Johnson, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Nat "King" Cole, Oscar Peterson, Les McCann, Herbie Hancock, Dave Brubeck, Billy Taylor, McCoy Tyner, Chick Corea and 70 others, in styles ranging from stride to swing, bebop to post-bop, funk to avant garde, and more. Includes a bonus CD with 11 great jazz tracks, 100 photos, and a foreword by Keith Jarrett.
"Like great solos, these essays have grace, wit, and a sense of personal involvement ... Immensely valuable stuff!"
- Dick Hyman

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Intros, Endings and Turnarounds for Keyboard: Essential Phrases for Swing, Latin, Jazz Waltz, and Blues Styles (keyboard instruction) [Paperback] Review

This book teaches many things at once.

Learn intros and endings suitable for use in gigs.
Learn different chord changes besides the typical II-V-I.
Learn some phrases and voicings that help you jump right in,
rather than just seeing the chord changes written out.
(The last chapter is the exception)
Learn how to improvise - If you haven't been able to cross that
bridge, just let yourself wander while playing these samples.
You can't help but hear different melodies in them.

Each sample is presented in a random key, but it is still up the
student to practice them in all keys.
Well worth the price - a fraction of the cost of a piano lesson
for a huge springboard!

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Product Description:
Learn the intros, endings and turnarounds that all of the pros know and use! This new keyboard instruction book by John Valerio covers swing styles, ballads, Latin tunes, jazz waltzes, blues, major and minor keys, vamps and pedal tones, and more.

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Voicings For Jazz Keyboard [Spiral-bound] Review

This book explains away all the mysteries involved in quartal jazz harmony, as well as provides great insight into using triads over dominant sevenths and voice leading.Frank gets right to the heart of the matterand presents it in a straight-forward, easy to understand manner, which isthe way it should be.Great for ANY instrumentalist and a great resourcefor jazz arrangers.

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Product Description:
A respected soloist, clinician and writer, Mantooth has written this book for any keyboard player interested in developing better jazz chord voicing. Written more as a Õhow-toÕ book than a textbook, Voicings will make a valuable addition to the library of any performer, arranger, teacher or jazz theorist.

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Jazz Piano: The Left Hand (The Steinway Library of Piano Music) [Paperback] Review

This is not a step by step, "Left Hand Technique for Dummies" kind of book. The author seems to know a lot about the history of jazz and has compiled examples of the left hand technique of many piano masters. The first half the book is more historic and talks about stride piano and the early players. The rest is more from bebop era and forward. His charts are hard to read and definitely require piano experience. I found the latin chapters too short, but is it understandable in a broad subject like this. I also wish there was more meterial about Bill Evans.

Good book. It will take me a lot of time to go through this.

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Product Description:
Arranged for piano by Riccardo Scivales. Here is the first volume in a new Jazz Piano series from The Steinway Library of Piano Music! This masterful book answers the age-old question asked by nearly every jazz pianist: what more can I do with my left hand? Using hundreds upon hundreds of musical examples, jazz scholar and pianist Riccardo Scivales Piano takes you on a tour of the left hand styles and techniques of all the great pianists, from Jelly Roll Morton and Fats Waller to Chick Corea and Michel Camilo. And he shows you how to use their methods yourself!
An Encyclopedia of Left Hand Style You'll no longer ponder how to get that swinging bass going, or how to fill in and add spark to the music with authentic left hand grooves. That great mystery of how to become a truly two fisted player will remain a mystery no longer, after you've gone through this treasure trove of left hand techniques used by the best jazz players who ever lived! This book is well over 250 pages long-a triumph of historical scholarship and practical, down-to-earth know-how!
Put Your Little Finger Here You'll see exactly what these legendary jazz pianists did, and learn how they made their left hand moves sound so thrilling. You'll become adept at every left hand style as Riccardo let's you in on all the secrets... stride bass as adopted and improved by Jelly Roll, Earl Hines, Eubie Blake, Luckey Roberts, Donald Lambert, Cliff Jackson, Willie The Lion Smith, George Gershwin and Fats Waller... Spanish Tinged left hand stylings... blues and boogie devices... swing style figures made famous by Teddy Wilson, Art Tatum and Bob Zurke... techniques of Prebop, Bebop, and the new left hand... Erroll Garner's strumming left hand figures... walking bass style... playing salsa stride patterns, montunos and bossa-novas... the basics of jazz ostinatos... rootless chord voicings... AND MORE!

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Modern Jazz Piano: A Study In Harmony And Improvisation (Music Sales America) [Paperback] Review

This book completely changed my understanding and level of jazz piano playing.It is short and to the point, yet carefully written and complete.I like the fact that the author is a trained engineer.As a computerprogrammer I can identify with the way the book is layed out very logicallywith the assumption that the reader is intelligent, interested,andmotivated.I read the entire book while on trains going to and from work. I think it would have been a distraction to have read it while at a piano. The chord pattern excercises at the end of the book are excellent; I ammethododically going through all of them using a PC based sequencerconnected via midi to an electronic keyboard.If you only buy one bookon jazz piano, I think it should be this one. The next book to readafter this one, in my opinion is "All about Chords".I am almostfinished reading it;I could never have handled it if I hadn't read"Modern Jazz Piano" first. The two books together aremagnificently complete. I have a quite a library of jazz piano and jazzbooks; most of them are padded and not of much use."Modern JazzPiano" is by contrast a classic that every jazz pianist should have.I lost many years because I was brain-washed into believing the JohnMehegan jazz system as taught at Julliard was the only way to learn jazz. Inow believe the Julliard system is hopelessly complicated and noteffective.The traditional harmony systems used in "Modern JazzPiano" are the best and also the most popular.It is not somethingesoteric that only propeller heads know about. Buy it and hold onto it. Even if it sits on your bookshelf for years, there will come a day when itwill speak eloquently to you and change your level of playing andunderstanding.

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Product Description:
Based on the authorÂ's experience in teaching in jazz workshop, explains the principles of this art form. Useful for teachers wishing to include jazz in the music curriculum.

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Jazz Piano Masterclass with Mark Levine(With CD) [Spiral-bound] Review

This book is a welcome follow-up to Mark Levine's Jazz Piano Book.The only frustration I had with the Jazz Piano Book is that it could not tell me EVERYTHING.The Jazz Piano book only introduced Drop 2 techniques, leaving the voracious student wondering where to find more information.The Drop 2 Book fills that void with the same clarity and pace that made the Jazz Piano Book so useful and popular.The book explains major, minor and dominant progressions, tweaks to make chords sound "modern", applications, problems and work-arounds, soloing, comping, the Altered Bebop Minor Scale, and suggested practice routines.As an added bonus, this book includes a CD with recorded examples.Most students at this level could hammer out the examples, but the relative volumes of the left and right hands are important to this technique.Such nuances cannot be expressed clearly with standard music notation, so the CD is more than just a nice afterthought.If you have worked through the Jazz Piano Book and feel ready to explore Drop 2 voicings in greater depth, this book will take you there.Buy it and recommend it to all your friends so that we can see more Masterclass books by Mark Levine.

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Product Description:
"Jazz Piano Masterclass With Mark Levine: The Drop 2 Book".Mark is the author of the widely-acclaimed text, "The Jazz Piano Book" and pianists will be thrilled to see that he has come up with a second piano book. This one deals exclusively with how to play "Drop 2" piano voicings---the block-chord technique used by Bill Evans, Barry Harris, Cedar Walton, McCoy Tyner, and many other jazz piano greats. Mark gives the reader a step-by-step, beginning-to-advanced approach to learning this technique, just as he would in a live masterclass. The accompanying CD has Mark demonstrating each exercise.

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The Jazz Piano Book [Spiral-bound] Review

Before Mark Levine's Jazz Piano book came out, choosing a book on how to play piano was a lot like selecting a presidential candidate - - you may not have been crazy about the choices but... (blah blah blah) What makes this book different is that it walks a fine and brilliant line between theory, application and stylistics and it is never dry, and further it is contemporary. By chapter 10 and beyond he's getting into fourth chords, upper structures and "so what" chords. Most books sort of finish up just when Bud Powell is hitting the scene. This book however will take you up to McCoy Tyner and Kenny Barron. - - Unlike other books, his book also sites practical song examples and specific listening examples.
If you're entirely on your own, I think this book, along with a few Aebersold play-a-longs and Amadea's Harmonic Foundations for Jazz and Pop Music would really take you a long way. Your ultimate goal should be able to sit in at Jam sessions and with real players... that's where the real learning begins. Do what you have to do to get to the point that you can hang with a blues or Real Book standards.
(Regarding suitability for beginers vs. advanced players : This book is pretty good for players of all levels, though if you're starting from scratch another book to consider is Brain Waite's "Modern Jazz Piano : A Study in Harmony" or Amadea's book, then this.)

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Product Description:
Endorsed by Kenny Barron, Jamey Aebersold, Richie Beirach, and more, this book presents all the information a student of jazz piano needs in an easy-to-understand, yet thorough, manner. For intermediate to advanced pianists, written by one of the acknowledged masters of jazz piano playing.

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