Jazz Piano Voicing Skills

(Keyboard Instruction). The jazz idiom can often appear mysterious and difficult for musicians who were trained to play other types of music. Long-time performer and educator Rob Mullins helps players enter the jazz world by providing voicings that will help the player develop skills in the jazz genre and start sounding professional right away without years of study! Includes a "Numeric Voicing Chart," chord indexes in all 12 keys, info about what range of the instrument you can play chords in, and a beginning approach to bass lines.

For an aspiring jazz instrumentalist, playing piano is one of the most important skills for developing a jazz vocabulary. Bob Mintzer is a renowned jazz composer, arranger, saxophonist, pianist, bandleader, educator and member of the group, the Yellowjackets. His new book is designed for the instrumentalist who is not an accomplished piano player but wants to acquire basic jazz piano skills and jazz vocabulary. The book includes etudes that make players aware of the sound, texture, cause, effect and function of jazz chords and harmony. The 22 piano etudes feature a variety of styles, tempos, chord progressions and a the book also includes a chord voicing glossary. Mintzer offers a practical guide with a realistic approach.

"[Student will learn the following:] open a fake book/sheet music with chord symbols and play a tune, accompany vocalist/instrumentalist on any type of tune, get a solo piano/vocal gig, use the piano as a helpful tool to practice vocal improvisation, analyze the chord changes to a song and understand the function of each chord within the progression, double-check published leads-sheets for accuracy, improve composition skills by being able to play and hear the tunes, improve improvisation skills by understanding the harmonic construction of a song."--Page 2

The jazz pianist is an impromptu arranger. This book examines the anatomy of jazz chords and takes a practical tour through the ways that pianists of all eras and styles actually play them. Chapters cover the idea of a big band under your fingers, rhythmic considerations, playing with guitarists, chord-scale theory, defining chord tones, the quality of voicings, shells, expanded shells, thirds, sixths, stride, four-way close, rootless, melodic minor "grips", "add 2", clusters, fourths, "axis", "drop" chords, drop-2 block chords, four-note structures, Shearing block chords, dominant 13ths, diatonic triads and sevenths, upper structures, slash and polychords, "So What" chords, fifths, RH octave-triads and ambi chords, Red Garland block chords, triad expansions, stacks, combinations and approaches, practice suggestions, DIY ear training, examples, patterns and exercises. (112 pages)

Jazz Improvisation for Keyboard Players is a straightforward, no-nonsense improvisation series. It deals with creating melodies, using the left hand, pianistic approaches to soloing, scale choices for improvisation and much more.