Reddit mentions: The best piano songbooks

We found 225 Reddit comments discussing the best piano songbooks. We ran sentiment analysis on each of these comments to determine how redditors feel about different products. We found 96 products and ranked them based on the amount of positive reactions they received. Here are the top 20.

1. The Jazz Piano Book

    Features:
  • Used Book in Good Condition
The Jazz Piano Book
Specs:
Height11 inches
Length9 inches
Weight1.72401488884 Pounds
Width0.721 inches
Number of items1
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4. Final Fantasy VII Piano Collection Sheet Music

Final Fantasy VII Piano Collection Sheet Music
Specs:
Weight1.322773572 Pounds
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5. Steve Kaufman's Four-Hour Bluegrass Workout

    Features:
  • BOOK W/CD
  • 112 pages
  • Size: 11" x 8-1/2"
  • Artist: Steve Kaufman
  • ISBN: 634005197
Steve Kaufman's Four-Hour Bluegrass Workout
Specs:
Height11 Inches
Length8.5 Inches
Weight0.79 Pounds
Width0.348 Inches
Release dateFebruary 1997
Number of items1
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6. The Beatles Keyboard Book

    Features:
  • Songbook includes sheet music and lyrics for these Beatles songs:
  • All You Need Is Love
  • Back In The U.S.S.R.
  • Birthday
  • Come Together
The Beatles Keyboard Book
Specs:
Height12 Inches
Length9 Inches
Weight1.1 Pounds
Width0.367 Inches
Release dateApril 1993
Number of items1
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9. Worship Piano: Hal Leonard Keyboard Style Series

Worship Piano: Hal Leonard Keyboard Style Series
Specs:
Height12 Inches
Length9 Inches
Weight0.7 Pounds
Width0.259 Inches
Number of items1
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10. Ultimate Christmas Fakebook - 6Th Edition

Ultimate Christmas Fakebook - 6Th Edition
Specs:
Height12 Inches
Length9 Inches
Weight1.75 Pounds
Width0.541 Inches
Number of items1
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11. La La Land (Piano/Voice/Guitar) (Pvg)

La La Land - PianoVocal + Guitar
La La Land (Piano/Voice/Guitar) (Pvg)
Specs:
Height0 Inches
Length0 Inches
Weight0.5621787681 Pounds
Width0 Inches
Number of items1
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12. Metaphors for the Musician

    Features:
  • Used Book in Good Condition
Metaphors for the Musician
Specs:
Height11 Inches
Length9.25 Inches
Weight1.89377083058 Pounds
Width0.696 Inches
Number of items1
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17. GP601 - Piano Repertoire - Baroque & Classical - Level 1

Music Snell Piano Repertoire - Baroque Classical Level 1
GP601 - Piano Repertoire - Baroque & Classical - Level 1
Specs:
Height1.5748 Inches
Length12 Inches
Weight0.20282528104 Pounds
Width9 Inches
Number of items1
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19. ATF147 - Solos for Violin (All Time Favorite Series)

Carl Fischer Edition
ATF147 - Solos for Violin (All Time Favorite Series)
Specs:
Height12 Inches
Length9 Inches
Width0.58 Inches
Number of items1
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🎓 Reddit experts on piano songbooks

The comments and opinions expressed on this page are written exclusively by redditors. To provide you with the most relevant data, we sourced opinions from the most knowledgeable Reddit users based the total number of upvotes and downvotes received across comments on subreddits where piano songbooks are discussed. For your reference and for the sake of transparency, here are the specialists whose opinions mattered the most in our ranking.
Total score: 78
Number of comments: 23
Relevant subreddits: 2
Total score: 15
Number of comments: 5
Relevant subreddits: 3
Total score: 14
Number of comments: 2
Relevant subreddits: 2
Total score: 8
Number of comments: 8
Relevant subreddits: 1
Total score: 8
Number of comments: 4
Relevant subreddits: 1
Total score: 8
Number of comments: 4
Relevant subreddits: 1
Total score: 6
Number of comments: 3
Relevant subreddits: 1
Total score: 5
Number of comments: 2
Relevant subreddits: 1
Total score: 2
Number of comments: 2
Relevant subreddits: 1
Total score: 2
Number of comments: 2
Relevant subreddits: 1

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Top Reddit comments about Piano Songbooks:

u/Issac_ClarkeThe6th · 1 pointr/piano

Can’t comment on the Hanon, but I do have a recommendation you may be interested in. I’ve been playing classical for a while, but in the last year decided to take jazz improv on top of it. There are a few things that if you really work at then will show stellar results.

First thing is chord voicing, these are truly your bread and butter as a jazz pianist. If you ever play in a group, then these will give you a great sound with many many options to choose from.

It would take a very long time to write out a bunch of voicings, but here’s an example. For major chords there are two main interchangeable voicings which we’ll simply refer to as A and B voicings..
-A voicing is formed by starting at the root, then moving up a major third, then building a minor 7th chord. For example C root, then E minor 7. If you look at it, you’re really just playing the 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th, and 9th. You can drop the root once you learn minor and dominance chord voicings, but seeing not only the expanded C major chord, as well as the chord writhin a chord (E Minor 7 within the C major 9) is extremely helpful.

-B voicing is a major third up from the root, then a minor 7th chord, finally inverted twice. This will give you another voicing option so you don’t use the same chords over and over. Now for any major chord, you have three options (Root, Rootless A, Rootless B).

There are more chord voicing beyond that, but that brief example should give you an idea of what’s out there. There are A and B voicings for Major, Minor, and Dominant chords, with Dominant chords having many many options.

For now I would recommend learning you major 7th, dominant 7th, and minor 7th chords in all 12 keys. Play the root an octave lower, then with both hands play the given rootless voicing above it. This will give you an excellent foundation to build from.

Next most important thing is Modes and Scales. Each chord has a corresponding scale with notes that will sound great over a particular chord. Again due to the vast array of options, I’ll give you a starting place to go from.
-Major chords can be paired with major scales. Pretty cut and dry.

-Minor chords will be paired with the mode Dorian. Dorian is similar to a minor scale, but instead of being formed with a flating the 3rd, 6th, 7th Of any major scale, it’s formed by flating the 3rd and 7th of any major scale. So D Dorian would be all white keys.

-Dominant chords can be paired either the Mixolydian Mode. Mixolydian is formed by flating the 7th note in a major scale. So G Mixolydian would be all white keys.

Now there are many MANY options just like with chords, but this will give you a very firm place to begin improvising. As an exercise to get you playing the right scales with the right chords, play in your right hand a particular scale up two octaves and a third, while playing in your left hand the corresponding chord every 8 notes. You’ll see it line up perfectly. When you can do that reliably at 80 bpm with you major, minor, and dominant chords/scales, you’ll be in a great places.

Last but not least is basic Roman numerals theory. If you know what Roman numerals sound good going to each other, then you’ll be in a great place to not only improvise, but to even write and improvise your own songs on the fly. Again, there’s a whole lot we could cover, but to give you a taste, we’ll talk about probably the biggest progression in Jazz. The ii-V-I.

If you break it down a ii-V-I is the culmination of what we’ve talked about so far in this post. First, why this progression. Well the V-I is a common pull in music. The dominant is one of the first in the overtime series, and it’s pull to I is extremely strong. Almost if not more in some cases powerful than the pull of a vii-I. That’s cool, but what about the ii? The ii-V is actually a very strong pull in its own right. So ii now leads us into V, which then takes us home to I.

For great examples of this in action listen to Afternoon In Paris, and Take The A-Train.

Now once you have those chords in place from earlier, you can fill in the minor 7th chords for the ii, the dominant 7th chords for the V, and the Major 7th chords for the I. So in the key of C this would look like d minor 7th for ii, g dominant 7 for V, and C major 7 for I. Once you can do a ii-V-I in every key, practice playing the corresponding scales while you ii-V-I. Or you could also add rootless voicings to the ii-V-I by doing ABA voicings (Minor A, Dominant B, Major A), or BAB voicings (Minor B, Dominant A, Major B).

I would highly recommend buying a copy of The Real Book. This is a set of over 150 standard lead sheets for famous and great jazz songs. Both songs I mentioned above are in the book. Take the book, find a song, and break it down using Roman numerals. After a while things will make sense as far as what chords go where, and things will really start to click.

If you’re interested in further reading, I would highly recommend The Jazz Piano Book by Mark Levine. This book covers many many topics, and will take you far. I like the book a good bit because by any topic, it will show a real excerpt from a jazz standard of a chord used so you can see how what you’re learning is utilized.

I know this is a lot to do, but just pace yourself. You can’t build a house in a day, but if you’re patient and diligent, the world of Jazz Improve is a fun and exciting one. Best of luck, and if you have any questions feel free to comment or shoot me a dm.

u/Backwoods_Boy · 53 pointsr/IWantToLearn

Hi! I'm also 24, and I've been playing the piano since I was 8! I think I can help you out some. I taught my younger sister, who was 13 at the time, how to play the piano, and I started her out on a curriculum I put together myself. This consists of work in 5 main areas: Theory, Intuition, Method, Technique, and Musicianship. I'll explain this further.

Music theory is where you need to start. Without a good knowledge of theory, you're pretty much lost. It's analogous to being in the dark with no flashlight (theory), but turn the flashlight on, and you have a sense of where you're going and what to do. However, it's important that you don't become so reliant on theory that you can't play anything without reading the notes.

This is where intuition comes in. Intuition is built by listening to music. The more you listen to music and the patterns in different songs, the more you'll understand when to change chords, walk up or down bass lines, etc. This was my problem. I was never taught how to improve on my musical intuition. I had to learn this on my own, but I've got good enough now to where I can hear a song and pretty much know how to play it. This is what you're aiming for by building intuition.

Method is meant to take music theory and intuition and actually apply it. So the goal in learning method is to learn different approaches to different songs. For example, there's many ways that you can play a song like Amazing Grace. You can play it with three chords, you can include a minor to make a 4 chord progression, etc. All method does is teach you different ways of approaching songs using what you know about music theory and intuition.

Technique is also very important. Technique develops your motor skills and muscle memory. You might say technique is like exercising your fingers and your brain. It's probably the most boring part of a piano curriculum, because it seems like you're just repeating the same thing over and over and over again, and the exercises seem to hold no purpose. Still, the point here is develop your technique to where you can do things like trills, play very fast songs, and make your music sound beautiful. It takes a lot of time and practice to develop good technique, but it definitely pays off.

Finally, the last area is Musicianship. This is the final goal, and what the student has been working toward. Musicianship is combining all of the other areas and putting them into good practice to perform in front of an audience. A good musician will know their instrument and its proper usage and care, how to play it, it's role within the various genres of music, and be able to play it well. A good musician will also know proper stage etiquette and performance.

This is the philosophy I have developed over my years of playing. The whole point is to develop well rounded musicians. It seems very difficult and harsh, but it can be a whole lot of fun! My sister really enjoyed me teaching her to play, and within a few months she was doing far better than I ever was when I was that far in. My football coach always told us that we would get out of something what we put into it. If you put 30 minutes a week into it, you're not going to see good results. However, put in 30 minutes a day and you'll see results in no time.

So now for the big question... where do you start? I started my sister out in this book. That is the most comprehensive and well written book on music theory. It just goes over the bare minimum of what you need to be a good pianist, plus it's a great reference to look back on. More advanced study will come later on, but for now this is a great book to learn how to read music, how it works, and how to start writing your own pieces. I also got her this book, too, because it includes a lot of exercises in theory. As you do the exercises in this book, try playing them on your piano and getting used to associating each note on the paper with a key on the piano. While you're doing this, you might try to listen to which keys sound which way and begin associating each key and note with a particular sound. There are many different "courses" you can go through to learn the piano. I went through the Piano Adventures Series, which I thought was great. That is a link to the primer level books. There's, to my knowledge, 5 levels plus the primer. So, when you master/complete one level, you just move on to the next. I also liked the Exploring Piano Classics series. This is what I started my sister on, because it not only includes great pieces to begin playing, but it also goes through different eras in musical genres and introduces the piano from a historical standpoint. In my mind, this series is the perfect introduction to Musicianship. Here is a link to the preparatory book.

I hope this could be some help to you. The journey to becoming a great pianist and musician is a long one that needs time, hard work, and dedication to achieve, but many have made it before and so can you. I wish you well in learning to play the piano. Good luck!

u/Yeargdribble · 6 pointsr/piano

One thing you'll need to do is lower your expectations. You might be good at classical, but so many things in jazz are skills you just haven't really practiced and while the technical ability you're bringing will definitely help, a huge part of jazz is mental. It's a ton of theory in application in real time. It took you years to be able to play what you can on the classical side, and it's going to take years more to learn what you're wanting from jazz. So you're just going to have to start with some baby steps and slowly build from there.

Particularly for those coming from a classical background, I highly recommend this book. And I'd highly recommend watching this video a few times along side the opening bits of the book. An important thing early on is to get three note or 3-7 voicings down for your ii-V-Is. In the book they are explicitly written out in every key in both inversions. That will help your reading side, but like the video mentions, you should get to where you're not relying on the page as soon as possible. Try to write out a chart of the changes around the Circle of 4ths or find one online.

You need to be associating the chord symbols you see with the actual chords you're playing the way you would associate a written chord with how its played, but in a looser and more complicated way. First off, you need to be able to instantly identify the 3rd and 7th of any chord and just know it and know how the voice leading works between the chords. But over time you'll have an increasingly broad interpretation including lots of potential voicings, or extensions and alterations. You might read Dm7 and play Dm9. You might read G7 and play G7b9. You might read Cmaj7 and play CMaj13#11.

While the ii-V-I is the cornerstone and the i-VI-ii-V turnaround is common, you really need to learn how functions work so that you can do something like apply a diminished chord in place of a dominant or insert a tritone substitution, or insert the ii-V of a given chord to give it more motion. Pop lends itself more to memorizing short bursts of repeated progressions, but jazz needs you to know why and how it works more. The book I mentioned will get you started applying these concepts to lead sheets so you can take the info in the first few chapters and apply it directly to your Real Book for infinite practice and the book itself is using actual very common standards.

As for playing by ear, I heavily subscribe to the method that both Bert Ligon and Mark Harrison suggest. Don't go learning your intervals in isolation because that's not how music works. You need to learn to hear the individual steps of a scale as the relate to the tonic of the key you're in. The short version is that you should be able to feel do-mi-sol (1 3 5) as settle and home. Everything else wants to go to one of those and they all feel a certain level of settled or unsettled.

A point Bert Ligon makes it that students often want to play by ear, but can't even dictate the melody of a simple song like "Twinkle, Twinkle." If you can't do that, they you can't possibly expect to be able to pick out much more complicated concepts. He has a list of folk tunes and children's songs in his book Jazz Theory Resources that he recommends doing dictation of. Even without the list you could just pick some well known tunes and force yourself to write them down without a piano for reference. Bonus points if you can also notate the chord changes by ear (usually pretty obvious by the highly melody notes in such tunes). But slowly building from this and knowing what's happening from a theory standpoint will get you past the wild guessing phase.

You can actually get good at purely diatonic ear playing just by a lot of trial and error, but it's going to be very difficult to move past that without some much deeper theory knowledge.

I'd also recommend that any time you find a progression you like, pick a comping pattern and go play that progression in every key. The pure repetition will seal it in your brain aurally. But also, forcing yourself to do it in every key will have several effects.

  • You'll be better at playing in any key technically and identify your weak keys.
  • You'll be forced to consider the harmonic relationships in every key.
  • You'll get much better at transposing by forcing your brain to think in Roman numerals or functions rather than explicitly in one key.

    I'm sure you can tell me that I-vi-IV-V in C is C-Am-F-G, but how quickly can you tell me what it is in Ab? F#? Db? E?

    You can take that an extra step and pick simple songs (perhaps some of those your transcribed) and go play them in every key so you also are forced to think about the melodic notes as scale degrees rather than just note names and really understand their relation to the tonic of whatever key you're in.

    You might actually want to check out that Bert Ligon book. It gives a good review of the pre-requisite theory you should have (coming from common practice period background), covers ear training, and lays the ground work for jazz theory in a way that I think rivals the Mark Levine book that most jazz pianists endorse. The Bert Ligon book is a much more instructional book whereas the Mark Levine book is more of a deep reference book great for people who already have a pretty solid grasp on jazz.


    I also recently found this amazing book at a used book store and was surprised I'd never heard of it. It's full of great left hand comping patterns (in 3 and 4), right hand patterns, fills, progressions, and generally extra pizzazz for interpreting things from lead sheets. It's definitely not so much a jazz book, but it might be a good stepping stone for you since it involves the improv and comping without throwing you head long into the density of jazz theory and lets you get comfortable playing by ear in a more diatonic setting that you're likely more comfortable with.


u/frajen · 6 pointsr/Jazz

When I was younger, the concept of improvisation in music gave me a reason to live. I was 17, I didn't want kids and there was no point to middle-class suburban life. But if I could come home from whatever my job was, even if I hated it, I could sit at my piano and play how I felt... if I could express myself through music, in a way I could never do so in words - then I would be happy.

I wrote about that idea in a college entry essay, and it has never left me, 13 years later I still feel the same way. Granted, I feel a bit more responsible about many things in life, but at the end of the day I still hold on to that belief.

Initially, jazz was the vehicle through which I learned improvisation, so I feel very close to the music, even if I really don't play in a traditional jazz style. Improvisation was the outwards expression of my feelings; before I learned about jazz, I could only read notes on a page to play music, and I was way too shy to talk or even write about how I was truly feeling, let alone share that with other people.

My "life" has essentially revolved around music ever since high school. I've played gigs, gone on tour, recorded/put together an album (doing the artwork, manually putting together the CD jewel cases), taught music theory/composition/performance, organized shows/event calendars, funded bands/projects, ran venues/music spaces, produced music for video games... I work a regular day job nowadays, but my #1 passion is and will always be music, whether I'm performing it or enabling others the opportunity to perform.

***

I took classical piano lessons as a young kid for ~6 years, then I quit. I had a little bit of technical knowledge and form but I never really "enjoyed" the music I was playing.

I played drums in grade school. While in drumline (marching band), another drummer asked me to play some keyboard parts for his band. Like 3-4 chords during a Pink Floyd song ("Wish You Were Here" actually, you can hear the synth towards the latter part of the song), and some bird chirping sounds. For other songs, I would swing a hockey stick around while wearing a hooded coat (kinda like a grim reaper) while the band played some Black Sabbath covers.

Well it turns out that we won a Battle of the Bands in front of a few hundred high schoolers, got some money, and I had my young ego blown up then, going from unknown nerd to "piano player with the hockey stick" - but at least people knew who I was. I even bought a keyboard so we could gig around town (I still have it, this ridiculous thing, even though the screen doesn't work anymore)

As I practiced with the band, I was introduced to the idea of "soloing" - other classically trained musicians might understand the helpless feeling I had when I was told "just jam over this blues" - I had no idea what I was doing. One of the guitarists in my band told me about the blues scale, a set of 6 notes that I could riff endlessly over and somehow they all sounded great to me.

A year later (and another battle of the bands won), I was invited by the same guitarist to hear one of his friend's dad's jazz trio. I was told his dad, a drummer, had once opened a concert for Parliament. I get to hear this trio, and they are playing Miles Davis' "So What" according to my friend. I'm ask my friend, "How are they playing all that, improvising?" And he says "Yeah"

At this point I'm like, "Well let me jump in there, I know the blues scale!" And my friend is like "Nah dude, you can't do that!"

Later that night he plays me this recording of Thelonious Monk "Epistrophy" and is like "this is jazz, man, you can't just play blues scale over it"

My classical ears heard this song and I thought to myself, "This is some bullshit music. Sounds terrible. This guy sold records? I can do this!"

I went home and realized quickly that I had no idea how to actually play "randomly" - my fingers would not allow me to. I needed some sort of direction, short of just riffing up and down the blues scale.

The internet was starting to become a thing at this point, so I jumped online and looked up how to improvise jazz on a hip new search engine called "Google" (lol). With a little digging and the help of Napster, I ended up finding an mp3 of Keith Jarrett "The Koln Concert Part IIc"

I listened to that shit so many times. How could someone just sit down and PLAY that?

The summer after my senior year, I used two websites (Jazz Improvisation Primer and LearnJazzPiano.com) and Mark Levine's Jazz Piano Book to learn about jazz and how to improvise. I spent 4-5 hours a day going through the book, listening to music from the websites, reading about music theory, and practicing on my parents' upright.

When I went to undergrad, I sold my drum set and brought the keyboard along. Really glad I chose that path.

On campus, I found other jazz musicians and tried to hang out with them whenever I could; even though I wasn't a music student, I lived in a dorm really close to the music department, and my classes were also relatively close. I ended up going to my first jam sessions my freshman year, and while I struggled to keep up (I was literally pushed off a piano bench once), I found a few kind souls who were willing to be patient with me and let me play with them. Many of them are doing great musically/career-wise now, and my heart warms up SO much whenever I think about them

Anyways, I transcribed solos, played off lead sheets, and listened to jazz all the time that year, trying to practice an hour or two every day or at least every other day. The first tune I ever completely transcribed was Cannonball Adderley "Autumn Leaves" and it took at least half a year, I probably spent a month alone on the first 4 bars of Cannonball's solo

I don't know exactly when it happened, but my girlfriend at the time was really into Prince/Michael Jackson and the summer of my junior year, during an internship in California, I somehow found myself watching the Britney Spears' "Toxic" music video and figuring out how to play it on piano. Sure it was "pop crap" but something about the little string riff caught my attention. That summer I started learning a ton of radio songs and I realized that I could use my jazz transcribing skills to learn almost any rock/pop tune, since the basic harmonies/melodies were generally much simpler than dealing with something like the changes to Coltrane's "Moment's Notice".

I filled up ~200 notebook pages of chord changes and reharmonziations of pop/rock/musical/video game songs I had grown up with, thinking to myself, "Isn't this what all those bebop heads did in the 40s? Take their favorite childhood tunes and turn them inside out?" Around this time, I started playing solo piano gigs, quoting these familiar tunes occasionally, enough to grab an audience, but keeping the whole "cool jazz" feel to them.

When I came back to school I started playing around town a lot, and by the end of undergrad, I finally felt like I could sit down and just play how I felt. I can't pinpoint exactly when this happened, but it was a big turning point in my musical life. I had a friend record me at the on-campus music studios, which became my first album. I decided that I would go "on tour" around the country, playing at venues in college towns/big cities, partly to prove to myself that I could make it as a musician, partly because road trips!!!!!

I could write a book about those 4 months but basically at the end of it all, I had played in ~50 cities, smoked a ton of weed, realized I could "keep up" w/some of the best jazz musicians (playing in New Orleans, LA, and NYC for a week each), and was broke as shit. The money thing scared me. I grew up what I considered to be middle class, but I couldn't stomach having $20 in my bank account with no paycheck in sight. As a musician, playing jazz, I realized how difficult it would be to live comfortably.

At the same time, I knew where I wanted to settle down. I moved 2000 miles, took a corporate day job near San Francisco, and was incredibly lucky to find relatively affordable housing out here (prices were high a decade ago but not as bad as they are now, I think).

Most "new" stuff in my life from that point on (in terms of music) didn't really specifically deal with jazz, although I did play a lot of jazz gigs both solo and with a quartet (clarinet+rhythm section) over the next few years. Got into lots of other kinds of music, started DJing a bit, saved up money from my day job to find other musicians gigs/avenues to play, eventually got into electronic dance music, raves, music production, but anyways. There's a somewhat related post about that here

I stream improvisational piano on Twitch occasionally, and there are definitely touches of jazz, although I would never compare myself favorably to anyone who practices and studies jazz consistently. Over the last 5-6 years, not playing with other jazz musicians has kind of dulled my chops, plus I don't really practice that way anymore anyways... but I'm quite OK with that. I still love sitting down and just playing how I feel, and it's kind of cool in this modern age that people all around the world can listen and enjoy it if they want - good for the ego heh ; )

Music is fucking great. Keep listening, keep playing : )

u/Koan_Industries · 1 pointr/piano

Sorry you didn't get a reply on here, but generally buying a piano book for someone else as a gift, while a nice thought, probably isn't the best gift unless you know exactly what they want to play. Pianists, especially those who have been playing for awhile, generally know what songs they want to play and have a list of songs they want to play next. Buying a pianist a book that doesn't contain those songs is pretty much just asking for it to go untouched for a long time.

That being said, if you were to ask her what songs she wants to learn next you could google that song and find what book has it and just buy that one.

If you want to keep it a secret from her, I would say buying another Mark Hayes or Dan Forrest book is probably your best bet as she is more likely to play a piece in one of those. Before you just go and buy one of those I would take a look at what books she already owns so you know you aren't getting one that she already owns. If those are at the church and you have no way of looking at them I found a book at the intermediate level by Mark Hayes: https://www.amazon.com/Mark-Hayes-Intermediate-Pianist-Settings/dp/0893282324

And an advanced level by Dan Forrest:

https://www.amazon.com/My-Fathers-World-Advanced-Piano/dp/B006SLEGDW

You would probably want to pick the advanced one because it is more likely for her to have played intermediate pieces than advanced ones.

Finally, you can't go wrong with the best of books as they collect their most popular songs. That being said it is far more likely she has these.

Mark Hayes best of volume 2 (less likely to have this one than the first): https://www.amazon.com/Best-Mark-Hayes-2/dp/1592352391/ref=asc_df_1592352391/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=266058510895&hvpos=1o3&hvnetw=g&hvrand=2167868115390079040&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9019572&hvtargid=pla-599332514364&psc=1

Couldn't find one for Dan though.

Finally, after everything I said - I can say that while a piano book potentially might not be the best gift because it might never get played. It's the thought that counts and i'm sure she would appreciate your interest in her love for piano more than anything an actual gift can give.

u/pianoboy · 8 pointsr/piano

> I've looked into other songs as well, and they all have many different versions/interpretations. Why is this?

Because...

  1. Pop/rock music is based on chord progressions. Often just 4 chords. Take a listen to this to see how many songs use the same chord progression. So lots of people know the chords that form the foundation of the song, but will play it slightly differently - e.g. for a C major chord, you could play octave C's in the left-hand, or just one C. The right hand could play C,E,G or G, C, E, or embellish and play C,D,E,G, etc. So many variations. Anyone can learn to play something that sounds somewhat similar to the original just by looking at the chords for the song. ... And I bet Paul McCartney would often play it slightly differently each time, too.

  2. Publishers of sheet music don't want to give you exactly what was played on the album, because your average consumer would complain that it doesn't sound like the song they know and love -- because often the piano part is just 4 boring chords over and over (see video in #1), which when played by themselves, may not clearly identify the song. People are stupid and don't realize a lot of their favourite songs' piano parts are like this. So the sheet music will usually contain the melody in the right hand (the vocal 'tune' that is sung everyone knows and loves) along with some chords in the left-hand, arranged to give a sound that people can identify as the song they expect.

  3. continuing point #2, sheet music publishers need to simplify the music so that your average player can play it (and/or to simplify their transcription process) so that they can maximize sales. There usually isn't enough interest in note-for-note perfect transcriptions of the originals, although that does exist and it does seem to be gaining some popularity.

  4. A lot of people have bad ears, and so everyone thinks they've created a perfect tutorial/transcription, but as you've probably found, they're often not that accurate, and so you get tons of variation in "perfect" transcriptions from people. Edit: also, often it's hard to hear exactly what's being played on the piano due to all the other instruments playing, so no two people will agree on exactly what was played.

    Anyway, just doing a quick search, this guy's is "OK", though definitely not perfect (sheet here). Or your best bet would probably be something like this:
    http://www.amazon.com/The-Beatles-Keyboard-Book/dp/079351441X/ or this: http://www.manymidi.com/sheetmusic.htm.
u/tyrion_asclepius · 2 pointsr/piano

Whoa, I started with those exact 3 songs when I started learning the piano almost 10 years ago! Anyway, I suggest you start with this book to learn some fundamental music theory. I like this book because it has multiple scales and lists the chords and arpeggios for each key signature and goes through the circle of 5ths. You don't necessarily have to go through this book in order, just make sure you follow the fingering patterns carefully and play the scales, chord progressions and arpeggios slowly so you can internalize them and familiarize yourself with the layout of the keyboard.

If you'd like to become a proficient sight-reader (which I highly recommend, being good at sight-reading will help you in the long run), start practicing with reading some simple pieces. Go through the Alfred's book and see how well you can read through those pieces on the first run. If you feel like you need more sight-reading practice, the Mikrokosmos books will provide you with plenty of material to sight read. I also like this book of hymns. Remember, if you can't play it nearly perfectly (at least in terms of getting the notes right) on the first run, it probably means you should work on reading through that piece. So keep practicing!

If you have the money, you might be interested in investing in this series of books. Each level contains Baroque, Classical and Romantic pieces, as well as etudes and music theory, which really helps with building up a well-rounded foundation. But then again, the best use of your money would be ideally spent on a good teacher.

If you'd like a song at a similar level to what you're currently learning, I also learned this version of Canon, Ballade Pour Adeline, A Thousand Miles (because it's a fun piece and why not :)), and Summer by Joe Hisaishi during my early piano years.

But to be honest, I don't recommend learning any of the pieces I just listed above, because they will take you too long to learn. In the same amount of time you spend learning those songs, you could be progressing much faster if you focused on learning fundamentals and picked much easier pieces. And I mean pieces as simple as Minuet in G major and Minuet in G minor, maybe even simpler.

I feel obligated to write all of this since you're starting from a similar place that I was when I first began learning piano. Jumping into pieces that sound beautiful or amazing isn't the most efficient method of learning. Take this from me who went from being fixated on learning the entire Fur Elise → River Flows in You → Canon in D → Rondo Alla Turca and other songs wayyyyy beyond my level, to dropping all of it in and just starting from the very basics because I realized I sounded like utter ****, even if I could play the notes and it sounded fine to my family/friends who didn't play piano. I also wasn't making much progress in terms of learning, since each new piece would take me foreverrrr to actually learn. Building up your fundamentals is the way to go, because once you get to the level where you can actually play those beautiful pieces, the learning process will be so much faster. I know starting from the bottom and working your way up can be a slow and sometimes even tedious process, especially when you have to go through all these pieces that seem really easy or boring, but trust me, it will be worth it and far more rewarding in the end. :)

u/CrownStarr · 8 pointsr/piano

Thing is, that sort of thinking doesn't really work too well in jazz - there isn't really "repertoire" in the same sense as in classical music. Some standards are more complex than others, sure, but the difficulty is really what you make of it. In jazz, you generally work from what are called "lead sheets", where all you have is the melody and the chords. Here's one for When I Fall in Love. Pretty simplistic, right? Here's Oscar Peterson playing it. The lead sheet is the basic framework for what he's playing, but all the embellishment and runs and extra chords and everything is just coming from him. So you can't really say whether When I Fall in Love is an "easy" standard or not.

As for how to learn, the single best way is to get a teacher. But if you just want to start dabbling, I would suggest getting some books of transcriptions of famous jazz pianists, just to start getting the feel and sound of it in your mind. Those books will have real performances transcribed note-for-note, so you don't need to know how to read lead sheets or improvise to play them. I would also check out Mark Levine's Jazz Piano Book to start learning the theory behind it all, and a Real Book to start practicing with. If you're good at teaching yourself things, the combination of those two books will give you years and years of material.

But I want to re-emphasize that getting some kind of teacher or mentor will help enormously. It's good for classical music, as you know, but jazz is even more like learning a foreign language, because it's improvised. If you just want to dabble for fun, that's fine, but if you get serious about jazz, find someone to guide you, even if it's just an hour a month.

u/jseego · 2 pointsr/piano

This book has solid overviews of the various playing styles, including for left hand

For improvisation, you are not going to sound good right away. What it sounds like you are doing is basically exercises, just running pentatonic scales over chords - that will sound very exercisey. "Okay, Cm7, playing C minor pent, okay, F7, playing F pent..." etc. What you want to do is look ahead to the notes in common and work on your ear training around that. So, instead, you might go: "Okay, Cm7, gonna play C - Eb - F - G, then the F7 comes up and you continue to A - C - D - F....

Basically, point is you can still play pentatonics, but try to create runs and melodies that move over and through the chords, not just shifting the scales once per chord.

It's not something you think about - you want to get used it and how it sounds so that you can focus on using a combination of ear and theory to make musical sounds and shapes that you want, and the fabled melting away of the notes and chords happens.

As rough as it is, you gotta do that kind of thing in all keys as well. It really opens up the piano and reveals secrets of how things work.

Also, listen a lot and try to play along with your favorite recordings. Take a class / find other improvisers who are at your level. It helps so much.

Final thing is, there is more to improvisation than getting the notes right. A solo with wrong notes and great rhythm and lot of passion is much more interesting and listenable than a solo with all the "correct" notes and no feeling and just running uninspired rhythms. Try soloing with just roots and fifths of the chords and see how much fun you can have. Try soloing with absolute abandon and let your hand just flop around and see what kind of interesting sounds you can make. Prepare your mind to forget about the notes...that's the eventual goal (even though you can still be strategic about scale degrees and chord tones and such).

Good luck and have fun!

u/tbp0701 · 1 pointr/Jazz

u/Lemwell gave you an especially great answer, and the others are quite good as well. So I'll simply provide some resources.

Here is a link for a free download of the Aebersold Redbook. There's a lot of great general info in there for all instruments, but it does discuss chords and voicings.

Probably the best jazz piano resource is Mark Levine's The Jazz Piano Book. (linked to Amazon, but available at several places. It's available spiral bound so it fits nicely on a music stand. It has a great deal of information about chords, leading, and everything else jazz piano related.

For a fun, easy beginning, do you know the blues scale? If not it'll be in the free Aebersold book, but it's 1-b3-4-b5-5-b7-1. So a C blues scale is C-Eb-F-Gb-G-Bb-C. Practice playing that over a standard C major chord. Then try mixing it up, finding some phrases you like. Then try the F blues scale over an F major, and a G blues scale over a G7. Then put them together in a 12 bar blues and see what you come up with.

u/[deleted] · 1 pointr/piano

Just like reading is the best tool for writers of all levels, playing some of your favorite pieces is the best way to improve. Take a trip to your local music store and look around the sheet music to find something that looks fun. Ask the salespeople, too.

Since you know all about forming chords already, try to figure out/write down what the chord progressions are in your sheet music. Doing this will make playing that piece and future pieces easier.

As far as books, I really can't recommend The Jazz Piano Book enough. This is a great book that does a good job of integrating theory and style, I think. Take a look inside at the Amazon page and see if it meets your needs.

tl;dr: Practice, read, and expand your horizons! Best of luck.

u/danw1989 · 3 pointsr/Jazz

Classical pianist for 15 years, and I'm going on 3 years as a self-taught jazz pianist. I can honestly say that the book I have used the most is The Jazz Piano Book. Learning modes, memorizing the circle of 5ths, 3-note voicings, left hand voicings (a la Bill Evans and others) are all things included in the book. It will teach you how to interpret lead sheets, taking basic "scale/chord" theory knowledge and applying it to improvisation, and it also will teach you a variety of tricks used by the professionals. Mark Levine, the author, writes in a cohesive, down-to-earth voice (although sometimes a little corny), and it makes it really easy to understand what he's talking about. Other books you may want to look into are A Creative Approach to Jazz Piano Harmony, A Classical Approach To Jazz Piano, and of course, LISTEN TO GREAT PLAYERS! There's a saying in jazz - probably the most true of them all - the textbooks are the records!

Hope this helps get you started.
Remember, knowing the fundamentals is the key to learning the complexities of jazz. Seriously, I can't stress this enough. Always pay attention to your technique, and always play with the best possible sound. And more than anything - enjoy the process of learning. Have fun!

Cheers.

u/Archaeoptero · 3 pointsr/edmproduction

Sounds like the problem isn't music theory, but applying it to composition.

I can recommend two things. First of all, you have to spend A LOT of time noodling around on an instrument. I'm sorry to say, but while the push may be useful for its purpose, it will not train you to recognize and spontaneously create melodic elements that deviate from simple chord progressions and leads. I learned on a piano, and I spent hours a week just jamming and noodling around to see what worked, what didn't, and how to add different elements like passing chords, dissonance, counterpoint, bass composition, modal improvisation, and so forth. This is just stuff that you naturally pick up after practicing a while. Try something new here and there, and you may find that it works quite nicely.

The second is to study the music of other composers. For this, I can't think of anything better than jazz. Classical music can help too, but it gets a bit more complicated and doesn't apply well to electronic music. Jazz is modern and simple enough to study, but can be musically complex (using those things like passing chords, modes, etc). It teaches one to get out of comfortable poppy chord progressions and melodies.

You might want to try this book http://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Piano-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/0961470151. I've heard good things about it.

u/AperionProject · 3 pointsr/WeAreTheMusicMakers

A few key things will help you:

Practice everyday, at least 30 minutes. Most of us can't afford the time to practice hours and hours a day, but 30 minutes consistently is necessary.

Get a piano teacher to work on improvisation with. This is THE best way to develop yourself.

Although I'm a big proponent of improvisation NOT being exlcusive to jazz (I think a musican should be able to improvise regardless of instrument or genre) there is an excellent book for piano you should definitely have: The Jazz Piano Book by Mark Levine

Make sure you know all your scales very, very well. Every type of scale - major, minor, modes, diminshed scales, etc. And practice improvising around the circle of 4ths (or 5ths) with a metronome on beats 2 & 4. This will help your rhythm and everything out a great deal.

u/barryfandango · 2 pointsr/piano

/u/improvthismoment is right about how jazz is generally learned, but if you prefer to sight read insead of lifting from recordings, there are lots of great jazz transcriptions out there that can help develop your style and vocabulary. The World's Best Piano Arrangements has a generic sounding name but is a pretty dynamite book that has taught me a lot.

If you're interested in getting going with real jazz piano, The Jazz Piano Book by Mark Levine is a classic that has kicked off many great jazz piano journeys. Good luck!

u/LightWolfCavalry · 1 pointr/Bluegrass

I have a few suggestions. The first is a series by Dan Miller and Tim May that they sell that progressively builds on older material and builds chronologically. That link I included should link to pages where you can view more closely the material in each book. I trust you to know your own skill level and what you want to learn to be able to determine what book you want.

Another one that I've heard is pretty good is the Real Bluegrass Book by Matt Flinner. It has musical notation and chord backup for a bunch of standard bluegrass tunes.

Not knowing your skill level, I'll throw in this last one because it was a good one helping me to get started with: the Four Hour Bluegrass Workout from Steve Kaufman. While I'm not the biggest fan of Kaufman's flatpicking, the guy's written some really great teaching tools for flatpicking fiddle tunes. And flatpicking fiddle tunes is a great exercise for practicing bluegrass.

Edit: If you have any luck with any of these, or any other book, please let me know!

u/bringy · 5 pointsr/piano

As others are saying, I think you're going to be hard-pressed to put together a solid audition in six weeks if you don't have any jazz experience. But you've got four years, right? There's no reason you can't go out your sophomore year. If you really want to get into jazz piano, I recommend checking out Mark Levine's Jazz Piano Book. Each chapter represents months, if not more, of practice, but you'll have a very strong foundation to build on if you keep with it.

I think going out for choir would actually be a great idea. Singing in harmony with others is one of the most satisfying musical experiences you can have, and it's GREAT ear training. Plus, there's no reason you can't continue playing solo repertoire, right? If you hang out in the music department a bunch, you might even be able to pop in on jam sessions or start a band with some like-minded musicians. Not to mention what's out there if your school is near a major metropolitan area.

u/Bebop_Ba-Bailey · 5 pointsr/piano

It's hard to find stuff on Jazz Theory on Google for sure, much less recommendations for music transcription. I really can't think of a good place to start with regards to the songs you should try to transcribe, but there are books I've used that have plenty of suggested reading/listening listed. Hopefully you don't already know about these...

The Jazz Piano Book by Mark Levine (it can be kind of pricy, here's a link to it on Amazon) which has a whole regimen of listening suggestions in its curriculum, focusing a good amount on jazz harmony, and melodic improvisation.

I learned a lot about jazz chords and voicings from Miracle Voicings by Frank Mantooth. Working through these books will help you understand better how to approach jazz chords, which should help you better conceive of what you're hearing when you try to transcribe them.

EDIT: The book has been republished as Voicings for Jazz Keyboard by Frank Mantooth

u/Idealixtic · 3 pointsr/violinist

Someone mentioned learning vibrato on their post - in my opinion, I'd hold off on vibrato until you have good command on first/third position, or even much later (after mastering different bowing techniques). This is because it's easy to get into a bad habit, which is the last thing you want for your vibrato.

Otherwise! I think knowing your scales would be a good goal. First octave major, minor, melodic/harmonic minors, along with arpeggios makes for a solid foundation. Usually I'd learn/memorise these in accordance to the key of whatever piece I'm playing. You can play them with different bowing permutations, too. After you're familiar with them, you can start increasing to two octave scales. If you play scales as a warm-up for about 10 minutes each day, I think you'd see a significant amount of progress by the end of a year. In addition to scales, I would practice sight reading. This could be done with using an etude book, or picking a passage from a piece you haven't played yet.

Apart from the Suzuki books, I don't think I really played any other classical music that was outside of the books until I got up to book 6 or 7, when I learnt Accolay's Concerto in A minor. It was the first major concerto that I performed. I distinctly remember learning Polish Dance by Severn (this was really fun), Liebeslied, and Bach's Partita 3. I also used Carl Fischer's Solos for Violin once in a while. There's a few similar pieces that are within the Suzuki repertoire, but also quite a few that aren't. In addition, you could take a look at the RCM Violin Syllabus that outlines repertoire/techniques in grade order. Obviously, you don't have to follow it to a T, but it could be a good method for setting goals and measuring progress.

My teacher had me focus a lot on etudes/technique books in conjunction with my Suzuki books. It wasn't until I switched teachers after five years with my first one that I started playing repertoire outside of the Suzuki books, so I can't really discern what would be realistic goals for classical music in the early stages of learning the violin. However, if you feel inclined to learn etudes/other studies, I'd be happy to recommend some books!

u/sexytimepiano · 1 pointr/piano

You can start by buying these two books and reading them cover to cover: Jazz Theory by Mark Levine and Jazz Piano Book by Mark Levine That's a good first step. There's plenty of other books out there obviously, but I've had good success with these. Learning Jazz is all about becoming acquainted with a new musical language and internalizing it to the point where it becomes as natural and automatic as speaking. This takes a lot of practice. Good luck and be sure to listen to lots of jazz!

u/bigfunky · 5 pointsr/Jazz

IMO, you can't really start tackling theory and go straight to jazz, you really need to understand the basics of music theory before you can move on to advanced jazz harmony. There are a number of theory books our there that explain the basics well, I have a couple of music degrees and a good overall text used in many schools is Tonal Harmony. As far as jazz the best book I've come across in regards to explaining harmony is Mark Levine's The Jazz Piano Book.

Both of these are pretty involved books, they might be a bit much for the casual player. But they are the best I know of.

u/OnaZ · 1 pointr/piano

Instructional:

Mel Bay Encyclopedia of Scales, Modes and Melodic Patterns - Everything you need for jazz and beyond.

Any Czerny Book - Simple and fun pieces that don't take a long time to learn and can help a lot with technique.

Any Bach Book - I don't care if you play classical, jazz, pop, whatever; Practicing Bach will make you a better player.


Songbooks:

Maiden Voyage - Great place to start with jazz and get used to play-alongs.

The Jazz Piano Book - Good reference book for expanding your jazz ability.

Piano Classics - Good compilation of some of the more popular classical pieces.

u/itchycuticles · 2 pointsr/piano

While people are giving good suggestions, they're posting links to sites that overcharge. Unless you have reasons to hate Amazon, Amazon Japan sells pretty much everything that's been mentioned with zero markup and very low shipping costs.

For example, the one from japancoolbooks costs only $26.82 on Amazon.jp, shipped to California (it'll arrive in 2-3 days). If you order multiple books at once, you'll save even more.

Japan has a relatively large percentage of population that play the piano well, and from my experience, has more high quality piano arrangements for all sorts of music (including Western pop music) than the US does.

Edit: Added links to some of the books mentioned here:

Studio Ghibli Collection Easy Piano Solo Sheet Music

Joe Hisaishi Piano Collection

Ghibli Best Stories

Chopin de Ghibli

Hayao Mizayaki & Studio Ghibli Best Album

Also, I'm assuming the OP can read kanji or 漢字, since zhulin is a Chinese name. Just search for "上級 宮崎駿 ピアノ", which translates into "advanced hayao miyazaki piano".

u/jazzyjacck · 2 pointsr/musictheory

I learned a lot from taking classes and private lessons, as well as self study by reading books and analyzing music. I'm not really aware of that many good resources for jazz theory online unfortunately, but there is this site: http://community.berkleejazz.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

EDIT: I love the Jazz Piano Book, it's not really a theory book but I thought it was great. The author has also written a Jazz Theory Book which a lot people seem to like, but I haven't really gone through it yet. Some other options are the Berklee Book of Jazz Harmony and the Jazz Harmony Book

u/avoqado · 1 pointr/musictheory

Sithu Aye's Motif


The more you improv and learn licks, the more tricks you can fit into 16 bars. I learned on Piano but a great transcript to study for bebop is Charlie Parker's "Billie's Bounce," especially this part which is a lick he did a lot on the final 2-5-1. Also, maybe study some walking bass. You can speed those approaches to the final note for effect.


Lastly, some John McLaughlin. It's part knowing the song and transitions well, and having those familiar riffs and melodies at your disposal.


Edit:RELEVENT "The Lick"

Edit part II: I saw you were asking about modes. My favorite book is Mark Levine's THE Jazz Piano Book who covers the standards and the permutations of jazz, bebop, afro-latin (not trying to list each one), and general harmony. He's really good about modes.

u/wc_helmets · 11 pointsr/WeAreTheMusicMakers

Scales. Particularly major. And practicing in all 12 keys. Even when not playing I'd work on memorizing the notes in each key. Once you have that branch to minor scales, modes, and maybe some pentatonic and altered scales for flavor. Again. All 12 keys.

ii-V-I progressions, again in all 12 keys. Start with simple voicings at first, like playing the bass in your left hand and playing just playing the 3rd and the 7th in the right hand. You can add more fingers once you get comfortable with that.

Honestly, that will keep you busy for years, if your anything like me. You can also just dive in and practice these concepts in your favorite DAW. If you got a section with a V-I in it, try substituting the V with a bII7 and see how it sounds. Like any art, you can learn as much as you want, but you gotta get your hands dirty.

Edit: I'd also get a good Jazz piano book. This one by Mark Levine is a great one. Been going through it for at least 3 years now. I can't play as well as I like, but from these concepts, I can take a lead sheet and work out an arrangement of a song in Ableton.

u/brooklynperson · 3 pointsr/piano

When I was in college, I took jazz piano lessons on the side as an extra elective, even though classical was my main focus for my major. Also, I played in a few different jazz bands on campus, which really helped me to learn. I know your goal is to play solo, but it's much easier when you are starting out to play with a band who can keep time, a bassline, and the chord changes going for you while you ease in.

I've found it hard to learn on my own, and learned more from playing with others, but this book (The Jazz Piano Book by Mark Levine) is a great resource to start to wrap your mind around the approach.

u/and_of_four · 5 pointsr/piano

Check out The Jazz Piano Book by Mark Levine.

Jazz is less about learning pieces and more about knowing your theory and being able to improvise. Can you play a 12 bar blues? You can use simple voicings in your left hand using the 3rd and 7th of each chord and use your right hand to improvise. Or you can practice walking a bassline in your left hand while playing chords with your right hand.

I'm not a jazz musician, but I know some jazz theory and can play a little bit, it's not my thing though. Hopefully some jazz pianists will post here with more helpful advice.

u/jdrew619 · 2 pointsr/JazzPiano

A couple of channels that are good are:
Kent Hewitt (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdmjw5sm9Kn83TB_rA_QBCw): This guy is old school and can actually play. His overall production isn't flashy at all but the content is solid and he adds free sheet music.

Dave Frank (https://www.youtube.com/user/Dfrankjazz): I am not crazy about his playing style but he is a good educator. His lessons are well organized and the content is legit.


Also the Jazz Piano book by Mark Levine is a must-have (https://www.amazon.ca/Jazz-Piano-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/0961470151). You need to be able to read music but that is something you should learn anyways.

As for the freejazzlessons guy, it's a personal opinion but I find him hacky and mediocre.


Finally, if you want some books to get started I can PM you some stuff I own.

u/panda12291 · 2 pointsr/piano

I have this one, which I use frequently. It may be a bit more modern than you're looking for. It definitely has some of the old standards, but it also has some more recent stuff.

This one also looks promising and has good reviews, but I'm not familiar with it.

The arrangements are fairly simple and can be a bit sparse, but they also provide chords and you can fill in where you need to. I find they're great for the kind of thing you're talking about- people can just request a song from the list and you can sight read it well enough to be recognizable.

u/1337haXXor · 1 pointr/sheetmusic

Yeah, looking here on Amazon, it looks they have a few used in great condition for a little over $20. This is the Field and Battle collection, which is decent, the best piece by far which is Xion's song.

The standard sheet music book, shown here, I like a bit more. The pieces' difficulties vary as well, with Roxas being barely into advanced, and my personal favorite, Concert Paraphrase on Dearly Beloved, being one of the most difficult pieces I've ever worked on.

u/Launchywiggin · 1 pointr/piano

Jazz scales, modal scales, arpeggios. Those have to be part of your "vocabulary" if you're gonna create "poetry" on the spot. A good starting place is to listen to LOTS of jazz and start noticing how they construct solos. It's not random. They tend to either use a rhythmic, melodic, or harmonic motive (or all 3) which gets treated like a small scale theme/variations. Also--it's ok to "compose" your solos ahead of time. It's a myth that great soloists pull the solo out of nowhere. If they do, it's a stringing-together of already pre-defined ideas like scales, arpeggios, and motives.

edited to add*
Jazz Piano bible: The Jazz Piano Book by Mark Levine

u/d3cim8r · 1 pointr/piano

I'm in almost the same boat as you. I bought Mark Levine's Jazz Piano Book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Jazz-Piano-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/0961470151/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1506412955&sr=8-1&keywords=jazz+piano it's totally brilliant and I don't think learning to sight read is mandatory if you want to get going, but it's probably advisable.

I'm trying to learn to sight read through Sight Reading Factory - you pay a fixed amount each year and get endless small bits of sheet music to go through. This addresses the big problem with learning to read - once you've heard the piece you're playing, you tend to focus less on the dots and more on the sounds, which is why a huge supply of new music is so worthwhile.
https://www.sightreadingfactory.com/

Good luck :)

u/bonumvunum · 1 pointr/musictheory

What is your favorite genre? I recently bought the great american songbook which is just a compilation of popular jazz, pop, and broadway songs from the early 20th century. I have been reading through like 5 songs a day with a metronome at a slow tempo, and i have already improved a ton after just one week! I play piano, but the book also has lyrics, so it would be great for you too, i think.

u/BeowulfShaeffer · 1 pointr/piano

It would help if we knew more about your own level of knowledge too. For instance I could recommend Schoenberg's Theory of Harmony or Levine's Jazz Piano Book but those books expect a lot out of their readers, so you may be better off with simpler books.

One book I liked a lot was Carl Humphries The Piano Handbook. It doesn't assume you know much and goes over a lot of material without a lot of depth. It might be a good starting point. It has something to say about pretty much every musical style from 1400 to today.

EDIT: I just reread your post and see you already have the piano handbook.

As a six-month player you probably need to work on physical technique more than anything. And you'll need a teacher for that. :( Can you find one to even meet once a month for 30 minutes?

u/G01denW01f11 · 1 pointr/piano

What's your goal?

The piano jam has a video game/anime section if you don't know where to start. :)

Super Smash Brothers could be really good, because you get samples of music from a lot of different game series, and maybe you can find what you like that way? ninsheetmusic.org has a lot of transcriptions. They all go through review before they get uploaded, so you're probably not going to find anything awful.

A lot of Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts game have "Piano Collections" published Example

u/KidCheetos · 1 pointr/IWantToLearn

Chord extensions are just how you voice chords beyond the fifth. You just use scales and keep counting upwards, 9ths, 11ths...

Inversions are just chords with the lowest note moved to the top of the chord.

C-E-G-B
1st inversion
E-G-B-C
2nd inversion
G-B-C-E

Inversions let you change the flavor of a chord or play chord progressions with minimal movement. IOW you can play progressions without having to bound up and down the keyboard.

As far as chops, I don't really know. I have found this to be an excellent free online resource:

http://www.jazzguitar.be

A lot of people think this one of the best jazz piano resources out there:
http://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Piano-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/0961470151

u/wooq · 5 pointsr/Bluegrass

Start with some fiddle tunes! I'm a big fan of the Kaufman 4-Hour bluegrass workout books for learning some. They have a bunch of tunes, most of which are jam standards, in music and tab, and include CDs with slow and fast accompaniment so you can practice with a band. Once you have the basic tune down pat, work the same thing up the neck, and then do some improvisation around the melody.

For rhythm playing, be sure to find resources that teach you proper right hand patterns. Bluegrass guitar is all about the "boom-chick", where you play a low string on 1&3, along with the bass, and strum the chord on 2&4, along with the mandolin, everything on downstrokes. You can go beyond that of course, playing on upstrokes and syncopating, but I see a lot of young and beginning bluegrass guitar players strumming like they're playing a folk song, and it just doesn't sound good. Also learn some bluegrass runs (start with the Flatt lick).

Finally, do some listening. Tony Rice's work on the Bluegrass Album Band records is the benchmark for bluegrass guitar IMO and a good place to start. Listen to how he keeps it simple most of the time, and how tasteful and musical the accents are when he changes it up with a lick or extra strums.

u/RinkyInky · 1 pointr/JazzPiano

>https://www.amazon.ca/Jazz-Piano-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/0961470151

Thanks!

Do you have the Mark Levine books? What's the difference between his "Jazz Theory" book and the "Jazz Piano" book?

I would love some book recommendations, please do PM me (:

u/PandaBearShenyu · 1 pointr/gifs

I love playing that on the piano! I couldn't play by ear then, so I had to bike around town to different stores in the yellow pages to see if they stocked the Final Fantasy X Piano collection sheet music book. I didn't tell my friend I had the sheets and one day when she was over I just started playing and she was so literally floored.

Here is where you can buy it for those interested. I like this because it's the original sheets from the composers of the game!

u/ILikeasianpeople · 2 pointsr/WeAreTheMusicMakers

Is orchestration, composition and harmony something you've studied quite a bit on? Like, have you grabbed a few books on the subject and dug in? The orchestra is a fickle mistress, especially when migrating from another, non-orchestra related, genre. If you haven't studied one or any of those things, it will make the learning process a living hell. Thankfully, the orchestra has been around for hundreds of years, so there is a massive amount of knowledge out there to pull from.

These lists are "start to finish" kind of lists. Do them in order and you should be alright. One will be a "quick start" list (not as much to read) and another will be a "long haul" list (way way more to read).



Quick start (a few months of study)

  1. Mark Levine's Jazz Piano Book

  2. Schoenbergs Fundamentals of Musical Composition

  3. Korsakov's Principles of Orchestration


    Long haul list (will probably take you a (few) year(s) to complete):

  4. Schoenbergs Theory of Harmony or Pistons Harmony plus workbook

  5. Schoenbergs Fundamentals of Musical Composition

  6. Mark Levins Jazz Piano Book

  7. Sam Adler's The Study of Orchestration vol. 4 plus Workbook


    I hope these resources can help a bit, if you decide to take the plunge. If not, there are tons of resources at openmusictheory.com that should be helpful.
u/medicalsteve · 2 pointsr/WeAreTheMusicMakers

It's always tough to hear this, but there's really nothing better than listening to your favorite recordings and transcribing everything you hear.

But... if you're just getting started and looking for a book, I highly recommend "The Jazz Piano Book" by Mark Levine

I picked this up several years into playing, and wished I found it sooner. He gives transcribed examples of the topic at hand from classic recordings, instead of just dumping a bunch of theory and voicings on you. (the theory is there too, but it's much more accessible the way he goes about it.)

If you don't already have them, go find the classic recordings he references, and listen until your ears bleed.

If you're really serious about it, go ahead and transcribe the full piano parts (including the comps, not just the solos) and you'll be well on your way

u/spidy_mds · 2 pointsr/piano

I am mostly into classical at the moment, but I would really-really love to start entering the jazz-part of the Piano at a point, is it easily readable for jazz-beginners?

EDIT:

This one?

u/phuongtm1998 · 5 pointsr/FFXV

I got it here https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/4636945603/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 from a vendor called Happiness. He's nice enough to free ship through EMS and I got mine in just 5 days (Saturday and Sunday included)

u/tmwrnj · 5 pointsr/Jazz

>I was wondering if having a classical background was something necessary in learning to play jazz

No, not in the slightest. Your classical background is helpful, but jazz is a very different musical form with very different theory and technique. Most of the greatest jazz players had no classical training whatsoever.

I recommend The Jazz Piano Book by Mark Levine. It was written for experienced classical pianists who are switching over to jazz.

u/Osteelio · 2 pointsr/piano

Thanks guys!

  1. I'm recording into Reason directly from the piano into my laptop.

  2. The sheet music is from the official Final Fantasy 7 piano collections:http://www.amazon.com/Final-Fantasy-Piano-Collection-Sheet/dp/4636258665

  3. I definitely would like to take requests, I'll check out those arrangements!

  4. I've been playing piano for 23 years (started when I was 4, haha)
u/Xenoceratops · 2 pointsr/musictheory
  • Dariusz Terefenko - Jazz Theory: From Basic to Advanced Study

  • Bill Russo - Composing for the Jazz Orchestra

  • Mark Levine - The Jazz Piano Book (More for the voicings than all the modes wankery.)

    /u/billgrahammusic has some good videos applying Barry Harris' methods.

    Hal Galper has been mentioned as well.

    I'd also recommend reading George Lewis' essay, Improvised Music after 1950: Afrological and Eurological Perspectives, Philippe Carles and Jean-Louis Comolli's Free Jazz/Black Power, and Robin D.G. Kelley's Africa Speaks, America Answers: Modern Jazz in Revolutionary Times (Freeeto get a sense of the socioeconomic and cultural stakes of Afro-diasporic music.

    Obviously the music has to be primary, so learn a couple tunes for starters. However, recognize that jazz represents an epistemology totally separate from that which is cultivated in European classical music. It is possible to make jazz in the mold of Euro-American cultural hegemony, and it actually happens quite a bit (one of the arguments against jazz academia, as well as the impetus for bebop, as just a couple examples), so it's important to understand music beyond simply an object made out of sound, or a collection of techniques or musical gestures. Jazz is a way of knowing. Avant-garde classical improvisation is a different way of knowing, and performing Mahler in a concert hall is yet a different way of knowing. It's important to know the difference, especially if you did not grow up learning it implicitly. The George Lewis article articulates some of these thoughts, but it might take a lot more work to really wrap your head around it. The Carles/Comolli book is especially caustic, and a really good read. I excerpt a bit of their book in a discussion over here.
u/thesuperemperor · 2 pointsr/Jazz

I took up Jazz Piano a few years back. The guy I took lessons from recommended this book. It is, hands down, the most useful jazz piano book, arguably best jazz book overall, that I have ever run across. It has all kinds of theory and improv techniques with quotable licks and riffs from a number of jazz standards. You cant go wrong with this book.

u/greensome · 4 pointsr/musictheory

I can highly recommend "The Jazz Piano Book". It covers a lot of ground and is very readable. Best jazz book I ever bought. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Jazz-Piano-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/0961470151/

u/JimmieC123 · 1 pointr/MusicalTheatreScores

Hi there,

This is first being released 1/31. While we are all about sharing on this subreddit, we are not looking to intentionally take money out of the pockets of composers. Most of what is shared here is because it cannot be purchased anywhere, because it isn't for sale.

https://www.amazon.com/Land-Piano-Voice-Guitar/dp/0571539823

Thanks,

JimmieC123

u/donanobis · 1 pointr/Random_Acts_Of_Amazon

I love singing old classical jazzy music! It makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside...I don't get a chance to perform very often, but I could use more sheet music like this :)

u/urbster1 · 1 pointr/piano

Check out the Youtube channel jazz2511 and his website http://www.bushgrafts.com

Also highly recommend Luke Gillespie's Stylistic II/V/I Voicings book

Mark Levine's Jazz Piano book is also popularly recommended, as is Randy Halberstadt's Metaphors for the Musician.

u/buddy_boy75 · 1 pointr/beatles

http://www.amazon.com/Beatles-Keyboard-Book/dp/079351441X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1450630573&sr=1-1&keywords=beatles+keyboard

While the Complete Scores book is amazing, this book is a close second as far as keyboard books. It has most of the Beatles actual keyboard parts on the songs that include a piano/organ. The print is a little bigger than the Complete Scores book too, so it's a little easier to read for piano players.

u/ztpiano · 3 pointsr/piano

get this:

http://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Piano-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/0961470151/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1369855129&sr=8-1&keywords=jazz+piano+book


and a copy of The Real Book.


The Mark Levine book will tell you which songs to practice and how to practice them. If you really want to learn jazz, don't simply imitate it by learning pre-written arrangements on sheet music. Learn to play from a lead sheet and you will have much more fun.

u/lightly_salted_tuna · 6 pointsr/piano

If you like Chopin (playing ballade in g minor? :-) this could be interesting for you:
https://www.amazon.com/Studio-Ghibli-Chopin-Advanced-difficult/dp/4636840011

You can hear the full album on youtube, too.

EDIT: Browse on this website, they publish most of Ghibli piano sheets:

http://www.wasabisheetmusic.com/product-list/96

u/isangwon · 3 pointsr/piano

i bought the official sheet music on amazon. you're probably looking for it for free which i totally get but it's a decent book i highly recommend!

u/ghost_of_a_fly · 4 pointsr/piano

The Mark Levine Jazz piano book has been known to be a good one. I"m just starting too and i had the jazz instructor at my university recommend it. here's an amazon link.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0961470151/ref=dp_olp_used?ie=UTF8&condition=used

u/jfaulkner8 · 2 pointsr/WeAreTheMusicMakers

This book is fantastic for learning to play jazz:

Jazz Piano Book

u/LiamGaughan · 6 pointsr/WeAreTheMusicMakers

Mark Levine Jazz Piano Book!

That, and a teacher (If you're not down with jazz harmony to begin with)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Jazz-Piano-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/0961470151

And of course, Real Book :)

u/Disney_Jazzcore · 1 pointr/musictheory

>Method book

https://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Piano-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/0961470151


What about this? I don't play a lot of piano and I have a keyboard (61 keys), still worth it? I don't mind investing in it if you think I can do it. I have done classical theory (still doing) for a while. Do you think my knowledge will help in Jazz?


>Yes, this is called dominant substitution. The first one is commonly called tritone substitution (C7 to F7). The second two are a little more exotic, and come from Barry Harris's theory.

Ah, yes! So, CEGBb - GbBbDbFb or F#A#C#E. So, Eb7 and A7 are Barry Harris's theory, huh? Ok.
Did he mention it somewhere or... was it in the books?


I am guessing you saying

>A G7sus4 chord is normally voiced as C-F-A (4-7-9).

Is because of this

>First of all, Cmaj7 with a 9 is Cmaj9. C9 is C7 with a 9.


This is all so juicy to learn but I dont want to spread myself thin than what I already am.

u/vivalavivi · 2 pointsr/gaymers

Does your bf like Final Fantasy? They sell physical books of sheet music for all of their piano collections, e.g: http://www.amazon.com/Final-Fantasy-Piano-Collection-Sheet/dp/4636258665

For games like Skyrim, I'm not too sure. You could try to find the sheet music online and create a bound book for him :D

u/dfmtr · 2 pointsr/piano

For improvisation, Dave Frank's Joy of Improv books are good for working through. Here's his full DVD going over the very basics.

For comping and jazz harmony in general, Matt Levine's Jazz Piano Book.

u/alessandro- · 3 pointsr/piano

Very quickly:

  • Add the second note in the chord for a more pop kind of sound. So if you're playing an F chord, add the G next to the A. This is especially good for chords I and IV in the key.
  • add some kind of rhythmic pattern. Exactly how much extra rhythm depends on how intense a moment it is in the song and who you're playing with. I'll try to update this comment to provide an example or two later.

    Edit: I'm not sure If I'll come back to this comment, so in case I don't, on rhythms, I recommend chapter 11 of this Hal Leonard book for some ideas.
u/dietcheese · 2 pointsr/JazzPiano

The Levine book is usually the go-to book for jazz pianists:

https://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Piano-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/0961470151/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1549422911&sr=1-1&keywords=jazz+piano+book+mark+levine

Make sure to use your ears a lot, sing what you play, transcribe a ton, take your time and concentrate!

u/bmberlin · 1 pointr/piano

I have this.

Ultimate Christmas Fakebook - 6Th Edition https://www.amazon.com/dp/1495026574/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_LlX.zbB2YJA5N

If you know chords it's the best option out there I think.

u/Norfaire · 2 pointsr/FFXV

I didn't even know this existed. I need this in my life.

Is this the one you ordered? If not, please PM me the link. I'd love to pick this up one day.

u/SpinalFracture · 1 pointr/Jazz

The Jazz Piano Book by Mark Levine is a great jazz course, aimed at pianists who are already reasonably proficient.

u/MONGEN_beats · 3 pointsr/LofiHipHop

This book is a great resource for jazz theory and piano chords.

https://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Piano-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/0961470151

u/ttchoubs · 2 pointsr/piano

The Jazz Piano Book is a fantastic place to start.

u/knotty75 · 2 pointsr/Jazz


Highly recommended:
http://amzn.com/1883217121

what instrument do you play?

u/duggreen · 2 pointsr/edmproduction

Mark Levines' book on jazz piano covers pretty much all of pop music theory.


http://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Piano-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/0961470151

u/Pawlx · 1 pointr/Jazz

[Mark Levine's The Jazz Piano Book] (https://amzn.com/0961470151) is a really good place to start especially if you already know some basics.

u/spreadsheet_jockey · 3 pointsr/piano

I'm a noob and don't really know how to choose sheet music either, but the one on imgur is from the official FFX piano songbook, while the others look like they were made by fans. So I'd start with that one if it were me.

u/organic · 6 pointsr/piano

The Mark Levine books The Jazz Theory Book and The Jazz Piano Book are both good resources.

u/terrapin1203 · 5 pointsr/Jazz

Mark Levine's Jazz Piano Book is considered the standard jazz piano book. Between that and a good teacher you should be set.

u/AlrightyAlmighty · 3 pointsr/JazzPiano

Mark Levine's book is the standard work. I recommend working through it.

u/asgiantsastros · 1 pointr/piano

2 things: jazz piano teacher, and this book.


Also, play a lot with other people & improvise.

u/wowmats · 1 pointr/piano

The official book is actually coming out in February https://www.amazon.com/dp/0571539823/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_L67IybFTPVB0V

u/Hilomh · 1 pointr/JazzPiano

https://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Piano-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/0961470151

I did a Google search and found a ton of companies that sell it.

u/detective-loser · 2 pointsr/musictheory

I’ve yet to buy this book but maybe....

The Jazz Piano Book by Mark Levine
https://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Piano-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/0961470151

u/fenderfreak98 · 3 pointsr/piano

well I'm not so sure about specific genres, but if you want to get into Jazz piano then The Jazz Piano Book by Mark Levine is a great place to start. That along with a fake book, backing tracks (like the ireal app), and actual recordings will get you far. Also, check out r/jazztheory/ if you haven't been there yet.

edit: for what its worth, in my limited opinion bossa nova is more of a rhythmic variant and gospel is more about voicings and specific progressions (I'm not too familiar w/ gospel but do hear minor thirds and block chords alot)

u/tempusfudgeit · 1 pointr/piano

Is that from this book?

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/4636258665?cache=b92011dd16559277f94451628688ed73&pi=SY200_QL40&qid=1404702291&sr=8-1#ref=mp_s_a_1_1

I've really been thinking about buying it, just not sure how complex the music is