Best products from r/JazzPiano
We found 32 comments on r/JazzPiano discussing the most recommended products. We ran sentiment analysis on each of these comments to determine how redditors feel about different products. We found 17 products and ranked them based on the amount of positive reactions they received. Here are the top 20.
3. The Right Hand According to Tatum: A Guide to Tatum's Improvisational Techniques Plus 10 Transcribed Piano Solos
Used Book in Good Condition
6. The Real Book: Sixth Edition
- The Real Books are the best-selling jazz books of all time
- Since the 1970s, musicians have trusted these volumes to get them through every gig, night after night
- The problem is that the books were illegally produced and distributed, without any regard to copyright law, or royalties paid to the composers who created these musical masterpieces
- Hal Leonard is very proud to present the first legitimate and legal editions of these books ever produced
- You wont even notice the difference, other than all the notorious errors being fixed the covers and typeface look the same, the song list is nearly identical, and the price for our edition is even cheaper than the original! Every conscientious musician will appreciate that these books are now produced accurately and ethically, benefitting the songwriters that we owe for some of the greatest tunes of all time! The Real Books are the best-selling jazz books of all time
Features:
7. Jazz Piano Technique: Exercises, Etudes & Ideas for Building Chops
- "Exercises, Etudes & Ideas for Building Chops Series: Keyboard Instruction Format: Softcover with CD Author: John Valerio"
- "Exercises, Etudes & Ideas for Building Chops Series: Keyboard Instruction Format: Softcover with CD Author: John Valerio"
- Series: Keyboard Instruction
- Format: Softcover with CD
- Author: John Valerio
Features:
8. Jazzology: The Encyclopedia of Jazz Theory for All Musicians
- style name: 1000001-0001
- material: Leather
- lining: Leather & Textile
- fasterning: Lace-up
- sole: Rubber
Features:
9. Building Walking Bass Lines (Bass Builders)
- Walk, don't run
- A walking bass line is the most common approach to jazz bass playing, but it is also used in rock music, blues, rockabilly, R&B, gospel, Latin, country and many other types of music
- The term "walking" is used to describe the moving feeling that quarter notes create in the bass part
- This book familiarizes you with the techniques used to build walking bass lines
- Through the use of 90-minutes' worth of recorded rhythm tracks on the accompanying online audio, you will have the opportunity to put your new skills directly into action
Features:
10. How to Improvise on Piano: Learn How to Approach, Develop and Master the Art of Piano Improvisation
- Cross Reference Number: 2701-80661, 2701-80953, 341629, 61541, 61551, 81583, 81691, G63490, G63511, 344091, 344092, 565055, 565056, KG5467, KG5468, 32219, 32220, 37120, 37121
Features:
11. Hal Leonard Jazz Piano Method
Series: Piano Instruction Format: Softcover Audio Online Author: Mark Davis ISBN: 9781480398009 UPC: 888680023898 Width: 9.0" Length: 12.0" 96 pagesThe Hal Leonard Jazz Piano Method is a comprehensive and easy-to-use guide designed for anyone interested in playing jazz piano – from the complete no...
12. Jazz Improvisation: Tonal and Rhythmic Principles
- 224 Pages
- Author: John Mehegan
- Softcover
- Dimensions 11 x 8.5
Features:
13. Alesis Recital | 88 Key Beginner Digital Piano / Keyboard with Full Size Semi Weighted Keys, Power Supply, Built In Speakers and 5 Premium Voices (Amazon Exclusive)
- An Electric Piano That’s Tailored to You - Feature-packed Electric keyboard with 88 premium full-sized semi weighted keys with adjustable touch response to suit your preferred playing style
- Premium Sounds - 5 voices (Acoustic Piano, Electric Piano, Organ, Synth, and Bass), built-in FX: Chorus, Reverb, and two built in 20W speakers that deliver crystal-clear, room-filling sound
- All The Right Connections - ¼” sustain pedal input (pedal not included), ¼” stereo headphone output for private practice and stereo RCA outputs for connection to speakers / amplifiers
- Play the Keyboard Wherever You Go - Power via the included power adapter or 6 D cell batteries (not included) for professional piano performance anywhere
- Powerful Educational Features - Standard, split, layer, and lesson modes with 128-note max polyphony and Skoove 3 month premium subscription for expert interactive online piano lessons
- Interactive Piano Lessons Included - 60 Free Virtual Lessons from Melodics to hone your skills for any genre or technique you want to master
Features:
14. How to Improvise: An Approach to Practicing Improvisation, Book & CD (Advance Music)
15. Playing Keyboard Bass Lines Left-Hand Technique for Keyboards
- Playing Keyboard Bass Lines Left-Hand Technique for Keyboards Book/CD
- A step-by-step approach to learning keyboard left-hand bass lines
- Includes examples and exercises covering the chord progressions and styles players will encounter
- Great for those interested in jazz styles
- It focuses on walking lines, playing in a "2" feel, waltz time, Latin styles, putting both hands together, and more
Features:
Cool stuff man.
I started taking jazz and the piano both seriously at the beginning of this year, so definitely know how you feel. Here's what I did to help me:
Most especially, learning all your major scales will help you in ways you'll be thankful for later. Knowing the things mentioned above will give you more creative ability on the piano. To the point where you know how to play chords outside of the ones in the base standard (when playing that standard. Tritone substitution and secondary dominants helps with this. So does something called Modal Interchange, which I didn't mention before). And, to some extent, you'll be able to know the number of scales you can use to solo on each chord (which is a step above improvising on one scale along the whole song).
Judging from your playing, begin just messing around and just practicing with your right hand improvising. Passing tones are a fun thing I liked to do when I first started improvising (and I still use them a lot in my playing today).
Its great that you're starting to experiment with 2 hand voicings, so continue learning the general practices for those. Ie the function of the 3rd and 7th in the chord, and also rootless voicings.
You said that you're also a beginner on the piano, and honestly exercises help a lot. I just got this book and its been helping me feel a lot more comfortable as I've gone through it: https://www.amazon.com/Piano-Technique-Exercises-Etudes-Building/dp/1423498151
This book is also something that helps a lot with all round jazz knowledge: https://www.amazon.com/Jazzology-Encyclopedia-Jazz-Theory-Musicians-ebook/dp/B00FJ6BYWI/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1504177798&sr=1-1&keywords=jazzology
Hope that helps!
Try to begin your practices with technique (for however long you like), then practicing over standards you know already and applying knew things you've learnt to them (if you feel comfortable), and then practicing new standards or whatever other song. At the least, thats what my usual practice routine is like.
Hope that all helps!
One thing to really understand is guide tones. I was in a mindset like you and I changed my perspective of guide tones the more I played. Let's just say guide tones is a basic building block for your melody, and think about how you want to "travel" there.
Travel by half steps? Diatonically? Combination of upper/lower neighbor tones? Arpeggios?
The list goes on! When you get used to the basic block, you start making your own rules (knowing where to add chromaticism) which brings us to the fact that you need to spend so many hours making it "right" in your perspective. That's where transcribing helps but you also being analytical (I am the same way), you should establish which notes of the chord are being "decorated."
@Muchesslin - definitely what was stated here is great advice!
​
What helps is doing patterns, sequences, scales combined w/ arps, inversions (a tip for inversion practice stuff like 1-3-5-7, 3-5-7-1, etc, up and down your instrument) and such. This develops direction because the first part you need to really master is being fluid around the instrument and doing such exercises helps you decide how to use chromatic notes.
​
https://www.amazon.com/Right-Hand-According-Tatum-Improvisational/dp/0943748852
Really great book here, as you go on you start getting into the more complex ideas then you learn some important classical devices. Also, you should study some classical while you are at it.
Good luck with your studies, hopefully, this gives you more paths!
One thing you can do is look at/for or purchase a transcription of certain artist's playing. Something like this:
https://www.amazon.com/Oscar-Peterson-Omnibook-Piano-Transcriptions/dp/149500774X
I don't think that particular book contains blue in green, but some artist transcription will.
You can also look for it online:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S72GgBIr3vQ
or
https://www.google.com/search?q=blue+in+green+transcription&oq=blue+in+green+tr&aqs=chrome.2.69i57j0l5.8632j1j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
But in the end, if you want to learn jazz, then having a real book is the best way to go. You need to learn to voice your chords and play the melody.
Here is an online real book:
https://www.swiss-jazz.ch/partitions-real-book.htm
​
And this is Blue in Green from that book.
https://www.swiss-jazz.ch/standards-jazz/BlueInGren.pdf
Happy playing!
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.
I've found LH "rootless A & B voicings" to be super useful
Dan Haerle also has a great book called Jazz Piano Voicing Skills that might help you be more organized in your practice. It's basically a bunch of important voicings and common progressions in all 12 keys. Just pick the ones that you like the most to start.
>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 (:
Check out Aimee Nolte's series on youtube, "Accompany Yourself", I think she does a great job of explaining the basics and then showing the mechanics of how to fit it into a real song. Another source I've been using is a book called Building Walking Bass Lines. It's written for electric bass players (I started playing bass since my jazz group was all piano), but the concepts in it are very helpful for piano players as well.
Frank Mantooth book here is a good way to build chords in a new way. This will build your ability to play the nucleus of the chord (the 3rd and 7th) this is the most important part of comping. then towards the end of the book it will show you how to start playing complex extensions on that nucleus.
Hi, I am a professional jazz pianist and teacher and I agree that the Jazz Piano Book by Mark Levine is a great resource for learning jazz piano. I have also written a book titled: “How to Improvise on Piano” which is not exclusively about jazz piano but it covers jazz extensively. It also breaks down how to improvise in various genres, styles, arranging techniques, mood-based improv and much more. If you’re interested here is a link:
How to Improvise on Piano: Learn How to Approach, Develop and Master the Art of Piano Improvisation https://www.amazon.com/dp/1987589041/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_KfC5AbW9R5AWS
I think John Mehegan's books on Jazz Piano were really excellent in helping me build my skills.
https://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Improvisation-Tonal-Rhythmic-Principles/dp/0823025594
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!
As other commenters have noted, it depends on where you want to go with this. If guitar will remain your primary instrument, you may not need something super sturdy. I'm picking up the chromatic harmonica (primary is jazz piano), and I absolutely started with something meager to get me going.
In terms of learning more theory, and as a fan of myriad voicings and chordscales and how they sound in different ranges — I think range will be more important than how organically natural the hammer action is. You don't want it to feel like a synthesizer, for sure, but you may want to compromise on priciness of super-professional weighted keys versus full range of keys.
I found this one for ya at a similar price point — I've always liked Yamaha's pianos and loathed their keyboards for some reason, but I know nothing about the Alesis brand.
I'm studying How to Improvise by Hal Crook. Great book. Lot's of information developing a small idea.
this one has been good for me
https://www.amazon.com/Real-Book-Hal-Leonard-Corporation/dp/0634060384/ref=pd_sbs_14_1/137-3999734-2361828?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0634060384&pd_rd_r=3a832c6d-71c2-11e9-a563-4fe76fa75f96&pd_rd_w=kQPQY&pd_rd_wg=GGCbY&pf_rd_p=588939de-d3f8-42f1-a3d8-d556eae5797d&pf_rd_r=B0QS47ACR22PTWZE6QXR&psc=1&refRID=B0QS47ACR22PTWZE6QXR
This is better than those other 2:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0793569273/ref=ya_aw_od_pi?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Mark Levine's book is the standard work. I recommend working through it.
This book is fantastic, but a bit dense for beginners after the first chapter or two (source: am beginner, have book).
Edit: I also have this one and found it more beginner-friendly: https://www.amazon.com/Hal-Leonard-Jazz-Piano-Method/dp/1480398004
I bought this for the same reason: https://www.amazon.com/Behringer-MX400-BEHRINGER-MICROMIX/dp/B000KGYAYQ/ref=sr_1_20?ie=UTF8&qid=1536029059&sr=8-20&keywords=audio+mixer+4+input