#12 in Arts & photography books
Use arrows to jump to the previous/next product

Reddit mentions of The Jazz Piano Book

Sentiment score: 45
Reddit mentions: 56

We found 56 Reddit mentions of The Jazz Piano Book. Here are the top ones.

The Jazz Piano Book
Buying options
View on Amazon.com
or
    Features:
  • Used Book in Good Condition
Specs:
Height11 inches
Length9 inches
Number of items1
Weight1.72401488884 Pounds
Width0.721 inches

idea-bulb Interested in what Redditors like? Check out our Shuffle feature

Shuffle: random products popular on Reddit

Found 56 comments on The Jazz Piano Book:

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/Yeargdribble · 9 pointsr/piano

If you haven't worked through this book, I'd recommend it. Afterward you'd be able to open up a fake book and start working on tunes effectively.

You basically want to be able to play your 3-7 voicings (in both positions) for all ii-V-I progressions in every key. Then pick a chart and read it down using that format. Once you can comfortably read it down with 3-7 voicings, now add the melody on top.

This will affect which of the two "inversions" of the 3-7 to use at a given time. Sometimes the melody will be one of these guide tones and sometimes it will be something else requiring you to get pretty good at making that adjustment on the fly.

Once you're decent at that, I'd say start exploring other voicings. Obviously simple block rootless voicings are a good choice. You can get pretty deep in the weeds on voicings on this fantastic Youtube channel (/u/BluesBoy666). The Mark Levine book would also be a good choice once you're at this point.

However, the Mark Harrison book will get you started much more easily and actually flows in a good progressive order including some good ideas for comping patterns (for basic swing and bossa), basic shells and other stuff and introduces the concepts to you systematically. It's a good way to make sure you're not missing any important bit of scaffolding.

Realistically you might not even finish that book in a month, but it's a place to start so that you can actually begin apply the concepts to actual charts and practice them in the context that that would actually be used.

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/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/organic · 6 pointsr/piano

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

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/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/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/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/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/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/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/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/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/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/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/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/AlrightyAlmighty · 3 pointsr/JazzPiano

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

u/AperionProject · 3 pointsr/jazztheory

-Find some piano players you like, acquire all their recorded music and listen to it all as much as humanly possible.
Thelionus Monk, Horace Silver & McCoy Tyner are some of my favorites. But its not like you could ever go wrong with Bill Evans, Art Tatum, Fats Waller, Oscar Peterson or many other famous names.

-Get a private teacher. Find the best one you can afford.

-Get the Jazz Piano Book

-Practice everyday. Work on technique, transcribe solos (a teacher will help with that), create your own exercises, etc.

EDIT: Practice with a metronome. Think of the beat of the metronome being on beats 2 & 4. So, if its set to 60bpm, you're actually playing at 120bpm. You're simply thinking of the click of the metronome as being on beats 2 and 4. Feel it, practice this like its going out of style. Beat this concept into your brain & bone marrow.

1-2(click)-3-4(click)

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/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/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/ttchoubs · 2 pointsr/piano

The Jazz Piano Book is a fantastic place to start.

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/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/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/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/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/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/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/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/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/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/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/[deleted] · 2 pointsr/IWantToLearn

Well, err, I'd just recommend getting a teacher unless you are extremely skilled and have a good ear beforehand. Jazz is one of those things that either just comes natural or you have to really be taught.

Granted, I've been trying to learn jazz for piano for my self but sadly I haven't put much practice into it so I don't have anything to show for it. Mostly because I play so much improvisation and by chords for some local worship teams that I really, really suck at reading notes. Right hand is okay, but mixing it with my left just makes me go 10x slower than usual.

So first off, if you really can't play with both hands while reading notes learn it. Being able to play examples quickly is extremely useful. I've started brushing up on my left hand before I start hardcore on the jazz. Furthermore, you should have a good and firm understanding of scales and chords and some technical jargon that goes in playing piano other than classical.

Furthermore; I can recommend the books that I've bought but I can't give a firm review of them because I just skimmed the first two-three chapters before realizing I was in over my head regarding my left-right hand coordination, note reading and time (school sucked way to much time during my finals, but now that I got a gap year I'll practice more).

  • Connecting Chords with Linear Harmony (Jazz Book)

  • The Jazz Theory Book

  • The Jazz Piano Book

    Start out with the Jazz Piano book and use it together with Connecting Chords (which just by it self is really useful) and move over to the Jazz Theory when you begin to get a grasp of jazz on the piano. I don't know what your skill level is or how long you've played or what styles etc., but jazz is hard to learn by yourself so I'd recommend against it if you have other options.

    However, if you are like me, stubborn and cheap and want to show off because you did it by your self, by all means try. You can't get any worse on the piano at least.
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/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/jfaulkner8 · 2 pointsr/WeAreTheMusicMakers

This book is fantastic for learning to play jazz:

Jazz Piano Book

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/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/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/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/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/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/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/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/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/asgiantsastros · 1 pointr/piano

2 things: jazz piano teacher, and this book.


Also, play a lot with other people & improvise.

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/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/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/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/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/SpinalFracture · 1 pointr/Jazz

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