[PDF] Jazz Keyboard for Pianists and Non-Pianists: Class or Individual Study by Jerry Coker at Arts-Photography

Review

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. ... those who want to learn jazz piano this a great book to start withBy cjTo those who want to learn jazz piano this a great book to start with.13 of 15 people found the following review helpful. Step by Step Jazz Piano Self StudyBy Rearden SteelThe following comments are directed to those who are looking for a way to become jazz piano musicians using the method of self study. In what follows. I give the plan I successfully used to implement that method with Jerry Cokers Jazz Keyboard. At the same time this discussion serves as a detailed evaluation of the book and what might be done to be successful using it.If you want to perform as a musician rather than say someone who can just read notes and play. then learning jazz is one useful and pleasurable experience that achieves that goal. Learning jazz is an excellent way to develop competence as a musician. It accomplishes this task by effectively integrating theory and performance so that key and chord relationships; improvisation; composition; and playing solo or in a group are readily achievable in this paradigm. It is safe to say that one should not start with jazz as your first music lessons. It helps to have background with one instrument including standard scales and some theory. For serious musicians a great beginning theory book is Edlys Music Theory for Practical People. Ed Roseman maintains a website and he goes out of his way to answer questions of those who wish to study the subject by themselves. For foundational (classical) scales there are any number of good books to select from.With the above rationale. caveats. and background. Jerry Cokers Jazz Keyboard is one of the best beginning self study jazz books for the piano. This short book is brilliantly set up to take the self study student through the various steps of learning the essentials of becoming a competent jazz musician. See also Michael Edelmans review. You wont learn everything there is to know about jazz. but you will get a great start. Significantly. Cokers book makes use of Janey Aebersolds well known volumes that come with CDs matching the progressions in Jazz Keyboard. This innovation allows the beginning jazzer to get experience comping in a "group" whilst not yet having achieved the competence to play in a real live group. Best of all Abersolds books and techniques have also been around and extensively tested for quite a while. If you practice every day the routines outlined by Coker you will have a good chance of success. Accordingly. I recommend Cokers Jazz Keyboard with the accompanying books. In particular I used Janey Aebersold Vol. 1 How to Play and Improvise Bk/cd (Abersold Jazz. Volume 1) and The II-V7-I Progression. Volume 3.Drawbacks. What Jerry Cokers Jazz Keyboard lacks is a detailed background of scales applicable jazz. Although. he does have some discussion. The book is introductory in nature rather than providing a complete course of jazz instruction.21 of 22 people found the following review helpful. The best Jazz piano primerBy Michael J. EdelmanIf youre a non-pianist musician looking to understand the basics of Jazz piano. like me. or a skilled pianist looking to quickly master the basics of modern Jazz piano- this is the book for you. Coker starts out showing you two simple voicings. and has you work though II-V-Is in all keys. Next. he works though other standard cadences. and some basic standards. He goes from there to develop explore different voicings and accompaniment styles. including blues. rootless voicings. and a range of modern Jazz styles. voicings and idioms.Coker developed this book as the text for a basic one-semester course for music majors. and if you work at this book every day. within four months youll be able to comp off a lead sheet with confidence.