Improvising Rock Piano [Paperback]

Jeffrey Gutcheon (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 94 pages
• Publisher: Music Sales Corp (June 1978)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0825640717
• ISBN-13: 978-0825640711
• Product Dimensions: 11.7 x 8.7 x 0.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 0.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #669,776 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Helpful, detailed and useful, March 28, 2000

By 

Johan Gustavsson (Linkoping, Sweden) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Improvising Rock Piano (Paperback)

This is a brilliant book!

The focus here is on playing idiomatically in a number of "rock piano" styles, starting off in the fifties with Fats Domino-style triplet ballads and moving through Aretha-style gospel soul, Fess-like early New Orleans, Dr John-ish later NO, Elton John, Leon Russell-y eights-time rock, Carole King soft rock...¨

Now, this is not, mind y'all, in the form of straight transcriptions, but rather after a thoroughly analysis. Every style is related to earlier styles, rythmically and harmonically, and typical figures or runs is shown, together with the typical basic rythms and accompaignement patterns. Then comes a whole piece, either a transcription of a well-known song (f'rinstance "Mo' scocious") or an original in that particular style, where all the different elements are put together and shown in context.

The result is that one gets not only a few licks to pop off, but rather that one gets the idea of *how* to make a stylisticaly fitting lick, how to achieve the basic groove, and how to put it all together as a cohesive song. Brilliant.

Criticisms: Well, it goes no further than 1978, obviously, since that was when it was published. However, to me at least, not much important has happened in rock piano styles since, so I stand by my 5 stars. Go Get!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars There Is Nothing Like It, January 1, 2001

By 

Alan Tischler (Baltimore, Maryland United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Improvising Rock Piano (Paperback)

I first bought this book 20 years ago and was so impressed with it that when it came time to replace my personal library, it was one of the first I bought again.

There is no book like this on the market. Gutcheon offers clear and concise analysis of each style to enable the reader to play the sample solo and then improvise that style on his own. This is a "how-to" book -- not just a "what to play" book. It teaches the principles that allow the player to do it for himself - not like so many others -- which just offer a transcription of what someone else does.

The value of this book is that I am playing the solos not on the piano -- but the accordion. And they work great.

Music Sales Corporation needs to give this book more publicity and distribution. It is a unique product on the market.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very useful, October 30, 2007

By 

S J Buck (Kent, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Improvising Rock Piano (Paperback)

If you can get hold of a copy now, this is worth getting. The volume covers a multitude of Piano styles. Most of them are blues based to some degree or another. Heres a selection of some of the styles covered:

Triple Feel Ballads (Fats Domino)
Early New Orleans (Huey Smith, Allan Toussaint etc)
Eight to the bar Rock Boogie (Johnny Johnson)
Rock A Boogie Shuffle (Jerry Lee Lewis)
Gospel Style (Richard Tee)
Country Rock
Contemporary New Orleans Styles (Dr John)
Pop Styles (Carol King)
Half-time (Elton John)
Half-time (Leon Russell)
Plus numerous others.

The vast majority of pieces are composed by Jeff Gutcheon and accurately capture the style of the artist concerned. A few such as 'Mos Scocious' by Dr John are not by Gutcheon.

This book is not good if you want to know what keyboard players were doing post 1980 (unless they were heavily influenced by one of the above), and it doesn't cover progressive rock keyboard players like Rick Wakeman and Keith Emerson. Perhaps its weakest point is that there is no audio recording to help you hear what you are supposed to playing. For this reason I have only given it 4 stars.

I rate the difficulty level as moderate, but occasionally difficult, as some of the rhythms are difficult to play off the page, especially without a CD.