Customer Reviews

Intros, Endings & Turnarounds for Keyboard: Essential Phrases for Swing, Latin, Jazz Waltz, and Blues Styles

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book teaches many things at once.

Learn intros and endings suitable for use in gigs.
Learn different chord changes besides the typical II-V-I.
Learn some phrases and voicings that help you jump right in,
rather than just seeing the chord changes written out.
(The last chapter is the exception)
Learn how to improvise - If you haven't been able to cross that
bridge, just let yourself wander while playing these samples.
You can't help but hear different melodies in them.

Each sample is presented in a random key, but it is still up the
student to practice them in all keys.
Well worth the price - a fraction of the cost of a piano lesson
for a huge springboard!

I try to spend a half hour with it every night. This book will appeal to a wide range of interests. Whether you are a composer interested in theory, or a keyboardist enhancing your chops, there is something here for you. Most examples are four-measures long, but rich in musicality (kind of like what the Bach chorales are for those studying classical music.) The examples progress from simple chord progressions to more complex, and each is one is clearly explained. Nice melodies too! It is apparent that the author has spent a lot of time with each of the sub-genres (swing, ballads, blues, Latin, etc.) and has distilled his knowledge into a neat recipe book that will serve as a launching point for those wishing to further their expertise.

Wirtten in a very easy to read but scholarly fashion, this book is a great resource for musicians who want to hone their craft a bit more and get those smooth-sounding progressions for intros and turn-arounds.

If you sometimes have problems knowing how to start and/or finish songs or phrases, this book is a must have! It guides you through the process and helps to expand your imagination.

The book has well written, very musical phrases. The author suggests usage with several standards that should be in everyone's play book and it's fun to work them in with tunes you already know - in the proper keys. Take them apart, and there is something to learn in most of them. Great for browsing.

The printing is good and the binding isn't troublesome on the rack. Nice experience. I would have rated it a five, but some of the pages have a tendency to work loose.

I encourage anyone who is considering purchase of this book, to actually study the first few pages. The book is written in the same manner throughout, so whether this book will be useful to you or not, will be obvious in the first few pages.
For myself, I found his explanatory paragraphs extremely difficult to follow and had to actually study and re-read several times each paragraph to figure out his intention. Then the samples were a second challenge, since they are not "clean" examples of the points that he was trying to make. For example, in demonstrating the Imaj7-IIm7-V7-I progression in the first sample, he uses notes that are not part of these chords. He does this throughout the book, unnecessarily complicating the point.

He warns of this in the 5th paragraph of the Preface, where he states: "alterations that appear in the examples are not always indicated in chord symbols". This simply complicates the issue and lessons needlessly.

Nothing against the book, but as a keyboardist with a longing to be adept at playing jazz, the "Roman Numeral" notations are a bit burdensome to someone not yet familiar with music theory. I'd preferred the standard chord notations. Would also be helpful if it included a cd to help me hear what the author is playing. But I'm sure more advanced players will benefit from this book.

Guess I'll stick to more basic instructional books like the Hal Leonard catalog.

This book showcases some basic elements in improv for many varied styles.
Geared for medium to advanced levels, but could help almost all in experimenting
with different patterns.
Text that goes along with the music gives good insight.

There is no need for me to repeat all the good descriptions and praises of the other reviews here. However, I simply do want to stress the fact that this book doesn't come with audio samples, which will make it harder for a new-comer to get a handle on the intended phrasing of the music.

I was looking for some new ideas for intros and endings and this book delivers. I really like the use of Roman numerals to generalize the progressions. I play those first to gain an understanding of the harmonic movement before delving into the particulars of the phrases. This book is an excellent resource of standard progressions and phrases that will really enhance your introductions, endings and turnarounds.