Customer Reviews

Jazz Piano Concepts & Techniques

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It may seem like this book will teach you how to play Jazz if you see the title "Jazz Piano Concepts & Technique". But its really a book that teaches you how to harmonize and play melodies that you see in fake books ( fake books are books w/ songs inside that provide only the melody and the name of the chord ). The purpose of this book is to help you harmonize the chords in the right way and actually play the song just by seeing the melody and the chord name. This book doesn't teach you Improvising scales, modulation, or any skills needed to play jazz by ear or by feel and improv. Its a book that helps you harmonize chords. A good book though.

This is a book that I highly recommend especially for beginners and intermediate jazz piano students. It shows you how to voice leadsheet chords in different jazz styles (Swing, Waltz, Latin jazz (mainly bossa)) using 4 main voicing styles (2 close positions and 2 open positions). 2, 3 4, and 5 note voicings are presented. Not to forget rootless voicings. Get to the end and you are an advance jazz keyboardist provided you learn how to improvise.

For the non-jazz pianist who looks at a "fake book" of jazz tunes and doesn't know where to begin-

Assuming that you have a good ear, have a basic piano technique and can read music half-decently, this book can be very useful. Once you play through the written portions and try your hand at the suggested variations for the 8 provided original tunes, you are likely to have enough skill to play many of the tunes you might encounter in a "fake book" in a manner that sounds fairly convincing. From that point on, you can apply what you've learned with John Valerio's book to other tunes and expand from there.

I highly recommend this book as that critical first step in that it provides you with stylistic "rules" that keep your efforts sounding "authentic" until you have enough knowledge and experience to branch out using others' ideas and those of your own.

The exercises and songs in this book sound good! It has a wealth of chord voicings presented in cycle of 5ths, II V I and chromatic progressions... the way they are actually used in standard jazz songs. I had previously learned music theory and how to read music, but needed a book of exercises to train my ear and hands to play from fake books and lead sheets. Some days I want to practice but don't feel like reading a lot of music theory as presented in many jazz piano books. John Valerio's book has just enough theory, in little bits, to explain the purpose of the exercises. I'm an intermediate level pianist and find the exercises and songs easy to play, however; they are NOT dumb-downed for beginners and still have a professional sound. I think it accomplishes it's purpose, as stated in the preface, "This book offers a straightforward step-by-step approach to learning how to play basic piano realizations of jazz and pop tunes from lead sheets." It also covers melody and styles. I use it often and recommend it to others.

John Valerio is a wonderful pianist and teacher. His thoughtful approach to teaching in this book will benefit pianists at any level. He lays out the process in a sequential order that makes learning to play natural. For the seasoned musician he presents the material in such a way that it stimulates the thought process, and opens new ways of thinking and approaching playing the piano.

Product was exactly as advertised. It was recommended by my Jazz piano instructor. It is excellent. I highly recommend it to jazz piano students.

Best resource I've found for musicians that have some theory knowledge and some technique already. Very practical and John spends lots of time hammering out the basics before it steps up. Great first jazz book for pianists looking to start into jazz or build a better foundation. Also a strong book for learning jazz harmony.