Jazz Piano Voicings: An Essential Resource for Aspiring Jazz Musicians [Paperback]

Rob Mullins (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2004 | Series: Jazz Piano

The jazz idiom can often appear mysterious and difficult for musicians who were trained to play other types of music. Long-time performer and educator Rob Mullins helps players enter the jazz world by providing voicings that will help the player develop skills in the jazz genre and start sounding professional right away - without years of study! Includes a "Numeric Voicing Chart," chord indexes in all 12 keys, info about what range of the instrument you can play chords in, and a beginning approach to bass lines.

Product Details

• Paperback: 202 pages
• Publisher: Hal Leonard Corporation (January 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0634050532
• ISBN-13: 978-0634050534
• Product Dimensions: 11.8 x 8.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #593,251 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good for Beginners, February 11, 2008

By 

Mark Pope "Writer Not a Fighter" (Dallas, TX) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Jazz Piano Voicings: An Essential Resource for Aspiring Jazz Musicians (Paperback)

This book is great if you have a young one that hasn't played jazz or if you haven't had much jazz training. This book will give you chord changes in a lot of keys with some very basic bass lines.

THIS CAN BE VERY HELPFUL!! If you don't know what to do if you see a chord like this: Db7#5#9, then this is the book for you! This will walk you through many of the common (and some uncommon) chords and you will generally play these chords in all keys and usually with a walking bass of some sort.

If you are looking for a book that will have you playing repertoire to teach you these chords, you will not like this book. There is not one "song" in here - there are a few progressions that are written out with some right hand patterns as well as bass patterns - but you're not going to finish this book being able to play any repertoire.

But, that is the point - if you finish this book and learn what it has to teach, you'll have the TOOLS to play your favorite standards.

This is a good reference book - even if you have played some jazz...

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The PERFECT complement to learning jazz piano, September 20, 2007

By 

Keith I. - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Jazz Piano Voicings: An Essential Resource for Aspiring Jazz Musicians (Paperback)

I bought this book hoping to jazz up my playing style, and it did not disappoint. My biggest frustration with jazz piano was learning the basic chord structures that any book teaches (e.g. C7 = C,E,G,Bb) only to hear/see jazz legends such as Dave Brubeck and Oscar Peterson play a completely different C7 than I had learned (Mullins even mentions Brubeck and Peterson as influences). After learning the chords/voicings in this book, my playing finally sounds like I've arrived as a jazz musician.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Get Hip and Sound Like Bill Evans, August 26, 2007

By 

Sandra Barba - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Jazz Piano Voicings: An Essential Resource for Aspiring Jazz Musicians (Paperback)

I have been using Jazz Piano Voicings, by Rob Mullins, for 3 months. My arrangements sound better than any piano bar in the West! If you are using the same old chords you first played, then you need this book. The beauty lies in the placement of the notes. Spice up your performance so your audience returns to hear you again and again. This is the kind of sound that will intrigue the professional musician as well as the common listener. I always play to that one knowlegeable person in the room. I'm impressing myself with these awesome voicings. I am a classical piano teacher of over 35 years. get hip-get bill!