Customer Reviews

Keyboard Runs for the Pop & Jazz Stylist [With CD (Audio)]

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

 

 

This is my first review for Amazon. I wish someone had warned me before buying this book.

On the plus side this book gives you loads of runs that are mostly practical. They're offered in three (good) keys and give you fingering suggestions. The author is a gifted pianist who really knows her stuff. You get the feeling she's giving you the runs that really helped her as she was learning her craft. That's it for the positive comments.

On the downside:
1-I don't know why the title includes the word Pop. All the runs are blues/jazz.
I was hoping there would be some ideas to throw in to a real pop tune.
2-Many of the runs are great but about half seem like filler.
3- Too many jazz and bebop runs. There fine I guess but if you're going through the trouble of learning someone else's bebop runs why not just get a Charlie Parker book and steal from a master.
4- This is the biggie.... This is the reason I can't recomend this book and want my money back for it:
The CD.
4a-it sounds like it was recorded in a bedroom on an answering machine.
4b-The piano she plays is so out of tune that you can't even transpose your keyboard to match it.
4c-All the runs in each style (that's four) Are included on 1 CD track.
That means Blues run 27 is 5 minutes into track 2. That makes it very inconvenient to audition,play along with, or learn any of the runs.
4d-Not all the runs are on the cd. She jumps around and doesn't always play each run in all keys. This makes it difficult to even know what you're hearing. Doesn't help that piano is out of tune.

Anyway. If you're a good reader you could probably go through all the runs quickly, pick out the ones that work best for you and get a huge value out of this book.
If you're like me, and like to hear what the riffs/runs sound like you're out of luck.

Sorry my first review was such a downer.

Ok downside first!
The piano used on the audio CD is a semitone flat. However, if you are willing to overlook this fact, take up the potential ear training challenge, and work through the exercises, then read on.

This book contained what I was looking for! Just runs in various genres, keys and chord progressions. You should of course have the basic music foundation in place, and be looking to enrich your style.

If you learn as much by ear as you do by reading music, or if audio enhances your learning experience, then this book is highly recommended.

The recordings sound fine--they're played on a real piano so they aren't "MIDI sounding" like some of the other books with CDs I've bought. However, it doesn't sound like the piano was tuned to standard pitch, so if you try to play along everything sounds out of tune. This is pretty annoying. It would've been nice if each run had its own track rather than all of them being squished into 4 tracks grouped by type (i.e. Blues, Modern, etc.). This makes it very hard to find the run you want because you have to fast-forward through the other runs on the track. Also, most runs are not included on the CD, yet the CD has a total running time of 36 minutes and 22 seconds--no where close to filling a full CD, which can hold about twice that amount (approx. 70 minutes). Come on. Other than that, it's nice that they present each run in a 3 different keys and mix the keys up--this forces you to learn the keys better. Most of the runs are good sounding, but some sound a little uninspired. Because of some of the annoyances of the CD this book only gets 3 stars. It has potential, but fell a little sort of high quality, IMO.

I bought it for the blues runs, and some of them are pretty good, but I bet there is a better source out there if you look.

The CD is 1.5 tones flat; I used Audacity to fix it by raising it 1.5 semitones. I wish there were a way to break the long tracks up into runs; I guess you can use Audacity to repeat runs that you like.

If you're not adept at using computer audio tools, then the CD is pretty useless.

This would have been a great gift to pianists everywhere, adding ideas to their improvisations. Hearing these ideas played by a gifted pianist would have really been helpful. But the piano on the CD is flat-not by a genuine half step--but just flat enough to make it out of tune, and painful to play along with. So if you already sight read jazz charts have an advanced feel for jazz rhythms, the book is very worthwhile, but don't expect the CD to help you practice.

The book gives your fingers a great work out! Like yoga - or more lap swimming for movements. The book is for you if you are serious on getting finger movements down.The runs are not "pop," so I don't get that. And the CD is really bad; flat and seemed off tune.