Customer Reviews

Mel Bay Jazz Piano Chords

5 star:		(7)
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3 star:		(2)
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"Jazz Piano Chords" is a well-thought-out and equally well-layed-out book for the beginning as well as the more experienced jazz pianist. There are many chord dictionaries on the market, but this one is specifically designed for jazz pianists, and it goes into detail about how chords are structured and when to use and not use specific types of chords. Preceding the chord charts are about twenty-five pages of text with explanations of the basics of what intervals and chords are and how they function in different musical settings (solo piano, as an accompanist, in a combo, etc.). The text then moves into voicings and a thorough exploration of the various kinds of chords with many charts to illustrate how these chords are built and used. Next follow the chord charts for all keys, charts of chords used for harmonizing in all keys, and charts of quartal harmonies in all keys. The final chart is spelling suggestions for the various chords. An award-winning jazz pianist as well as a composer of many different styles of music, Misha Stefanuk shares a wealth of knowledge in a concise and very readable fashion. An easy-to-use reference book as well as an excellent textbook, it is recommended for any pianist who wants to learn how to play jazz and to understand the fundamental structure of jazz piano.

Jazz pianist Misha V. Stefanuk has created a concise, well-constructed reference guide to playing jazz piano chords in his book, JAZZ PIANO CHORDS. Pianists will love playing with this book and experiencing the chord changes. This is one of the finest books of its type to appear in recent years, and it cover topics in a comprehensive manner. There is a section on clusters, polytonal clusters, and block chords. Interestingly written, the entire book is a nice reference to have at home near your piano, something to refer to often for its wide variety.

Sections concerning open voicing and drop voicing are included and of special note is blues chord on page 16 for blues fans, and a section on split ninth chords. This is the type of keyboard reference material one needs to get started with as a beginner, and as a ready reference for those who are experienced jazz pianists.

Congratulations to Misha V. Stefanuk for putting this much needed material together into one book. JAZZ PIANO CHORDS by Misha V. Stefanuk is a winner. Five stars.

Jazz Piano Chords by Misha V. Stefanuk is a great sourcebook for both beginning and experienced jazz pianists. Stefanuk simply explains the music theory of intervals, chords, voicing, harmonizing chords, substitutions and enharmonic spellings which lays the foundation for understanding the complexity of the sound and chord structures on the piano. He finishes the book up by spelling out every jazz chord that you would ever need in all keys.
All in all, a terrific compilation for any pianist interested in jazz!

This book is a great, valuable resource. As an aspiring musician, I would often find it frustrating to find the right chord to harmonize the melody note I picked. This book has an entire section on chords that will harmonize each melody note, so it is as simple is picking out the chord from whatever progression you want to use! Eperienced musicians will find this helpful and valuable . . . beginning musicans NEED it! Great investment, you won't regret purchasing it.

I am a jazz pianist by night and what I enjoyed about this book were the many charts of chords and all keys. My only complaint, is the typos and lack of clarity in the verbage content. I can play the chords in the charts and can appreciate them, but if you were to ask me to explain how these chords are built and harmonized, I would not be able to. In other words, this book did not educate me as well as I had hoped for. I would have to look elsewhere. I would have wanted to understand the paramenters and stucture of chords. This book is good, but as a companion to other sources. Also his explanation of intervals (although I understand them) is not as clear as I had read in other books.

This book is a good resource for jazz players. I thought it would have the fingerings for the chords (for beginners). But if you can read treble and bass clefs its great!!!! It has just about every possibility you can imagine!!!!

The reviews on Amazon were inaccurate. I purchased Jazz Piano Chords and found the book to have a reasonably useful standard chord explanation for first 28 pages. The remaining 100 pages are ALL chord dictionary for every key. Also, you better read music because every chord is shown on the G and F cleff. No note letters provided. What is disappointing to me was the very thin amount of real theory, explanation and discussion of jazz piano chords which is what the cover promised. For the $20. price, the value is simply not there. Much better alternatives are available from Amazon.

Much material in the book to be learned...this stuff will definitely keep you off the streets at night!

If you master the material in this book, you just may have the skills to earn a part-time (or maybe full-time) living playing jazz.

Hey! That would put you back in the streets performing gigs - all night! Hmmmmm....that could be fun!! Five stars!!

Awesome
Any pianist aspiring to improve must read this book. It has lots of information and theory in a condensed way. Also it includes 2 sections on harmonization. ¡Awesome! Your ideas will flow right away. You will be soaring high very fast. I also recommend The Jazz Theory book by Mark Levine. The Levine book is a complete course on Jazz that can be applied to any instrument. A Jazz player can't be considered a Jazz player without reading these 2 books.