Customer Reviews

The Pop Piano Book

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Keyboardists can use this book as well. The first part details basics (chords, scales, etc) real quickly (I guess experienced users wont need the basics in detail) The second part goes through genres specifically. (pop ballad, rock, r&b, gospel, country etc)

Parts are split up among accompanying and melody leading. A beginner with no background will have no idea how to use this book. It is not a manual, more of a reference book for popular piano styles. Not for beginners, for the experienced. There isn't too much text explaining things. More of it showing and the reader to understand, digest and improvise. So you need some prehand understanding.

Excellent book no doubt.

I do have complaints though. First the binding is terrible. My book's pages started falling apart very quickly. I needed to go to a publisher friend of mine who took it apart and rebinded it for me. I may have had to lose the pretty cover but now it is sturdy. Second the paper is made of somewhat heavy stock making the book itself very large and weighty. I'm sure this contributed to the book falling apart.

This could be a very good technique book as well for people who want to learn popular piano if it is read and used carefully.

He has an abundance of technical exercises in rhythm patterns, which is something that cannot be gained from Hanon, the king of technical exercise books.

Many teachers are not very good at teaching popular piano, instead preferring to reinterpret it as classical music (which is not appropriate given its different rhythm patters and key signatures--often less complicated than those in classical). This was written by a man who teaches popular piano and has a very clear idea of the rhythm patterns that make that unique. For example: He makes extensive use of the tie line and syncopation in his examples of R&B, which is what one finds in real music of this genre. But it is very hard to get that type of practice if learning classical songs.

As it has been noted before, the binding for this book sucks. But there are ways to get around that.

Also: This seems to encompass almost everything in other basic theory books that I have read/ own. It has actually obviated my other theory/ rhythm books. It will be a good saving of money to invest in this before any others.

Finally: The book CAN be used by beginners (in tandem with learning some scales) if it is used as he recommends. He says in the opening pages that it was written/ designed to be used by people at myriad levels.

This book is really a great ressource for musicians who want to improve their style in pop ballad, gospel, new age music, ... I would advise it to anyone who already has some basic notion of how to 'fake' a song = interpret a song based only on a lead sheet (melody + chords), and who wants to go further. The author gives lots of examples, breaking them down in basic components, and analysing them. He gives hundreds of patterns of accompaniment (arpeggios, chord voicings, rhythmic patterns).

A warning: the title 'The Pop Piano Book - A complete method for playing piano and keyboards in contemporary styles', is misleading. This book is definitely NOT intented for beginners. Rather for people who already have a few years of experience on the piano (correct fingering, and independance of hands), and preferably have some notion of note reading (although the purpose of the book is of course to be able to play music without having to read notes).

I have been playing the piano for over 13 years, mostly classical, more recently jazz and pop, but I've never been very pleased with my contemporary piano skills. Most books that teach the techniques of contemporary styles assume the reader has little or no playing background and don't progress very far beyond the basics, clearly not much help for the serious player.

However, The Pop Piano Book is precisely the book I've been looking for!! This book is perfect for the intermediate or advanced player who aspires to be a master of contemporary styles. With this book you can learn how to interpret a song in numerous modern styles, and learn the subtleties that will demonstrate your total understanding and mastery of each style.

The Jazz Piano Book by Mark Levine is my jazz bible, and Mark Harrison's Pop Piano Book has taken a place right beside it as my contemporary piano guide. It is phenomenal!

I've been working out of this book for a few weeks now and it's excellent. I consider myself an intermediate at piano, I'm completely self-taught and never taken piano lessons. I just got fake books and taught myself. However this book fills in a huge whole (for me). It gives patterns in different styles. So after completing this book, when I read a fake book I'll have lots of patterns to chose from.

As the others said, this isn't a book for beginners. Someone with years of piano lessons can probably go right through it, whereas I spend 30 minutes just on a couple patterns. If you're a novice and don't mind spending a lot of time praticing, you can greatly benefit from this book as well.

Finally, I purchased the MIDI files from Mark Harrison's website. I strongly recommend these if you're not a really good piano player. I mute each hand while playing the other while learning each hand. It's very helpful.

This book is very helpful.
Mark Harrison takes you through several styles of piano playing.
In each style he starts with a sample song. It starts simply and then builds in complexity. Then he adds variations.

This book fills a void in the market for people who need to know how to approach different styles and then gives them enough material to become proficient in each of them; not just knowing a few generic licks for each one.

I can't give this book 5 stars because it doesn't include a CD. There is a CD available that you can buy from the author's website but these days it's very common to include a CD with the book- especially an expensive one. Plus there's a lot of references to the CD which makes you feel like you're missing out if you don't have it. I think the author should make the files available online for free. But that's just me.

I have another gripe that is really my own dilemma and I wouldn't hold it against this book: The author offers very little in the way of insight. While you have a systematic breakdown of each style there's no simple overall view of each style. He never shows you any tips or tricks to understand the style you're working on.
In short, the book is like a text book.

Also you should know that without the CD and spending a long time on each style you should be a pretty decent player and reader to get results from this book.
I'm OK and I felt like because my chops a so so the samples became tedious.
This is due to my limitations and shouldn't reflect on the author but this is not a book for beginners.

I have had some 20 years of piano lessons/experience. Unfortunately, like many, I was only taught classical music and every attempt of my teachers of young years to teach some "modern" music failt due to the necessity of having to learn about the theory behind. Years later I find myself wanting to improvise, and alas, there are not so many good books to learn from!

I already own a couple of books and recently bought this one. This finally bridges the gap which all the others could not! Harrison just tells you everything including some good tricks which would take some time for you to realise on your own! Ok, make yourself familiar with some basic theory first because I doubt you can find the necessary details here. Also, better get some technical skills, practise scales, Hanon, Czerny whatever. This remains important also in this genre! If you have the technical know-how you can really do without the MIDI files because you will be able to play it for yourself and get used to the sound he wants to create. Yes, and then it is totally up to you and make no mistake, this is serious brainjogging what you are asked to do! But I really think it is worth it and will give you some automatism later which will really pay off.

What I particularly like about this method is that Harrison teaches proper voiceleading which I am missing in nearly all the other books. If you are an experienced piano player, you feel there is something wrong without the correct voiceleading. Here this is not the case. It is hard work but good fun and will hopefully give some good sounding results and finally the ability to improvise in the near future.

This book works. I am an intermediate level pianist. My skills have quickly developed with the use of this book. The first thing I did was take it to be spiral bound. This really helps. I am presently on Chapter 5, and I have found that the progression through the material has been very natural. I recently purchased the MIDI files through Mark Harrison. These are also helpful. I recommend this book without reservation, however I would not recommend it for beginners.

This is a fabulous book for anyone who's interested in how contemporary music works-it's basically a fun, practical, and in-depth primer on popular harmonic and rhythmic styles; it is invaluable for anyone wanting to learn sophisticated and stylistically appropriate comping techniques. As someone who has spent a lot of time composing, improvising, and exploring music on my own, I find it tremendously empowering to be learning the conventional tricks and the conceptual framework behind those tricks.

My only caveat would be that it may not be the best resource for people who are true beginners or who are scared off by memorization (effective comping, it turns out, requires a tremendous amount of memorization, and the first half of the book is devoted to getting you to memorize various scales and chords in as fun and interesting a way as possible). This isn't a book for people who just want to read music, and it has little to say about technique. But if you want to understand music, and you're willing to work for it, this book gives you a tremendous number of tools. Every musician who's interested in popular styles should have a copy!

This book is the single greatest influence on my playing. I've worked through a dozen piano theory books, and they usually focus on one aspect of playing. For example, I own books on quartal jazz voicings, 100 blues riffs, intros/turnarounds, reading from a fakebook, the jazz piano book, tons of runs, etc. Those books are great, but they don't provide a foundation to playing. They don't provide the ability to sit in with a band and jam in any popular style. This book lays down a solid and expansive foundation, upon which to build the more specialized structures.

I've been slowly working through this book for over a year, and I'm probably 3/4 through it. I often laugh as I'm practicing, because I can't believe how good it sounds. I'd wasted a lot of time practicing without a guidebook, and never made much progress. In one sitting, I'm learning techniques that make me sound like I'd only dreamed, and never would have realized on my own.

Don't be intimidated by the size (500 pages). Contrary to a previous review, the book IS full of tediously thorough descriptions of each exercise. The descriptions count for at about half the book, and you frequently won't bother to read them. Each chapter in the 2nd half of the book teaches one specific genre. I've just picked my favorite genres and focused on those only. Each genre is about 30-60 pages, and will have people wondering how you got to be so good in that style.