Customer Reviews

Tons of Runs: For the Contemporary Pianist

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I'm not a big fan of lick and pattern books, but this one has my seal of approval... and more than that, I HIGHLY reccomend it. There are lot's of ideas in here, some powerful stuff. Really hands on Jazz language material, some that if you're a more experienced improviser you might be using instinctively already, and some you wonder why you haven't touched on all along. The idea is to take them and build upon them... Within hours of getting the book, I immediately tuned out the outside world and was having fun experimenting with it... Some other things I like about it : The licks are in more than one key, suggested fingerings for more difficult ones, they're over a nice variety of patterns, typography is nice, and they're stuff that real people actually play, not just text book prototypes.

I venture to say, that of the books I'm familiar with, this is the best one out !!! Great stuff for professionals as well as folks just getting into improv... and not just for pianists !

This book has done more for the size of my jazz improvisation vocabulary than I could have dreamed. The fact that I can look through the pages to find a fitting run for a specific chord has been a source of endless help. Brilliant for beginners and advanced players who are interested in expanding their horizons. A great book from a great pianist.

If you are an aspiring student of jazz, you can not do without this book. Though not an especially voluminous publication, it is densely crammed with countless ideas.

Improvisation in the purest sense should come from the wellsprings of the artist's soul- but let's face it, some days are better than others! Rather than painstakingly reinventing the wheel, pick this one up- you will not regret doing so. It should keep you busy for years to come- especially once you begin to combine these wonderful musical quotes, extensions, etc, with your own. They can be applied to just about any standard and with enough perseverence you will elevate your playing and performing by quantum leaps.

Worth every penny- thank you Mr. Laverne! Again, Thank You!

This is another one of those books that takes a handful of runs, spaces them out on the pages, and then has them transposed into all 12 keys, effectively making maybe a 15 page book into a deceptively large resource of lines. Furthermore, many of the 'lines' are only around two bars and are completely unusable in any real life situation...meaning they are trite, boring, and melodically retarded. Yes, there are some hip and contemporary runs, but nothing you can't find from transcribing 30 seconds of Bill Evans or Herbie Hancock. We're talking maybe a dozen two bar phrases worth using.

After reading the author's bio, I hate to say that this looks like another quick money-making book lacking real substance. I wonder his true motivations for authoring this nonsense?

I've worked through many of the similar recommended books and have to say this is EXTREMELY WEAK. For lines try a Mintzer book or straight artist transcriptions...you'll get more from one page of a Sonny Rollins book than this entire spiral bound waste.

It's only redeming value is using it for reading exercises and fingerings. Anyone who follows contemporary jazz or bebop will realize in the first few pages that this book is mostly garbage. I worked through the entire book literally in one sitting and found nothing unique or useful, and can't imagine that any player intermediate or higher in level would be impressed with its content. Sorry to be the barn burner!

3 out of 5 is generous...only because I respect the author's relationship to Bill Evan's and contributions to jazz education.

The only reason for the "but" is that I think a lot of people buy these books thinking that they can quickly and easily transform their playing--and the language that the marketers use encourages that delusion. Serious musicians know that there is no quick and easy way to transform your playing.

Having said all that, let me hasten to add that this particular book is a lot more useful than most. If you have the self-discipline to sit and WORK with this book, and if you are in a band or bands that provide you with opportunities to play with others, you will become a more fluent improviser. (If you're not in a band, get in one, even if you feel like you aren't ready. It's the only way you'll learn to play this music, and for most of us, it's the only way to get deep satisfaction as a musician.)

This book is an excellent resource in the art of jazz improvisation. It provides the opportunity for the jazz musician to increase their vocabulary of runs over various chords and chord progressions. Highly recommended!

One reviewer said that there weren't too many runs contained in the book, and goes on to speculate on LaVerne's motives for putting the book out. I can only guess that that reviewer is the author or publisher of a competitive book.

"Tons of Runs" does deliver tons of runs. If you are a jazz player with less than a decade or two of serious woodshedding under your belt, you will find new things to add to your vocabulary. It starts off with one-bar dominant fragments, progressing through major sounds (^, 6, etc), and finally gets to the big, impressive ii V I licks toward the end.

There is a great wealth of vocabulary to be gained in this book. I think the size of the fragments is perfect; the author seems to have a clear idea of how much constitutes a neat melodic idea without becoming too elaborate. Where most lick books contain the kind of stuff that you learn and then wait for the opportunity to play, and transcriptions leave you wondering how to use your favorite player's dialect in your own playing, "Tons of Runs" is really teaching you a lot of jazz "words" that you can use as you please. This book has helped me as much as any other book on the jazz language.

I play guitar, and the notation presents no conflicts for me. Most of the examples are treble clef only, and they are written in the middle of the staff, usually in 3 keys each. Most runs don't even have any double-stops, so this book is really suitable for anyone who can read treble clef.

Run books are what they are. This one covers multiple difficulty levels, so some runs will disappoint experienced players, and while others will daunt beginners. Although I like the use of chapters, I wish the book went one level deeper with its categories. To digest the material, I skip around, mostly through the lengthy first chapter, with pencil in hand and assign runs to my own categories such as "blues", "ascending pentatonic sequence", "descending diminished sequence" and "ascending augmented sequence". It would help beginners if the book described a technique, such as a diminished sequence, and then gave examples of runs using that technique in order of increasing complexity/difficulty, like Bert Ligon does in his books. Armed with the concepts, a beginner could then study examples, embellish them, and use that knowledge to create original material. Then again, being forced to categorize techniques myself saved me from my own laziness. The material is usually generic, which befits this kind of book. Quirky examples would be better suited to books devoted to specific artists/periods/sub-genres. For usable material, truth-in-advertising, helpful (but not perfect) organization, and value, this book gets my recommendation.

Just when I was thinking, not another LICK BOOK! Andy Laverne has actually surpassed most other works in this category, as he organizes the book in a quick reference fashion. I keep finding myself turning back to it if I'm desperate for some ideas. You can take one "run" and usually create about 5 more if you're creative enough ;)

These "runs" are just short phrases that any serious jazz musician already knows, or can easily conceive on his/her own. For a beginning jazz improviser this book will be helpful, but for any experienced player the material is uninspiring. They do provide good material for sight-reading. Much of the language is simplistic so if you are looking to expand your harmonic knowledge this book will not help you. I would (and have) recommended this book for my students.