| LearnJazzPiano.com archives: The Jazz Musician's Guide to Creative Practicing by David Berkman | |
| hosea -- 03/21/2007, 22:30:46 -- #34081 | |
| http://www.shermusic.com/berkman.htm Hope to hear any feedback. | |
| goose -- 07/17/2007, 14:21:16 -- #34081 | |
| This is an excellent book. David Berkman provides loads of usable tips for what to work on in a practice session. And his list of areas that you probably need to work on will have you nodding in agreement. ("Yep, need to improve that. Oh, and that too.") In each section of the book he uses classic material as a jumping off point (blues in Bb, Body and Soul, Giant Steps, Rhythm Changes). The idea is that while other 'licks' books might 'give you fish' (as the old adage goes), he 'teaches you to fish' with one of these tunes, so you can apply the concepts to any other tune. His is also the first book I've seen to address the kind of multi-line playing favored by Brad Mehldau. He also has a nice light writing style and isn't afraid to recount his own past failures on the way to getting it together. The only issue I have with the book is the rather embarrassing number of errors. The early sections especially seem to contain a mistake on each page (typo, wrong info, or wrong layout). You can work out how most of the mistakes should actually read but it takes you out of the enjoyment of it somewhat. Mr Berkman must be pretty disappointed with that himself. In one example, a new musical example has been pasted in by hand over the printed one. And it's STILL wrong! Let's hope they get them fixed for the next edition. This book complements any other you may have. It's about HOW to practice as much as WHAT. It's nice to hear him and players like Joel Frahm playing practice excerpts on the included CD, too. And it's always nice when a 'name' player produces a book like this. In short, if you feel overwhelmed by all the possible things you could be working on (or alternatively are bored and can't think of good ways of tackling material), buy this book. | |
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