| LearnJazzPiano.com archives: Frank Mantooth - Voicings | |
| Scot -- 10/12/2004, 00:35:30 -- #7942 | |
| Review by thelonius -- 04/26/2004 Voicings deals (as its title suggests) with chord voicings (for keyboard) and with comping. Because its information is highly concentrated it will require quite hard, close study, but I think that it more than repays such effort. The kind of voicings it teaches are contemporary, quartal-based sounds (you won't find any Teddy Wilson-style stuff, great as he was!). Official Plug: "A respected soloist, clinician and writer, Mantooth has written this book for any keyboard player interested in developing better jazz chord voicing. Written more as a 'how-to' book than a textbook, Voicings will make a valuable addition to the library of any performer, arranger, teacher or jazz theorist." | |
| Barry -- 10/12/2004, 02:21:25 -- #7953 | |
| This is a good book for anyone wanting to exand their range of voicings. The main kinds of voicing covered are; Quartal or Fourth Voicings 'So What' voicings (Referred to as a 'miracle voicing' in this book) Polychord voicings for altered dominants Voicings for diminished and half-diminished chords This book is more than just lists of voicings. Each type of voicing is fully explained and there are examples and exercises to do throughout. There are also sections on tritone substitutions and 1/2 step preparation, voicings for blues, melodic voice leading and some worked examples of voicings for standard tunes. This book is ideal for anyone who has got a grasp of building chords by stacking thirds and now wants to develop a hipper sound for their comping. The information is well presented and explained and although the book looks relatively thin, there is enough material in here to keep the developing pianist going for ages. If you were to assimilate all the information in 'Voicings', you would have a powerful array of modern-sounding voicings that you can use in almost any situation. This book doesn't cover every voicing in the world - there are other books that are more comprehensive - but it does give you at least one hip voicing option for almost every kind of chord you will come across and the information is structured and presented in a way that makes the assimilation of these voicings both logical and attainable. Barry. | |
| comrade c -- 10/16/2004, 00:49:29 -- #8091 | |
| Frank is a great guy and he himself handed me this book. Totally changed the way I approached voicings and way to approach them through logical and comprehensable steps. The main thing of the book is moving from what he calls "ye old voicing" (consisting of triads) to a new, hip sound using quartals. Would definately recommend this book. | |
| sid -- 10/17/2004, 12:12:42 -- #8125 | |
| As I mentioned in an earlier post, Frank Mantooth died earlier this year. I suppose it's some kind of comfort that it's possible to live on through the music. sid | |
| Scot -- 10/17/2004, 13:33:48 -- #8126 | |
| Question: does this book help solve the mysteries of voicings to use on melodic lines (harmonizing melodies), alternative approaches to tonics and such, and things like that? Or is it mostly a book on how to expand the voicings you already use? | |
| comrade c -- 10/17/2004, 23:15:48 -- #8129 | |
| sid: i didn't hear about that but it saddens me deeply. when I started out i had the pleasure of sitting down with him at a clinic and he showed me first hand what the book aims to teach. scot: it definately does. An example si how he looks at how a certain voicing, can have alternative harmonic functions. So for example: AD / GCE Strong Major (Fmaj9) Weak Major (C13) Minor (A) Sus (D) Lydian (Bb). Greatly saddens me hearing of his passing, but I hope he is now in a better place jamming with the greats. | |
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