The Jazz Musician's Guide to Creative Practicing by David Berkman
Take a look at the "Jazz Musician's Guide to Creative Practicing"
---------------http://www.shermusic.com/berkman.htm Hope to hear any feedback.
There are 3 comments, leave a comment.
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.
Scot is available for skype jazz piano lessons (and google hangouts, phone call, etc...)
Use the contact link at the top of the page.
by Scot Ranney on 04/21/2009, 10:10
Jazz Piano Notebook Series
Volume 1 of this educational jazz piano book contains 15 jazz piano exercises, tricks, and other interesting jazz piano techniques, voicings, grooves, and ideas Scot Ranney enjoys playing.
"Latinesque"
Volume 2 has 14 jazz piano exercises and tricks of the trade, and quite a bit of it is Calypso jazz piano related material, including some Monty Alexander and Michel Camilo style grooves. Jazz piano education is through the ears, but books like this can help.
Volume 3 contains 12 jazz piano exercises and explorations by the acclaimed jazz piano educator, pianist, author, and recording artist Tim Richards.
Tim wrote the well known "Exploring Jazz Piano" and "Improvising Blues Piano" books and has several others to his name.
Volume 4 is by Jeff Brent, a jazz pianist, composer, teacher, and author of "Modalogy" and other acclaimed jazz theory and education books. In this book Jeff shares detailed analysis of transcriptions of live performances. He covers everything from the shape of the songs to the tricks and licks he uses in improvised lines to the ideas behind his lush chord voicings.
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