Books
Throughout the many years of teaching jazz piano students, I created and accumulated a vast amount of material on various topics related to jazz, jazz piano, piano technique, and music theory for my students. A few of these were on the topic of the diminished scale, and the various melodic and harmonic applications that the scale offered. The handouts were revised over the years, and some of them grew larger and larger. At some point, I began to notice just how much harmonic content the scale embodied and decided that it was more than enough to make the subject of a large treatise. Hence, Diminished Scale Harmony. (110 pages)
To view or download a PDF of Chapter Four (Chord /Scale Relationships) from the book, click here.
PDF/eBook: $21.99
While I was a doctoral student at New York University, I began to work on arranging standards using cluster voicings for a solo piano recital. I came across an interesting and effective technique to use to harmonize a melody with the right hand that freed up the left hand to play a bass line and support the right hand with additional chord tones. A small collection of arrangements was the result. Many years later, I began to refine and apply the technique to other tunes and formulate my thoughts and ideas about the approach that I was using. The result is this book. (75 pages)
To view or download a PDF of Chapter One (Introduction) from the book, click here. To listen to an arrangement of “I Thought About You” from the book, click here. Purchase includes MP3 audio files of all ten arrangements in the book.
PDF/eBook: $21.99
As Bill Evans, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, and McCoy Tyner ushered in the era of modern jazz piano, jazz harmony underwent a remarkable transformation. Not only did the content (the actual chord voicings) change, but the context (the way that the voicings were used and the forms within which they appeared) was also dramatically altered. The quartal voicing was born. This book is a look at the use of quartal voicings. The book introduces various approaches to mastery and explains, in part, the functional use of quartal voicings in the left hand. It includes quartal voicing arrangements of ten well-known standards. (50 Pages)
To view or download a PDF of Chapter One (Introduction) from the book, click here. To listen to an arrangement of “Stella by Starlight” from the book, click here. Purchase includes MP3 audio files of all ten arrangements in the book.
PDF/eBook: $18.99
The Virtuoso Jazz Pianist is a comprehensive collection of exercises designed for developing the technique that jazz piano requires. While technical ability at the piano can always be achieved through the study of classical works—complete compositions written specifically for the piano, the harmonic and melodic vocabulary of jazz, along with the improvisational demands of the idiom, call for a different approach. These include a mastery of scales, embellishments, arpeggios and chord voicings, and other keyboard expressions commonly used in jazz that are unavailable in the study of traditional literature. Contents Include basic technical exercises, scales, arpeggios, melodic and harmonic intervals, embellishments, chromatic and pentatonic scale studies, chord voicing studies, and much more. (167 Pages)
To see two pages from the book click here (pages 107 and 108). To listen to these two pages click here.
PDF/eBook: $21.99
The Bud Powell Real Book is a collection of 44 compositions written by the great jazz pianist, Bud Powell. These works, representing almost all of Bud Powell’s original music, have been painstakingly transcribed from the pianist/composer’s recordings, and arranged in lead sheet format. Some of the features include chord substitutions during the head and improvised sections and separate solo section chord changes when the chords used for improvisation differ from those used with the melody. In cases where the chord voicings used are a critical part of the arrangement, these are included. Presently, there are no similar texts available. A book of Powell’s jazz compositions is an idea whose time has come and is long overdue. (80 pages) Two Bud Powell compositions that are not in the original book are included as two separate PDFs: “Bud’s Bubble” and “Buttercup.”
To see a page from the book, click here. Available from Amazon or Hal Leonard Music Publishing for $19.99. www.halleonard.com A PDF is available here for 11.99
Melodic embellishment is the use of tones outside of a chord to decorate and ornament chord tones. It is an essential and perhaps the most important component of improvised jazz melody. In their improvised solos, improvisers interpret chord progressions by playing notes that suggest, move around, point toward, highlight, or resolve to the notes of each chord. The tones that are used to embellish a chord, often referred to as non-chord tones, are generally more dissonant and less stable in relation to the chord tones being ornamented. The principle of tension and resolution, accordingly, is almost always involved. These studies are an attempt to acquaint the improviser with this principle and its application through the embellishment of a number of chords, scales, and chord progressions that regularly appear in jazz. (175 pages). Purchase Includes MIDI files.
To see a page from the book (p. 65) click here. To listen to this page click here. Hard copies of the book are available in two volumes from Charles Colin. (845) 680-6880
PDF/eBook: $24.99
The Artistry of George Shearing includes eleven solo piano performances, all taken from Shearing’s incredible 1990 recording Piano (Concord Jazz CCD-4400). The tunes include originals by Shearing, including “Children’s Waltz” and “Wendy,” and nine other well-known standards: “For You,” “Happiness is a Thing Called Joe,” “It Had to Be You,” “It’s You Or No One,” “John O’Groats,” “Miss Invisible,” “Thinking of You,” “Waltz for Claudia,” and “You’re My Everything.” Not many of transcriptions of Shearing’s solo piano recordings have been published, and Shearing’s harmonic approach to these tunes is quite extraordinary. Chord symbols are included for all tunes. A must have for jazz pianists and serious students of jazz harmony.
Published by Alfred Publications. Available at Amazon and most music stores.
The Artistry of Bill Evans (Volume Two) contains eight note for note solo piano and trio performances. These are transcribed from four of Bill Evans most important and well-known recordings: Alone, Alone Again, Bill Evans at Town Hall (Volume One), and Portrait in Jazz. The tunes include “Autumn Leaves,” “Here’s That Rainy Day,” “I Should Care,” “Make Someone Happy,” “Spring is Here,” “The Touch of Your Lips,” “What is This Thing Called Love,” and “What Kind of Fool Am I.” Since these are complete transcriptions, the text allows jazz pianists—or any other musician seriously interested in jazz—to study Evans’ melodic and harmonic approach to these great standards. Chord symbols are included for all tunes. A must have for jazz pianists. “His book of transcriptions of the playing of Bill Evans is well done and is an invaluable reference for both performers and teachers.” —Marian McPartland
Published by Alfred Publications. Available at Amazon and most music stores.
Aspects of Harmony and Voice Leading in Four Solo Piano Performances by Clare Fischer
The study of Western music outside of jazz is at a point in its evolution where there is a substantial body of knowledge and literature describing harmony and counterpoint. The study of harmony and counterpoint in jazz, however, is still at an early stage. Using the piano music of Clare Fischer, this study addresses issues of harmony and voice leading and, less directly, related features such as counterpoint and texture. The study is organized to include discussions in a number of areas. These include an overview of harmony and voice leading in jazz, and a review of the method that is applied to transcription and analysis in the study. These are followed by analyses and discussions of aspects of harmony and voice leading in Fischer’s piano performances of ” ‘Round Midnight,” “Blues in F,” “Ill Wind,” and “The Touch of Your Lips.” (370 pages) Hard copies are available from UMI, 300 North Zeeb Rd., Ann Arbor, MI 48106-1346 800-521-0600 Order Number: 9819865
PDF/eBook: $26.00