Beginning Jazz Piano

Beginning Jazz Piano is aimed at players with little previous knowledge, but who enjoy exploring jazz-related music. Using lots of melodious pieces - his own compositions, traditional, and new melodies of well-known jazz songs - Tim Richards introduces blues, funk and Latin American music and explains the most important techniques for the right and left hand.

 

The selection of pieces is also guided by the requirements of ABRSM exams (among others), which makes this textbook an indispensable source of practicing and learning.

 

The 2 volumes have the same level of difficulty and can be used consecutively or simultaneously.

 

Volume 1 (Everything You Need To Get Started) explains, in a clear and simple way, how to play spontaneously and freely over harmonies. Starting with triads in the left hand, it explains pentatonic scales and arpeggios, as well as the blues scale, and tries them all out in specific pieces.

 

Volume 2 (Solo Piano and Accompanying)Peppered with typical rhythms and bass grooves from swing to Latin, Volume 2 (ED 23379) then whets the appetite for the piano as an accompanying instrument, and also shows how to arrange a melody in a jazz context.