". . . an impressive work . . . an extremely valuable compendium for the aspiring jazz pianist."

Dave Frank, Associate Professor of Piano, Berklee
author of JOY OF IMPROV (Hal Leonard)		  
 
 

PRESENTATION:

  
 
contents
  

Have you ever listened to jazz piano and wondered:
how did that hip, audacious sound get into the chords? What kinds of chords do the professional players use? How does F# get into a C major chord? How to pep up a lame and tame sounding diminished chord?

For all those who want to put more sophistication into their piano voicings, this book:
a text-book, handbook and reference book all in one, shows the way. It lists hundreds of examples of how to voice in jazzy ways the various harmonic chord categories:
major, minor, dominant-seventh, half-diminished, diminished and whole-tone.

It presents voicings configurations such as tertial, quartal, quintal, tritone/fourths, SoWhat voicings, "pentatonic", rootless, cluster, open-position and polychords. _

It shows how to string along the voicings in II ­ V ­ I and in III ­ VI ­ II ­ V ­ I cadences with elegance and economy of movement, as well as in special non-cycle cadences.

It addresses harmonic devices such as chord substitution, voice leading, reharmonization, diminution and insertion, cross over into new harmony.

It shows how to incorporate color tones into the chords for an "outside" sound.

For the rules and tools with which to create spicey voicings the book reviews fundamentals of jazz harmony in a clear, concise manner, condensing in Part One an amount of material for which otherwise several volumes would have to be consulted. Part Three applies modern voicings to the blues. There are fifteen 12-bar blues scores including minor and be-bop ("Parker") blues.


The book has 138 pages in letter-size format 8 x 11 inches printed single-space on both sides. It is lie-flat, spiral bound between plain soft covers.
It contains well over 600 sets of music examples, all referenced in the text right next to them.

The voicings in this book conform to several or all of these criteria:
- they sound good,
- they fit smoothly into the chord progression connecting well with preceding and following voicings,
- they have proven shapes for accommodating the hands,
- they are time-honored by tradition, the jazz idiom and jazz styles,
- good jazz pianists have played them.


This book will enrich your playing.








CONTENTS:

  
 
presentation
  

THE PURPOSE OF THIS BOOK ...

1 HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

2 SYMBOLS USED IN THIS BOOK

3 TERMINOLOGY

PART ONE: How to Construct and Use Chords

1. MODES
2. CHORD TYPES
2.1 according to their harmonic function
2.2 according to their structural configuration
Voice Dropping
2.2.1 Upper Structure Chords
2.2.2 Quartal Chords
2.2.3 Tritone/4th Chords
2.2.4 Quintal Chords
2.2.5 "Pentatonic" Chords
3. CHORD SUBSTITUTION
4. CHORD PROGRESSIONS
4.1 The II­ V7 I Progression
4.1.1 Diminution and insertion
4.1.2 Cross over into other keys or harmonies
4.2 V of V
4.3 The I VI7 Pattern
4.4 Other chord patterns
4.5 Voice leading

PART TWO: Voicings Thesaurus

Contents:
1. Tonic
2. Minor seventh
3. Dominant seventh
4. Half-diminished
5. Diminished
6. II V 7 I progressions
7. V of V progressions
8. III VI II V progressions
9. I VI7 progression

PART THREE

Voicing the Blues

Appendix 1: Modes of the major scale

Appendix 2: Modes of the melodic minor scale