The Jazz Piano Book by Mark Levine Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Jazz Piano Book
Book Review: A Book of Great Quality
Summary: 5 Stars
I am a classically trained pianist who's interested in jazz piano. I find this book to be very informative and easy to understand as it starts simple. One can really know what's going on in real life when a jazz piano piece is played. One thing though, you need to work hard on the exercises before you see the results (well, what in life doesn't need you to work hard?). In a nutshell, I'm happy with the book.Book Review: A Teacher at Your Side
Summary: 5 Stars
Mark Levine's book is about as close as you can get to having a professional jazz pianist sitting next to you as you play. If you start at Chapter 1 (even if you are an advanced player) and proceed through the book, your playing will undergo enormous and beneficial changes. The pacing is perfect and Levine's examples are just great. At first, I couldn't believe a jazz book could be this good. Maybe it's a fake, I thought. So I asked a very fine pianist I know who, it turns out, knows Levine. He told me this man is someone to listen to. I have no doubt about that opinion. The amount of jazz you will learn in this book would fill years of lessons. All you need to do is to sit down, go slowly and voila, you won't believe your playing in just a few weeks. In the long term, the benefits are inestimable. I wish Levine would write another book, perhaps one on the blues or style or whatever. He could write on politics, for all I care. He just does things right!!Book Review: A Treasure
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the book I have been waiting for for many years. Levine has come up with the ultimate tool for teaching both yourself and others. It is amazing how skilful he is in proceeding progressively, building on previous chapters as he goes along. He convincingly pieces things together one by one. Following these steps you are invariably gaining competence and confidence in negotiating the piano. A bit of background knowledge in (not necessarily Jazz) harmony and scale theory on the side of the reader would be useful, but it is certainly not indispensable, since in this respect Levine takes nothing for granted, unlike many other authors who seem to relish in building up walls and talking to the initiated few exclusively. Particularly helpful are the suggested tunes to work on and the suggested recordings to listen to. They make you understand the points at issue by putting them into practice. Conversely, it is exciting to suddenly hear and understand often quite familiar compositions and solos on a different level by seeing how they "work".
The book may be a little hard, though, for beginners on the piano. The density of the material together with too many technical difficulties regarding playing would simply be overburdening. But an intermediary level of skills is perfectly sufficient, technical brilliance by no means necessary.
I should not forget to mention Levine's enthusiasm grounded on a breathtakingly complete command of the material. The pleasure he obviously has in teaching is also quite contagious. It must be wonderful to have him as a teacher.
The spiral binding is a rather good idea, since it keeps the pages in place. And the book smells alright when opened - not altogether unimportant, given that you are likely to sit in front of it for hours on end.
Book Review: A review for the Beginner
Summary: 5 Stars
My Background: I have played trombone in concert band in elementary school and high school. I could sight read for trombone. I have tinkered with the piano for years during that time. I would say no formal training in piano.
Now: After 4 years with this book I now play piano for two churches (by ear), one as a paid position the other as a volunteer. I have been playing at these churches for 2+ years. I owe a lot of where I am to the explanations, background, tips and practice suggestions in this book.
What you will need to know before being able to use this book:
* Being able to read music in both clefs (you do not necessarily need to sight-read but I'm sure it would help me).
* A decent sounding keyboard or piano to practice on
* A desire to practice (there are people who will buy this book and never practice expecting things to just enter their brains through osmosis).
This book takes you from the beginning and explains things in a concise manner. After 4 years, I have probably covered about 25% of this book in terms of things that I have internalized. The covers have ripped off because I use it so much. Things I am practicing right now:
* Upper structures
* 4th Chords
* Left hand voicings
* Chord substitutions
The best thing about this book for me, is that it has shown me how to interpret music that I see and chords that more advanced musicians play. For example, once you realize that a IV chord is so similar to a I chord (with the exception of the 4ths), then you realize that you can approach a IV chord just like you would a I chord by imitating a ii-V7-I. This would mean approaching the chord by playing a minor V, a dominant I and then IV. After buying the book and reading it, you will understand what I just wrote and also realize the beauty of that movement to spice up your older hymns (which have tons of IV chords with nothing to help you move to them).
If you are a hard working musician with a God-given talent for music and you are interested in Jazz Piano, I would advise you to purchase this book. Get a "Real Book" (search on Amazon) to help you along (I got one recently and realized that it would have helped a lot more if I knew this)
Things that made this book a great buy for me:
* Scale Theory
* Scale fingerings and how to practice scales (differs from classical practice and helps with improving)
* Adding notes to 3 note voicings
* Chord substitutions (Tritone substitution, phrygian chords, upper structures for Dominant chords)... these always impress people and are explained simply in this book.
And I'm not even done working on the other stuff.
Now, I need to learn how to sight-read.
Book Review: A supplication for mercy!
Summary: 5 Stars
TEN MINUTES AFTER I BOUGHT THIS ITEM I REALIZED THAT THIS BOOK IS ALSO PRINTED
IN SPANISH, SO I HURRIED TO SEARCH MY ACCOUNT AND JUST CHANGE THE LANGUAGE BUT -
I SAW THAT YOU DIDN'T ALLOW IT ??? I FELT VERY SAD BY THIS ADVICE, AND AS YOU --
CAN NOTICE I AM A REGULAR CUSTOMER. I WAS DESPERATED SO I BOUGHT ANOTHER ITEM OF
THE SAME BOOK BUT IN SPANISH. I WOULD ASK IF YOU COULD BE SO KIND AS TO CANCEL -
THE ENGLISH ITEM? O HOW CAN YOU HELP ME? THANKS A LOT FOR YOUR UNDERSTANDING.
ADRIAN H.P.