Reviews for Improvisation Method Books
RATING: 5-1/2
Shows good comping styles and good ideas for comping.
Has Chord Symbols with Music.
Could start out a little simpler, however.
All music is by Matt Dennis.
Rating: 7-1/2 (very good)
Level / Prerequisite:
Student must already be aware of key signatures and intervals.
'Chord Structure'
very good, understandable approach.
Has student playing a song soon in the book.
Broken chords, alberti bass - Good
Has student playing simple songs using chord symbols.
Cross hand arpeggios
Fill ins (L.H.) --- very good.
Drills with Major, Minor, Dim, Aug.
pg 19 starts to get difficult
starts with C,F,G,D,E,A,B, then goes into inversions.
Dominant 7ths
open position triads LH
6th Chords
Flat Chords
Songs with analysis
Summary of Chords in all 12 Keys.
9th Chords
Cm9, CMaj9, C9+5
Shows how to use 9th in RHÍ this gets a little confusing.
Suspended 4th
Major 11th chords (Dominant, Aug, Minor, Dominant 13th, Aug 11th added 13th
Bitonality.)
Pedal point.
Summary:
Good points:
Thorough explanation of chords in root position, inversions.
Pop oriented - has the student playing many songs using Chord symbols
Weak points:
Lack of emphasis on right hand improvisation
Doesn't really show how to use 9th, 11ths & 13ths.
Doens't show voicings of chords too well.
Some parts become a little confusing.
Some of the material is difficult as far as reading chord symbols.
Might be Good for children
Play-a-long Book & CD Set
Rating: 9
Level: Early Intermediate (Faber 2B)
Highly recomended by other teachers I know.
RATING: 5 OK
Good for kids.
Assumes the student already knows Major & Minor Scales.
Good for creativity.
However, method is not straight-forward.
Heavy on ostinatos & scales.
There is some mis-information which could confuse the student.
Ex. Page 4 -- A minor pentatonic
Rating: 8
Good as an introduction to the style of Jazz. Has CD with good audio
examples which are authentic to the jazz style. One thing it does not
cover is the complete vocabulary i.e. Chords, Scales etc.
RATING: 8
Explains things very well, yet it must be supplemented with listening and
probably play-a-long CDs.
Rating: 5-1/2
Good Voicings, Bad explanation, unorganized approach which could be confusing
to the student.
Advanced students could use some knowledge from this book, however.
Rating: 7
Need to review - looks good however
Good for more advanced students
Highly recommended by many people.
After reading and using this book, I feel it has good information in it
but I don't like the way it is organized. It tries to teach too much too
soon without giving the student a basic foundation first. I just don't get
along with that book too well, as a teacher.