Contemporary Jazz Piano The Complete Guide with Online Audio! (Hal Leonard Keyboard Style) Paperback – March 1, 2010

Here is another winner by Mark Harrison. I do not know how Mark keeps producing such fine quality and thorough books for musicians to hone their skills, but this is yet another great edition. The book contains 92 tracks associated with his CD and very thorough reviews of the theory and practice sets for 78 pages devoted to theory, practice, and comping. Pages 79 thru 101 are the Chapter 6 Style File, seven tunes written in different contemporary jazz styles. They are a mixture of comping, melody treatment, and improvised solo sections.I think Mark's book(s) would have been very suitable in the music performance classes at our junior colleges in the Phoenix area where I received technical training on piano. I am going to keep his CD in one of my drives at all times in order to continuously hone-up on my touch and perception.Here are major sections of the book:Scales and Chords(Major scales and modes; Pentatonic and Blues scales; Natural and Melodic Minor Scales; Triads and Suspensions; 7th four-part chords and alterations; 9th five part chords and alterations)Contemporary Jazz Keyboard Harmony and Voicings(Voicing concepts; Major and minor triad inversions; Triad-Over-Root chord voicings; Mixolydian 3rd intervals and patterns; Mixolydian Triads and Patterns; Dorian Triads and Patterns; Left-hand open-triad arpeggios; Pentatonic Scale Fills and Use Over chords; four-part chord inversions; four-part-over-root chord voicings; seven-three extended chord voicings; double 4th/cluster shapes and chord voicings; polychord voicings)Contemporary Jazz Comping Styles(Rhythmic concepts; jazz-funk; pop-jazz; smooth jazz; ECM-style jazz; New Age jazz; Acid jazz; Nu jazz (Jazztronica))Contemporary Jazz Soloing Techniques(Target note and scale source concepts; Soloing Styles of: Herbie Hancock; Russell Ferrante; David Benoit; Joe Sample; Keiko Matsui)Style File7 pieces of different styles to conclude the lessons.

This is another great teaching book from Mark Harrison. The examples sound like they come straight from the radio and are not too difficult to play. As usual Mark, explains the examples bar by bar. However, unlike his other books, he leaves out the rhythmic analysis, and concentrates almost exclusively on the the chord voicings, possibly because the examples are fairly straight forward, and it is easy to hear the beats. His analysis is very detailed on the how and why of each and every chord. It is very heavy on chord theory, without Mark's usual remarks on rhythmic anticipations. Rhythm is covered in general, but not in as much detail as in his other books. So I would say that if you are looking for a book on contemporary jazz chord theory, this is your book. However, if you are buying your first Mark Harrison book and want something a little less dry, start with the Smooth Jazz or the Jazz-Blues book. Of course, Mark's Pop Piano book is foundational for all his offerings. So get that, too.

Like all of Mark Harrison's books, this book fully explains the jazz chord progressions, substitutions and rhythms. There are two ways of looking at learning Jazz. One way is to just play and another way is to do a systematic progression of understanding how and what to play. I have not been gifted or talented enough to just sit down and play jazz. I'm one that likes to know what I'm playing and why. Like any music book, be prepared to do a lot of practicing. The book will ask the player to implement technic skills such as jazz rhythms and fluid jazz runs with grace notes. The book comes with a cd so the player can compare his/her performance against the performance on the cd. This is not a book that will teach you to do jazz in one day. It is a book that will explain jazz, jazz comping styles, harmony, voicings, rhythmic varieties, and solo techniques. This book would be for the advanced keyboardist.

Very helpful. I am a beginner to intermediate student of jazz piano.

I have several other books by Mark Harrison and truly enjoy his latest offering.I have been looking for a book that covers this genre for a while and find the chords and voicings very helpful.Although I haven't been playing that long, I feel this book will help me get to another level.

I start play jazz with this. it is a thin book but it gets 3 month for me to finish and learn and train skills.