(Educational Piano). Have fun learning improvisation with simple explanations and examples. This method encourages student creativity by providing ideas for composting and musical expression. Chord dexterity and ear training are developed with focused keyboard exercises. Students will develop accompaniment improvising from standard chord symbols using root position and inversions. Learning is reinforced by writing the notes for the chords and accompaniment patterns on workbook-style pages. Familiar folk songs and hymns are used to illustrate the accompaniment styles.

Designed for Music Theory courses, Music Theory Through Improvisation presents a unique approach to basic theory and musicianship training that examines the study of traditional theory through the art of improvisation. The book follows the same general progression of diatonic to non-diatonic harmony in conventional approaches, but integrates improvisation, composition, keyboard harmony, analysis, and rhythm. Conventional approaches to basic musicianship have largely been oriented toward study of common practice harmony from the Euroclassical tradition, with a heavy emphasis in four-part chorale writing. The author’s entirely new pathway places the study of harmony within improvisation and composition in stylistically diverse format, with jazz and popular music serving as important stylistic sources. Supplemental materials include a play-along audio in the downloadable resources for improvisation and a companion website with resources for students and instructors.

"The Piano Improvisation Handbook" offers a comprehensive overview of the practical skills and theoretical issues involved in mastering all forms of piano improvisation. It explores a wide range of styles, including classical, jazz, rock and blues. Whereas other books on improvisation typically offer little more than models for imitation and exercises for practising, this one adopts an approach specifically designed to encourage and enable independent creative exploration. The book contains a series of graded tutorial sections with musical examples on CD, as well as an extensive introductory section detailing the history of keyboard and piano improvisation, an appendix listing useful scales, chords, voicings and progressions across all keys, a bibliography and a discography. In addition to sections outlining how melody, harmony, rhythm, texture and form work in improvised piano music, there are sections devoted to explaining how ideas can be developed into continuous music and to exploring the process of finding a personal style. A key feature is the distinctive stress the author puts on the interconnectedness of jazz and classical music where improvisation is concerned. This book is best suited to those with at least some prior experience of learning the piano. However, the rudiments of both music theory and piano technique are covered in such a way that it can also serve as an effective basis for a self-sufficient course in creative piano playing.

This comprehensive study of harmony is a must for any musician interested in jazz. This book explains the essentials of jazz harmony in a friendly, easy-to-understand manner. A 12-key system is used to help you learn each concept in every key. Learn about rootless voicings, shell voicings, spread voicings, clusters, and how to select which voicings to use. Other topics include ii-V-I progressions, dominant chord cycles, Rhythm Changes," Giant Steps substitutions, thinking in modes, non-diatonic progressions and much more."