Book Review: The Pop Piano Book

The Pop Piano Book: A complete Method For Playing Piano 
and Keyboards In Contemporary styles by Mark Harrison.

If you are interested in popular styles, as a beginner you won't be scared off by the book because it is lots of fun to learn new things. You'll play better in the end. I'm very impressed with the material in this book.

This 498 page book will teach you licks and patterns.
The Pop Piano Book
 
Let me ask you a few questions:

1. Have you ever bought sheet music for a pop tune, only to be disappointed because you don't know how to fix it to make it snazzy? 

2. Have you ever used a Fake Book or lead sheet but not sure how to interpret the chord symbols? Perhaps you need help with voicings.

Well, the first part of the book provides basic building blocks that are necessary to play contemporary style. The second part gives you specific methods to make your own style of accompaniment patterns.

Mark Harrison is a keyboardist and you can get more information from his website, www.harrisonmusic.com

Here's a breakdown of the book.

The first ten chapters reviews:

a. Scales and chords
b. Triad inversions and voiceleading
c. Chord shapes using fourth intervals

The next eight chapters covers:

Ballad, Rock, RnB Funk, Country and Gospel.

In the back you'll find:

* Glossary terms
* Scale fingering guide for major and pentatonic scales.

Here's a simple Pop Ballad example:

Start off with a simple arpeggiated right hand against simple left hand, playing the chords using half notes on each chord change.

C/EGC to G/DGB, then F/FAC to C/CEG

C/EG to G/DG, then F/FA to C/EG,  G/CF (F/G)

CC/DEG to G/BD , F/FA to C/EGC, B/GBD (G/B)

A/EGCE (Am7)
G/DABD (G)
F/CFAC
C/DEG
E/CEGC (C/E)
F/CC
G/BDGB
F/FAC
C/EGC
AE/CEA (Am7)
GD/BDG
FC/ACF
CG/GCE
EC/EGC (C/E)
FC/FAC (F)
GD/DGB
F/FA
C/EGC

 HearandPlay offers a great music theory book for learning progressions in playing by ear, The 300 page course book.

Hope you're making practice time a habit! Do you have a favorite book on keyboard instruction?

Until next time,






"The beautiful thing about learning is that no one can take it away from you." B.B.King

Friday Freebie: Music Fonts

I am always looking for free graphics or fonts for my kindergarten and piano student monthly newsletters. While browsing online, I cam across some of these cool features. Perhaps you can find a use for them in your music studies.

 LD Music Font (Free Download)

The delightful LD font features some musical-symbol-likeness, as you can see from the above example.  You could use this font for your studio newsletters and recital programs or business cards.

101 Baby Grand Font (Free Download)

 You will find that the Letters are all uppercase and the Numbers are included, too.

 All That Jazz

This is a cute piano keys font!  You'll find that there is no lowercase letters in this font but all uppercase letters.

Onpu 

 


There are uppercase and lowercase letters in this font, plus some punctuation marks.


 Tonedeaf-bb

A free font of music notes and symbols.  There are no actual letters or numbers in this font.




dtnoted

All letters in this font are uppercase, and there are no punctuation marks.

musical_symbols 

These fonts are for Pcs but I think all the other fonts are for both Mac and PC. If you know of some other cool sites, please let me know.  Happy Friday!






"The beautiful thing about learning is that no one can take it away from you." B.B.King

Video Thursday: It Don't Mean A Thing

 It Don't Mean A Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)
Words & Music by Duke Ellington, 1932
Recorded by Ella Fitzgerald, 1966

I absolutely love music from the swing era. You might be interested in an article 
by Lee Evans that I shared with readers on my other blog. I've been asked to do a 
tutorial on this song and even though I've slowed the speed down in my video, 
I'll post another video showing all these fancy chords at a later date. For now, 
here are the chord progressions to this lively song.
 

You'll find an easy version to the song here. I've posted the chord chart below.

Em           D        C           C7   B7
What good is melody, what good is mu - sic

Em           D         C           C7   B7
If it ain't possessin' something sweet?

Em           D       C            C7   B7
It ain't the melody, it ain't the mu - sic --

        Em                   D        C        C7   B7
There's something else that makes the tune complete.


   Em            B+          Em7            Em6
It don't mean a thing, if it ain't got that swing --

A7               D7               G6               C7  B7
Doo-wat doo-wat, doo-wat doo-wat, doo-wat doo-wat.

   Em            B+            Em7          Em6
It don't mean a thing, all you got to do is sing --

A7               D7               G6
Doo-wat doo-wat, doo-wat doo-wat, doo-wat doo-wat, doo-wat doo-wat.


Dm7          G7                CM7/6             CM7
It makes no diff'rence if that rhythm's sweet or hot,

Em7            A7     D7             C7   B7
Just give that rhythm ev'rything you got.


   Em            B+   Cdim   Em7   Cdim      Em6
It don't mean a thing, if it ain't got that swing --

A7               D7               G6               Gdim
Doo-wat doo-wat, doo-wat doo-wat, doo-wat doo-wat, doo-wat doo-wat,

A7               Cdim                  G6
Doo-wat doo-wat, doo-wat doo-wat, doo-waaaa.

+++++++++++++++++

Now, in the Hal Leonard Jazz Book that I recommended yesterday, 

here are the piano chords. 

Gm    Gm/F   Eb7  D7  Gm  Gm/F    Em7b5 Eb7
What good is melody, what good is mu - sic

Gm    Gm/F   Em7b5      Eb7   D7#5  Gm
If it ain't possessin' something sweet?

Gm/F         Eb7 D7  Gm Gm/F      Em7b5 Eb7
It ain't the melody, it ain't the mu - sic --

Gm      Gm/F      Em7b5     Eb7       A7/E Eb7  D7
There's something else that makes the tune complete.


   Gm                  Gm/F  Eb7    D7      Gm
It don't mean a thing, if it ain't got that swing --

C7/G               Gb7b5           Cm7/F        Bb6
Doo-wat doo-wat, doo-wat doo-wat, doo-wat doo-wat.

D7#5  Gm  Gm/F  Em7b5   Eb7    D7#5   Db7   C7
It don't mean a thing, all you got to do is sing --

C7/G             Gb7b5              Cm7/F                      Bb6
Doo-wat doo-wat, doo-wat doo-wat, doo-wat doo-wat, doo-wat doo-wat.


F#dim7   Bb7                                     Eb
It makes no diff'rence if that rhythm's sweet or hot,

F#dim7 C7      F#dim7  C7             F7   G7
Just give that rhythm ev'rything you got.


D7#5 Gm              Gm/F   Eb7    D7        Gm
It don't mean a thing, if it ain't got that swing --

C7/G             Gb7b5               Cm7/F6                Bb6 D7#5
Doo-wat doo-wat, doo-wat doo-wat, doo-wat doo-wat, doo-wat doo-wat,

C7/G               Gb7b5                Bb6
Doo-wat doo-wat, doo-wat doo-wat, doo-waaaa.


If you love jazz and have always wanted to learn this style of playing, 

you may be interested in Jazz101 and Jazz201

Warmly,

"The beautiful thing about learning is that no one can take it away from you." B.B.King