Book Review: Beginning Jazz Keyboard

In my music library, I own Noah Baerman's book,

Complete Jazz Keyboard Method: Beginning Jazz Keyboard
It's The Complete Jazz Keyboard Method with CD for:

• Beginning
• Intermediate
• Mastering

Here's a little blurb from Amazon:

"Anyone with basic keyboard skills (equivalent to Alfred's Basic Piano, Lesson Book 2) can dig right in and begin learning jazz right away. Spanning from the major scale and basic triad theory all the way through 7th chords, pentatonic scales and modulating chord progressions, this book features a full etude or tune demonstrating every new concept introduced. Beginning Jazz keyboard breaks the age-old tradition of dry, intimidating and confusing jazz books, and provides an actual step-by-step and enjoyable method for learning to play in this style. The CD demonstrates examples and offers opportunity to play along."

It's a great resource and what I like about this book is that it takes you to some exotic chords,
instead of the regular major/minor chords. I think you'll like this one and the price is good.

 On my other blog, that is mostly for Jazz songs, I posted a favorite of mine,
Bouncin' With Bill E.  You can find the music chord chart at Bouncin with Bill. But today I
wanted to talk a little bit about shell voicings.

Some chord tones are more important than others. Let's take a look at the 3 most
common 7th chords (major, minor and dominant) from a root of D.

D Maj, which is DF#AC# played together.
D7, the notes in the chord are DF#AC.
Dmin7 chord has the notes, DFAC.

We know the root is important since that is what defines the chord. the 3rd and 7th
are not the same from chord to chord, so we need those to determine the chord quality.
The 5th is another story. The major, minor and dominant 7th chords all have perfect 5ths.
That means three chords are being played.

To play shell voicings, we use the same concept we've been using but leave out the 5th
of each chord; the roots go in the left hand and the right hand takes the 3rds and 7ths.
If the melody note is the 3rd or 7th of a chord, we have three-note chords; if not, we add
the melody note on top and have a four note chord. This is a very sparse, compact way to
voice chords without losing the character of the changes.

Play this I-vi-ii-V-I in G Major.

(I) GMaj7 =  (root) G/F#B (7th and 3th)

(vi) Emin7 = (root) E/DG (7th and 3th)

(ii) Amin7 = (root) A/CG (3th and 7th)

(V) D7 = (root) D/CF# (7th and 3th)

(I) GMaj7 = (root) G/BF# (3th and 7th

These voicings just get easier on the hands. In the above example, the
right hand barely has to move at all. This ease in voice leading is common
with shell voicings whenever the roots are moving down in 5ths (or up in 4ths).
In these cases, the most you'll have to move to get from the 7th of one chord to
the 3rd of the next is a whole step, sometimes only a half step. To get from the
3rd of one chord to the 7th of the next, you often need only to repeat the same note!

GMaj7 = G/F#B (7th and 3th)

Emin7 = (5th) E/DG (7th and 3th)

Amin7 = (4th) A/CG (3th and 7th)

D7 = (5th) D/CF# (7th and 3th)

GMaj7 = G/BF# (3th and 7th)

If you like Jazz, then consider looking into these dvd courses from HearandPlay:

Jazz101  and  Jazz201

Thanks to many of you that have asked about shell voicings. You can learn so much about
Jazz from Willie Myette and James Wurbel. Look them up on YouTube... some great stuff!

Warmly,





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

Friday Freebies: Piano Apps and More

Photo credit and permission: Color The Egg Puzzle, Susan Paradis

One of my favorite online music teachers for children, who has beginner piano students, is Susan Paradis. Her site is loaded with free songs and lots of music resources. You'll find games, puzzles and Easter Bunny Keys to color (print out) and she recently posted an Easter Bunny Song.

I usually use these books, Bastien Primer Level Lesson and Theory Books and start students in C Position before I move on to thumbs sharing in Middle C Position.

Bastien Piano Basics: Piano Primer Level (Primer Level, WP 200)

Free sheet music download, Take Me Home (Sweet Sunny South) is available at http://www.musicnotes.com I played the song and it sounds just like At The Cross.

You'll want to check out this new piano app for your iPad. It's called Joy Tunes Piano Dust Buster and is free in the App Store. It includes 23 songs in all. The first few, such as "Mary's Little Lamb" and "Frere Jacques," can be played immediately. As players progress, they unlock access to more advanced pieces, including "Ode to Joy" and "La Bamba."

In the basic version, with an on-screen touch keyboard, you swat at little creatures as they descend by playing the piano key on which they are about to land. In a more advanced version, you smack the critters when they slide along as notes on the music staff, so you get a sense of where A4 or D#5 is in music notation, for example.

For more advanced play, you can use the "Real Piano" mode, in which the app acts as an accompaniment to an actual piano or electric keyboard. The invaders still drop toward the notes or slide along the staff. But you play on the real keyboard, and the app uses the iPad's microphone to recognize whether you have played the right note.

I use this app with my piano students and it's fun... just get past the name. Kind of crazy but this new technology that we have, especially with the iPad3, is sensational. Steve Jobs was so revolutionary and I'm very thankful.

Although this app isn't free, I think it's a great investment of $.99 for every student and teacher to have. You'll love it! It's called Flashnote Derby. Another app for $.99 that I use with my iPad is
Pluto Learns Piano.

Best wishes and much continued success with your piano practice!







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

How To Play He Is Exalted

Cover of He Is Exalted

Back in 1985 when I was playing on worship teams, a favorite song we did 

by Twila Paris called, He Is Exalted, was a favorite. It can be played and 

easily sung in many different keys to fit your voice range. My favorite key on

this one is Ab. It's fun to play on the black keys! Here are the chord charts:

He Is Exalted (Key of Ab)

Ab                                Db/Ab                 Eb/Ab
He is exalted the King is exalted on high, I will praise Him

Ab                                Bbm7  Cm7 Dbsus2   Eb/G   F
He is exalted forever exalted and I  will   praise His name


Bbm7 Ab   Eb/G      Ab        Bm7       Dbsus2 Ab/C
He is the Lord, forever His truth shall reign

Bbm7 Ab   Eb/G        Ab               Db Ab/C
Heaven and earth,  rejoice in His holy name

Bbm7      Db/Ab   Eb/G               Ab
He is exalted the King is exalted on high

Music Chord Breakdown:

Ab = play AbEb/CAb (left hand/right hand)

Db/Ab = Ab/AbDbF 

Eb/Ab = Ab/BbEbG

Bbm7 = Bb/AbDbF

Cm7 = C/BbEbG

Dbsus2 = Db/DbEbAb

Eb/G = G/BbEbBb

F = F/FC

Ab/C = C/CEbAb

Db = Db/AbDbF