Jazz Keyboard Harmony-Voicing Method for All Music

Phil DeGreg does a fantastic job of organizing this book. Every new chapter builds on the foundation of the previous chapter. He starts simple with shell voicings and guide tones in chapters 1 and 2, then moves on to four voice shell extensions, three note rootless voicings, and five voice shell extensions in chapters 3 4 & 5. Chapter 6 deals entirely with the "A" and "B" four note rootless voicings made famous by Bill Evans and the like. Chapter 7 deals with four note open position voicings (including, but not limited to, the commonly known Drop 2 voicings). In the later chapters Phil introduces fourth voicings, upper structures, modal fourths etc., but it's safe to say any pianist who can master up to Chapter 6 will be able to play with ease through ANY jazz tune in ANY key with good solid jazz voicings.Within every chapter, the materials are arranged the same systematic way - Major II-V-I exercises, Minor II-V-Is, then dominant cycles, major cycles, and diminished/tritone subs, then turnarounds/secondary exercises. Phil also provides 4 tunes, and at the end of every chapter, the same 4 tunes are reharmonized using the materials taught in that particular chapter (get ready for some really sophisticated and crazy jazz harmony!). I really like the consistency in the approach for every chapter - everything is laid out for the student, with no "holes" in understanding or illustration. There is a play-a-long CD too.The closest book I can think of to this is Mark Levine's "The Drop 2 Book", which actually deals with Chapter 7 of Phil's book. Mark has written some wonderful books ("The Jazz Piano Book" in particular is a jazz education masterpiece), but Phil's book organizes these practice materials for jazz keyboard voicings in a way that no one has. I highly recommend this book to any keyboardist wishing to develop a sound jazz harmony vocabulary.

This book was extremely helpful for me as a non-pianist. In fact, when I was studying jazz in grad school and wasn't able to schedule private piano lessons, this helped me in several areas. For one thing, you learn a lot of very useful piano voicings. But here, unlike other jazz piano texts, you have a very, very methodical approach. There are other great books for piano and theory in general, but this is exceptional for its structure. Because everything is carefully mapped out, you start at square one, and you add in new altered notes and extensions in a clear, logical way. So, it was fantastic for ear-training as well. Its a great way to work on fundamentals. Virtually everything is written out in all 12 keys. Obviously, there is standard music notation, but additionally, there are diagrams that show how the voice-leading works for each voicing, fingerings, etc etc etc. The format is clear, and there is an included CD that allows you to hear the exercises or practice along with accompaniment.

I have a pile of Jazz theory books. None of them made much sense to me.Then I met a Jazz Piano mentor Tamir Hendelman who suggested that I get this and do practice this every day.The book introduces you various chord voicing forms from easy to more difficult starting with II-V-I sequence. The voicing practices have very logical consistent patterns and clear explanations,. The practice CD plays the backing for almost all of the progressions in the book so it won't be cut and dry theory book. You actually practice the progression and sample songs with the real Jazz situations. Even if you do not read music quickly, this will help significantly using the pattern diagrams and chord symbols and along the way, will end up helping grasp reading music too.This is the best book ever recommended for voicing. I think you will agree.

Dense in the amount of content, really gives the scoop for someone who is relatively a jazz beginner. Good luck, you can spend a year really working through it and learning the skills.

Excellent, step by step approach. Great play along resources and practice structure. Highly recommended for jazz or commercial keyboard classes.

I had a copy of the original version of this before it was published, and I'm so thankful it's now published. I've purchased copies for myself, my son, and another piano player who was interested. We all love the book. Very easy to follow, and expands your knowledge of voicings quickly and clearly.

I used this book for a keyboarding class I took in college and I found it to be a great learning tool. The material progresses in a way that makes it easier to learn and understand when compared to other books.

Excellent for the horn player hoping to learn piano. It came recommended to my teacher by Tamir Hendleman.

I've been playing the piano for years and this book would probably be quite good if you had the patience to go through all the exercises!. It says at the beginning that it's a book for people who have little or no piano facility but I think it would be way too advanced for a beginner - or at least you would have to be a fairly gifted beginner.It teaches the more traditional 'harmonic' type of jazz as opposed to modal jazz which I think is good because it's not as confusing as some other books which switch between different styles and there are some nice piano voicings to learn.

Nothing to dislike about this book, I didn't think it offered anymore information than existing volumes but would be ideal if you're starting out on a musical instrument. A useful purchase.

This is a superb resource for learning piano jazz voicings. To play jazz piano you need to know not just chord structures but how to voice those chords and combine them into a smoothly flowing whole. This book supplies that knowledge, and a wealth of material to study and practise - and you do need to practise hard and regularly to get the most out of it. I'm a very mediocre pianist, but after only a couple of weeks, I find that, in playing through pieces I'm learning, the chords are beginning to fall naturally under my fingers - it's magic! If, like me, you have a fair bit of pianistic ability and theoretical knowledge but have trouble putting it into practice, this is the book for you.

This is the #1 book for learning jazz piano chords.

Perfect book for starters. Lots of practising routines on almost every kind of voicings. It helps a lot in memorizing and finding hands position on the keyboard.Thank you Mr. Degreg!!