About the Book
Exploring chords, scales, voicings, progressions, style, function, and improvisation, this is a comprehensive approach for serious students of jazz piano. In this clearly written instructional text, Charles Austin draws on nearly fifty years of experience as a professional jazz pianist and thirty as a college instructor guiding hundreds of students in the fundamentals of jazz piano.
Of special interest is the in-depth treatment of source scales and harmonic function, invaluable to both students and professionals. Interspersed throughout with exercises and practice suggestions, the book is a complete guide to learning jazz piano and harmony for intermediate to advanced students. It is also a comprehensive resource for professionals, with thorough presentations of chords, source scales, slash chords, harmonic function, polychords, and more.
Table of Contents
- The Keyboard: Interval Building Blocks
- Intervals from the Major Scale: The First Source Scale
- Inversions of Intervals
- Compound Intervals
- Key Signatures Outlined
- Simple and Compound Intervals in Major Keys
- The Solfege System and Directional Tendencies of Scale Tones
- Common Intervalic Sequences
- The Remaining Source Scales/Sequences
- Intervals in Sequence (cont.): A Matrix
- Triads
- Open Voiced Triads
- Triadic Harmony in Popular Tune Style
- Voicing Melody in the Right Hand
- 7th Chords
- Chord Voicing Part I: An Integrated Left Hand 7th Chord Voicing Approach — A Stride and Shell Technique
- Harmonic Function - Part I: Tonic, Dominant, and Subdominant
- The Major Scale, Modes, Scale-Tone 7th Chords, and Basic Improvisation
- Improvising on Chord Changes: Phrasing and Guide Tones
- Chord Qualities/Extensions in Chord Symbols and 7th-Chord-Tone Extension-Substitution Voicing Solutions
- Chord Voicing Part II: An Integrated Left Hand Chord Voicing Approach — Guide Tones and Extensions
- Source Scales and Scale-Tone Intervals
- Source Scale Construction and Tetrachords
- Source Scales and Scale Tone Chords, Part I: Diatonic Scales
- Source Scales and Scale Tone Chords, Part II: The Symmetrical Scales — Diminished and Whole-Tone Scales
- Scale/Chord Source-Scale Overview
- Secondary Dominants: Preserving a Sense of Key
- Secondary Dominants: Function, Source Scales, Modal Borrowing and Associated Keys
- Secondary Dominants and The Emergence of Dominant Substitution: Tritone Substitution and SubV7
- Secondary Dominants and Improvisation
- Secondary Dominants and Related ii Chord/Scales: Conserving the Key
- Secondary Dominants and Inside to Outside Scale Choices
- SubV7 (Tritone—SubV7), Secondary SubV7, and Related II
- Harmonic Function Part II: bVIIMa7 Subdominant, Subdominant Minor, and Modal Borrowing (part II)
- Harmonic Function Part III:Tonic Minor Chord/Scales and Minor ii—V
- Harmonic Function Part IV: Diminished 7th chord function: A Justification of Dominant 7th Chord Motion
- Related Dominants, Related ii—V’s and Chord shapes in a Diminished Chord/Scale
- The Blues Part I: Form, Blues Scales, and Improvisation
- The Blues Part II: A Vehicle for Progressive Harmonic Change
- Chord Families/Chord Function Versus Chord Function/Chord Families: a Cross-Reference Review
- Chord Voicing Part III: Two Hands
- Pluralities In Extended Chords: Polychords, the Identification of Chord Stacks Between the Hands
- Slash-Chords: Chord Forms Over Bass Notes, Creating Chord Quality
- The “Sound”: A Slash-chord Approach to Jazz Piano Voicing
- Pentatonic Scale/Chords: Voicings, Pentatonic-shapes, Altered Pentatonics, Source Scales, and Function
- Open 7th-Chord Voicings: Drop 2 and Drop 3 and Drop 2&4 and Use as Passing Chord Harmony
- “Comping”: Articulation, Time Feels, Voicing-Style-Approach, and Form
- The Thickening of a Melody Line: Locked-Hands, Slash-Chord, Drop 2, Pentatonics, Quartal Harmony
- Scales with an Added Chromatic Passing Tone
- Polarized Passing-Tone Scales and Improvisation
- Neighbour Tones in Jazz: Diatonic/Chromatic-Approach Tones, Deflection, Change-Tones
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Reviews
“...an outstanding book and I will definitely recommend it to students... covered a lot of territory in a very thorough manner.”
“...a very thorough look at the techniques of playing jazz piano... An excellent choice for those getting started in jazz as well as seasoned players looking for a COORDINATED approach to jazz studies.”
“This is no armchair text! This text is another worthy example of terrific international jazz education publications.”
International Association of Jazz Educators Magazine
"...What is commendable about this book is that as an instruction guide to playing jazz piano it does succeed where many others fail simply because it is arranged in such a manner to introduce and build upon previous material presented in a clear manner... the information is invaluable to a beginning student of jazz piano as well as to seasoned professionals. Chapters on harmony and melody are equally interesting..."
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