Jazz Piano Fundamentals: Explanations, Exercises, Listening Guides, and Practice Plans for the First Six Months of Study

I’m a classically trained piano teacher with an MA in music. Still, theory isn’t my forté. I can read well and capture a decent jazz style sound, but I don’t read charts quickly, improvise much, or think fast enough about chord progressions (yet) to create meaningful progressions and melodies on my own.I have 25+ jazz history books from Leroi Jones, Osteansky, Tanner & more, and old Mosaic and True Blue mags on up. I’ve got over 20 of the most current and older jazz method books out there, from the great! John Mehegan, and Aebersold (poorly organized and presented with beginner to advanced skill all in each exercise), up to Berklee that’s too advanced for most, to Beale who has a great course laid out, but doesn’t simultaneously teach you to play it on piano. Sadly, there’s an arrogance to many of the newer ones, assuming a high level of theory knowledge and advanced playing ability from the get go. There’s a clear difference between books written by great players and those by great players who are also great teachers at all levels, not just college or advanced levels. Siskind is clearly both.His book is an actual structured course with clear and doable weekly goals and assignments. It begins with a doable improv exercise for those with no jazz experience. It immediately teaches swing rhythm with perfect exercises and gives you excellent general practice advice and doable daily exercises and spot on listening assignments with time coordinated analysis of the form. He introduces chord symbols and major, minor and dominant 7th chords. He has you comping and grasping the ii-V-I progression and gives you all of the above most fundamental basics of jazz in the first 3 chapters to ground you firmly. And he simultaneously asks and answers the important questions, while teaching terminology, several jazz standards, and techniques in doable chunks. [Have I mentioned that his method is really doable?]Suskind’s treats learning jazz like learning a language—my own philosophy—and breaks it all down accordingly.While learning jazz isn’t necessarily a pursuit for complete beginners on piano, he makes it accessible at least to an intermediate student.As a teacher I am much more able to at least introduce my students to jazz playing and style with this. Then when they need a serious jazz teacher I can refer them out with at least the basics and good technique. Plus, this book has also inspired me to work the course myself and up my game from simply reading transcriptions.You could say I’m “jazzed” about it. Bravo! Mr. Siskind

There are a voluminous amount of jazz piano books available. None of them compare to this book.As a beginner improviser, it can be a daunting task to develop the necessary skills to improvise. The information in this book starts with basics, and builds to more complicated skills.There is a natural and logical progression to the lessons that really help to ensure progress. Which assumes of course that the student is willing to put in the time and hard work necessary to learn this art form.The author is a natural educator and writes with great clarity. Readers who are interested to learn more about the author should seek out his performances on YouTube. He is a massively talented musician.

We know you should learn jazz piano in a step by step method. And many other books do that, and they are all pretty much the same. They focus on concepts, and usually concepts alone.But JAZZ PIANO FUNDAMENTALS by Jeremy Siskind is unique in its step by step approach.. It teaches you the concepts with a different slant, but also gives you exercises, and videos to give you the "feel" of jazz. And what's jazz if it's not all about the "feel"?A diligent reader should be able to step through all the lessons in about 6 months time, if you do all the exercises faithfully till you nail them.

It was a nice surprise that there were some videos illustrating the material. I am sure it was mentioned somewhere, but I missed it. Also the author has a well developed Youtube channel, etc. Great resource!

Very well written explanations plus videos to make sure you are doing the exercises right! I'm only a few units in and have found it really helpful to understand how to play better.

It assumes one is in music theory class at freshman college level

I like the exercises in this book. Great starting point.

ME GUSTA EL LIBRO, PERO SON MÁS FUNDAMENTOS DEL JAZZ.

Video available with this.Ideal introduction for jazz beginners

Nel corso degli anni, ho acquistato diversi libri dedicati al Jazz Piano, ma questo di Jeremy Siskind è certamente il migliore.Infatti, Siskind propone in modo progressivo, dettagliato ed esaustivo tutto il materiale che in altri libri è presentato in una forma più frammentata o che, comunque, non accompagna il pianista passo a passo lungo lo studio della teoria e della pratica Jazz.Jazz Piano Fundamentals propone 12 Unità, che idealmente -con un impegno di due ore al giorno- possono essere percorse in 6 mesi, con un impegno medio di 2 settimane ciascuna.Naturalmente, questo è un calcolo puramente teorico, perché lasciandosi guidare da Siskind in questo percorso, lo studente ha la possibilità di ripassare velocemente materiale che già conosce, di colmare con più calma lacune che magari non immaginava di avere e di dedicare tutto il tempo necessario ad argomenti per lui nuovi o comunque ostici.Ogni unità propone progressivamente diversi aspetti del Jazz Piano. Ad esempio, in ognuna delle prime lezioni, viene proposta a) un'improvvisazione, con poche regole, che permette di esplorare la tastiera e di ascoltare sonorità diverse; b) lo Swing Feel, c) FAQ, nella forma di Q&A; d) accordi; e) comping f) esercizi vari; g) la guida all'ascolto di un brano che ha fatto la storia del Jazz.Siskind, inoltre, propone un riferimento continuo alla 6a Edizione di The Real Book, il che permette allo studente di immergersi da subito nella musica che desidera suonare.Un altro aspetto molto utile è che dal libro è possibile accedere a numerosi video, che accompagnano lo studente pagina per pagina.E per chi vuole, su YouTube sono disponibili innumerevoli altri video dell'Autore, dedicati al Jazz Piano.Tra l'altro, ho avuto occasione di scrivere una mail a Siskind, per chiedergli una delucidazione e lui mi ha risposto nel giro di poche ore. Una gentilezza che ho apprezzato molto.Per concludere; sono pienamente soddisfatto di questo libro e... sì, se dovessi perdelo lo ricomprerei immediatamente!

Es una maravilla de libro, súper pedagógico y claro. Es uno de los mejores libros (junto con los de Tim Richards y Mark Levine, este último no tan pedagógico) para iniciarse en el mundo del piano jazz. Las explicaciones de Jeremy son realmente claras y se nota que es un profesor extraordinario. Los vídeos que acompañan al volumen (y muchos otros en su canal) son un complemento maravilloso, ya que explica absolutamente todo lo del libro e incluso añade algunas cosas más. Estoy deseando salga el segundo volumen, ya tengo Playing Solo Jazz piano (https://www.amazon.es/gp/product/1735169501) y, aunque es para pianistas más avanzados, es una pasada también. LO RECOMIENDO ENCARECIDAMENTE, además es una buena forma de apoyar a un creador de un talento enorme (sus discos en spotify, vídeos y tutoriales en youtube os lo demostrarán).---------A gem of a book, super-pedagogical and clear. It's one of the best books (along with those by Tim Richards and Mark Levine, the latter not so pedagogical) to get started in the world of jazz piano. Jeremy's explanations are really clear and it shows that he is an extraordinary teacher. The videos that accompany the volume (and many others on his channel) are a wonderful complement, as they explain absolutely everything about the book lessons and even adds a few more things. I'm looking forward to the second volume, I already have Playing Solo Jazz piano (https://www.amazon.es/gp/product/1735169501) and, although it is for more advanced pianists, it is amazing too. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND BUYING IT, it's a good way to support an author of enormous talent (their albums on spotify, videos and tutorials on YouTube will show you this).

Es el quinto libro de iniciación al Jazz Piano que compro y por fin he encontrado lo que necesitaba. La diferencia con el resto de libros es abismal.El método se divide en 12 unidades, en cada una de ellas se incluye: - Ejercicios de improvisación.- Ejercicios de coordinación de manos- Ejercicios de escritura de notas sobre pentagrama- Práctica de temas del Real Book- Audiciones guiadas- La teoría se va explicando a lo largo del libro según se va necesitando y se pone en práctica inmediatamente.Por tanto todas las habilidades se van desarrollando en paralelo lo largo del método de forma que van encajando y dando sus frutos en el momento de realizar la improvisación.Los temas son generalmente del Real Book, pero se da una guía de cuales son los más adecuados a la fase de desarrollo en la que se está.En cada unidad hay un código QR que te lleva a los correspondientes videos de la unidad, que son unos 4 o 5 videos donde el autor demuestra detalladamente y de forma amena los ejericicios.El autor tiene un canal de youtube donde se puede apreciar su gran talento como músico y educador.Al contrario que otros métodos no incluye pistas de audio. Pero incluye video. Para los "play-along" el autor remite a los play-along gratis en youtube o la aplicación irealproEs necesario saber las escalas mayores y poder leer música, así como tener cierto nivel de técnica al piano. Yo soy autodidácta y mi nivel es de segundo o tercero de piano, mi nivel de lectura es muy básico. ESte nivel me está resultando suficiento para avanzar en el libro.En 2022 saldrá el segundo volumen

Il miglior libro jazz in circolazione! Suddiviso in 12 lezioni per chi vuole avvicinarsi al pianismo jazz quasi da zero. Perfetto per un livello intermedio, le lezioni sono di difficoltà progressiva, molto chiare e corredate da video esplicativi su youtube. Jeremy Siskind non é solo un musicista affermato, ma un un grande maestro che ha reso il jazz un genere alla portata di (quasi) tutti!