Hal Leonard Jazz Piano Method Book 1 by MARK DAVIS

Hal Leonard Jazz Piano Method Book 1 Reviews

• 
  Joshua Benson

  This book was exactly what I needed for learning jazz piano. I had been listening to jazz for many years before I decided to learn how to play it myself. Like many others, I started with Mark Levine's Jazz Piano Book. I was not an accomplished pianist by any means when I started with Levine (I had been playing for 2 3 years and had a decent foundation in theory), but the book got way too deep too quickly. By the fourth chapter my head was spinning, and I realized that it was too much for my level.
  
  Enter Mark Davis's Jazz Piano Method what a godsend! This book provided me with the foundation to becoming a jazz pianist in an easy to digest, step by step method. I still have a lot to learn, but I know that I am on the right path in the long journey. When I started with this book I could poorly plink my way through a few standards. Now I am to the point where I have between 10 and 20 songs I am comfortable sitting in at a local jam session and performing, including soloing (I've yet to be laughed off stage!). This book has provided me with the step by step method to begin my journey in becoming a jazz pianist, and I am confident that it can provide the same to you and your students.
  
  I would recommend this book to any intermediate pianist looking to learn authentic jazz stylings, or to any classical teacher who has a student interested in learning jazz piano. You will need to be able to read sheet music, and a knowledge of scales/proper fingering will go a long way. This book provides the building blocks to building your chops, your repertoire, and most importantly your ear. Happy practicing.
• 
  M and E Ramirez

  This is well organized and easy to grasp guide for learning jazz piano.
  
  I've been through a number of other jazz piano method books (by Levine, Ligon, etc.) which tend packed full of information. They're a great resource, but tend to be a challenge to digest and can easily demoralize someone just starting out.
  
  On the other hand, this book conveys the essentials for jazz piano performance in a very accessible way that can inspire someone at any musical level to learn. There is something for everyone, all in a nice concise format that's easy to understand.
  
  For a beginning player, it's a great method for getting grounded in the fundamentals of jazz chords, voicings, and phrasings. Each chapter focuses on musical concept with specific examples. The audio clips are also very nice for reinforcing learning and internalizing the examples. And it's wonderful that the book is written to meet the musician at the level that’s both comfortable and engaging.
  
  For intermediate and advanced players, there's always to learn and master. The chapters on comping and scale work provide some nice gems on working with another soloist as well as playing the changes in a group setting. The detailed examples combined with the audio clips make for a great way of learning new idioms and ideas for improving your playing.
  
  This a great book and I highly recommend to anyone who wants to learn how to play jazz piano.
• 
  Uncle Homunculus

  This is a book to work through, not to skim through or to dip into at random. Practice is the only way to proficiency. If there are any shortcuts, they come in the form of knowing what to practice and how to practice, what to listen to and what to listen for, how to think about and approach the art of jazz improvisation on the piano. The Hal Leonard Jazz Piano Method by Mark Davis provides this invaluable guidance.
  
  If you're interested in studying jazz piano, this is the book to start with and to stick with. It's the book to start with because the author does not assume that you possess anything than a fundamental knowledge of musical notation and a basic familiarity with the piano keyboard. It's the book to stick with because, if you diligently practice what Mark Davis thoughtfully and progressively preaches, you will almost certainly complete the course with some rather remarkable improvisational skills and a firm conceptual foundation on which to build those skills.
  
  I hope there are books to come from Mark Davis, that he and Hal Leonard treat this as Volume 1 in a series.
• 
  AWB

  This is a fine presentation of the essentials of jazz piano, one that can be useful for the beginner as well as the experienced pianist. In fact, I've discovered that it's a great book for the non pianist, for folks like me. I'm a jazz clarinetist, and I've been playing various kinds of jazz for over fifty years. I have long wanted to develop some keyboard skills to improve my notions of harmony, and, over the years, I've taught myself enough to muddle my way through a lead sheet on the keyboard so that I can hear changes. Mark Davis' book, which I've been working through now for about a year, has been the most thorough, most systematic, and clearest guide for developing my grasp that I've found, and I've tried several. Not only has it helped me with my understanding of jazz harmony, but I'm actually becoming comfortable (and even somewhat fluent) with improvising on the keyboard, and that has had a marvelous positive transfer to my clarinet playing. The construction of the book is logical and thoughtful. The online audio matches the text perfectly and is very helpful. Explanations of harmonic theory are clear and understandable. A great book!
• 
  James C. Ward

  I am using this method book with college jazz piano students. Davis lists jazz standards in the first chapter, which tends to be a huge deficiency in beginning jazz students. Then by Chapter 5, he introduces a comprehensive, detailed scalar and arpeggiated improv method that makes the jazz language erupt from the page! This is still a work in progress, depending on the students' will to drill, but I'm impressed with the bebop scale technique. Some of my students have studied Jerry Coker or Mark Levine, and both those methods start with detailed chord theory. Davis addresses this in Chapter 8, so we'll see if the students connect then.
  Jazz, like most subjects, can be addressed from several angles, and Davis shows a fresh approach. If nothing else, this book should be added to your growing library of jazz pedagogy for quick improv solutions.
• 
  Old Running Dude

  This is a superb book but doesnt work at all in the Kindle format.
  
  I was hoping that it'd work on a PC, but the links to the musical examples don't work and a lot of the music is impossible to read, even on a 22 inch monitor.
  
  For a company the size of Hal Leonard it's inexcusable, especially given what their prime business is.
  
  I'm going to return it and buy the printed version, but I resent having to.
• 
  Milo Grierson

  audio files do not load on kindle on my phone and on my mac
• 
  ghn

  *** Updated News at end ***
  I like to learn playing Jazz on my piano. I want a good book with examples, both with written music scores and audio for listening not only to the notes but also the feel, the nuance expression from a good instructor. After reading the reviews on , I order this book this morning. The printing materials are fine. APPLICABLE to KINDLE VERSION : Excepted at every scores where I could somehow activate and hear the audio, it displays a message 'There is audio content at this location that is not currently supported for your device'. Attached is a picture of it. Both my Dell laptop (Windows 10) and Samsung note 10.1' (Android) got the same problem. NO AUDIO from this book. How good should I rate this book ? 2 on 5 is quite generous
  Running on Windows laptop, with a MP3 player app running beside the Kindle reader app, you could read then switch to audio app to hear the music passages, inconvenient but workable. Running on Android tablet or cellphone, can't have two app running and visible side by side, it's intolerable, you may need a second machine to instantly see the notes and hear the music notes. As on May 30, 2021 to update to fix the Kindle version yet.
  *** Updated News December 2020 ***
  Contacted Hal Leonard directly via email with the above comment (with the cover's screen capture having ISBN number). Within 24 hours, got a replied email from Hal Leonard with Web link for downloading the audio files (mp3). It's not as convenient as with the embedded audio (as advertised) but it helps. Due to copyright, it's better for Hal Leonard or providing the TEMPORARY workaround, not by me.
• 
  Pascal C - Canada

  Very complex book. I know it is a reference but you better already have some good knowledge of chords. More intended for the pianist who wants to get into jazz, improvisation, special rhythms, special chords.. I will use it in 5 years.
  I reached page 15 and they are already into complex chords and I an lost. Free audio file from the internet, works well.