eBook Jazz Piano Comping: Harmonies, Voicings, and Grooves ePub

This book does not have any new information in it. In addition, topics are not presented any differently than other jazz piano texts. Books on the same topic are available for the same price that cover more information than just comping. Ray Santisi's "Berklee Jazz Piano" offers far more information and is presented in a way that will educate students of every level. "Berklee Jazz Piano" is just one example of many books that are better jazz piano texts than "Jazz Piano Comping."

Great book

Excellent!

My new Bible!

If you already have a solid understanding of triads, seventh chords, voice leading, and chord voicing then you can probably understand this book. Chapter one shows the four flavors of triads and inversions in C and then gives one song you are expected to play along with for practice and then it says "Memorize the five types of triads in all twelve keys..." That's it, just memorize them and you are ready to move on. This book is clearly not suitable for people with little comping experience.

This book is very well structured and helped me make the transition from simple comping patterns to the jazz sound that I'm looking for. It has a practical approach that gets you started immediately, and also includes a CD that helps you gauge yourself along the way. Even halfway through the book, I was able to comp with a bass and drums using really cool jazz voicings for two hands.

I got the chance to purchase the book , one year ago . I never considered myself a Jazz Pianist, so in order to improve my aprroach to Jazz , i purchased this Book. The Book covers a large variety of voicings , for Jazz Music , but also you can move this voicings to other Musical Generes. Specially R&B and funk. Great Book to learn Quartal Voicings and Comping Rhythms. Since I start studying this book , My Jazz vocabulary really improve , strongolly recommed this Book to anyone who wants to learn and have a good foundation of Jazz. Also got the chance to hear play the author and she really knew her stuff.
Great Book
Best
Nico

I work as a solo pianist and about to create my own quartet so I have to be serious about comping. My knowledge about comping is limited to one chapter in Mark Levine's Jazz Piano Book. I'm always curious of the voicings of heavy and thick sound of parallel chords you hear played by great jazz pianists. The very sound that has been haunting me since the first time I heard the seductive sound of cool jazz.

So I made a research and found that there aren't many books specializing on jazz piano comping. This one has the exact title I'm looking for, and it's coming from the famous Berklee School of Music. I figured from the quality of other Berklee Press books that I own, this probably wouldn't disappoint me. You know, I really really wanted this book to work so bad, to lead the way for me. I've been so longing to find out how to be a great comper. But because this was a very new book when I bought it, it had very little information about it on the net. The book wasn't even listed on the Berklee Press website itself. I only managed to find the author's website and listened to few of her audio and video which didn't show much of her comping, so it didn't help me to decide. I wish I knew what's in it. So those who want to know what's in it, here's the content page:

CD TRACKS
INTRODUCTION
Lesson 1 Triads
Lesson 2 7th chords: required 7th chords in all keys
Lesson 3 Voice leading
Lesson 4 Getting away from root position: expanded shell voicings
Lesson 5 Tensions
Lesson 6 Comping with steps using guide tones and tensions
Lesson 7 Four-way close voicings with tension substitutions
Lesson 8 Voicing in fourths
Lesson 9 Upper-structure triads
Lesson 10 Open-position voicings
Lesson 11 Combining four-way close voicings with open voicings
Lesson 12 More comping examples
Lesson 13 Rhythms: syncopation
Lesson 14 Comping with bass and drums
Lesson 15 Comping with a guitarist
Lesson 16 Comping behind your own solo
Lesson 17 Comping strategies
Lesson 18 Comping rhythms played with the head (hits)
Lesson 19 AABA song form, 32-bar form
Lesson 20 12-bar blues 1,2,3
Lesson 21 Practicing with rhythm tracks, cds, sequence, and the metronome
Lesson 22 Building repertoire
APPENDIX A. Discography: Listening to examples of great comping
APPENDIX B. Glossary
ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Now, about the content itself:

I started by listening to the last few tracks of the CD, a habit of mine when picking up new instructional music book that has a CD attached, hoping to know how I will sound like by the time I finish the book... Ouch! Didn't like it at all. Didn't sound nowhere near the professional level. But! I shouldn't judge a book by its cover, let alone the last few tracks of the CD, so I read through it and listened to every single track of the CD. I have to say the material on jazz comping presented is relatively basic (plus a bit of Blues) if you've read Levine's book (he delves much deeper on the book's topics), and I couldn't find anything standing out that I couldn't find on Levine's book. The only thing I like about the book is the usual and great teaching methodology of Berklee Press, but sadly, the content itself is not a great teaching. Definitely will not guide you to be at the level when you can use it in a professional setting.

One thing that I don't like at all is the comping rhythm that the author plays on throughout the whole book and CD as examples. It is unbelievably and horribly simple, especially for someone who has the rank of an associate professor. Of course, you have to start slow and simple if you're teaching people. But eventually you have to share the good stuff too. Gosh, you just have to listen to the CD to find out. Almost all examples are using 3 or 4-note LH voicing with simple syncopated rhythm. I mean, I admit I don't know how to comp, but my rhythm is definitely more varied than hers. I refuse to believe that this is all she knows and can do on comping, so I question her motive of just writing a book for the sake of it, or actually willing to share what she knows about jazz comping. At the end of the book, my comping has not improved and I'm still confused about and longing for that mellow, upper register, parallel chords that the professionals use. Another miss on my pursuit of professional voicing.

I would only recommend this book if you are early in your jazz piano playing. If you know your 7ths, 9ths, 11ths, and 13ths, and you can play II-V-I in the circle of 5ths, this book will take you to the next level of understanding tensions, upper structures, and fourth voicing. You won't get much more.

The bottom line is, if you want to be closer to comping like Oscar Peterson, Bill Evans, McCoy Tyner and the likes, this will not lead the way for you.

Any suggestion for alternative or how you professionals out there learn to comp will be greatly appreciated.