Jazz Inventions for Keyboard (Book & CD): 50 Etudes That Will Improve the Way You Play Jazz, Book & CD

I was hoping this would be similar to Bill Cunliffe's excellent book Jazz Keyboard Toolbox - but this is very different. If you can sight read very well then I'm sure you will like it. Otherwise it's got quite complex pieces that are quite daunting if you don't read music well. Also when I listened to all the tracks on the disc there were only a few that I really felt were exciting enough to want to learn. So. if you sight read well and you have a good grasp of Jazz theory and want exercises to improve your playing then I'm sure it would be great - but if you are a slow sight reader with little knowledge of theory then this will be too advanced.

Great book well written and easy to understand. If you don't read music don't buy it as for some odd reason you need to be able to read music :-) I still can't believe it was marked down because the person couldn't read music!! How is that the book or the writers fault? Anyway, buy it, you'll love it. BUT chop the spine off and spiral bind it as there is no way it'll ever stay open otherwise unless you snap the spine. Not yet listened to the CD as don't really need it but its there if you're not sure how to sight read adequately.

As a classically trained pianist who also loves to improvise, I taught myself the basics of jazz from when I was around 14/15. I bought several books on the subject over the years, but when I came across this I got excited because it seemed like a way to cement the techniques I had taught myself, plus a few I'd skirted round, through structured exercises, hence being able to become a more rounded jazz pianist. I wasn't disappointed. At first when I actually played some of the exercises I wasn't sure, but in retrospect I realise that actually some of the harmonies earlier on in the book have been left bare on purpose, to give you decent guidelines. I soon saw that actually it was an extremely effective way for me to become a more solid player, and I loved the way it was structured.This is a cradle to grave type book that, whilst not a tool to teach yourself jazz with (there are many other books for that purpose), will definitely make you more solid by enforcing concepts and encouraging a strong sense of idiom that can be used as a springboard for further development. I would say you would get better results if you went into it already with some jazz grounding. It does tackle some theory, but only in a 'what' not a 'why' kind of way. However I would wholly recommend this to anyone wanting to develop this area of their playing.