Double Bass Jazz Piano Books for non pianists?

[RBPCRC]

What are some good jazz piano book for non pianists like myself? I'm looking to strengthen my understanding of jazz and be able to quickly recognize substitutions when playing bass with pianists and guitarists.

 

[Mr Ralph]

Mark Levine
Jazz Theory

 

[bassfiddlesteve]

I actually found this book helpful in this regard.

- Steve

 

[hhalt]

Actually Mark Levine's Jazz Piano book-more specific to piano than his theory book, but is also geared toward pianists. I teach out of Jerry Coker's Jazz Keyboard Techniques for the pianist and non-pianist. Also, Dan Haerle's Jazz Piano Voicings book is really good.

Jazz Keyboard for Pianists and Non-Pianists : Jerry Coker : 9780769233239

http://www.amazon.com/Jazz-piano-voicing-skills-individual/dp/B0006SCDGA

 

[stringtapper]

In addition to the Coker, Haerle, and Levine texts I like Phil DeGreg's book Keyboard Harmony. The parts on shell voicings were particularly helpful to me.

 

[mtto]

Frank Mantooth's "Voicings for Jazz Keyboard" is great. So are Levine and DeGreg mentioned above.

 

[tmntfan]

this si a good one

An Approach to Jazz Piano

 

[Bass_Machine]

I really rate David Berkman's book on jazz piano (The Jazz Harmony Book by David Berkman | Sher Music Co.). There's a great section in the back of the book (Appendix B) that lays out some simple voicings and how to practise them in an incremental manner. The rest of the book really lays out how to think about harmony, and reharmonisation, in a pianistic manner with lots of audio examples. Can't recommend it strongly enough!

 

[Jeff Bonny]

For me piano books like Levine have been of limited usefulness because I've never committed to having a piano around long enough to learn to use it. Without some rudimentary skill on the keyboard keyboard based books have always remained somewhat abstract.

A recent find I've been spending time with is Three-note Voicings and Beyond by guitarist Randy Vincent. Because a lot of it can be played on the bass it's starting to demystify how harmony and voice leading function.

 

[bass81800]

I have explored a lot of jazz piano books this past year and a half and some of these piano online courses. The winner for me, and for a lot of others, is Exploring Jazz Piano I by Tim Richards. Now I am starting to work on Exploring Jazz Piano II. Real World jazz tunes here, a lot of explanation of theory and harmony, and plenty of exercises. And, as mentioned above, Berkman's The Jazz Harmony Book is outstanding!!!