Good Exercise Book For Learning Fingerings?

[Melodious Thunk]

Howdy,

 

I am looking for a keyboard exercise book that can aid me in learning correct fingerings as I am teaching myself how to play jazz/blues organ from scratch. Any info and/or opinions would be great!

 

Thanks,

Ryan

[TrapperJack]

Cramer Eighty-Four Studies For Piano Schirmer's Library of Musical Classics Vol. 1976

 

Any scale manual.

 

(Add five hours per day, for ten years.)

 

Cheers.

[Melodious Thunk]

Thanks TrapperJack!

 

Anybody familiar with any of the following?:

 

-Jazz Exercises for the Piano - by Oscar Peterson

 

-Jazz Piano Technique Exercises Etudes & Ideas for Building Chops (Book/CD) by John Valerio

 

-Jazz Chord Hanon: 70 Exercises for the Beginning to Professional Pianist (Musicians Institute) by Peter Deneff

 

-Jazz Hanon (Private Lessons) by Peter Deneff

 

-Mel Bay Jazz Exercises for the Piano Book/CD Set by Paul T. Smith

 

-Jazz Piano Exercises & Etudes by Jonathon Robbins

 

-The Pianist's Jammin' Handbook!: Studies and Etudes for the Modern Jazz Pianist by Sarah Jane Cion

 

 

[David Loving]

Look at Dan Haerle's web site - his material is excellent.

[GovernorSilver]

The book "Metaphors for the Musician" by Randy Halberstadt has a chapter entitled "User Friendly Scales". The emphasis is on the right hand scale fingerings.

 

Before I found the Halberstadt book, by way of recommendation here and on other forums, I'd already started learning the Bach Two-Part Inventions. The Alfred Masterworks edition ("Inventions and Sinfonias") has excellent fingerings. I've only learned 3 of those pieces so far, but they've helped me make the transition from just practicing scales to improvising melodies out of them. Just practicing these pieces one hand at a time (not both at once) delivers benefits. If you're really just starting to play the piano though, that chapter by Halberstadt might be a better place to start. My jazz piano teacher had me work with Alfreds' All-in-One Adult Piano Course to shore up basics. The only scale exercises he assigned were the ones in the Alfred's book - he didn't make me go and get other scale books.

 

Bill Cunliffe's book Jazz Keyboard Toolbox is also worth a look. There are people here who either know him and/or study with him. It does not have scale exercises, but it gives you some basics that you will need. Great beginners' book. Be sure to listen to the CD that comes with it.

[TrapperJack]

The Metaphors For The Jazz Musician Perspectives from a Jazz Pianist by Randy Halberstadt is a brilliant book and well worth buying if you are going to commit to a keyboard instrument in the modern music world. But it is not a structured beginners book. Buy it. Read it. Try his ideas. Good book. Not best book for beginners.

 

It depends on how serious you are. Real serious: Cramer. Just want to "do it", then continue looking at the other books you mentioned.

 

I have some of them. Deneff's Jazz Hanon provides fingering for right hand the first model of each of 50 exercise, which is enough. The left hand is chords in fourths or shells, and is absolutely a "how to scrape by" approach to keyboard. If you add his Jazz Chord Hanon, then you get a steady introduction to chord fingering, progressively building up from two voice rh to four note rh chords, and a framework of lh bass fingering. But the chords are not named, and it doesn't seem like a course to take for someone with limited support. In short, not bad, but not great.

 

Rob Mullins has a better book, in my view, that does the same job: Jazz Piano Voicings An Essential Resource for Aspiring Jazz Musicians Hal Leonard. But it has no fingering. It is best used with a teacher.

 

John Valerio and Sara Jane Cion both write very traditional, conservative jazz books. Most people like them, but I came upon them too late to be interested in them: best used by people who have had two years on piano with "usual instructions" -- which is the best route to travel, I suggest (get a teacher).

 

Paul Smith books are too advanced and are patchy things. Look at them later.

 

With the Cramer stuff you will learn keyboard skills that most people will simply envy, and it really is easy to add the jazz direction in a year or so (use the Oscar Peterson books then). But even with Cramer you are best off with a teacher, and some fun stuff (Lead Lines and Chord Changes by Ann Collins, or any of her other books on same stuff: good fun, easy, makes you think you are getting somewhere fast).

 

Your question seems to focus on fingering. Which fingers to use (while there are no concrete rules, good guidelines exist), is an interesting question for a short while. How to best use your fingers, hands, arms, shoulders etc to articulate the full spectrum of piano work is a lifetime study.

 

Have a look in the thread in this forum called Expert Instruction for Keys

 

Start today, work everyday, work methodically, have fun, don't stop.

[David Loving]

Try some Bach Inventions. Instead of exercise books, work on pieces. Start easy, if inventions are too hard, back it down. Good luck and practice!

 

[GovernorSilver]

The Metaphors For The Jazz Musician Perspectives from a Jazz Pianist by Randy Halberstadt is a brilliant book and well worth buying if you are going to commit to a keyboard instrument in the modern music world. But it is not a structured beginners book. Buy it. Read it. Try his ideas. Good book. Not best book for beginners.

 

All valid points. But for a beginner it's worth buying for the User Friendly Scales chapter. Best teaching I've seen in a book for fingering the flat-key major scales.

 

My jazz piano teacher had me get the Jazz Bits and Pieces book by Bill Boyd in addition to the Alfreds' books, for our lessons. I realized later, it was his way of introducing me to jazz lines. If you want to play jazz or blues, you need to start learning jazz/blues lines. I think the Cunliffe books is actually better than the Boyd book for this purpose.

[I-missRichardTee]

The Metaphors For The Jazz Musician Perspectives from a Jazz Pianist by Randy Halberstadt Chock full of tips, ideas, etc. A must have book.

[GovernorSilver]

Try some Bach Inventions. Instead of exercise books, work on pieces. Start easy, if inventions are too hard, back it down. Good luck and practice!

 

The Inventions are what unlocked the keyboard for me, as far as trying out some improvised ideas and being able to move around. I started learning them because several players here, who I respect, cited them. Advanced players have also reported benefits from studying the lines in the Inventions (and other Bach compositions), as far as learning how to tell a story, compose, etc. The Alfred Masterworks edition has great fingerings for them. I was advised to start with the ones for C major, F major, and D minor.

[Shamanczarek]

I purchased this book based on a Keyboard Mag review over 25 years ago. It has been endorsed by Dave Brubeck, Dr. Billy Taylor, Roger Williams, Marian McPartland, Oscar Peterson, George Winston, Clark Terry, and many others.

 

The Source: The Dictionary of Contemporary and Traditional Scales

by Steve Barta

[Dugg64]

Howdy,

 

I am looking for a keyboard exercise book that can aid me in learning correct fingerings as I am teaching myself how to play jazz/blues organ from scratch. Any info and/or opinions would be great!

 

Thanks,

Ryan

 

I would recommend checking out Mark Harrison's "Piano Fitness," particularly if you are aiming to get into jazz/blues.

 

Piano Fitness

 

 

[TrapperJack]

The Source doesn't have bebop scales. Why not?

 

Bill Boyd books are very good.

 

Everyone must play the inventions: but you are two to five years into the piano before you can do this.

[GovernorSilver]

My only criticism of the Bill Boyd book i have is there's no recording supplied with it - you really need a teacher to show you how to transform the written music into jazz. From a recording, you can get the swing time feel, how the notes might be accented, where you might insert grace notes, etc.

 

This is where the Cunliffe book is great - he has a sax player state the melody, then he plays it himself on the piano. You hear two different players playing the same line and can hear how each bring the line to life, instead just playing it like a robot.

[David Loving]

The Source doesn't have bebop scales. Why not?

 

Bill Boyd books are very good.

 

Everyone must play the inventions: but you are two to five years into the piano before you can do this.

 

Try Dan Haerle's "Scales for Jazz Improvization" Most bebop scales just add an extra #accidental between 6 and 7.

 

[David Loving]

I purchased this book based on a Keyboard Mag review over 25 years ago. It has been endorsed by Dave Brubeck, Dr. Billy Taylor, Roger Williams, Marian McPartland, Oscar Peterson, George Winston, Clark Terry, and many others.

 

The Source: The Dictionary of Contemporary and Traditional Scales

by Steve Barta

 

Take a look at the fundamental classic: "Mastering the Scales and Arpeggios" - James Francis Cooke - all the scales in all different ways of playing them and fingering. Cooke's Mastering the Scales and Arpeggios

[Melodious Thunk]

Thanks for all of responses! These books look great!

[SteveCoscia]

This thread is valuable. Terrific book and study recommendations.

 

Gotta love this forum's knowledge base.

[Musicale]

Fingering is somewhat intuitive. Fingering jazz licks/runs is gonna be different than running scales, but scale work helps with precedent. A good teacher could sit down and write out the fingerings for the common "scales" and modes used with chords derived from the the major scale and the ascending melodic minor scale. Most of the jazz sound comes from the harmonies available from the melodic minor scale. These would be Cm+7, Dm b9 (6), Eb aug +7, F7+11,G7b13 (rare), Am7b5, B7alt, for example. These chords are built from the modes of the (in this case) the C melodic minor scale. A good exercise is to write out the modes of the harmonic minor scale and identify the individual notes in terms of their function (root, 2nd, 3rd, 11, +11, 13 etc.). You can often pick out the guys that were classically trained and then switched over to jazz, as they tend to have very smooth, fast and rhythmic and long runs. Good fingering is needed for that type of playing. See "The Right Hand According to Tatum" for some figures and fingerings from a master.

 

Happy New Year,

Musicale

[TrapperJack]

My throwaway comment about The Source and Bebop scales was motivated by three things.

 

First, some (older, now) musicians did "all" their improvising using Bebop scales, and were very successful. That is, the scales must be very useful. Why not include them in a dictionary?

 

Next, these are eight note scales, though the place and choice of the "added" note is a little unsettled. As eight note scales, they do bring challenges to fingering, and it seems strange that The Source did not address Bebop scales for this reason.

 

Third, including them in a dictionary, about twenty five years ago, in particular, would have helped discussion about the form of the scales and their application.

[rickzjamm]

Tried & true trio - Hannon, Hertz & Czerny.

Also check out a book by Andy LaVerne called "Tons of Runs"... shows scales, chord applications & appropriate fingerings.

[GovernorSilver]

Even during the height of the bebop era, different players went about it different ways. The Lee Konitz book has some great insights on this - Konitz toured with Charlie Parker and has some things to say in that book about how different players prepped for gigs.

 

Some people taught that for bebop, you just learn the arpeggios of the chords, and make up your own scales on the fly by adding notes to the arpeggios. Maybe that's why there's no bebop scales in some books.

[stillplaying]

Some people taught that for bebop, you just learn the arpeggios of the chords, and make up your own scales on the fly by adding notes to the arpeggios. Maybe that's why there's no bebop scales in some books.

 

Never heard it stated like this - but I like it.

[GovernorSilver]

Some people taught that for bebop, you just learn the arpeggios of the chords, and make up your own scales on the fly by adding notes to the arpeggios. Maybe that's why there's no bebop scales in some books.

 

Never heard it stated like this - but I like it.

 

Got that from Fareed Haque's course "Bebop Improvisation Survival Guide". He also has a modal improv course where he has the student work scales to death.

[TrapperJack]

If you learn "patterns of four" and the pentatonic scales, you have instant fingering for any of these "sound sources" (modal, diatonic, bebop, blues, latin, etc). The short-coming to be met here, though, is building solos of streaming eight notes. This is very uninteresting after a few measures.

 

It is also the weakness that lots of bebop players succumbed to.

 

But, that said, the strategy of "adding" passing tones to inversions of chords is a good one. Especially if you move by semitone in the melody as you pass from chord to chord. Les Wise teaches this in his books and videos.

 

Look Les Wise up on Youtube.

[GovernorSilver]

Look Les Wise up on Youtube.

 

I checked out his "iim7b5-V7b9" video, and his teaching kind reminds me of that of John Stowell. A link to a Stowell lesson on melodic minor applications can be found on this sax player's blog:

 

http://davidvaldez.blogspot.com/2010/01/john-stowell-video-lesson-applying.html

[GovernorSilver]

If you learn "patterns of four" and the pentatonic scales, you have instant fingering for any of these "sound sources" (modal, diatonic, bebop, blues, latin, etc).

 

That sounds like the approach my first guitar teacher used, if by "patterns of four" you mean scale sequencing. My 2nd guitar teacher, though, had a deeper background in bebop, and did not teach this way.

[GovernorSilver]

Back to the piano, it would be remiss of me to not pass on the recommendation of this cool book that Bobadoshe recommended to me:

 

Harmonic Exercises by Clare Fischer

 

He specifically recommended the exercises for "opening and closing the hand". These are really great for getting a jump on playing arpeggios on the keyboard. The arpeggios towards the end of the melody to "Inner Urge" no longer seemed so daunting after a few sessions with these exercises.