Alfred's MAX™ Blues Keyboard: Keyboard/Piano Book & DVD

Bill Cunliffe wrote this method from the ground up for keyboard students, grounding fundamentals in authentic blues language rather than generic exercises. The included DVD transforms abstract instruction into visual and aural learning, letting beginners watch hand position, phrasing, and feel demonstrated by someone who has performed and arranged for world-class rhythm sections. You get pedagogy shaped by real jazz performance, not theory divorced from sound.

Blues keyboard playing emphasizes the groove, the bend, the held note, and the perfectly timed silence. This book teaches those sensibilities from the start, building technique and ear training hand in hand with the swagger and resilience of blues language. You'll sound like you're playing music immediately, not preparing to play music someday.

Pianists and keyboard players in their first months of study who want to build musicianship through a recognizable, engaging style. This method works for young students and adult beginners alike who respond better to learning through actual music rather than abstract drills.

• Watch the DVD demonstrations before practicing each new section. Cunliffe's hand position and touch choices carry as much information as the written notes.
• Listen to the performances multiple times without looking at the page first. Your ear needs to absorb the blues vocabulary and phrasing before your hands learn the mechanics.
• Pay close attention to dynamics and the space between notes. Blues piano relies as much on what you don't play as what you do.
• Practice the left-hand comping patterns slowly until they become automatic; your right hand needs the freedom to explore melodically and respond to the feel.

Use this in early-semester private lessons or group keyboard classes when you want students to experience the satisfaction of playing recognizable blues styles within their first weeks. It also serves as a bridge for young jazz improvisation students who need foundational comping and soloing vocabulary before tackling more complex harmonic material.

• Blues scale vocabulary and phrasing
• Left-hand comping patterns in 12-bar blues
• Swing feel and rhythmic articulation
• Basic blues soloing and melodic ornamentation
• Keyboard coordination between treble and bass lines