In Tune With Jazz & Blues: Easy Piano/Intermediate Jazz Piano Book

This book strikes a rare balance: it teaches jazz fundamentals through actual playing rather than theory worksheets. The arrangements sound good from the first run-through, which keeps students motivated to dig deeper into swing, blues changes, and the language that makes these styles tick. Matz includes the instructional scaffolding you need to justify programming jazz in a traditional piano curriculum.

Stepping into a jazz club on a casual night: the mood is relaxed and welcoming, the rhythms swing without swagger, and the blues carries the warmth of genuine emotion rather than technical pretension. Each arrangement feels like a conversation with someone who loves these styles and wants to share them.

Pianists ready to expand beyond classical repertoire who want structure and guidance rather than a lead sheet fake book. Teachers looking to offer jazz study without requiring students to already read lead notation or understand complex harmony in the abstract. Intermediate students who benefit from learning jazz through playable, styled arrangements rather than purely theoretical material.

• Let swing rhythm live in your hands before you overthink it. Play the recordings multiple times, then lay hands on the keys and feel the pulse rather than count it mechanically.
• Treat the blues scale exercises as muscle memory work, not theory. Run them in the style of the tune you're learning so the fingering becomes inseparable from the sound.
• Build the 12-bar blues form gradually. Start by accompanying yourself or a partner through one chorus before adding the comping and reharmonization shown in the later arrangements.
• Listen to the historical context Matz provides before tackling each style section. One recorded chorus of Jelly Roll Morton or Charlie Parker sets the ear up to understand what these arrangements are doing.

Use this as the bridge between classical piano studies and jazz exploration, positioning it as part of your intermediate curriculum in the second half of the year when students have the technique to handle rhythm notation and style markings. The instructional pages make it ideal for a unit on jazz history and idiom that feeds into a final concert or recital featuring student solos. You can also assign selections individually as supplementary material for students showing interest in contemporary styles.

• 12-bar blues form and progression recognition
• Swing rhythm interpretation and feel
• Blues scale construction and improvisation
• Jazz comping and left-hand voicing patterns
• Reading and performing jazz articulation and style markings
• Understanding the relationship between jazz and blues styles historically