Jazz Keyboard Study: Keyboard/Piano Book

This workbook treats jazz keyboard as a systematic study rather than a collection of tips. The breadth of topics—from tritone substitutions to montuno patterns—means students encounter real harmonic and rhythmic concepts they'll use immediately in jazz contexts, not just isolated exercises.

Practical and methodical. You're building a toolkit of jazz keyboard techniques in a logical order, working through harmony and comping before tackling the more layered challenges of countermelody and substitution.

College students in jazz keyboard courses, private students serious about jazz piano, and self-directed learners who need structured material beyond songbooks. The workbook format makes it equally valuable for classroom study and individual practice.

• Work through comping rhythms slowly at first, focusing on how each voicing lands within the chord progression before adding tempo.
• When learning spread voicings, practice both hands separately so the left hand independence becomes automatic.
• Study the walking blues examples in context by playing along with recordings at various tempos to internalize the phrasing and pocket.
• Record yourself comping over a backing track, then listen back to identify where your countermelody lines need clarification or adjustment.

Use this as the core text for a jazz keyboard course, either following it sequentially over two semesters or selecting chapters that align with repertoire your students are learning. Individual chapters work well as supplementary resources when a student needs to strengthen a specific skill like voicing or rhythmic comping.

• jazz voicing construction and voice leading
• comping rhythms and syncopation
• blues walking bass patterns
• spread voicings across the keyboard
• countermelody creation over changes
• tritone substitutions and their harmonic function
• left hand independence and voicing
• montuno patterns and repetitive accompaniment figures
• harmonic analysis of jazz chord progressions