Le Livre Du Piano Jazz: Keyboard/Piano Book

This book earns its reputation through exhaustive, systematic coverage that doesn't sacrifice accessibility for depth. You get real voicing options pianists employ in professional settings, not just theoretical exercises, which means students can begin applying what they learn in their own comping and soloing immediately.

Dense and rewarding in the way only a well-organized reference can be. The book respects your intelligence and musical instincts while providing the scaffolding to build genuine competence in jazz harmony and improvisation.

Jazz piano students ready to move beyond lead sheets and fake books, as well as working pianists who want a comprehensive reference for deepening their harmonic knowledge and comping vocabulary. Teachers building a serious jazz curriculum will find this an indispensable resource for student assignments and demonstrations.

• Spend focused time on the substitution chapters before moving through the solo transcriptions; understanding the harmonic logic underneath makes the improvised lines click into place.
• Use the sample voicings as a reference library during practice, but work toward internalizing the logic so your hands can find alternatives in real time.
• Record yourself comping through standards using the voicing concepts, then listen back for clarity and voice leading smoothness.
• Transcribe portions of the 25 solos by ear before reading them on the page; this strengthens your connection to the actual jazz language.

Assign relevant chapters alongside student jazz combos or as supplementary material for jazz theory coursework. The scale and voicing sections work particularly well as warm-up study for pianists preparing for jazz performances or ensemble improvisation situations.

• Jazz voicing construction (shell voicings, rootless voicings, extensions)
• Harmonic substitution including tritone substitution
• Comping patterns and rhythmic accompaniment
• Jazz scales and their application in soloing
• Reading and analyzing jazz solo transcriptions
• Chord-scale relationships in improvisation