The Complete Jazz Keyboard Method: Mastering Jazz Keyboard: Keyboard/Piano Book & Online Audio

This is the book students actually want to keep using after they finish it. Baerman avoids the trap of treating advanced jazz concepts as isolated theory problems; instead, he weaves voicings, substitutions, and modal work into frameworks students can apply immediately at the keys. The progression from Intermediate to Mastering feels natural rather than overwhelming.

Working through this material opens ears to the harmonic complexity beneath jazz's conversational surface. You'll discover how a simple blues progression can be reimagined through diminished and whole tone scales, how to voice chords so they breathe, and how stride piano and walking bass create the rhythmic anchor that lets improvisation soar.

This book is for keyboardists ready to move beyond basic jazz standards and develop the harmonic sophistication that distinguishes working jazz musicians. Students completing the Intermediate level and teachers looking for a rigorous, comprehensive resource for advanced high school or college preparatory study will find exactly what they need.

• Study the chord voicing examples in context by playing through the progressions multiple times before attempting any reharmonization. Muscle memory for standard voicings comes before experimentation.
• Record yourself playing the walking bass and stride patterns separately, then layer them back in gradually. This builds independence between hands without the cognitive overload of combining everything at once.
• Use the audio tracks not as background but as active learning tools; pause frequently to isolate what you hear the demonstration player doing, then replicate the specific voicing or substitution choice before moving forward.
• Apply modes of the minor scales to one ii-V-I progression at a time rather than trying to navigate multiple harmonic contexts simultaneously. Master the sound in one key before transposing.

Assign this as the primary text for any keyboardist pursuing jazz performance study at the intermediate-to-advanced level. It also serves as an excellent reference for jazz combo directors preparing students for small-group improvisation, since much of the content directly supports soloing and comping in real ensemble situations.

• Upper structure and rootless chord voicings
• Modal improvisation using modes of major and minor scales
• Chord substitution and reharmonization techniques
• Walking bass line construction and stride piano technique
• Diminished and whole tone scale applications
• Non-diatonic progression navigation
• Melodic reharmonization and voice leading