WB Popular Piano Library: Jazz Hits, Level 3: Piano Book

These arrangements live in the sweet spot between sounding genuinely sophisticated and remaining learnable at Level 3. The chord substitutions and riff-driven textures give students real jazz vocabulary to absorb while they're playing recognizable standards, rather than asking them to choose between familiarity and musical substance.

Urbane and laid-back. These arrangements have the casual confidence of a jazz lounge; you're working with blues-inflected harmonies, walking bass suggestions, and rhythmic syncopation that makes straight melodies swing. It's music that rewards listening as much as playing.

Early intermediate pianists who want to sound more mature than their technical level suggests, and any student curious about how jazz reimagines melody and harmony. This collection also serves pianists preparing for jazz ensemble or looking to explore standards beyond classical repertoire.

• Approach the chord substitutions as your chance to voice jazz colors. Even if a passage looks simple rhythmically, the harmonic choices are doing the heavy lifting; let them breathe rather than rushing.
• Use the recorded accompaniments (available separately) to lock in your feel and phrasing. Jazz swing rhythms require listening to a beat before you can reliably recreate one.
• Practice riff-based sections hands separately at first to internalize the syncopated patterns without worrying about coordination, then layer them back together.

Pair these with a classical or contemporary solo recital to show range and genre awareness, or extract individual titles as intermission pieces for longer concerts. They also work as incentive repertoire for students ready to branch into jazz but not yet ready for full improvisation.

• Reading and playing jazz chord substitutions (alterations, extensions, tritone subs)
• Comping rhythms and syncopated figures typical of swing styles
• Voicing melody within jazz harmonies rather than playing it as a single line
• Interpreting articulation and phrasing in a jazz context (legato through harmonic changes, space within rhythmic lines)
• Left-hand independence and walking bass patterns