The Pianist's Guide to Historic Improvisation

Author: John J. Mortensen
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190920424
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 288

Book Description
Keyboard artists in the time of J.S. Bach were simultaneously performers, composers, and improvisers. By the twentieth century, however, the art of improvisation was all but lost. Today, vanishingly few classically-trained musicians can improvise with fluent, stylistic integrity. Many now question the system of training that leaves players dependent upon the printed page, and would welcome a new approach to musicianship that would enable modern performers to recapture the remarkable creative freedom of a bygone era. The Pianist's Guide to Historic Improvisation opens a pathway of musical discovery as the reader learns to improvise with confidence and joy. Useful as either a college-level textbook or a guide for independent study, the book is eminently practical. Author John Mortensen explains even the most complex ideas in a lucid, conversational tone, accompanied by hundreds of musical examples. Mortensen pairs every concept with hands-on exercises for step-by-step practice of each skill. Professional-level virtuosity is not required; players of moderate skill can manage the material. Suitable for professionals, conservatory students, and avid amateurs, The Pianist's Guide leads to mastery of improvisational techniques at the Baroque keyboard.

The Pianist's Guide to Historic Improvisation

Author: John J. Mortensen
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190920416
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 288

The Piano Improvisation Handbook

Author: Carl Humphries
Publisher: Hal Leonard Corporation
ISBN: 9780879309770
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 492

Book Description
"The Piano Improvisation Handbook" offers a comprehensive overview of the practical skills and theoretical issues involved in mastering all forms of piano improvisation. It explores a wide range of styles, including classical, jazz, rock and blues. Whereas other books on improvisation typically offer little more than models for imitation and exercises for practising, this one adopts an approach specifically designed to encourage and enable independent creative exploration. The book contains a series of graded tutorial sections with musical examples on CD, as well as an extensive introductory section detailing the history of keyboard and piano improvisation, an appendix listing useful scales, chords, voicings and progressions across all keys, a bibliography and a discography. In addition to sections outlining how melody, harmony, rhythm, texture and form work in improvised piano music, there are sections devoted to explaining how ideas can be developed into continuous music and to exploring the process of finding a personal style. A key feature is the distinctive stress the author puts on the interconnectedness of jazz and classical music where improvisation is concerned. This book is best suited to those with at least some prior experience of learning the piano. However, the rudiments of both music theory and piano technique are covered in such a way that it can also serve as an effective basis for a self-sufficient course in creative piano playing.

Improvisation at the Piano

Author: Brian Chung
Publisher: Alfred Music
ISBN: 1457425122
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 235

Book Description
This unique text uses a step-by-step approach to guide the reader from fundamental concepts to advanced topics in improvisation. Each subject is broken into easy to understand segments, gradually becoming more complex as improvisational tools are acquired. Designed for the classically trained pianist with little or no experience in improvisation, it uses the reader’s previous knowledge of basic theory and technique to help accelerate the learning process. Included are more than 450 music examples and illustrations to reinforce the concepts discussed. These concepts are useful in all improvisational settings and can be applied to any musical style. For pianists interested in jazz, there are three chapters dedicated to introducing jazz improvisation, which can be used as the basis for further study in this idiom. Teachers using this text can go online to www.improvisationatthepiano.com to download lesson plans, ask specific questions about improvisation, and view answers to the most frequently asked questions about this book.

The Performing Pianist's Guide to Fingering

Author: Joseph Banowetz
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 0253053145
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 244

Book Description
The Performing Pianist's Guide to Fingering, the much-anticipated companion to Joseph Banowetz's The Pianist's Guide to Pedaling, provides practical fingering solutions for technical musical passages. Banowetz contends that fingering choices require much thought and consideration and that too often these choices are influenced by historical traditions and ideas rather than by actual performance conditions. By returning to the unedited original compositions, he strives to help the advanced pianist think through the composer's musical intent and the actual performance tempo and dynamics when selecting the fingering. Banowetz also includes valuable contributions by Philip Fowke, who examines redistributions by Benno Moiseiwitsch in Rachmaninoff's compositions, and Nancy Lee Harper, who explores the often very different approaches to fingering found in keyboard music of the Baroque era. The Performing Pianist's Guide to Fingering will be useful to the advanced pianist and to instructors looking to guide students in improving this important art.

Improvising Fugue

Author: John J. Mortensen
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0197645232
Category : Canons, fugues, etc
Languages : en
Pages : 361

Book Description
"This book lays out a gradual and clear method by which performers on piano, harpsichord, organ, or digital keyboards may learn to improvise fugues in eighteenth century style. The first half of the book is a comprehensive course in Italian partimento, the pedagogical system that simultaneously trains musicians in harmony, counterpoint, keyboard style, improvisation, composition, and audiation. In order to teach partimento, the book draws upon the treatises of Italian masters such as Giovanni Furno, Fedele Fenaroli, and Francesco Durante. After building a foundation through partimento, the book presents a gradual approach to improvising fugues, drawing upon the fugue d'ecole (academic fugue) tradition of the Paris Conservatoire in the nineteenth century. Particular attention is paid to the fugue treatise of André Gedalge. Each concept is accompanied by practical exercises; readers will find detailed instruction at every level of their journey into improvisation. The book concludes with exercises in improvising complete fugues on a wide variety of musical themes"--

The Big Book of Jazz Piano Improvisation

Author: Noah Baerman
Publisher: Alfred Music Publishing
ISBN: 9780739031711
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 148

Book Description
National Keyboard Workshop book, approved curriculum.

Complete Book of Modulations for the Pianist

Author: GAIL SMITH
Publisher: Mel Bay Publications
ISBN: 1609740335
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 64

Book Description
The Complete Book of Modulations for the Pianist is a valuable aid for those wishing to create continuity between pieces in different keys. Its one-measure progressions lead smoothly from one key to another. A brief introductory section presents modulations to and from the key of C major. the four main sections that follow cover: Every Major Key to Each Major Key, Every Key to Each Minor Key, Every Minor Key to Each Minor Key, and Every Minor Key to Each Major Key. Each section is arranged in accordance with the circle of fifths. the modulations presented in this book vary in style and may be adapted for use in many situations. This is a unique book which is a must for any keyboard accompanist's library.

After the Golden Age

Author: Kenneth Hamilton
Publisher: OUP USA
ISBN: 0195178262
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 321

Book Description
Hamilton dissects the oft invoked myth of a 'Great Tradition', or Golden Age of pianism. He then goes on to discuss the performance style great pianists, from Liszt to Paderewski, and delves into the far from inevitable development of the piano recital.

The Contemporary Piano

Author: Alan Shockley
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 144228188X
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 269

Book Description
With Contemporary Piano: A Performer and Composer’s Guide to Techniques and Resources, Alan Shockley provides a comprehensive resource for composers writing music that uses extended techniques for the piano, and for pianists interested in playing repertoire that makes use of techniques and/or implements unfamiliar to them. Shockley explains dozens of ways to prepare a piano without damaging the instrument, how to notate every standard technique and many, many obscure ones, and the specific geographies of every common concert hall piano. This will be the standard reference for pianists touring and playing inside-the-piano repertoire, and for composers at all levels of familiarity with the piano hoping to understand the mechanical miracle that is the modern piano.