what books to buy?

[midnightparader]

Hi,
I need some help here..

My friend is a keyboardist and he’s looking out for books that can help him play by ear, or even play better. Books that include things like the different chords, scales, techniques and all.

Do you guys have a good recommendation? And where to get it? It’s also fine if it’s a downloadable version (in fact, even better!).

Please help! Thanks!

 

[pf]

Learning from books kinda dry.

How about checking up some improvisation books at the library first and borrowing them to read? Now that we have the library@esplanade, there are more music related books.

http://catalogue.nlb.gov.sg/

That way can decide if books are the way to go for your friend and also save some money.

 

[pianomankris]

It's probably best for him to get lessons, rather than buying a book, as there is no one book that can teach you everything, whereas a good teacher has knowledge of every aspect of teaching, and how to adapt the material being taught into a manner that is understandable to each student.

With some books the material covered is great, but the language it is written in can be intimidating for a beginner. A teacher can retranslate the material into a 'student-friendly' language.

 

[pf]

Yeah, some of the terminologies used in books are not covered in the classical syllabus. So, might take some time to look into the meanings. Makes learning from books quite a chore.

In addition, certain applications especially grooves are easier to learn from demonstration.

 

[midnightparader]

oh he alrdy has foundation, lessons and all that jazz.. but he wanna learn more techniques and chords that lessons don't cover.. cuz an hour a week doesn't give u the total coverage.. haha.

 

[pf]

Then I am surprised, as jazz can be considered as the ultimate form of improvisation. If he had learnt jazz, he should have learnt to play by ear and do complex chord voicings. I don't understand...

I had assumed that your friends was classically trained and therefore require help in playing pop piano.

Well, this should be enough for your friend to chew on for quite a while.
http://aebersold.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=JAZZ&Category_Code=_HANDBOOK

 

[Cheez]

Pf, I think midnightparader is using the colloqual "all that jazz" (as in "all those things"), rather than the reference to the genre "jazz" itself...

 

[pf]

Oops...haha...didn't realise.

 

[midnightparader]

hahaha. thanks Cheez, that was what I meant. realised I shouldn't play around with words that are related to music when I don't mean it musically, in a music forum! haha. sorry for the confusion!
anyway.. thanks for the link! I hope it'll be useful to my friend.