Improvising Blues Piano Paperback – December 1, 1997

This is an indispensable resource for the aspiring blues pianist. It is comprehensive, well-sequenced in terms of skills and covers a broad spectrum of blues artists, lending variety and novelty to one’s practice. Although I am not a “raw beginner,” many of us in the beginner’s range of piano will need to exercise patience and persistence if we want to advance through this book. Fortunately, the fingerings provided are not always intuitive, so they become indispensable to acquiring fluency. I have also found it helpful to go back and re-read the explanatory notes in the book and revisit early selections rather than to get “stuck” at a point that can lead to frustration and abandonment. On occasion, I have encountered more success on a subsequent piece before retreating to an earlier song. I have also found it valuable to take advantage of both the audio CD that comes with the book, as well as some of the YouTube videos by Mr. Richards that provide an added dimension. Hearing selections has helped correct occasional rhythmic inaccuracies that tended to creep into my practice sessions when relying solely on notes on a page. Bottom line: Tim Richards has put together a compendium of blues that is both comprehensive and detailed, meticulously and thoughtfully assembled so as to provide a resource that I should be able to use for many months, if not years. It is well worth the money if you are serious about blues piano and is the best single resource that I have discovered to date, a veritable blues goldmine.

God this is a great book!I can't say enough about this book if you're looking to make your way into the world of Blues and New Orleans style piano playing. This book is a direct pipeline to that world.I'm primarily a guitar player who has been spending a good amount of time at the piano in the last couple of years. I'm also a music book junkie. I've collected a personal library of music books, guitar books, piano books, etc. And of all the innumerable books I've collected, this one might be the best. Not just because of where it aims to take you, but because of its layout. I own books that contain much more musical information than this book contains, but none of the other books I own come remotely close to providing a layout that takes you from the most basic form of a style to exercises that are cool and very much akin to the foundation blocks that all the great players used to build their masterpieces, as quickly as this book does.I had some previous piano experience before starting in on this book, but by no means was it extensive. So although I wouldn't consider this book the best place to start for somebody that was starting piano or music exploration from scratch, I would consider it a great place to start for somebody looking to get to the the aforementioned piano styles that had at least a little bit of prior experience. Essentially a late beginner or early intermediate player. Or if you're like an unleashed pit bull and you DO want to start here from scratch it is doable if you're ready to really put the work in. The provided CD gives you a recording of almost every example and exercise in the book, so armed with that, it makes the knowledge in this book very accessible.The bottom line is that this is a great, great book. I highly recommend it not because it has more information in it than any other book but because of the way that information is presented. It reconstructs blues piano from the ground up, and encourages you to understand all the building blocks so that you can start playing something pleasing and even improvising quickly. It also lays the material in front of you in such a way that you can quickly understand how all the building blocks fit together to construct the music. I've seen a lot of books that have more information but at the end still leave you wondering as to how all that information really fits together to make something "musical". This book does a superior job at giving you the knowledge to make something musical in the blues piano idiom right from the beginning.Tim Richards deserves to be commended for the amount of work, insight, and vision that went into making this book. After I got my hands on this book I soon after got every other book that Tim Richards wrote based on how great this one was. I got all of his other books despite the fact that I will be using this book for years to come, and who knows when I'll have the time to get into his other works.

There realy are not many great methods for the blues out there, but Tim Richards is thorough and goes into the required detail to show you how each blues style works.The examples are very playable, suiting more or less an intermediate level pianist. Richards is one of the few take-away instruction teachers to be concerned about fingerings, and takes the trouble to suggest good ones. His playing instructions work very well and add a dimension that you don't often get in these method books - he has a great insight into the chords, and the notes and the way they fit the music. The breakdown of theory is very well explained, if sometimes overdone. But he never floods you with scales without showing you how to apply them - that in itself is a good thing!Richards' choice of music is impeccable, and calssic blues standards of af all styles are presented from boogie, to funk, slow blues, and some jazzy numbers. And he shows you music in a number of keys so you aren't stuck to one or two and get a work out in the other keys. I found the music very playable, and well sounding, although I didn't always find the improvising instructions that intuitive.The historical background he gives is accurate and informative and the pictures of blues and jazz legends really make this book interesting.My criticism of the book is that it should have stretched up to the more advanced techniques of the blues - where the top players are, like Oscar Peterson, for example. That is its dissapointment - a teacher as good as this who dedicated the time to work a out a progressive and different course in blues shouldn't have stopped at the middle level. He surely should have stretched us, his interested audience up to the highest level.But this should not stop you from using this very useful and inspiring book - I Thank you sincerely Tim.

Blues Piano 1 & 2 in einem Band auf English. Habe Seite für Seite verglichen und konnte keine Abweichungen oder ergänzende Änderungen entdecken.

Méthode complète et interressante par son travail sur l’harmonie.. notion de base accord trois notes necessaire.Attention: ce livre correspond à l’intégrale des 2 volumes de Tom Richards: Blue piano vendus séparément...

Challenging and inspiring.

No me interesaba el blues especialmente sino el jazz, pero el autor recomienda empezar por el blues, así que empecé por este libro. No me arrepiento. Es muy divertido. Cada capítulo está dedicado a un tipo de acorde por lo que vas aprendiendo armonía al mismo tiempo que aprendes temas, algunos del autor y otros muy conocidos. Normalmente los libros de jazz se centran al principio mucho en la teoría y en ejercicios técnicos, pueden pasar muchos meses hasta que empiezas a tocar algo, por lo que siempre me acababa aburriendo.Otra cosa buena que tiene es que en cada capítulo el nivel de dificultad empieza en el mínimo, y va aumentando gradualmente. Cuando llegas a un nivel de dificultad excesivo, el propio autor te recomienda que pases al siguiente capítulo. Así empiezas a escuchar sonidos de una armonía diferente, a aprender nuevos temas y técnicas, pero a un grado de dificultad asequible. Para mí esta es la clave del éxito de este libro. Consigue mantenerte siempre motivado.1 Tríadas2 Acordes de sexta3 Acordes de Séptima (dominante)4 Acordes de novena y 135 Acordes menores y disminuidosEstoy deseando acabarlo para comprar el siguiente de la serie, que se centra en Jazz. Aunque creo que este me llevara mínimo un año. Es preferible tener bien los fundamentos. El blues ayuda sobre todo a tener una buena independencia entre las manos, que es fundamental para poder improvisar jazz. Me parece mentira que después de tantos años intentándolo y tanto dinero gastado en libros por fin haya encontrado el camino.

Soy un pianista amateur, y este a libro me ha hecho aprender muchísimo y sonar como un profesional desde las primeras lecciones. Altamente recomendado.