Hang with the "Big Boys"
This book was somehow not what I expected. Having spent a fair bit of money lately to augment my piano chops, I'm reminded of an important point that is easy to forget when my inner "kid in the candy store" takes over. Musical instruction books must do two things to be effective: 1) meet you where you are; and 2) take you where you want to go. Notice that "you" plays a big part in the results.

This book does a great job on the first point. For beginners, it includes charts and recordings of model practice tunes to illustrate concepts that it builds on. For old timers, it catalogs a long list of standards in various ways to make them easier to remember. The title is enough to turn away experts that don't need the book at all.

The second point, taking you where you want to go, is where the book falls short for me. The book does a fine job in coaching the user in how to learn songs, and apply what you learn from one song to mastering other songs. It has drills and exercises to help you master and memorize a large body of material. The ultimate goal of this book is to free the user from fake books so they can go to jam sessions and fly without a net. The author and those whose opinions he values apparently have great disdain for musicians who carry fake books to jam sessions and the author makes it his mission here to spare his readers from such ignominy.

I don't currently need that kind of help. I'd guess that not many people reach that point. I accompany a singer on piano who doesn't care if I use a book or not. In fact, he likes to throw his own fake books at me during gigs to see what we can pull off. My immediate goals are to polish my fills, comping, harmonies, solos, and left hand work. Theory books, lick books, etc. feed that need, not this book.

There is value in what this book does, and I would like to try to impress the big boys one day, but until my repetoire fills out and I need a new challenge, I can see this book taking up space on my "round to it" shelf.

Essential Took When It Comes To Learning To Hang...
Remember when you walked into your first Jam session (or perhaps you're still yet to) and you were simply baffled how the cats knew just about (if not every) tune thrown at them... and in any key called... and you were thinking, "Jeez, how the heck did they do that ?" Well, this book attempts to answer that question. The answer in a nutshell is that tunes tend to follow forms... certain changes, certain bridges, and tunes with the same changes as other tunes... if you know those forms, and someone calls a tune you don't know, you lean over, and the cat next to you says, "Oh, its just * * changes..." - - The leader counts, and everyone is amazed how you were able to play it on the spot.

If you're already to the point where you understand how to play tunes - - you know your II V progressions, can play Blues, Rhythm Changes, handle a fake book, or are well on your way to it, but find yourself struggling when tunes are called, this book is might be what you need. It will break you free of simply reading chords from the book, and get you seeing where things are going - - at which point, rather than learning one tune at a time, every tune you learn will be like learning a 100 others (of course, if you hang out at the same session long enough, you'll find out that everybody calls the (...) same dozen or so tunes week after week... so maybe you don't have to memorize the basic 100 or so anyway...)

Whatever the case, if you've ever found yourself sweating on a gig or at a session, this book might be just what the doctor ordered - - and even if you're like me, and have the memory retention of a pet rock... it'll still make it easier to follow the written changes when they're thrown at you... definitely an essential learning resource for the aspiring student of Jazz !