Bradley Sowash Sheet Music Store - That's Jazz Performance Books

Performance Books By Bradley Sowash Publisher: Neil A. Kjos Music Company Illustrations: Stephen Elford Correlates with the popular That’s Jazz method providing additional opportunities for students to use their new improvisational skills.
Book 1 - Get Your' Groove On Intermediate, 31 pages $7.95 See the music Audio Samples	Book 2 - Walk the Talk Late Intermediate, 31 pages $7.95 See the music Audio Samples		Book 3 - Wave Goodbye Early Advanced, 40 pages $7.95 See the music Audio Samples
More fantastic elementary jazz tunes from the pen of Bradley Sowash! That’s Jazz Performance: Books 1, 2, and 3 correlate with the popular That’s Jazz method for beginning and intermediate jazz piano, and provide additional opportunities for students to use their new improvisational skills. Each tune includes an optional duet part while downloadable demonstration tracks and suggestions for MIDI keyboard enhancements make practicing even more fun! Going Further pages build on improvisation skills from That's Jazz and encourage further creative exploration. Students with an interest in jazz will love these books whether used as stand-alone repertoire or as a supplement to That’s Jazz. *Each tune in these books correlates to a preparatory tune in the companion That's Jazz* method books. Whether learning through individual study or with a teacher, it is strongly recommended that serious jazz students master each preparatory tune before studying the correlating tune in these books. Each tune includes enhanced repeats, optional duet parts, chord symbols, and more. Demonstration tracks (available for download at www.kjos.com) and suggestions for MIDI keyboard enhancements make practicing great fun! Going Further pages continue to build improvisation skills and encourage creative exploration. Order your autographed books today!** Not yet familiar with That's Jazz? CLICK HERE to explore the entire series. Video: Why Study Jazz?		Bundled Savings That's Jazz Piano Method Three Pack All three core method books $27.00 That's Jazz Performance Three Pack All three supplementary books $21.50 That's Jazz Six Pack Both sets, Over 240 pages! $48.50
Reviews
American Music Teacher Aug/Sept 2009 Bradley Sowash's new method That's Jazz joins a growing body of literature designed to meet the needs of teachers who would like to teach jazz, but have little or no prior experience. I received a review copy of the performance series; there is also a core method series with CD accompaniment. Each volume contains eight selections (seven in Book 2) with optional duet parts; these are fully notated but also include chord symbols. All of the volumes include a tutorial on jazz articulation and the helpful “Anatomy of a Jazz Chart,” along with a correlation chart that coordinates selections between the core method and the performance books. The music, all original pieces composed by Sowash, is hip and authentic-sounding and explores a variety of contemporary styles such as reggae, swing, bossa nova and rock. Model performances and accompaniment tracks are available for download at the Kjos website. I explored several of these and found them easy to navigate. The performances are on electronic keyboards and the quality is decent, although the inclusion of an authentic rhythm section with bass and drums would have made this feature even better. Each piece also offers a foray into improvisation with “Going Further,” a great pedagogical feature that highlights topics such as trading fours, using target notes, embellishments and blues scales. (Sowash differentiates between the “dark blues” scale – what most would consider the standard blues scale, and the “bright blues” scale, essentially a pentatonic scale with an added b3). These are the building blocks of improvisation for beginners, and including them is what differentiates a good jazz method course from books that are merely collections of jazzy pieces. This series would be excellent for a young student who has progressed beyond the first book of any standard piano method series. - Terry Klinefelter, West Chester University of Pennsylvania Music Room Piano students thrive on experiencing a variety of musical styles, and teachers are discovering that jazz is the perfect avenue for motivating their students. Not only is the music fun to play, it also opens them up to the vital musical tradition of artistic expression. That's Jazz covers the main jazz styles of swing, ethnic, and rock, and allows all teachers - even those with limited or no jazz training - to feel confident leading students through their first jazz experiences. *Whether used as a jazz method or as supplemental material, That's Jazz* provides a solid foundation in jazz piano.** Notated tunes stand alone as outstanding recital choices, while additional improvisation skills and activities allow students to delve deeper into the world of jazz. - musicroom.com		Clavier Companion Bradley Sowash's That's Jazz performance series is intended as a complement and supplement to the That's Jazz core method books, and each book begins with a chart correlating pieces between the books. Even within the performance series alone, Sowash impressively combines a presentation of solid repertoire with basic lessons about scales, style, embellishment, and harmony. The repertoire is comprised of brief-two-to-three page-compositions with an emphasis on rock and straight-eighth styles like reggae, West African kalimba music, and boogies. Since the tunes, especially in the earlier-level books, use very few chords, students have the opportunity to learn scales and improvisation. Because of the simple harmonies, the pieces aren't extremely fascinating, but they are catchy, rhythmic, and fun and serve their pedagogical purposes quite well. "Surf Board," from Book 1, for example, is a rock piece using the chords C, F, and G. Sowash employs these three chords to teach "boogie bass," challenging students to experiment with their own variations of simple left-hand accompaniment patterns below the repetitive melody. "Jamaican Jam' from Book 2 is a reggae with simple minor harmony that correlates to lessons about improvising with arpeggios and their inversions. One of the strengths of the book is the presence of options; each piece is accompanied by a duet part, suggestion for MIDI sounds, lyrics, and an improvisation challenge. There are also downloadable accompaniments from the Kjos multimedia library. I love that each piece includes chord symbols; student can become accustomed to thinking of harmony as independent from the specific notes and chords, even if the student are not yet improvising. When Sowash does ask student to improvise, the assignments are generally simple: embellishing the melody, moving up and down a scale, or adding rhythms to the left hand. Even the most stubbornly improvisation-resistant students should be capable of these tasks, and example are always provided just in case. While Books 1 and 2 focus on building a musical foundation, Book 3 introduces principles of phrasing-call and response, trading fours, and rhythmic variation-and more complicated chord-scale relationships. *The That's Jazz* performance series capably mixes repertoire and pedagogy, providing a fine introduction to the possibilities of music creation**. - Jeremy Siskind
Customer Comments
"I started another student playing blues today. He was so funny at first. I showed him the 12-bar blues with his left hand while I improvised over it. Then I showed him the blues scale and had him improvise. He freaked out a little, but then saw how easy it is to do! When we finished, he had a big smile on his face and said "that was fun!" - Kathy (Ohio piano teacher)
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