GRADE LEVELS Level 1: Beginning, five-finger patterns & simple rhythmsLevel 2: Easy, scales & simple syncopationLevel 3: Intermediate, beginning counterpoint & complex rhythms, Bach Notebooks, Bartók Mikrokosmos I–IILevel 4: Late Intermediate, technical & rhythmic sophistication, Bach Inventions, Bartók Romanian Folk Dance...

(S3) From Sight to Sound: 6 Original PIano Solos, by Randall Hartsell.  Randall Hartsell composed From Sight to Sound to express the "interconnectedness of nature and our lives," and this collection contains six reflective pieces characterized by melodic simplicity and harmonic richness. The collection capitalizes on the piano's capacity for c...

(S4) Bach Meets Jazz: 15 Well-Tempered Classics, arranged by Phillip Keveren. Phillip Keveren's latest arrangements will entertain anyone who loves Bach. In Bach Meets Jazz, Keveren cleverly adds a jazzy spin to fifteen popular Bach works. All the original melodies in these two-to-three-page arrangements are recognizable throughout, and the setting...

Accents are a fascinating thing. I mean the kind that keep Americans from understanding folks from across the pond and vice versa. I'll never forget landing at the Edinburgh, Scotland, airport and hailing a cab to my hotel. The cabbie said something to me that sounded vaguely like a phrase I should understand. It might as well have been Martian, fo...

My eleven-year old student Corey arrived at the year-end recital dusty and sweaty from playing two tournament soccer games. With fifteen minutes to start time and no audience yet present (graduation parties, other soccer and baseball games), Corey sat down at the piano to try out his pieces. He ran through the ABRSM Jazz Piano arrangement of Duke E...

One thing that has always drawn me to jazz is the harmony. It is fascinating to hear how a single chord change can define one artist's interpretation of Autumn Leaves or Night and Day from another artist's interpretation. Applied judiciously, these harmonic variations will add touches of color to your own arranging and performing. When one chord is...

Of all the seductive elements in the jazz idiom, it was the harmony that attracted me in the beginning. I really can't say when I first heard these sounds, but I have spent a lifetime listening and adapting them into my own keyboard playing. Jazz and pop players tend to speak in the language of chord symbols, so it is very helpful to beco...

In the Spring, 1994 issue of Keyboard Companion, Paul Sheftel and Robert Vandall answered the question, What do you do when adults are determined to play repertoire they can't possibly play?, by suggesting alternative choices for your students. In this issue, Fred Kern and Phillip Kevern answer the same question by discussing and suggesting transcr...