How to Voice Standards at the Piano - The Menu

At last! A simple, easy-to-learn method for playing the melodies of your favorite tunes, using hip voicings as played by Bill Evans, Herbie Hancock, McCoy Tyner, Kenny Barron, etc. Famed jazz pianist and author of “The Jazz Piano Book,” Mark Levine has created “The Menu” — a succinct guide to learning a multitude of voicings so you can harmonize melodies on the spot.

‘So What’ chords, upper structures, 4th chords, etc. are not only good for ‘comping,’ but are also ideal for voicing melodies. For example, the note G in the melody on top of a D-7 chord is the 4th of the chord. Did you know that a ‘stacked 3rd’ voicing, as well as the ‘Kenny Barron chord’ would be perfect for that? This book explains all of that, so you can instantly play jazz songs with the best available voicings.

Using two standards and a bebop melody as examples, Mark breaks each tune up into four-bar sections, then shows the best voicings to use on each chord and why those choices were made. These voicings are all drawn from a one-page ‘Menu’ that, once internalized, will allow you to spontaneously create your own style of playing jazz piano, based on the masters of the art form.