Well, I got Ralph Stricker book "Jazz Theory
and Improvisation Studies for Accordion".
My wife and I, both pretty good piano players, with over
40 years each, mostly in classical music. My wife is a very good sight
reader. We set down for a number of hours, in front of the piano, and went
through various parts of the book, sort of quickly, to get the idea of
what it was all about.
The book is really great. As far as I am concerned, Ralph
could have called it "Jazz Theory and Improvisation Studies for Accordion
and Piano". The book provides a systematic approach to learning Jazz chords
and scales, and could be used as a guide for understanding Jazz patterns,
very quickly. I see it usefulness for a lot of contemporary music as well,
because such chords and patterns have penetrated so much of western music
to one degree or another (post Rag time era music).
Of course, this is not a book for everyone. Certainly
not for Om Pa Pa players. Much of the folk stuff is not in need of Jazz
chords and patterns either. Yet I believe that the lessons could be very
useful for a lot of styles. Particularly, the challenge to improve the
left hand, with scales, bass and chords combinations, and more, be it for
Jazz, folk music or anything else.
Prior to getting the book, my own self evaluation was:
I have over 40 years of piano including all of Beethoven sontas memorized,
and so much more...The right hand should be no problem... The left hand
must be the real problem... With such self view, I have of course
been practicing the left all the time.
When I got the book, I realized that I have actually gone
pretty far in improving my left. What surprised me is that I know so little
about Jazz, and that I have neglected my right hand. Sure, I can play melodies
and chords, with speed and expression, but I have not been aware enough
of the potential in use of augmented, diminished and other chords, right
hand inversions and more. Many of those sound so wonderful on the accordion,
much more so then on the piano, in my personal opinions. I have been admiring
other musicians doing it, but neglected to do so myself.
In other words, I am very excited about Ralph's book.
It was a good day, and after dinner, my wife, son and myself had a "getting
into blues" session, with me playing accordion blues scales and chords
and all three of us taking turns at improvising melody and lyrics, singing
about our dog, cats and more personal stuff. Music is the spice of life
- it certainly keeps me going!
In my opinion, unless you are already a world class accordionist,
if you are made to be a musician, the book will give you the tools to play
great Jazz and contemporary western accordion music. In particular, my
previous view of Jazz has been of being very so flexible and improvisational
in nature, to the point of having little to pin it down. I was wrong. To
my surprise, Ralph has been able to "break it down" and present it in terms
of "basic building blocks". It is not as different from classical music
as I thought. True, the rhythms and spirit is unique, but the music itself
is somewhat contained within the basic "building blocks". I do not
know if to laugh or cry. Cry because some of the mystery is gone, or laugh
because I too can play Jazz...
Thank you Ralph Stricker, and best regards to all.
Dan Lavry
