A Guide to Non-Jazz Improvisation: Piano Edition

Book excerpt: This book will appeal to pianists who want to learn to improvise in many of the styles current today including blues, rock, Latin-American, country, New Age, World Music, etc.The non-jazz improvisation series is a concept that germinated in Dick Weissman's mind while he was attending music school. He wrote a 15-piece arrangement of the old square dance tune, Cripple Creek, and wanted the trombone to take a solo as part of the arrangement. When the trombonist kept playing a bebop solo that was totally unsuitable for the chart, Dick realized that - in addition to the many musicians who do not improvise - there are even jazz musicians who don't know how to improvise outside the limits of their own stylistic backgrounds.The non-jazz improvisation series mostly includes new original tunes that are intended to show how to improvise in many musical styles, including:BluesCountryAmerican folkLatin-AmericanWorld music including South American, Eastern European and AsianOdd meters (playing in a variety of time signaturesNew AgeClassicalFolk-RockIn short, the books are an encyclopedia of virtually every musical style, excluding jazz.