Jazz Piano for the Young Beginner.

Jazz Piano for the Young Beginner, by Misha V. Stefanuk. Mel Bay Publications, Inc. (#4 Industrial Dr., Pacific, MO 63069), 2005. 48 pp. $14.95.

The title might suggest either a jazz instruction book or a collection of jazz-style pieces for beginners ages 6-9. The first several pages present music reading and playing instruction including "Finding Notes On a Piano," "Middle C," "Intro to Rhythm" and "Rhythm and Music Notation, that seemingly put the book in the jazz instruction category. However, these concepts are introduced all at once with no immediate application for the student. Perhaps they are intended simply as a reference for the less-than-qualified teacher? And all chapters have general music reading and piano playing concepts with no references to jazz style. The remainder of the book is a collection of 30 pieces progressing in difficulty from a hands-together, three-note-range piece, to a rather difficult young beginners piece requiring independent hand patterns and shifting positions. Most of the pieces have jazzy titles. Half-way through the book there is a message (to the teacher?) that the eighth notes should be played as swinging eighths with the note on the beat longer and the note on the off-beat shorter.

There also are references to a left hand that is boogie-woogie like; another reference states "This piece has very boogie woogie like color" and another piece is prefaced with the statement "This is a ragtime." All pieces are written in the C-major scale. One piece includes blues-like flatted thirds written as D-sharps and a few later pieces involve E-flat and B-flat accidentals that suggest dominant seventh harmony.

A CD is included that should give students a jazz-style accompaniment with which to play along; however, it is only an unaccompanied solo piano performance of the collection's pieces. The pages contain no illustrations or directions for the student. Reviewed by Ann Collins, NCTM, Macomb, Illinois.