

Thomas Mott Osborne (1859-1925) was a prison reformer and political reformer fromĪuburn, New York. If you're "undeclared" it might be a good place to get started.Most composers' biographies are easily available from other sources therefore, theīiographical history is limited to persons of note whose signatures appear on various However, I've just run into lots of materials that I think are a little more useful, but it also all depends on what your goals are.
#Bill hilton piano pdf for free
You could do worse and I certainly think he's a guy worth throwing they money at if for no other reason than to feel like you're throwing a few bucks in a virtual tip jar for the great content he puts out for free on his Youtube channel. Heck, I'm a real self-starter and I still feel like Bill could've done more with his cocktail book for me and especially for people who need explicit direction. But that might be my personal bias toward the style of Mark Harrison or John Valerio. However, I still feel like it could've and should've been deeper with more specific examples and/or exercises.


I personally liked the layout of the book much better. His cocktail book is similar to HTRPtP, but luckily is aiming at a very specific topic so he is able to get a little deeper. I think the first chapter just explaining harmony might be the most useful to people who aren't conversant in jazz chords, though it might still leave some questions as it scarcely scratches 9th chords and I don't think it even mentions anything beyond.Ĭocktail is basically quiet, nebulous background music, almost always jazzy/bluesy. Still, if you don't know any of the concepts and aren't even sure where you want to go from here, it might be a good place to get your feet wet. Hilton either needed to be even broader (covering more beyond blues and comping) or he needed to dive deeper (give more incite into blues and comping). I know enough to sometimes miss when something is harder for someone and may be of more pedagogical value.īut I do tend to look at things with a pedagogical eye and I love looking at all kinds of books this way and I sort of feel like other people have done it better depending on what your goals are. I have to admit, it's hard for me to judge entirely because I have the problem I'm always complaining about in more advanced players. I don't think HTRPtP is the worst place to jump in and get a survey of concepts that a lot of people don't get from formal classical lessons, but while there are some specific examples that you could turn into exercises, I think a lot of people might feel vaguely directionless at the end. There are also appendices that I don't feel are particularly useful (things like written out chords in every key in every inversion). There is a fourth chapter that mostly just discusses other places to go and concepts to consider. The second chapter (of HTRPtP) jumps into 12 bar blues. He starts out explaining a lot of concepts pretty well (reading and understanding jazz symbols being the major one). I think they are well put together, it's difficult to cover the amount of material that he wants to cover without using a very large brush on a very small canvas. First off let me say I'm a big fan of his channel and he's at his best with fairly specific and targeted concepts that I think he does a good job of explaining as well as giving a practical approach to improving.Īll that said, I'm lukewarm on both of his books.
