Starkeeper,

Yes, I promised I would review the book, but I still didn't have the time to go through it in detail. Sorry. I agree with Scott Yee's comments. I can add that it has a first section concerning harmony and rhythmic concepts for piano players. Frankly, I prefer the route of good jazz theory books, it's more complete and interesting, but of course, there are specific pop playing techniques and rhythmic concepts very well covered in this book. Section two deals with several piano styles (in great detail): pop ballad, pop-rock and hard rock, new age, funk, country, gospel...

But nothing specific for arranger keyboard players. BTW, Scott, did you find any GOOD books dealing with specific arranger keyboard
techniques and concepts? I couldn't find none.

Another interesting book is "The Contemporary Keyboardist" by John Novello. He produced three video tapes based on his book and they cover many different aspects like ear training, comping, the blues, sight reading, etc. There is a chapter with advice about the business scene, and a large chapter with interviews with well known musicians and composers like Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, etc.

I have also found a very interesting piece of software. It's an extremely well done and very complete interactive Master Class in two volumes (64 lessons, with midi files for specific practice techniques) with a canadian jazz pianist, Miles Black, that colaborated with PGMusic (Vancouver) - the guys that created Band-In-A-Box. It covers a lot of stuff, and surprisingly (once it's about jazz), some lessons address pop playing styles (piano).

-- José.