Jazz 'n Rags at Your Fingertips, Books 14; Folk Songs 'n Favorites at Your Fingertips, Books 1-4.(Book Review)

Jazz 'n Rags at Your Fingertips, Books 14; Folk Songs 'n Favorites at Your Fingertips, Books 1-4, edited by Janet Vogt. Heritage Music Press (The Lorenz Corporation) (P.O. Box 802, Dayton, OH 45401), 2005. 32 pp, each. $6.95, each.

Jazz 'n Rags at Your Fingertips, Books 1-4 are subtitled easy, moderately easy, early-intermediate and intermediate, and include works from the following composers: Marilyn Briant, Martha Sherrill Kelsey, Barbara Lopez, Steve Nehrenberg, Walter and Carol Noona and Andrew Zatman. There are 19 pieces in Book One, 15 pieces in each of Books Two and Three and 11 pieces in Book Four. Each book contains ballads, blues, Latin pieces and rags.

Book One has a wide range of difficulty, so a second or third year student could sight read the first pages. Five duets are included for the teacher or a more advanced student. Most of the pieces are on white keys with an occasional black key added. The first piece, "After the Rain," is an easy piece with a duet that adds major ninth and seventh chords, making a nice ballad. Other titles include "Turquoise Blues Boogie," "Chopsticks Rag," "The Jinx of the Sphinx" and the "Wiggle Worm Rag." "A Touch of Tango" is a lively, recital-type piece with staccato and legato touches and syncopation.

Books Two, Three and Four progress to fuller harmonies and more complex rhythms, and are good for sight reading and as an introduction to jazz rhythms. More pieces in the keys of B-flat would have been helpful for playing in jazz bands and I would have preferred more marked jazz accents.

Book Two contains "Articulation Blues," "Traffic Jam Rag" and "Waltz in Blue." In Book Three, "Bumblebee Rag" is a good chromatic scales exercise and "Smooth Sailing" has contrasting sections that include flowing eighth notes followed by block chord style. Book Four introduces quartal harmonies in "So There" and a fun boogie, "Tiger Beetle Boogie." The appealing ...