Improvisation Step by Step: Improvising Classical Music on Piano

This book teaches the improvisation of classical piano music through a step-by-step method including the use of chord tone approaches, scales, arpeggios, non-chord tones, motivic development, ornamentation, modulation, stylistic variation, and more. By practicing simple tasks the pianist escapes the mental pressure of performing on the spot and develops the ease and freedom of improvising in classical styles. This book also includes 7 variations on a theme by Beethoven illustrating the improvisational concept and technique. Includes CD.

Mel Bay best-selling author, Misha V. Stefanuk, started playing piano at the age of five. He composed his first piece when he was nine. Mr. Stefanuk graduated from Boston University (M.M. in Music Education), Belmont University (B.M. in Music Composition) and Moscow Conservatory School (B.M. in Music Theory). Misha also studied at Moscow Studio of Music Improvisation Art, the Russian Academy of Music, where Misha was a student of Kirill Volkov, Aram Khachaturian's assistant and Dmitry Blum, Skidmore Jazz Institute, and Washington State University, studying with Gregg Yasinitsky, Charles Argersinger and Frank Mantooth. Misha has written more then 120 works for a variety of instrumentations, as well as music for over thirty theater shows, including an original score for Y2K Survival Guide with Leonard Nemoy. Misha has composed a significant amount of music for network television, including programs such as All My Children and One Life to Live (ABC), Passions (NBC), The Chris Isaak Show (Showtime) Young and the Restless and First Monday (CBS). Among his works are the Mel Bay best-sellers Jazz Piano Chords (nr.1 in Jazz Piano since 2002), Jazz Piano Scales (nr.3 since 2004) and Jazz Piano for the Young Beginner (nr.2 since 2005), Jazz Piano Album (2005) and Piano for Adults (2003). Mr. Stefanuk is a monthly columnist for Creative Keyboard and a regular judge at the Chopin Youth Piano Competition in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Mr. Stefanuk is a prize-winner of the Stereotypes and Nations Composition Competition held by Muzica Centrum Art Society in Cracow, Poland for his composition Equinokse for oboe, string trio and prepared piano, and of the Concerto Aria Composition Competition at Belmont University for his piece The New American Symphony. He was also named Outstanding Piano Player at the l29th Annual Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival, and has won full scholarships at Belmont University, Washington State University, and Skidmore Summer Jazz Institute. Misha and his wife, Evan, teach over one hundred students at Johnson Ferry Conservatory of Music in Atlanta Georgia and privately. Among them are recording artists, TV personalities, winners of national and regional competitions, and teachers. Misha's students attended a number of prestigious music schools in US, and abroad. Mr. Stefanuk has released over twenty CDs varying from Contemporary Classical to Jazz, New Age and Pop, including a recording of Bach's Inventions.