Bruce Dudley
With 25 Piano Etudes in Idiomatic Styles, Dr. Bruce Dudley (Belmont University and Vanderbilt University) explores a variety of popular styles of music including jazz, rock, pop, gospel, fusion, blues, R&B, New Orleans, Afro-Cuban, samba, and bossa nova. The book addresses the stylistic, technical, and musical breadth required of pianists and keyboardists to succeed as working or touring musicians and/or session players in the 21st century. The level of difficulty ranges from lower intermediate to upper advanced. The ways in which various technical elements are presented and reinforced within the pieces should aid the student in gaining greater facility at the keyboard and exposure to idiomatic styles of music. The pieces can be learned in any order but progressing through the book in relative order of difficulty would prove beneficial to the student wishing for a methodical sequence of learning challenges and stylistic diversity. Each piece is a complete musical entity with developmental features and adherence to specific technical and stylistic devices. Mastery of these etudes will lead to a greater understanding of each of the styles the book explores and strengthen the pianist’s technique.
