Margaret Brandman's 'Contemporary Piano Method' is designed to equip the student with the necessary skills to play both Classical and Modern music with ease and understanding. The methodology incorporates a variety of progressive learning modalities, including the interval approach, harmonic understanding and multi-key performance. Book 4 is the most advanced level of the method. The material in this book expand students' musical knowledge and playing skills into the realm of extended chord structures, chord voicings and jazz progressions, plus chord figuring and how to realise a figured bass at the keyboard. This level of the Contemporary Piano Method continues the study of polyphonic music including a three-part invention and a Prelude and Fugue by J.S.Bach. The book explores the various compositional resources of Western music of the Twentieth Century and beyond. The scope of the book covers the structure of music along with the topic of Root Progressions, tools for improvisation and much more. Throughout the book these tools are applied to help students successfully learn advanced pieces in a variety of both classical and contemporary styles, plus understand and perform jazz chord progressions and learn about music outside of the western music tradition, for instance the sound of Indonesian or Japanese music. It also features original compositions by the author who is also an established contemporary composer of works for orchestra, chamber ensembles, choir and solo voice, and piano.
