The Rhythm Keyboard Workout DVD by Andrew D. Gordon gives pianists/keyboardists the opportunity to practice rhythm keyboard techniques over common chord progressions while playing along to rhythm tracks of keyboards, bass and drums in various different contemporary styles including Blues, Rock, Funk and Latin. The examples in the book/DVD range from advanced/beginner through to intermediate and advanced levels, so feel free to pick the examples that are at your level and continue on. Most blues, rock, funk and latin tunes are built up based on the fact that each instrument gets a specific rhythm, and the combination of all the rhythmic elements creates a groove that is stronger than any of the individual rhythms. There are 70 different examples consisting of a variety of tempos, keys and keyboard sounds such as electric piano, clavinet and acoustic piano. The DVD consists of video examples at a slowed down tempo with a metronome click, followed by audio examples recorded twice, the first time is the keyboard rhythm part playing along with the rhythm backing tracks, the second time has just the rhythm backing tracks playing so that the keyboardist can play the rhythm part along with the backing tracks. The music notation is shown on the screen while the audio examples are being played. Andrew's suggestion is to carefully pay attention to the rhythm of each example first by playing the video version of each track (the slowed down version) and count or clap the various keyboard rhythms before attempting to play them on the keyboard. Once you have mastered the rhythm on the keyboard at the slowed down tempo try to play along with the rhythm tracks at the correct tempo. His hope is that learning these various rhythms will inspire you to create your own rhythm patterns over the various chord progressions used in the book. The DVD is only in NTSC format, however the DVD will work on any computer DVD player. For customers with computers, PDF files to print out the scores, MIDI files to play in your sequencing program and 70, mp3 files (extended play a long tracks, each, 1 minute in length) are available on the DVD (media/extras folder) to download to your computer.
