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Where are workbook students from?

JAZZ

TRAINING

WORKBOOK

The Jazz Training Workbook is a community-driven training book. This means YOU can decide what goes into it.

Help is finally here.

Timothy Gondola's 300-page jazz piano workbook is a comprehensive, practice-driven training system developed from the real experiences, goals, and challenges of students around the world. Drawing on feedback from over a hundred pianists, it is designed to address the most common frustrations in learning jazz-bridging the gap between understanding what to play and knowing how to actually play it.

Organized into seven parts, the workbook guides students through a complete developmental process: training the mind, rhythm, right hand, ear, chords, and overall playing, followed by structured daily practice routines. Each section builds upon the last, creating a cohesive pathway toward jazz fluency. Rather than presenting isolated concepts, the workbook emphasizes integration-helping students connect technique, theory, listening, and improvisation into a unified musical approach.

Across 41 detailed lessons, students engage with exercises, practice modules, listening modules, and real musical examples. Concepts are explained clearly and efficiently, with the goal of making complex ideas accessible and immediately usable at the piano. Unique features such as color-coded notation, cross-referenced lessons, and guided practice routines support both understanding and retention, allowing students to recognize patterns, internalize vocabulary, and develop confidence in their playing.

At its core, the workbook is built on the belief that jazz is not an abstract or mysterious art, but a skill that can be developed through intentional practice. It encourages students to move beyond passive learning and actively engage with the music-experimenting, adapting, and applying concepts in real playing situations.

Designed for both independent learners and structured study, this workbook serves as both a detailed method and a flexible framework. It not only provides the tools needed to begin improvising, but also equips pianists with a long-term approach to growth, creativity, and musical expression.

The Jazz Training Workbook is:

  • I am taking all of your suggestions and requests, combining them with my own expertise, ideas, and practice techniques and am creating a more wholistic jazz training method.

  • What do you want to learn? What do you need help with? Your requests and suggestions are determining the structure, content, and direction of this workbook.

  • Some of us have several available hours a day to practice. Some of us barely have 5 minutes. You'll be able to choose from multiple practice routines that fit with your schedule.

  • As we walk through the various exercises, you'll find helpful explanations that explain the concepts clearly. Pair this with the free Jazz Starter Pack and Study Notes to master the material.

Community Input.

  • Mer, Madagascar 🇲🇬

    “I need jazz vocabulary exercises to help me understand the mechanics of improv.”

  • Ronnie, India 🇮🇳

    "My jazz skills are poor, I want to learn improvisation."

  • Fred, France 🇫🇷

    “I have tried to learn jazz piano for a very long time now. Among the things I find difficult: what to play with the left hand, how to memorize pieces, how to get out of cliché phrases. I tend to play the same phrases over and over again.”

  • Peter, Denmark 🇩🇰

    "I'd like a better understanding of quick and immediate use of appropriate fingering on the piano– especially when the music runs fast. Including the transformation from scales up and down to music."

  • Itay, Israel 🇮🇱

    "I am a beginner and need help with improvisation and the ideal fingering."

  • Pasa, Ukraine 🇺🇦

    "What I want to get better at is improvisation. I don't have any guidance."

  • Igor, Croatia 🇭🇷

    "My hand independence needs work."

  • Salomon, Bénin 🇧🇯

    I don’t know what to practice.

  • Moisés, Panama 🇵🇦

    "Siento que me falta, yo quiero aprender a combinar las escalas con los acordes para improvisar."

  • Yoon, New Zealand 🇳🇿

    "My improvisation is limited, and motivation comes and goes."

  • James, U.S.A. 🇺🇸

    “I'd say my 2 areas requiring help are "hip voicings" and voice leading (both comping and linear).”

  • Stan, South Korea 🇰🇷

    “I don’t understand jazz chord progressions. I would love to understand the theory of jazz harmony. “

  • Valir, Romania 🇷🇴

    “Chord voicings (especially LH) that sound like jazz. I know the theory and I can play 'correct' voicings, but I can't seem to get the sounds I hear from pro players.”

  • Alec, U.S.A. 🇺🇸

    “I need help with comping in the left hand to enhance what’s going on in the right hand! The comping should include chord voicing and melodic patterns as well!”

  • Krassimira, Bulgaria 🇧🇬

    “I don't have a study method".”

  • Darryl, U.S.A. 🇺🇸

    “Could you include in your Jazz Workbook hand independence exercises that train both hands for genres that lead to ragtime, stride, boogie etc…”

  • Lin, Taiwan 🇹🇼

    "I don't know any jazz scales and am slow at reading sheet music."

  • Wazokusami, Japan 🇯🇵

    “I want to learn how to use chromatic notes in improvisation/not just the pentatonic scale to improvise.”

  • Peter, U.S.A. 🇺🇸

    “I’d like to be able to identify notes and intervals by ear.”

  • James, U.K. 🇬🇧

    “My biggest problem is motivation. Then seeing this enormous mountain of work in front of me ‘everything, all 12 keys’... So maybe breaking it up with ‘learn this small thing, practise it’…something I can use to feel like I'm getting better, without feeling like I need to know EVERYTHING before I start.”

  • Mac-Donald, Liberia 🇱🇷

    "I don't have any idea about jazz and need access to information and resources."

  • Kay, U.S.A. 🇺🇸

    “If I'm given a ‘lead sheet.’ It is so hard. I just don't have the understanding or skill to properly restructure the chords on a lead sheet. It's like speaking or reading a foreign language. I want to learn how to read/interpret a lead sheet, and how to comp when playing with a jazz trio or group.”

  • Nathanael, Indonesia 🇮🇩

    My voicings and harmony need work.

  • David, U.S.A. 🇺🇸

    “My problem is very predictable and monotonous left hand pattern.

    Would you include the most common chord progressions that would cover 70%+ jazz standards and various techniques to play left hand as accompaniment?”

  • Victor, Kenya 🇰🇪

    “I need help with phrasing, finger separation, etc.”

  • Jonathan, U.S.A. 🇺🇸

    “Can you include its immediate application? Two or more would be perfect.”

  • Saavedra, Spain 🇪🇸

    I want to learn how to play standards.

  • Elijah, U.S.A. 🇺🇸

    “My biggest problem is maintaining a practice routine. Also tell people to practice to a metronome. #1 thing that improved my sense of rhythm.”

  • Ariam, U.S.A. 🇺🇸

    “Ear training tips is what would be most helpful. Recognizing chord progressions and reharmonization.”

  • Michael, Germany 🇩🇪

    "My goal is to improvise fluently without thinking. I find myself putting a lot of input into practice, with few results."

  • Nicolas, U.S.A. 🇺🇸

    “Would love short exercises to play in 10 min focused in the main different areas of improvement.”

  • Yemu, South Africa 🇿🇦

    “I need help with chords, modes and scales for improv..”

  • Ala, U.S.A. 🇺🇸

    “I started learning jazz by myself 2 years ago and have always played alone. This has resulted in a terrible sense of tempo and rhythm, that is now getting better since I play with people more, and I use the metronome. Still, I would be interested in some rhythm exercises, to really get a better internal pulse.”

  • Jérome, France 🇫🇷

    I need help on how to structure a solo logically from beginning to end.

  • Salomon, Bénin 🇧🇯

    “Je ne sais pas quoi bosser.”