Composer’s Notes These four piano études were composed with the goal to recognize patterns within two aspects of jazz theory in order to benefit improvisation skills. They suit the intermediate level piano student and progress in difficulty. For the first set, ‘Mirror Images,’ I would like to credit the virtuoso jazz pianist Chick Corea who has an educational video on mirror improvisation. His discussion on viewing the piano’s symmetry with D and Ab being the only two mirror centres and relating this symmetry to living things, gave me a whole new perspective of the keyboard. The reflective nature of the arrangement of keys characterizes the eyes, nose and ears for ‘Two Pups,’ composed with symmetry in fingering as well as the white/ black key pattern. For a student, the mirror nature of this étude can be easy, yet it is rhythmically animated. Further exploration of the full range of the keyboard led to the creation of the pentatonic étude, ‘Snake in a Mirror Pool.’ This piece is also graphically symmetrical in fingering and position, except for measures 17-24, where the left hand introduces the ‘snake’ and the right hand carries on the symmetry. In the next set, ’Altered V7 Chords,’ the ‘V9 Boogie’ studies alterations as 5ths in the right hand over a left hand ostinato. ‘Barcarolle’ is an eight bar blues with two improvisations. The opening phrase is triadic and illustrates how altered V7 chords could be viewed as a polychord. Neva Tesolin