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Whole Notes: A Piano Masterclass by Armen Donelian
(Advance Music, 2011). Written in a conversational tone, Whole Notes: A Piano Masterclass is both a piano method book per se and, more importantly, a guidebook to accompany the reader’s personal journey into music. Posture, practicing, mental and physical health, using weight and force, economy of movement, and expression are some of the topics addressed.
Topics are amply explored through detailed piano arrangements of Armen Donelian’s compositions, and they are clearly connected to principles of music theory, rhythm, analysis, and composition as well as physics, anatomy, and holistic development.
These themes and principles are of universal interest to all musicians. As a practical inquiry, Whole Notes offers many options for creatively applying and integrating them for individual use. For this reason, the needs of non-pianists are also discussed.
Concerned with how as well as what to play, Whole Notes incorporates Armen Donelian's personal experience in the worlds of both composed and improvised music. They are treated not as two separate areas, but as multi-faceted expressions of universal musical sound phenomena that transcend categories because, as he says, "That is how I experience them.”
The 212-page book contains 73 photographs, numerous original compositions, musical examples, and technical exercises.

Training the Ear Volume 1 by Armen Donelian
(Advance Music, 1992; Japanese edition by ATN, Inc., 2001). A basic jazz ear training instructional book with 2 CDs of recorded musical examples found in the book. Covers intervals, triads, seventh chords, inversions, dominant cadences, blues progressions, tritone substitution, major scales in 12 keys. Exercises for singing, tapping, transcibing, sight-reading, composing and dictation. The most clearly organized and comprehensive package of its type. - Lewis Porter, Rutgers Annual Review of Jazz Studies 7, Scarecrow Press, 1994-5

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Training the Ear Volume 2 by Armen Donelian
(Advance Music, 2005). Targeted towards the specific aural needs of the student of intermediate level jazz harmony with his/her advanced development mind. Intermediate jazz ear training instructional book with 4 CDs of recorded musical examples found in the book. It is intended to provide a practical aural and theoretical foundation that enables the jazz improviser to process more complex levels of music easily and confidently, and thereby to contribute to raising the standard of music pedagogy. The book begins by reviewing triads and inversions, and then covers all seventh chords and inversions, chord/scale relationships, major and minor modes, altered scales, chord extensions, chords alterations, chord progressions, chord substitutions, with a strong focus on composition throughout.

Harem Girl by Armen Donelian
(Advance Music, 1998). A piano solo transcribed and edited by the composer and arranged for saxophone quintet by Ed Neumeister. Originally recorded on Donelian's A Reverie (Sunnyside SSC 1019). In Harem Girl, all the perfumes of Constantinople mix together in a flowing tango. - Bernard Rabaud, Swing Jazz Journal, February 1987

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Metropolitan Madness by Armen Donelian
(Advance Music, 1998). A piano solo transcribed and edited by the composer and arranged for woodwind quintet by Ed Neumeister. Originally recorded on Donelian's A Reverie (Sunnyside SSC 1019) and Trio 87 (Odin NJ-1024). Metropolitan Madness is a kind of 80's equivalent of Bud Powell's "Parisian Thoroughfare." - Robert J. Iannopollo, Cadence Magazine, June 1995

Stargazer by Armen Donelian
(The New Real Book Volume 2 Sher Music, 1991). A lead-sheet arrangement, edited by the publisher. Originally recorded on Donelian's Stargazer (Atlas LA27-1011), also on A Reverie (Sunnyside SSC 1019), The Wayfarer (Sunnyside SSC 1049) and All Or Nothing At All (Sunnyside SSC 4002).
Armen’s classic, "Stargazer" (which I had the pleasure to record years ago and is well known by musicians). - David Liebman
"Stargazer" is an epic composition that deserves to become a standard. - Robert J. Iannopollo, Cadence Magazine, June 1995

Growing Up With Jazz by W. Royal Stokes
(Oxford University Press, 2005) Twenty-four musicians talk about their lives and careers by W. Royal Stokes, noted author and journalist. Armen Donelian is featured in Chapter 3 "Visionaries and Eclectics" (pp.190-199).
A truly amazing cast of characters...surprises are in store. - Dan Morgenstern, Rutgers University
A rich and insightful book about the making of jazz. - Gerald Early, Washington University

Developing Harmonic Study Modules by Armen Donelian
(Downbeat Magazine, Maher Publications, September, 2005). An article showing how Donelian's book Training the Ear Volume 2 (Advance Music) develops dominant cadences through the use of a multitide of chord colors, substitutions, inversions, alterations and chord replacements commonly found in jazz harmony to create an almost limitless number of aural and instrumental exercises for self-study. Numerous examples voiced in two-handed piano format are included.

Hearing Chords by Armen Donelian
(The Rutgers Annual Review of Jazz Studies 8, Scarecrow Press, 1997). A detailed article describing intermediate level jazz ear training techniques for working with triads, seventh chords, inversions, dominant cadences, chord extensions and modulations.

Woodshed Pro Session: Hearing Jazz Chords by Armen Donelian
(Downbeat Magazine, Maher Publications, June, August, October, December 1997 and January 1998). A serialized version of Hearing Chords. Edited and divided into five monthly articles with added musical examples, charts and photographs.

Master Class: Chord Voicings by Armen Donelian
(Keyboard Magazine, Miller Freeman Publications, August 1997). An article containing suggestions for creating chord voicings for major and minor dominant cadences using inversions, chord extensions, rootless voicings and standard voice-leading, as well as applications to jazz and rhythm & blues, generously illustrated with musical examples. Donelian's discography is also included.

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