This book is intended as a starting place for any instrumentalist looking grow their understanding and practice of jazz music, style, and improvisation. There are many places where one may start to develop their jazz knowledge, experience, and practice – these pages offer one path to take and provides concepts to explore in group or private lessons. These modules are intended to be sequential –approaches introduced in the first section should be applied in subsequent sections. We encourage students to play exercises as slow as necessary to be in control of their instrument and to repeat activities until they become easy to recall and smoothly executed. Velocity and automation are not end goals in themselves, but pathways to deeper understanding.
Recommended materials:
- An instrument in good working condition
- Staff paper/pencil
- A smart phone, tablet, or computer w/internet access
- Quality headphones
- Play-a-longs and/or apps such as iRealPro
We’ve chosen to organize the material into 4 modules :
Module 1: Building Blocks of a Jazz Improvisation Vocabulary
Module 2: Basic 12-bar Blues Form
Module 3: Expanding on The Blues – Approaches to “Solar”
Module 4: Introduction to 32-bar “Song Form” – Approaches to “What is This Thing Called Love?”
Each module contains:
- A set of concepts and approaches
- Suggested ways to practice and apply new ideas
- Creative ways to broaden the application of concepts
- Goals and projects to demonstrate developing vocabulary and concepts
A note on “Practice”
Practice is a specific act that requires time, focus, consistency, and an appetite for honesty in self-critique, care with ones’ own individual self-conception/ego, and the patience to endure periods of rapid growth followed by periods of relative stagnation. It is difficult to make progress if there are no attainable goals or other markers of progress, be they time or activity. If ones’ goal is to “just get better” – that simply isn’t specific enough. Practice is not playing. Playing – rehearsals, gigs, playing solo in your practice space – is an
important, necessary and often joyful experience. Playing can have element of practice. But to improve in sustainable and meaningful ways one must slow down, be repetitive, and set goals.
This Book is an Open Educational Resource. It is designed as a living document to be adapted and utilized by Teachers and Learners at no cost.
Except where otherwise specified this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. You are free to share and adapt this work with proper attribution.
