This book is aimed at beginners in some respects but is full of information useful to any level of musician. I’ve studied music most of my early teen life including a number of classic music theory and jazz theory courses, and I enjoyed this volume both for the included theory “cheat sheets” and for the ideas on how to instruct others re improvisation.
For people new to jazz you may want to embellish with some other, “gentler” introductions to jazz theory, and approach some of the meatier subjects such as scale/mode choices with assistance from a teacher.
The exercises and play-alongs are very helpful as warm-ups for more accomplished musicians as well as for beginners, but this volume does start from the easy-slow stage.
The other thing to know about this volume is a little more like a method book than the other Aebersold volumes. So you will probably want to add another one or two, at least, to learn tunes and have some fun. Equal parts chops work plus musical gratification is more sustainable long term for most musicians.
This book is aimed at beginners in some respects but is full of information useful to any level of musician. I’ve studied music most of my early teen life including a number of classic music theory and jazz theory courses, and I enjoyed this volume both for the included theory “cheat sheets” and for the ideas on how to instruct others re improvisation.
Beginning/Intermediate. Easy to understand and inspiring for all musicians wishing to explore the secrets of jazz improv. CD includes blues in Bb and F, four dorian minor tracks, four-measure cadences, cycle of dominants, 24-measure song, II/V7 in all keys. Book includes transposed parts for all instruments. The CD includes Jamey playing exercises from the book. Hear the master clinician show you exactly how it’s done!
Rhythm Section: Jamey Aebersold (p); Rufus Reid (b); Jonathan Higgins (d) Includes: Scales/Chords, Developing Creativity, Improv Fundamentals, 12 Blues Scales, Bebop Scales, Pentatonic Scales, Time and Feel, Melodic Development, II/V7s, Related Scales and Modes, Practical Exercises, Patterns and Licks, Dominant 7th Tree of Scale Choices, Nomenclature, Chromaticism, Scale Syllabus, and more!
NOTE FROM JAMEY:
When I first heard ‘So What’ on the Kind of Blue record I didnt think anything was happening because I was used to hearing changes flying by and this seemed so tame by comparison. I quickly fell in love with Kind of Blue and of course we at IU started experimenting with modal tunes and trying to keep our place in those many 8 bar phrases that seemed at times to make me feel like I was in the middle of a desert and couldnt see for the life of me the beginning of the next 8 bar phrase. When I began teaching privately for the first time in Seymour, Indiana I had a girl flute student who really had a great sound. One day I asked her to improvise on a D- dorian scale and off she went. I could tell she was playing what she heard in her mind and I was so surprised. It really sounded natural. So, I asked other students to play on a dorian scale and they did fine. Thats how I got started teaching improv. I think others at the time were using the blues as a vehicle but the students I was working with knew nothing about the blues but they could keep their place in the 4 and 8 bar phrases so I went ahead later and used that modal approach on my Volume 1 play-a-long … and the rest is history.
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