Book for learning jazz?

[LarrySchmarry]

Hi. This is my first post here. My teacher told me about this forum.

I'm learning to improvise, but it's super frustrating. Is there a book that has jazz scales and a collection of licks to learn in every key? I have books for all sorts of exercises and theory. Now I'm just looking for a book that has scales for improvising and licks to memorize so I can develop a basic jazz improvisation ability. I was told to learn a bunch of licks in every key, and to learn what scales to play, but I don't know where to start.

Is there anything out there that would meed my needs?

[BGuttman]

Mike Lake has a book called "Improvisation Savvy" that should do just about all you want.

I also had a book called "100 Hot Licks" published in the 1930s (I think by Miff Mole) which actually had 12 licks in 12 keys (not all licks in all keys).

[Bach5G]

David Baker had a 3-book set out. How to Play Be-Bop? Something like that.

[OneTon]

Aebersold has a lot of material available both in some brick and mortar stores and at his website. The softcover books cover various theory and tunes for a variety of transposed instruments. A cd was included in the past. A couple of the books cover scales and II7 V7 progressions. Some people do well with them.

[bitbckt]

I’m a bit biased since I took his course in school, but Dan Haerle’s books are good. His scales book might help you, in particular.

[edit] I just pulled my copy off the shelf, and it's "just" scales. Maybe not quite what you're looking for after all...

[ghmerrill]

The best deal on the Aebersold book seems to be from Basil Blackwell. It appears to include two CDs! Luckily, I still have one CD player around here and so can roll them off onto a more contemporary medium. I just had to order this, in part to make some use of it, but otherwise as an exercise in nostalgia ...

The last time I ordered anything from Blackwell was some time in the 70s. Those were the days when you wrote a letter to Blackwell with a list of the books you wanted to buy. They sent you a brief response in one of those old flimsy international airmail (!) self-enclosing letter/envelope things saying that the books were on the way and a bill was included. They sent you the stuff BEFORE you had paid for it, and there was no time period specified for payment ... because "a gentleman pays his bills."

Times have changed, and they got my credit card number for this order.

Addendum: I notice that there's a remark on the Blackwell page that "The tracks of slower tempos included in this Book & Online Audio set is available separately for those wishing to upgrade their old single-CD set they may have previously purchased." But I don't see any information on how to get to that. Maybe that will be included with the book when it comes -- probably within a month, if I"m lucky.

[Bach5G]

A classic is Patterns in Jazz by Jerry Coker.

[GGJazz]

Hi LarrySchmarry .

In my personal opinion , no one learn how to improvise using a book.

This is because , to me , improvising music it is pretty the same as composing music . The main difference is that when you are improvising , you just do it in real time.You think it and immediatly you play it .

Patterns and scale are ok , but they are just ... patterns and scales. You have to play music when you are improvisig ; phrases , melodic lines , ecc .

I think that the main thing to learn it is how to play with the right "jazz feel" , that is the way one stay on time playing this music .
So , the best thing to pracice can be to play along with same Big Band records , for example Count Basie , and play by ear the riffs the band is playing . By ear , no charts . Few things at the time , starting with easy and medium / slow tunes .

Then , you can start to develop your ears playing in all keys, by ear, some easy melodies you know very well.

After this , you can choose some "easy" solos , and learn to play it by ear , note after note , and memorize it as much as you can . At the beginning , you don't need to learn all the solo ; one or two choruses can be fine . This practice show you how the greats soloists construct phrases , resolve the notes at the point chords changes , etc .

Of course , you also have to start to put yours hands on a piano / keyboard , and learn to play the various chords . Then some cadences ( II-/ V7 / I ; I/IV/ I ; etc) , then some tunes' chords progressions. Like doing a very easy comping .

In my opinion , when you will be comfortable in that areas above mentioned , it can be useful to give a look at some books . For example , Hal Crook' " How to improvise" .

If to improvise would be just a matter of scales , then everybody would be great improvising in a "open C major" chord ... Everybody knows that scale and relative arpeggio ...

Regards
Giancarlo

[baileyman]

Hard to improve on that.

What you want is to have your imagination telling you what the next note or idea is. And you brain to tell you where the next note is on the horn. And you want these guys to work together so your imagination only thinks of notes that your brain can actually get to.

Hal talks about deliberate limited practice, to isolate one thing at a time, especially in harmony. I suspect he might like the idea of limiting the horn itself to maybe three positions in one or two partials and work on getting through a chorus like that. Then move it around. There is a lot that can be done with a little, and it appears to help the imagination and brain.

[EriKon]

Instead of books maybe start checking out those several YouTube videos of Barry Harris (pianist with Cannonball Adderley, Ella Fitzgerald and basically everyone) masterclasses that are about improvisation. He was teaching at the conservatory in Den Hague (NL) and some legend recorded a lot of it and uploaded the stuff. Play Along with those and you'll learn a lot more than by 'starting off' with a book. You don't learn jazz and improvisation with books, you learn by hearing it and letting it sink. As mentioned above, at some point it can be useful to have some of the standard books (Hal Crook, Jerry Coker), but to start it off, listen!

[ghmerrill]

I've heard that learning jazz is a lot like learning cardiac surgery or neurosurgery. Those guys never look at books until they've had a lot of experience trying out different techniques and working through a lot of cases in the OR after watching other people do it.

[tbdana]

As usual, I'm gonna be the odd person out, here. LOL!

Playing jazz is a lot like making a speech. You have to have command of the language. And the most basic element of speaking a language is having an arsenal of words you know. In jazz, patterns (or "licks") are those words. The bigger your arsenal of words, the more you can communicate.

I don't know a single great jazz player who doesn't have an arsenal of "licks" they use in every solo. I don't know if it was Miles or Trane or who, but someone once said something to the effect of wanting to play enough choruses that he would run out of his regular material and have to resort to exploring new areas.

It's a fact that the vast majority of jazz played is "words" and "sentences" players have memorized and trot out to put together a musical "speech."

So there is merit to the OP's search. I don't know of any books to recommend, though, other than the old Patterns For Jazz someone mentioned. There's a dude on YouTube (I think his name is Shawn Bell) who takes this approach to teaching jazz, emphasizing learning to use scales and "licks" on those scales. I've only looked at a couple of his videos when they came randomly up in my feed so I don't know how good his "course" is or videos are overall, but what little I've seen seemed to be a good approach.

I'm sure I'm out of step here, though.

[Bach5G]

I like Shawn Bell’s work and think it’s worth a look.

I think the comparison with learning a language is valid. You’ve got to start out with some basic words and phrases and build vocabulary from there. In my view, a combination of book learning, lessons, and practical application is probably the way to go.

As I sit here, waiting for my jazz workshop (always optimistic!) to start in 20 minutes.

[EriKon]

As usual, I'm gonna be the odd person out, here. LOL!

Nothing odd about what you wrote to me. I pretty much agree with everything. I'm just questioning the way of where to get those words, vocabs and where to learn the language from. And as you likely did as well, most of the jazz musicians didn't got their vocabulary from any book, but from listening to others speaking the language to stay in that image. Meaning really dig intl recordings or listen to great improvisers in their lectures. And for me one of the best ressources (that I just recently really discovered for myself) are those Barry Harris masterclasses. Maybe starting off with this one, but there's a whole playlist.



Shawn Bell's content is pretty solid. I don't agree with everything of course, but there's definitely some good input there too.

[ghmerrill]

There's a dude on YouTube (I think his name is Shawn Bell) who takes this approach to teaching jazz, emphasizing learning to use scales and "licks" on those scales. I've only looked at a couple of his videos when they came randomly up in my feed so I don't know how good his "course" is or videos are overall, but what little I've seen seemed to be a good approach.

I had the same impression and bookmarked them to get back to at some point.

I think my original response above may have been too subtle.

[tbdana]

There's a dude on YouTube (I think his name is Shawn Bell) who takes this approach to teaching jazz, emphasizing learning to use scales and "licks" on those scales. I've only looked at a couple of his videos when they came randomly up in my feed so I don't know how good his "course" is or videos are overall, but what little I've seen seemed to be a good approach.

I had the same impression and bookmarked them to get back to at some point.

I think my original response above may have been too subtle.

Sorry, Gary, I wasn't responding directly to you.

But your post about cardiac surgery did confuse me. I assumed it was sarcasm.

[ghmerrill]

But your post about cardiac surgery did confuse me. I assumed it was sarcasm.

Yes, but I prefer to think of it as "wry irony." Text communication in social media isn't the best place for it.

Off and on for a number of years, I've played in a pretty good community band where one of the sections came to be comprised of people who fancied themselves to be "jazz musicians." They practiced "licks" all the time and attempted to approach concert music with the same perspective. Alas, they seemingly couldn't count to 4 (or even 2), couldn't follow the conductor, and couldn't play in tune. But they sure loved to play "jazz." I do think that in these (and similar sorts of cases) some basic "book learning" can go a long way before you jump into the full current of imrpov. But that's just one perspective.

[GGJazz]

Hello everybody .

I wuold like just to add some personal opinions .
I agree ; jazz , as others styles of music , is like a language .

So , as to learn any language , you do not just open a book and start to read it...
Do you learn chinese from a book , or maybe would be better to have a chinese man showing to you how to pronounce the "sound" of some simple words / syllables , and try to imitate him ?

More , every language have his own "rhythm" .
Do portuguese and german have the same "general rhythm" ?
No...
Can you perform a jazz scat singing improvisation using arabian or italian language ?
No ...

So , Ithink that the main thing that a jazz player must have , it is the way to play in "jazz time" .
To develop this , i guess that the best thing could be to imitate the master original by ear . So , playing along with the recording .

Of course , as in the spoken language , also in music there are the words . In a book you can find some pre-packaged licks . If you learn from the record , you will find some similar "licks" both in Charlie Parker , J. J. Johnson , Bud Powell , etc. , with the same essence , but in different shapes .This because those "licks" are a way to show some musical conceptions ( for example , how to use a bepop "plus 7" dominant scale) , and you can manage them in many ways , once you have assimilate the original purpose of those "licks" .

In addition , in my opinion , there is a huge difference if you learn some phrases from a book , or if you learn it directly from the recording of a great jazz soloist .The main difference , to me , is that if you learn from the recording you learn the phrase at the point ( of the chords' progression) this phrase have been played , but you also know what was played before and after this . So you can try to understand why this phrase was performed , and start to assimilate the way master players think .

Also , in a solo there are not just phases ; there are quotes from the original melody , with variation , fragmentation , etc ; there are rhythmic values repeated and displaced in different beats ; there are space between ideas ; there is tension and release ; etc , etc .

If you play a lick , then another , then another , etc , you just are repeating some right but not related things. This will sound as if one were say : 《 Hi , nice to meet you . The 2nd WW was a tremendous period of the story . Nice evening , isn't ? Money are very important , but the health is the main thing 》.

So , for these reasons , I think that could be better to learn from the recording , by ear . Once this have be done , the books are useful , of course .

This is just my way of thinking .

Regards
Giancarlo

[ghmerrill]

So , for these reason , I think that could be better to learn from the recording , by ear . Once this have be done , the books are useful , of course .

So is that how you originally learned to play an instrument?

[GGJazz]

Hello Gary.

Well , here I was talking about how to learn to play jazz improvisation , not the instrument .

Anyway , my absolute beginner students are starting to play , for at least 3 months , with no sheets at all . They memorize tone names and execises step by step . Then , I start to introduce the paper .

Regards
Giancarlo

[Mingmonk]

Barnaby Dickinson's YouTube channel is a very valuable ressource for trombone players. He has also made a book "modern brass player". Improvisation, but also more trombone technics than Shawn Bell's one. And he seems to be a funny guy.