Mark Levine: The Jazz Theory Book

This classic manual explains how you can use theoretical concepts to improve your playing, referring to influential recordings and using the language that working jazz musicians use. If you've ever heard jazz musicians play chords or improvised lines that you couldn't figure out, not only will you find them here, but you'll also learn exactly how and where you can apply them in your own playing. In over 500 pages, the author guides the reader from basic chord construction and the II-V-I progression, through scale theory, the blues, 'I Got Rhythm' changes, slash chords, the bebop and pentatonic scales, to a comprehensive study of reharmonisation and advice on how to read a lead sheet and memorise tunes. All of these topics and many more are discussed in a conversational style and brought to life with over 750 music examples, transcribed from actual recordings of the jazz greats. You can treat The Jazz Theory Book as a complete course or you can dip into it for specific advice on pentatonic scales or the Coltrane changes. However you use it, is full of inspiring ideas and information that you can put straight into practice. "A great jazz solo consists of: 1% magic; 99% stuff that is explainable, analyzable, categorisable, doable. This book is mostly about the 99% stuff." - Mark Levine