This week I would like to provide you with some great resources to continue learning over the holiday break, if you wish.
A great book you can use to get into jazz theory is “The Jazz Theory Book” by Mark Levine. This book starts by explaining the major scale, as well as the modes and chords that are derived from it. It quickly moves into explaining what a ii-V-I is and goes deeper into jazz theory from there.
A great resource to check out if you are interested in understanding harmony to be able to reharmonize, arrange and write music is “The Jazz Harmony Book” by David Berkman. In this book he breaks harmony down into different levels, or circles as he refers to them.
If you are writing an arrangement or composition for a larger group, check out this video of a masterclass by Gary Lindsay on how to voice 4 and 5 voices. Lindsay also has a great book called “Jazz Arranging Techniques: From Quartet to Big Band”. This book outlines the techniques used to voice different sized instrumentations.
If you have the basics that we have been talking about down and would like to continue further, I suggest that you analyze many different songs. More specifically, there are a few different categories you should analyze. Look at the melody– how is it constructed, the range, are there any patterns, etc. Consider the relationship of the melody notes to the chords, what degrees of the scale or what parts of the chord are being used in the melody. Check out the progression, find out which keys are used, how they switch between keys, identify which chords are being used, etc. Then try to look at everything together, the chords and the melody, play through it slowly on piano if you can and hear the sounds you are analyzing. Make note of sounds that are interesting to you and explore them.
If you want to binge YouTube over the holidays, I suggest Adam Neely’s channel. Adam has created a number of great mini documentaries on different topics in music as well as theory. A few great ones include:
If you have any questions, email me at tetyanahar@gmail.com
Have a great break!
Comments