"...one is cooperating in a divine process while preparing oneself, by mastering rudiments such as proper scale technique, for the flow of an inspiration..."
 |
Jazz Harmony and Improvisation by Herbert Silverstein, M.D. and Richard Drexler Trafford Publishing
book review by Peter M. Fitzpatrick
Jazz "lead sheets" of music notation contain a melody line for one musician while the rest must improvise accompaniment based on the chord progression given in chord symbols written above the staff. These players must deal with harmony in real time, providing improvisational text, a daunting challenge for the new student of jazz. The authors have expanded on the chord-scale system of teaching these techniques, based on teaching the "corresponding" scales of notes that match each chord in the progression. Drexler describes his approach of teaching students scale patterns up and down the keyboard in seven modes of major scales, seven modes of ascending melodic minors, diminished, whole-tone scales and others until the student has a visual comprehension of how to transpose between the chords by understanding their spatial structure on the keyboard. He adds descriptions of how to improve the improvisational "four-note group patterns" of improvisation by explaining their relation to dominant seventh chords.
The rest of the books goes into greater detail on how these theories apply to the fifty songs composed by the authors, who include the lead sheets and an mp3 disc of the material in the book. It is a dense work, packed with jazz structure theory, and perhaps is not suitable for the beginner. But for those wanting to learn the ideas behind chords and scales in jazz, this is nothing short of a goldmine. A discussion is included between the two musician-authors that helps illuminate how much of this territory is yet unmapped. It is a thought-provoking approach to improvisation, and a great source for those who would teach or those who would learn the techniques.
RECOMMENDED by the US Review