Reddit reviews Jazzology: The Encyclopedia of Jazz Theory for All Musicians

You'll find this an interesting read.

Rawlins went on to write his own jazz theory book - but I'm not sure I'd recommend it. It does deal with a lot of what Levine skimmed over, but it's a dull read compared to Levine. All the musical examples were written by the authors, there are no real jazz quotes, as in Levine. (Levine's quotes are not great evidence for his theories, however.)

The best jazz theory book seems to be Terefenko.

If you are confronted by a mode, run away. Learn the way the greats actually learned back in the day:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDdKVro-7hS8cMjBrcqaAMQ/videos?view=0&sort=da&flow=grid

Unless you only care about post "kind of blue" Jazz, Levine's Jazz theory is a detrimental distraction:

http://www.mtosmt.org/issues/mto.00.6.1/mto.00.6.1.rawlins.html?q=mto/issues/mto.00.6.1/mto.00.6.1.rawlins.html

It's hard to imagine a work which thrown so much real jazz and so many great players under the bus.

This looks alot less harmful:

https://www.amazon.com/Jazzology-Encyclopedia-Jazz-Theory-Musicians/dp/0634086782

poor guy still needs modes though. My favorite theory book, which since you know piano, might be interesting. It's a great supplement to Barry Harris Jazz theory.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1423412494/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

You mentioned you like jazz, feel free to hang out with us /r/Jazz

Internet is great, and there is a lot for good free ressources. You'll have to go through a bunch of crap though, it can be confusing for a beginner and takes valuable time away to an already time consuming hobby.

So here are a few books I personally recommand.

Jazzology, an encyclopedia of theory centered around jazz that you can use with any genre. It's really good.

The real book, a good way to learn jazz standards with sheets that aren't so painful, using solfège for melody and letters for chords. This is the format I use with students.

The Jazz Theory book, or anything from mark levine.

The Complete Musician is good if you can find it for cheap, which is no easy task.

The definition of perfect pitch includes knowing the names of the notes. Without this knowledge, it's just "having a good ear". A good way to practice it is picking random notes and visualizing what the chord will sound like before playing it. That vizualisation aspect is the amazing thing about absolute pitch and helps with composing. The tuning or knowing what key you're in things are cute but fairly irrelevant.

Anyway, have fun.

I'd recommend Jazz Guitar: Complete Edition by Jody Fisher. It covers all the important topics in a fairly straightforward way and comes with a CD of examples and backing tracks. It's aimed at intermediate guitarists, but your experience should be sufficient.

The old standard was Mickey Baker's Jazz Guitar, but I'm not a huge fan. The learning curve is extremely steep and there's not a great deal of theory or explanation. It'd be a really useful companion to lessons with a teacher, but I think that most beginners would really struggle with it.

A good alternative to the Jody Fisher book is A Modern Method For Guitar by William Leavitt. The learning curve is fairly gradual, but it's tough going - everything is written in standard notation and there's no real instruction as such. It seems to be inspired by the Suzuki method. Everything is taught through progressively more demanding examples. You probably won't get stuck on anything, but you will need to do a bit of thinking to figure stuff out for yourself.

If you want to learn jazz theory in depth, I'd strongly recommend Jazzology by Rawlins and Bahha. It's the clearest, most elegant explanation of how everything fits together in jazz. It's not specifically written for guitar, but the theory is universal. The Jody Fisher book covers all the theory that you really need to know, but Jazzology would be a really good supplement if you like to understand things in detail.

In your jazz guitar journey, you'll probably come across The Real Book. It's an essential reference text, containing lead sheets for hundreds of the most popular jazz tunes. It's how most of us learned our repertoire and most of us still have a copy in our gig bag pocket. Today, you have a huge advantage in learning tunes because of the fabulous iReal Pro. It's an app version of The Real Book, but it can also play backing tracks for any tune in any key and at any tempo. It's an absolute boon when you're learning to play solos.

Finally, I'd suggest just listening to a whole bunch of jazz, not just jazz guitar. You should know Joe Pass, Ted Greene and Wes Montgomery, but you should also know Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Dizzy Gillespie.

I recommend Jazzology as it's
cheap and informative.

My two cents - love that piano sound, haha. Wish I had a grand to play on. I'm an amateur myself, but I think you can benefit from more of a focus on varying dynamics during your improv and the use of some modes or dissonance to add more atmosphere and color. /u/AtherisElectro makes the case well, but varying dynamics helps tell your story more - just like if you were telling someone a story in real life. You employ this well here in the beginning. If it is all turned up to 11 the entire time, the listener may start to tune out a bit because they are becoming used to the pattern. For example, modulating to a different key with a different atmosphere (more lydian, softer dynamics, etc.) can give you a second section and more of a journey for the listener. Of course, it depends on the story you are looking to tell. An excellent book for learning some ways to add color to your improvisation is "Jazzology: The Encyclopedia of Jazz Theory for All Musicians". Chick Corea is a master at this and listening to any of his innumerable albums should give you plenty of great ideas. Now I just have to start doing any of this for my own improv ; ).

Learn harmony. Study all you can about it.
Don't just learn the chord shapes. Understand them.
Once you get a sold harmony base, start soloing THINKING about the chord tones. Always be conscient about EACH note you are playing.


For example. You have a classic Dm7-G7-CMaj7 thing going. When playing over the Dm7 chord be conscient about the role of each note and how the roles changes when the chord changes.
Start with just the chord tones and try to connect them in such a way that your phrases make sense. Then add some more notes.
Also play with linking the notes with some chromatic ideas.


Harmony, harmony, harmony.

Get this book, it's really really helpful http://www.amazon.com/Jazzology-Encyclopedia-Jazz-Theory-Musicians/dp/0634086782

These are pretty popular and seem to fit your description. I own them both myself.
http://www.amazon.com/Jazzology-Encyclopedia-Jazz-Theory-Musicians/dp/0634086782
http://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Theory-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/1883217040/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_z

https://www.amazon.com/Jazzology-Encyclopedia-Jazz-Theory-Musicians/dp/0634086782

It actually looks to be only about 10-14 dollars!

It's too complex for a post or even a series of posts. You're going to need a book. I'd recommend The Berklee Book of Jazz Harmony and Jazzology. I wouldn't recommend anything by Mark Levine.

Jelly Roll Morton claims to invented jazz in the early 1900s.

If you're interested in jazz, or jazz theory, I recommend reading,

Jazzology by Robert Rawlins and Nor Eddine Bahha.

It's one of the most useful grimoires for musicians of any genre / skill level. On a personal note, Robert Rawlins is the coolest dude I've never known (he taught at Rutgers near me, and rented his house to one of my buddies).

BTW - sight reading is when you attempt to play a piece of sheet music you have never seen before. Thats different from learning to play a piece and reading through it several times.

I had played guitar for a while before taking high school concert band. While I didn't like playing the french horn, the class was rewarding enough that I stuck with it for 3 years. I learned music theory and how to read music notation, and I can't stress useful it is. However, it is a slow, frustrating process.

My suggestion is to buy a beginner theory book, and then something like Jazzology. A teacher would probably be a huge help. You won't believe how fast you improve with a teacher.

It starts with Intervals and explains everything regarding music theory from there upwards. The latest version has tab for the examples, making it easier to use. You might also want to consider Jazzology: The Encyclopedia of Jazz Theory for All Musicians too.

You might want to check out Jazzology