(Berklee Guide). Learn jazz harmony, as taught at Berklee College of Music. This text provides a strong foundation in harmonic principles, supporting further study in jazz composition, arranging, and improvisation. It covers basic chord types and their tensions, with practical demonstrations of how they are used in characteristic jazz contexts and an accompanying recording that lets you hear how they can be applied.

General Reference

This book will teach guitarists how to construct and play the scales and modes used in jazz improvisation. Through the study of these scales, students will expand their musical vocabulary for jazz improvisation. Scales are presented in standard notation, tab, linear diagrams showing the scales intervallic makeup, and fingering patterns. Recordings of the chord progressions and etudes are provided so the student can hear how these scales may be used in real life situations.

Perhaps one of the most comprehensive books of its type on the market, this exhaustive and intelligent presentation of the myriad of scales and modes makes this a must have text for the guitarist who is interested in developing his skills of jazz improvisation. The highly acclaimed author/teacher and performer Vincent Bredice very carefully moves the student through all the common modes. Each mode is explored thoroughly by using chord and arpeggio studies in a variety of positions and/or inversions. This outstanding text is a wonderful resource for one's library as well as an excellent teaching and learning tool. Since a good musician must hear sounds quickly and accurately, in addition to enhancing one's technical and improvising ability, Jazz Guitar Scales and Modes, will help tremendously with ear training as well. The author emphasizes the importance of being able to play and understand modal scales in first position before moving them up the neck using pattern fingerings. Contains excellent studies lines.

The same notes can sound square or swinging, depending on how the music is phrased. This revolutionary book shows how many people misunderstand jazz phrasing and shows how to replace stiff phrasing with fluid lines that have the right jazz feeling. In this book, master pianist Hal Galper also shows how get that feeling of forward motion and also how to use melody guide tones correctly, how to line up the strong beat in a bar with the strongest chord notes, and much more!

(Jazz Book). A study of three basic outlines used in jazz improv and composition, based on a study of hundreds of examples from great jazz artists.

The most highly-acclaimed jazz theory book ever published! Over 500 pages of comprehensive, but easy to understand text covering every aspect of how jazz is constructed---chord construction, II-V-I progressions, scale theory, chord/scale relationships, the blues, reharmonization, and much more. A required text in universities world-wide, translated into five languages, endorsed by Jamey Aebersold, James Moody, Dave Liebman, etc.