Method Book Recommendations

[Giant Steps]

I think it'd be cool to recommend some good books, videos, ect. for people learning and improving on their instruments. Explain what instrument the book is geared to and why you like the book. Also, if you know of any to avoid, that'd be helpful for people too.

I'm really liking my Ted Greene "Jazz Guitar Single Note Soloing" (or something like that) book. You kind of have to develope your own way of working through it to see any progress before you're 85, but it really helps with learning your way around the fretboard.

I also like "Melodic Rythms for Guitar" by Leavitt. It helps you internalize rythms by giving you tons of common rythmic groupings so when you're reading you don't have to count through things, they're just part of your nervous system.

I just got the two Andrew Green books, "Jazz Guitar Structures" and "Jazz Guitar Technique" because they were so highly recommended to me, but I'm not too sure I like them yet. I'll have to work through them a little to see what I think of them.

Good Cheese,
-GS-

[clifton]

It's been a long time since I needed a method book, so my recommendations might be really old. I would recommend the play-along records by Jamey Aebersold. You can learn modes and chord progressions and how to use them. The early records in the series are geared for beginning improvisers and are quite helpful. Also I got some help from Oliver Nelson's "Patterns for Saxophone", quite helpful for fingering.

[Jazz]

I know I might offend someone here, but keep in mind its just my opinion, and I will readily agree to disagree with anyone (after a bit of educated and friendly debate maybe ;) )

Jamey Aebersold definitely has the most material to offer in a play-along series of books, BUT (and I realize ALOT of jazz players have grown up on aebersold...) I find that their rhythm section is plays really stiffly from almost all the stuff I've heard by them. I realize that my ear is not the best, so I recognize that they may not be playing stiff, but just be playing way out, rhythmically speaking. In either case, its not much comfort to someone who's trying to really learn the style.

SO, that in mind, I would definitely look for as much Hal-Leonard play-along series that you can find. They make books for specific artists (I've seen Charles Mingus and Gerry Mulligan books). They try and use as much of the ORIGINAL rhythm section for you to play with! It's awesome!

There ARE some great aebersold's out there, I would look for "The II-V7-I Progression", and "The Rhythm Section Workout", The first book is for any instrument playing melody/improvisation and the second is for any rhythm instrument. The second one is cool, it gives you practice for comping and small ensemble voicings
and even has sections for you to solo.

[Jazz]

Oh yeah, there are two versions of "The Rhythm Section Workout", one for guitar and piano, one for bass and drums, so be careful on that one.

[Coypu]

Does anyone know a good drum book for compositional work and for understanding drumming better for non drummers. I don't want to learn to drum but more to be able to come up with good drumstuff without having to guess my way trough. ?

[jazzypaul]

Well, the problem is with the idea of trying to grasp whole kit concepts on any sort of a well rounded level means that you will have to, without fail, skip over major parts of the process. Syncopation is a good book, but its what you do with that book after you've learned that book once through that makes it special. Honestly, the best training I ever had outside of actual lessons was playing along with the original Oscar Peterson trio with Herb Ellis, Ray and Oscar. There are no drums to already hear, so all you can do is play along with the CD and record it and hear how you sound with Ray Brown as your bass player. Then you take that and you compare it with real drummers who are not me. Then you figure out what to do differently the next time. Yes, its whacked, but it helped me...

[Coypu]

syncopation.. I'll check it out, so you think that it could be usefull for someone who has no plan on ever trying to drum? All I want to do is to be able to program drummachines in a non amateury way and to get more understanding of rhythmn as a bassplayer. So I don't want a book that goes into drum tecnique and that.

[jazzypaul]

There are books on how to program drum machines, but synth players would be far more versed on that than probably anyone here. I only know what I know for programming drum machines from the fun that I have with them and how I use them as an educational tool. And has very little with what you probably want to do.

[Coypu]

I just what basic understanding of drumming, like I want to be able to program drumming for a jazz, rock, pop, samba ... song or whatever comes up. And to get a deeper understanding of time signatures, tempos, accentuations, shuffle patterns or whatever. That's pretty much it, just music theory and no tecnique or technology. Am I making any sense?

[jazzypaul]

Originally posted by Coypu
I just what basic understanding of drumming, like I want to be able to program drumming for a jazz, rock, pop, samba ... song or whatever comes up. And to get a deeper understanding of time signatures, tempos, accentuations, shuffle patterns or whatever. That's pretty much it, just music theory and no tecnique or technology. Am I making any sense?

Actually, you're not. You want theory to learn how to do all of the theorectical stuff; and that's great. However, if you want to know all of the tricks necessary (and trickery WILL be necessary) to be able to program that stuff, you'll need to know how to get around on a drum machine, so yes you DO indeed need to know the tech part of it.

The other part is too, that in order to understand what you are doing, it helps to know how to play some drums. Those things that you listed that you want to know more about are all pretty advanced concepts. You can't just jump straight into that stuff, unless you are (1) amazingly talented and (2) amazingly big-eared. I can't speak for the talent part, but you have, through dialogue in these threads, shown that you don't have the ears yet for that kind of jumping. If you want to know what goes into those techniques, you're just going to have to take up drums, at this point.

[Coypu]

Well we have a drumkit at school that never is used and I live 3min walking distance from there so it's not impossible.

Ok, I have never sat down behind a drumkit before. ever. How do I begin?

[jazzypaul]

send me a PM and I'll give you some tips. I don't want to clutter up the thread with drumming basics 101.

[Coypu]

Originally posted by jazzypaul
send me a PM and I'll give you some tips. I don't want to clutter up the thread with drumming basics 101.

Do you have the option of not to accept PM? I tried to send but it said that you probably hadn't enabled private messaging.

[jazzypaul]

whoops, I'll go in and change that...

[clifton]

Regarding the Aebersold series again: It's a prerecorded rhythm section, of course, so you can't interact with it. This may be what creates that "stiff" feeling. Anyway, aside from that, and the fact that sometimes the comping is too busy, when I was able to play, I found the Aebersold stuff a big help, and it's a good way to learn tunes.

[Jazz]

Actually Clifton, maybe you can help me figure out what it is I don't like about the aebersold R.S.

The word that comes to mind is..... "jagged" I guess. It seems like the piano player almost ALWAYS does short stacatto comping, I'm sure that is one thing...

But also, I have a really hard time hearing form right now. Knowing where the top of the chorus is, unless its a blues (I can finally hear blues form pretty easily, even if it has VI and II added for jazz-blues) is pretty hard for me. But it is EXTRA hard with the aebersold rhythm section. I think it has something to do with the comping rhythmic patterns.

[Pharaohrock]

I got quite a bit out of his books= Jazz Piano and Jazz Theory by Mark Levine.... very accessible and there is little in the way of extraneous theoretical information that a lot of method books seem to get bogged down in....his stuff is very much geared towards direct application.

I'd add the books are bound with a ring binder which makes it a helluva lot easier to hold a page open. I hate those theory books where you have to mash the spine to get the page to stay in one place.

[clifton]

Hi Jazz: Sometimes the comping on the Aebersold CD's is very dense. If there's a chord substitution, the pianist will play it, and every other harmonic possibility, too. The effect is a very busy comp, and if you try to respond to every one, you can get lost. I would keep the time and the form in my head so if someone messes up, you can keep playing, because you'll know where you are. Hearing the tune in your head is a valuable skill that takes a while to learn, and learning it might be a bit tedious. But it sure is helpful. Also try walking a bass line on your instrument to learn a tune's chord changes, then go back to the Aebersold record. Finally, let the Aebersold track play whatever, and you play what you hear, and let it clash sometimes. Another thing thay may be annoying you is you have to play the tune on Aebersold's terms. The prerecorded rhythm section is never going to play on your terms. Anyway, I really did like the Aebersold stuff. Talking about it makes me want to pick up my horn again, but my current disability confines me to listening, going to the occaisional concert, and visiting on line forums. Can't really complain, though, because I did get to play for real. Anyway, hope this has been helpful.

[Tertiumquid]

Hey Clifton, I recently started working on soprano sax, any books you care to recommend?

Do you anticipate picking up your horn in the future?

[markvi]

all the above mentioned books are ok for soprano. the best thing to do when beginning soprano is get a hold of a good tuner and find out the idiosyncracies of your horn. even the best horns are out of tune with themselves and some are just horrible. tune your c third space and both g's and work from there. pay attention to the fourth line d and anything in the upper register and extreme low range. keep the tuner in view and play simple melodies and see where the pitches lie. try not to adjust to the tuner as you play so you'll know where the pitch is -then adjust to center the pitch later.

[Jazz]

Clifton,

Thanks so much for the great advice!! Those are all great things I will be working on.

[Tertiumquid]

Thanks MarkVI,

By "c third space" do you mean middle C rather than the lowest or highest, as that's the only one on staff in a space -- and the third space up the treble clef?