A Simple and Direct Guide to Jazz Improvisation helps musicians know what to do with specific chords in specific contexts. Lays out clear and objective guidelines on how to turn scales and chords into real music. Perfect for a college or high school improvisation class!

All musicians should be able to sit down at the keyboard and make sense of a tune. With that goal in mind, every instrumentalist and singer can profit from this book. It covers many techniques for exploring, understanding, and performing the songs found in real books. You will learn how to analyze the form and harmonic structure, insert an introduction, interpret the melody, improvise on the chords, construct bass lines, voice the chords, add substitutions, and much more. Offering a theory-based approach, it addresses many aspects of solo and small band performance that can improve your own playing and your understanding of what others are doing around you. Playing from a real book is all about options. The material presented here will offer you a full range of techniques that you can put to use right away.

A one-of-a-kind book encompassing a wide scope of jazz topics, for beginners and pros of any instrument. A three-pronged approach was envisioned with the creation of this comprehensive resource: as an encyclopedia for ready reference, as a thorough methodology for the student, and as a workbook for the classroom, complete with ample exercises and conceptual discussion. Includes the basics of intervals, jazz harmony, scales and modes, ii-V-I cadences. For harmony, it covers: harmonic analysis, piano voicings and voice leading; modulations and modal interchange, and reharmonization. For performance, it takes players through: jazz piano comping, jazz tune forms, arranging techniques, improvisation, traditional jazz fundamentals, practice techniques, and much more! Customer reviews on amazon.com for Jazzology average a glowing 5 stars! Here is a typical reader comment: "The book's approach is so intuitive, it almost leads you by the hand into the world of jazz. Certainly jazz is freedom of expression, but you have to know what you're doing and this book is the tool for that ... (it) should be standard in every high school with a jazz program and every college lab band."

You don't have to be from below the Mason-Dixon line to enjoy this primo collection of nearly 250 Dixieland tunes: Ain't Misbehavin' * Alexander's Ragtime Band * Bill Bailey, Won't You Please Come Home * California, Here I Come * Dinah * Down by the Riverside * Georgia on My Mind * Hard Hearted Hannah (The Vamp of Savannah) * Honeysuckle Rose * I'm Gonna Sit Right down and Write Myself a Letter * It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing) * Jelly Roll Blues * Lazy River * Makin' Whoopee! * My Baby Just Cares for Me * Nobody Knows You When You're down and Out * Puttin' on the Ritz * St. Louis Blues * Smile * Stompin' at the Savoy * Tiger Rag (Hold That Tiger) * When the Saints Go Marching In * and many more. All the Real Books feature accurate arrangements in the famous easy-to-read, hand-written notation and comb-binding. Looking for a particular song? Check out the Real Book Songfinder here.