Jazz Theory & Improvisation

JAZZ TUTORIALS

These pages (originally written in 1997) accompanied the Southampton University Jazz Theory course. There are several different and sometimes opposing approaches to the teaching of jazz theory and improvising. This course attempts to draw on more than one of these approaches. It is intended only to give the student a brief background and some theoretical knowledge of the skills required for jazz improvisation, arranging and composition. My thanks to Dave Marchant (who now teaches the jazz theory course at Southampton University) for some very useful edits, updates and additions.

The tutorials are specifically geared towards mainstream jazz which was formulated during the middle period of the twentieth century. This era of jazz is based on the harmony of popular music at the time, with some innovations developed by the bebop greats such as Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and Thelonius Monk. Later forms such as modal jazz, and various styles of fusion are not covered, though much of the same theory still applies. Initial learning usually requires some well defined rules. This course attempts as far as is possible to lay down some rules which should be approached as an aid to learning the basics rather than as a dogma to be applied to a subject that ideally is at its best when breaking rules or pushing boundaries. I have used one of the modern approaches of using scales to approach improvisation over chord changes, although I have emphasised several times that this approach, though useful at first, should never dominate the true art of improvisation which relies more on melodic inspiration and original use of the "jazz language". As no improviser can ever be 100% original, this often means learning phrases and licks from the vast repertoire of jazz greats and gaining an intuitive feel for borrowing and developing them

The course is not a complete on-line tutor for beginners as it originally relied on weekly lectures to fully explain the topics and demonstrate the examples, however anyone with a reasonable basic knowledge of theory should be able to pick up a lot of new ideas and approaches. You should read and understand the lessons, but most importantly play the exercises. Even if you are not a piano player, it is important to be able to play the chords on a keyboard, and transpose them into different keys. These tutorials have been used as part of the Southampton University undergraduate courses at the Music Department.