JAZZ, ROCK & BLUES

In the Improvising & Theory section

There are several different and sometimes opposing approaches to the teaching of jazz & blues theory and improvising. This is a good thing because an approach that works for one person may not work so well for another. So what I’m attempting to do here is to present more than one way to look at it so this course attempts to draw on more than one of these approaches.

The tutorials are specifically geared towards “mainstream” jazz which was formulated during the middle period of the twentieth century, as opposed to earlier or later styles. 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.

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