I found the book Improvising Jazz by Jerry Coker to be useful when I was first learning. It gave me the basics on which to build. I read it several times over a period of years and learned more each time.
That said, the best advice I ever received was from the piano player for Woody Herman's Thundering Herd. Basically, he said try everything. You will find what works for you and you can use it going forward.
Jazz music theory
-
- KVRAF
- 2083 posts since 28 Feb, 2011
Thanks Scott, interesting suggestions 
Keep in mind that a big part of playing quality jazz is improvisation with others. You have to learn to listen and to respond to what you hear with something emotionally and musically satisfying. You can tell a person who just plays robotically "by the rules" and "under the fingers" but isn't listening well, because they do lots of pentatonic runs, tritone substitutions, etc., but the lyrical quality isn't there. I learned a lot from listening to George Duke, who is really good at backing up a lead player (Jean Luc Ponty, Cannonball Adderley, Frank Zappa, etc.) with responsive piano comping. It's obviously a lot more than just filling the empty spaces with related notes (actually leaving empty space can be very effective too), but you really need to train your ear so you can develop the ability to play what you hear inside your head. I don't have perfect pitch (George can instantly repeat anything he hears) but I developed relative pitch when I was young and have built from that (you can recognize a note based on its intervalic relationship with a known note). I think not having perfect pitch is a detriment, because for me there's often a slight delay in determining the notes I hear in my head as my brain processes the relative pitches. I'm still not quite at the instantaneous level most of the time, and may never be. But in any case, you can learn to recognize notes through practiced ear training, and this opens up a whole new world of beautifully expressive abilities, regardless of your improvisational style (blues, whatever).
Another thing that's good to remember is you can learn from all styles, especially "classical." Study rhythms, melodies and harmonic structures of any genre that interests you.
Keep in mind that a big part of playing quality jazz is improvisation with others. You have to learn to listen and to respond to what you hear with something emotionally and musically satisfying. You can tell a person who just plays robotically "by the rules" and "under the fingers" but isn't listening well, because they do lots of pentatonic runs, tritone substitutions, etc., but the lyrical quality isn't there. I learned a lot from listening to George Duke, who is really good at backing up a lead player (Jean Luc Ponty, Cannonball Adderley, Frank Zappa, etc.) with responsive piano comping. It's obviously a lot more than just filling the empty spaces with related notes (actually leaving empty space can be very effective too), but you really need to train your ear so you can develop the ability to play what you hear inside your head. I don't have perfect pitch (George can instantly repeat anything he hears) but I developed relative pitch when I was young and have built from that (you can recognize a note based on its intervalic relationship with a known note). I think not having perfect pitch is a detriment, because for me there's often a slight delay in determining the notes I hear in my head as my brain processes the relative pitches. I'm still not quite at the instantaneous level most of the time, and may never be. But in any case, you can learn to recognize notes through practiced ear training, and this opens up a whole new world of beautifully expressive abilities, regardless of your improvisational style (blues, whatever).
Another thing that's good to remember is you can learn from all styles, especially "classical." Study rhythms, melodies and harmonic structures of any genre that interests you.
-
- KVRist
- 89 posts since 14 Jul, 2006
By the way. let me just add something here. If you are trying to learn how to play jazz and improvise, that's one thing. But if you want to incorporate jazz sounds to your techno music or house music or something like that, all you really have to do is start using 7th, 9th, etc. chords. You can use the pentatonic scale or the natural minor or melodic minor scale to write your melodies. Just those two things alone were enough for me when I wanted to make my stuff sound more like jazz.
Also what might even be more ideal than reading deep into jazz theory would be to just transcribe jazz songs that you like and analyze them harmonically. "Jazz Theory" has a lot to do with actually playing and improvising, but if you know all the foundational concepts of harmony (if not then read "Harmony For Computer Musicians") nothing in jazz song is going to stump you if you transcribe it and look at what is going on with the harmony.
Also what might even be more ideal than reading deep into jazz theory would be to just transcribe jazz songs that you like and analyze them harmonically. "Jazz Theory" has a lot to do with actually playing and improvising, but if you know all the foundational concepts of harmony (if not then read "Harmony For Computer Musicians") nothing in jazz song is going to stump you if you transcribe it and look at what is going on with the harmony.
-
- KVRist
- 353 posts since 22 Feb, 2004
I've never read up on any theory specifically related to jazz (or any serious theory at all for that matter). For most of my life I've listened to and appreciated a lot of Fusion and Smooth Jazz (traditional jazz fans will probably chase me out with pitchforks for that one) and just started making my own after tackling the obstacle of getting the kinds of chords I want.
The first thing I do usually is to create a chord progression to lay out the basic harmony for everything. I pick a minor or major chord and then just add another note above the fifth for adding color. Quickly realized that minor sixths and sevenths sound good with minor chords, and major sixts and sevenths for major chords. Those are the "safe" types of chords I always stick to so far, haven't really explored much with diminished or sustained chords yet.
I don't follow by any particular scale when I'm laying out the progression either, all I decide is whether the next chord should be founded on a major or minor in any kind of interval, or perhaps sometimes modulating between them in the same key. I'll play around a lot with inversions as well and cutting out a few notes where i feel it's appropriate arrangement-wise. I always feel like I should be doing more dim or sus stuff, but I never get satisfactory results from them.
The first thing I do usually is to create a chord progression to lay out the basic harmony for everything. I pick a minor or major chord and then just add another note above the fifth for adding color. Quickly realized that minor sixths and sevenths sound good with minor chords, and major sixts and sevenths for major chords. Those are the "safe" types of chords I always stick to so far, haven't really explored much with diminished or sustained chords yet.
I don't follow by any particular scale when I'm laying out the progression either, all I decide is whether the next chord should be founded on a major or minor in any kind of interval, or perhaps sometimes modulating between them in the same key. I'll play around a lot with inversions as well and cutting out a few notes where i feel it's appropriate arrangement-wise. I always feel like I should be doing more dim or sus stuff, but I never get satisfactory results from them.
-
- KVRAF
- 7837 posts since 20 Jan, 2008
You'd catch more of that if you studied trad and modern jazz. Not so much the sus as 11th and not so much straight up diminished but b5m7
Dell Vostro i9 64GB Ram Windows 11 Pro, Cubase, Bitwig, Mixcraft Guitar Pod Go, Linntrument Nektar P1, Novation Launchpad
-
- KVRian
- 1355 posts since 27 Oct, 2009
If you're into smooth jazz check out this dude's channel:GeckoYamori wrote:I've never read up on any theory specifically related to jazz (or any serious theory at all for that matter). For most of my life I've listened to and appreciated a lot of Fusion and Smooth Jazz (traditional jazz fans will probably chase me out with pitchforks for that one) and just started making my own after tackling the obstacle of getting the kinds of chords I want.
The first thing I do usually is to create a chord progression to lay out the basic harmony for everything. I pick a minor or major chord and then just add another note above the fifth for adding color. Quickly realized that minor sixths and sevenths sound good with minor chords, and major sixts and sevenths for major chords. Those are the "safe" types of chords I always stick to so far, haven't really explored much with diminished or sustained chords yet.
I don't follow by any particular scale when I'm laying out the progression either, all I decide is whether the next chord should be founded on a major or minor in any kind of interval, or perhaps sometimes modulating between them in the same key. I'll play around a lot with inversions as well and cutting out a few notes where i feel it's appropriate arrangement-wise. I always feel like I should be doing more dim or sus stuff, but I never get satisfactory results from them.
http://youtube.com/mattotten
Beautiful tone, beautiful harmonies.
-
- KVRAF
- 26033 posts since 20 Oct, 2007 from gonesville
Conventionally, your 'sus' sonority tends to to accrue to the ii type of function [Dm7/11, given C tonic]; and the diminished triad is liable to have a minor 7; built on to the ii function where the i as source or target is minor. known as 'half-diminished' to classical people but often as m7b5 to jazz people. also you can think of the dominant function [V of] as a root for a diminished type sonority: B D F Ab over a G = G7b9 [V7b9 in C (usu. minor)].GeckoYamori wrote:I always feel like I should be doing more dim or sus stuff, but I never get satisfactory results from them.
If you don't have a completely golden ear, where you pick up everything like it's de nada, there are a few basic things like this to know from the convention.