Building a Jazz Vocabulary: A Resource for Learning Jazz Improvisation

I keep this book on music stand and do something from it every day.

The author, Jack Steinel, is a jazz musician, composer and arranger. He is also a teacher and an academic being a Professor of Jazz Studies at the University of North Texas. So it is not surprising that this book is well researched and technically robust. For example, hundreds of improvised solos were analysed to produce examples of cells (otherwise known as licks or riffs) and in many cases the cells and phrases are attributed to the source. So there is a section on John Coltrane's "Countdown" vocabulary which details the chords he used and even how often they appeared.Steinel manages to provide the logic behind the theory in an easy to understand manner and the focus is always on how to improve improvisation techniques. He uses the analogy of a vocabulary and language of Jazz. The book is in four sections with the first part on the basic jazz vocabulary. The next part deals with how this is used to build jazz solos. The third part consists of exercises and the final section has more vocabulary ideas.There is also an appendix which contains a hop scotch of suggestions such as performance guidelines.This is a multifunctional book which should make interesting reading for people developing their music theory as well as providing plenty of practice exercises for developing the required skills and techniques required for improvisation.I have used this book regularly for the exercises but I always seem to find something new and inspiring whenever I read it

This is a proper musicians' workbook. If you're not a musician and don't read music and you don't understand basic music theory, don't waste your money. However, if you're an apprentice jazz musician and curious as to how jazz solos are constructed, then this book goes into great detail about the process. The author Mike Steinel, places great emphasis on the so called 'cellular approach'—Very few famous jazz solos are composed of established scales run from top to bottom. Rather they are composed of various cells—pentatonic, chromatic, chord tones, etc mixed together. This is something that's not even mentioned by most of the other jazz theory books I've read.There are numerous 4 - 8 bar examples extracted from famous jazz and bebop solos where the author clearly outlines the various musical cells which make up the solo's construction. This is good because it allows people to see the practical application of theory which is always the best way. All in all a very worthwhile and enlightening book.

This is an excellent book which covers a lot of ground ;however, it does require active participation. You will need to pick up (or go to if you are a pianist) your instrument and try the scales and intervals suggested. The book will certainly keep me going for the next two years. Divide the cost by 24 months and the book is dirt cheap!

You want this! NO REALLY you do if you are serious about learning Jazz technique.There are a lot of secrets in this one, its so much better than famous blue striped one from the guy who does a series of backing CD's.Unlike that one, this one has clear and concise explanations, then examples, then exercises for each technique he presents.You know thinking about it I'm so impressed with this one, that I'm off to do a search to see if he did any more books in this series!

happy to have this to refer toa little heavy for the starter but I like the language analogy and practical tipswishI had more time to study

You gotta have well understood music theory for using this book. I've got a grade 5 theory which is absolutely invaluable... otherwise I would gave struggled.

This is a great source of inspiration and is always open on my music stand.I love one of the opening chapters analysing solos using simple exercises as an approach to conquering, exploring and understanding solos from some of the greats.X