This is the online version of my text, A Jazz Improvisation Primer. Here you can find information on almost every topic relating to jazz improvisation, from jazz history to music theory to practical advice on playing in a group.
A German translation, by Edgar Lins, is online, at http://msjipde.uteedgar-lins.de. There is also a Hungarian translation at http://w3.enternet.hu/mbha/primer_hu/primer.htm, provided by Makrai Balázs. A Portuguese translation by Cláudio Brandt can be found at http://www.jazzbossa.com/sabatella/. And now there is a French version at http://www.outsideshore.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/primer_french.pdf. Portions of this text are available in Italian, courtesy of Roberto Betti, at http://web.archive.org/web/20040518063107/http://www.geocities.com/brittu.geo/Jip/JIPmain.html.
A Jazz Improvisation Primer is brought to you by Outside Shore Music. While this text is freely browsable, there is no downloadable version of this material. If you would like a printed copy, you can purchase the published version, A Whole Approach To Jazz Improvisation. If you would like to support the online version, consider making a donation.
By the way, this work has been online since 1992, so if parts of it seem a bit dated, that’s why. Some day I may update it, but as it stands, it’s really a piece of Internet history – almost without doubt, the first jazz education resource ever published on the web.
Contents
- Preface
- Goals
- A Brief History of Jazz
- Jazz Fundamentals
- Chord/Scale Relationships
- Applying The Theory To Improvisation
- Accompanying
- Playing With Others
- Listening Analytically
- Breaking The Rules
Appendices
Thanks To:
- Ed Price (edp@panix.com), for the conversion of this resource into hypertext!
- Joe Germuska (jazzweb@wnur.nwu.edu), who housed the primer on his WNUR-FM JazzWebserver until I found space for it myself.
- Gertjan van Oosten (gertjan@West.NL), for various suggestions and the circle-of-fifths image.
- Richard M. Metzger (rmm4@lehigh.edu)
- Scott A. Lehman (slehman@mit.edu)
- Roger Chaplin (chaplin@keithley.com)