The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
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  1. #1
    Hello im new on here (And fairly new to jazz)

    im looking for a jazz theory book, im at grade 5 theory level now (ABRSM) so ive got a good foundation for some more challenging jazz theory

    i will check out anything you recomend,

    cheers, Fergus Vickers

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    The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
     
  3. #2

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    ABRSM?

    Take a look at Levine's Jazz Theory Book and see if it is at your level: http://www.amazon.ca/Jazz-Theory-Boo.../dp/1883217040

  4. #3

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    The Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM).

  5. #4

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    Levine's book is great, but it leaves a lot out and is a little biased towards chord-scale theory.
    It's definitely worth reading if you have a good theory grounding already, and if your taste is more for jazz of last 50 years or so than earlier "standards" in "functional harmony".

    But I'd strongly recommend a companion book like Robert Rawlins' "Jazzology", which is very different in its approach, and deals with a lot of what Levine skated over or just omitted.
    http://www.amazon.co.uk/Jazzology-En...ords=jazzology
    Many years ago, when Levine's book was about the only jazz theory book around, and I'd been reading it for some years (and was quite fan of it), I read a critique by Rawlins which exposed significant flaws in it. I also encountered other jazz theorists online with different - and more convincing - viewpoints than Levine. Rawlins' own book (with co-author Nor Eddine Bahha) was published later.

    "Jazzology" does have its own flaws. A big part of what makes Levine's book seem so authoritative is all the quotes from actual jazz recordings by the masters; shown as evidence for the points Levine is making. The examples in Rawlins' book, OTOH, were all written by the authors (presumably for copyright reasons), making it seem much less convincing.
    But then an educated re-reading of Levine's quoted examples exposes many of them as ambiguous - they might imply other strategies or thought processes to those Levine suggests. And of course he could equally well be ignoring a whole load of other examples which would disprove his theses.

    Eg, one of the famous assertions he makes is that harmonic minor is simply not used by the jazz masters - or extremely rarely. He spends just 2 pages (out of over 400) dealing with this scale, treating it as a bizarre extra. But that's because (it seems) he's being very strict with identifying harmonic minor passages. They must contain that augmented 2nd step (between b6 and 7), and that needs to be unexplainable by other means (eg a partial arpeggio, or simple skip of a scale note). It may well be true that such passages are hard to find (and judging from his mind-boggling listening list he's looked long and hard), but that doesn't mean that some more ambiguous phrases didn't begin from harmonic minor thinking.
    Certainly if you begin from accepting that harmonic minor might be common (well-known to jazz musicians as a solo option), you can find evidence for that in quite a lot of Charlie Parker solos. He might avoid that augmented 2nd, but there's a lot of runs which could otherwise imply harmonic minor (b3, b6, maj7 in the scale, just no jump from b6 to maj7 or vice versa).
    IOW, it seems quite true that, in general, jazz musicians avoid the distinctive "Spanish" effect of that aug2 step (maybe because they're playing American music not Spanish music...?). But that may be the only thing they dislike about harmonic minor. It doesn't mean knowledge of harmonic minor (especially its traditional function in minor keys) is not important.

    In short, while Levine's book is well written and designed, and contains a ton of very valuable (and inspiring and revealing) information - take it with a pinch of salt. It's not "The Jazz Theory" book (as its title recklessly claims); it's "A Jazz Theory Book"; a very good one, but just one guy's perspective. Others are available.

    One I've yet to read myself, but which I keep hearing good things about is Bert Ligon's "Connecting Chords With Linear Harmony".
    http://www.amazon.com/Connecting-Cho...1596972&sr=1-1
    I personally find this "linear" perspective much more convincing and widely applicable than the more "vertical" chord-scale angle. It aligns exactly with my own experience improvising in all kinds of jazz (over the last 40 years), while Levine's doesn't. (Levine is intellectually fascinating, but hard to link with actual practice.)
    Ed Byrne is another one promoting this linear perspective, although his book may be harder to come by:
    http://www.amazon.co.uk/Linear-Jazz-.../dp/0578001683

    Both are sold more as improvisation strategies than theory per se, but they are based on a solid understanding of functional harmony (major and minor key theory), and on how chords actually work in progression.
    Last edited by JonR; 02-05-2014 at 06:51 AM.

  6. #5

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    Quote Originally Posted by JonR
    .

    In short, while Levine's book is well written and designed, and contains a ton of very valuable (and inspiring and revealing) information - take it with a pinch of salt. It's not "The Jazz Theory" book (as its title recklessly claims); it's "A Jazz Theory Book"; a very good one, but just one guy's perspective. Others are available.
    plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose...

    "when it was written it was "the" jazz theory book, as in there wasn't anything else out there except some early coker efforts and ricigliano's seminal text, early david baker...and, of course, the lydian chromatic concept. so critique it on the merits, if you must, but not on the title...

    and if you don't buy that, how about it's a bit tongue in cheek, eh? haven't you read enough of it to know that levine has a sense of humor, and doesn't at all mind poking a little fun at himself? irony? "


    by all mean, let's do it all again periodically...

    Starting over with Mark Levine

    Mark Levine THE JAZZ THEORY BOOK: Who's read it here???

  7. #6

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    its a bit expensive but Berklee Online offers five courses in harmony and theory and they are digestable and manageable.

    then they go into multiple arranging and composing courses. assignments and feedback provided by current and former Berklee instructors.

    money aside, its hard to beat.

  8. #7

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    not making light of coker. i studied "jazz improvisation" when that was the only book "widely available" (real bookstores), as well as the ricigliano, when that was the only one in the university bookstore in my part of the world.

    i have never seen grove's books. maybe they are comprehensive, even great...but certainly not universally distributed.

    ...arguing over nothing on the internet...

    from an amazon review of "the jazz theory book":

    "For many years, a lot of the "Jazz" educational material on the market was either antequated by the time of publication (remember going into music shops to find "modern" piano books that would teach you how to play stride version of Honeysuckle Rose and the Maple Leaf Rag?)... other books contained misleading information, or some of the better ones required technical reading skills (as well as hand spans and chops) that few Jazz masters themselves were known to possess (!) - - Finally, over the years, a few breakthroughs... two of the earliest that come to mind would include books by David Baker and John Mehegan. - - But most of us still wondered, "When is somebody going to write *the book* ?" - - ...finally someone did. The publication of this book has launched Jazz education into the modern era... Very readable, well presented, modern, practical, never over academic or esoteric, and requiring the most minimal amount of reading of musical notation possible - - and written for a generation raised on Miles Davis and John Coltrane not Fats Waller and Louis Armstrong (as great as they were..."
    Last edited by Dirk; 04-20-2018 at 06:27 AM.

  9. #8

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    i think its a fine book. glad it was written, glad i have it. i probably don't go gaga over it like some some others because i have so many books and resources that i don't think twice about referencing multiple sources and don't expect everything to be in a single book.


    that goes for any topic, BTW.

    in one of my grad school engineering courses had 3 required texts, plus the requirement to do additional research. undergrad was more straightforward. such is life.

  10. #9

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    Quote Originally Posted by JonR
    Levine's book is great, but it leaves a lot out and is a little biased towards chord-scale theory.
    It's definitely worth reading if you have a good theory grounding already, and if your taste is more for jazz of last 50 years or so than earlier "standards" in "functional harmony".

    But I'd strongly recommend a companion book like Robert Rawlins' "Jazzology", which is very different in its approach, and deals with a lot of what Levine skated over or just omitted.
    http://www.amazon.co.uk/Jazzology-En...ords=jazzology
    Many years ago, when Levine's book was about the only jazz theory book around, and I'd been reading it for some years (and was quite fan of it), I read a critique by Rawlins which exposed significant flaws in it. I also encountered other jazz theorists online with different - and more convincing - viewpoints than Levine. Rawlins' own book (with co-author Nor Eddine Bahha) was published later.

    "Jazzology" does have its own flaws. A big part of what makes Levine's book seem so authoritative is all the quotes from actual jazz recordings by the masters; shown as evidence for the points Levine is making. The examples in Rawlins' book, OTOH, were all written by the authors (presumably for copyright reasons), making it seem much less convincing.
    But then an educated re-reading of Levine's quoted examples exposes many of them as ambiguous - they might imply other strategies or thought processes to those Levine suggests. And of course he could equally well be ignoring a whole load of other examples which would disprove his theses.

    Eg, one of the famous assertions he makes is that harmonic minor is simply not used by the jazz masters - or extremely rarely. He spends just 2 pages (out of over 400) dealing with this scale, treating it as a bizarre extra. But that's because (it seems) he's being very strict with identifying harmonic minor passages. They must contain that augmented 2nd step (between b6 and 7), and that needs to be unexplainable by other means (eg a partial arpeggio, or simple skip of a scale note). It may well be true that such passages are hard to find (and judging from his mind-boggling listening list he's looked long and hard), but that doesn't mean that some more ambiguous phrases didn't begin from harmonic minor thinking.
    Certainly if you begin from accepting that harmonic minor might be common (well-known to jazz musicians as a solo option), you can find evidence for that in quite a lot of Charlie Parker solos. He might avoid that augmented 2nd, but there's a lot of runs which could otherwise imply harmonic minor (b3, b6, maj7 in the scale, just no jump from b6 to maj7 or vice versa).
    IOW, it seems quite true that, in general, jazz musicians avoid the distinctive "Spanish" effect of that aug2 step (maybe because they're playing American music not Spanish music...?). But that may be the only thing they dislike about harmonic minor. It doesn't mean knowledge of harmonic minor (especially its traditional function in minor keys) is not important.

    In short, while Levine's book is well written and designed, and contains a ton of very valuable (and inspiring and revealing) information - take it with a pinch of salt. It's not "The Jazz Theory" book (as its title recklessly claims); it's "A Jazz Theory Book"; a very good one, but just one guy's perspective. Others are available.

    One I've yet to read myself, but which I keep hearing good things about is Bert Ligon's "Connecting Chords With Linear Harmony".
    http://www.amazon.com/Connecting-Cho...1596972&sr=1-1
    I personally find this "linear" perspective much more convincing and widely applicable than the more "vertical" chord-scale angle. It aligns exactly with my own experience improvising in all kinds of jazz (over the last 40 years), while Levine's doesn't. (Levine is intellectually fascinating, but hard to link with actual practice.)
    Ed Byrne is another one promoting this linear perspective, although his book may be harder to come by:
    http://www.amazon.co.uk/Linear-Jazz-.../dp/0578001683

    Both are sold more as improvisation strategies than theory per se, but they are based on a solid understanding of functional harmony (major and minor key theory), and on how chords actually work in progression.
    There are in fact some examples of aug 2nds in bebop literature - there's one in the melody of Little Willie Leaps IIRC, and Donna Lee.

    The alleged non-use of the harmonic minor scale is in my classic collection of Jazz Theory Bollocks. But then to be fair, bebop is not the main focus of Levine's book.

    I found a few bits of Levine's book useful, but other books and DVD's much more useful in developing my sense of line. But none in particular. As boring old jazz farts like to say the 'textbooks are the records.' It's a cliche, but true. You'll find yourself writing your own textbook with any luck.

    As a side note, information on North American (as opposed to Latin American) rhythm is very hard to come by. I can think of the Hal Galper book, the Mike Longo stuff - is there any more info out there?

  11. #10

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    Hey guys! new to the forum. came over from the talkbass forum and wanted to see if you guys had any recommendations for music theory books. I started off jamming and playing by ear not really knowing any thing about music theory. Then I starting playing gigs with actual working musicians who were light years ahead of me in the music theory department and so I decided to start learning it and I was recommended a book by another bassist about 5 years ago called "Harmony & Theory a comprehensive source for all musicians" by Musicians Institute. I actually liked how the book was in workbook form. I feel like it was a kind of basic introduction to theory and understanding to theory on a "working level"! I am now after 5 years (off and on from the book due to gigging and studio time but mostly procrastination haha) am coming to the end of the book and am looking for something new. I'd love to dive into something that has more things on altered chords, diminished/augmented stuff, melodic major/minor scales and there modes etc. Another book that same person had recommended when I finished that book was Arnold Schoenberg's "Theory of Harmony". But I checked it out and it seems pretty intense.

  12. #11

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    Hi, Welcome to the Forum!
    I always recommend Hal Crook's "Ready, Aim, Improvise!" since the first half of the book is theory, and the rest is practicing improvisation, philosophy, and other funny stuff (he writes with a great sense of humor!).

    Enjoy!

    Marc

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  14. #13

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    Some friends told me about the Jazz theory book and I hear its a standard for a lot of people.. the Bert ligon book sounds interesting as well. does it come with audio? Also is the Hal crooks aimed more towards improvising? i also found this book Jazz Theory: From Basic to Advanced Study:Amazon:Books it seems to have audio and a downloadable work book
    Last edited by b_ryceeeee; 12-17-2014 at 05:02 AM.

  15. #14

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    I have two other Ligon books and find them excellent--very clear, very rooted in the jazz tradition, and very deep yet comprehensible. I'll probably get his theory book myself.

    There are many, many threads on the Levine book. I bought it years ago and found it useful, but opinions are mixed. It doesn't have any exercises, or the like.

  16. #15

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    I have to say that the Schoenberg book is quite fantastic. If you want to know WHY a #5 sounds good in a dom 7 chord its a perfect ressource. The Allen Forte Tonal harmony in concept and practice is also amazing if you want to understand profoundly WHY. Also those two books will emphasis a lot of rules on voice leading while more standard jazz ressources will tell you that you can play pretty much any note in a collection except maybe the mandatory 7th and 3rds. But, if you want to go and know WHAT sound good and how to apply it in a jazz context in a practical and fast way the previously mentioned books (I like ligon too) are very good.

    just my 1,83 canadian cents
    Last edited by Takemitsu; 12-18-2014 at 04:06 PM. Reason: typos

  17. #16

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    thanks a lot for the input guys! really appreciate it! you guys got me real interested in berts book! I also read a thread that johnnypac started and he was stating that he really enjoyed the jazz theory resources book! does anybody know where I can find the table of contents for it or some examples?
    Last edited by b_ryceeeee; 12-18-2014 at 11:30 PM.

  18. #17

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    Quote Originally Posted by b_ryceeeee
    Some friends told me about the Jazz theory book and I hear its a standard for a lot of people.. the Bert ligon book sounds interesting as well. does it come with audio? Also is the Hal crooks aimed more towards improvising? i also found this book Jazz Theory: From Basic to Advanced Study:Amazon:Books it seems to have audio and a downloadable work book
    I got this book recently, and it is very comprehensive. Combined with the free online workbookI it is a great product. The Bert Ligon books are also very good. I also like The Berklee Book of Jazz Harmony as well as Jazzology.

  19. #18

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    Quote Originally Posted by snoskier63
    I got this book recently, and it is very comprehensive. Combined with the free online workbookI it is a great product. The Bert Ligon books are also very good. I also like The Berklee Book of Jazz Harmony as well as Jazzology.
    How do you like the Jazz theory "from basic to advanced study" in comparison to Bert ligon's book!

  20. #19

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    I don't think you will go wrong either way, but I like the idea of having the workbook. Just keep in mind that Jazz Theory: From Basic to Advanced Study is geared toward the piano, while Bert Ligon is a guitarist and his books come from that perspective.

  21. #20

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    Quote Originally Posted by snoskier63
    I don't think you will go wrong either way, but I like the idea of having the workbook. Just keep in mind that Jazz Theory: From Basic to Advanced Study is geared toward the piano, while Bert Ligon is a guitarist and his books come from that perspective.
    well that's perfect because I'm a bassist haha... anyway I do like the idea of the workbook too as the theory book I had mentioned that I'm just about to finish has exercises in every chapter. Is Ligon's book like a workbook style too?

  22. #21

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    There are some exercises to practice in the Ligon books, but they mostly present the material and leave it up to the individual to work things out on paper. Again, both sources are very comprehensive and will help to improve your knowledge of theory in a very detailed manner.

  23. #22

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    Quote Originally Posted by snoskier63
    There are some exercises to practice in the Ligon books, but they mostly present the material and leave it up to the individual to work things out on paper. Again, both sources are very comprehensive and will help to improve your knowledge of theory in a very detailed manner.
    do you know of any links to berts jazz theory resources vo. 1 where it shows the table of contents?

  24. #23

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    So I have tons of books on scales/arpeggios/technique, and even more with transcriptions. So I'm really hoping I can find just one theory book. Mark Levine's The Jazz Theory Book seems to be the most obvious but I'm wondering if there's another one folks like better. The Berklee book of jazz harmony looks interesting; I'm sure both are different...but wondering if Levine's books spends half his time covering obvious stuff...or if in fact it really is a must have. Or if there's another book that's better. Again, hoping to buy just one! Appreciate your thoughts.

  25. #24

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    Mark's book is good, but it has it's detractors. Bert Ligon has some good books

    http://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Theory-Re.../dp/0634038613

    If you scour the internet some of the early Berklee Harmony materials are available.

  26. #25

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    Bert's books look great. Looks like there are four. Which ONE is a must have?