Customer Reviews

How To Play Jazz and Improvise / Book and CD

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... This is a learning tool, hence the tracks are at moderate tempos and relatively in their variations. The aim of this resource is to learn how to play through/accompany on your blues changes.

If you want to sit in on a jam session, mastery of the blues (with appropriate passing chords) is essential. Though most "straight ahead" Jazz tunes are called in F, Bb, G and on occasion a few other keys, while it might be forgiveable not to know Cherokee in E, not being able to hack a blues in a called key (depending on the key) might definitely get you some looks. Further, by mastering your blues in all keys, you'll indirectly be mastering the changes you need to play virtually any other Jazz tune, since the Blues has II V progressions, turnbacks and V chords moving by fourths like any other tune... So once you've truly mastered your blues, you should be able to open up a fake book and handle the changes in any other tune - - and for the time being, if you can't play your blues in All keys discreetly having a copy of this on hand might save face.

Additional material included are variations of the blues from passing chord variations to Bird Changes, blues scales in all keys, tips on using the tones, plus accompanying scales written out (actually its better to solo off of chord tones than scales if you want to play authentic sounding bebop, but no problem, just write out the scales every other note up to the 13th.) The book also has a nice discography.

This is an excellent learning tool if you use it right... be sure to realize however, its just a play-a-long. The next step is to go out into the field and try this stuff with real people !

The book and CD set is intended to be used as an aid to practicing improvisation. The 11 cuts cover all keys and each piece follows the standard 12-bar blues progression. To prevent monotony, each cut has a different style and a change in tempo in the middle. I highly recommend it for all levels of musicians from those beginning improvisation to advanced players who want to make practice something more enjoyable than drilling through scales and riffs.

If your looking for a good way to get started playing blues/jazz improvisation, look no further. Aebersold did a wonderful job making this book/CD set extensive enough for the beginner, but not so extensive that it would bore them with the fine details of playing "improv". What a great set for students who are just learning the basics!

The advanced player will find himself bored with this quite fast. The tempos are too slow and the rhythm section too monotonous to play anything interesting.