Jazz Improvisation: Tonal and Rhythmic Principles [Paperback]

John Mehegan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 31, 1984 | Series: Jazz Improvisation (Book 1)

The fundamentals of jazz are here explained and systemized in 70 lessons based on 60 jazz standards. It covers the styles of musicians from Buddy Bolden to Dizzy Gillespie.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Amsco Music Publications; Revised & enlarged edition (December 31, 1984)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0823025594
• ISBN-13: 978-0823025596
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 8.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #490,322 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Jazz How-To, November 10, 1998

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[e-mail] (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Jazz Improvisation: Tonal and Rhythmic Principles (Paperback)

This serious, authoritative book turned me on to jazz. The author presents the material in bite size chunks. He has a gift for pulling structure from the chaos. This is not Jazz-For-Dummies. The reader is expected to be hard working, but needs no previous experience with jazz. The reader should have access to a piano to play the various chord sequences, but the lessons are invaluable to all instrumentalists.

One downside to this book it that you have to learn the author's unusual notation (figured bass), but the power of this notation is also the book's greatest strength. The notation reveals the structure of jazz and the similarities between the songs. And, hey, Bach used the same notation, so it can't be all bad.

The author gives the chord changes to many common jazz songs. Usually no particular artist or recording is referenced. So, the reader has to hunt around to find performances that resemble the changes the author has given.

Once again, this is my favorite book on the subject. It is never unnecessarily pedantic. It never waters down difficult concepts. The way the book talks about music is how musicians think about music. If this book is not enough, other books in this series by John Mehegan pick up where this one leaves off.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars As thorough as you can get., September 18, 2004

By 

M. Mazza (Elizabeth, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Jazz Improvisation: Tonal and Rhythmic Principles (Paperback)

Mehegan's works serve as indispensable sources for all jazz pianists since he devises lessons that are simply not found elsewhere; I have a good library of quality jazz books, but let me emphasize some of the things that are hardly addressed in other books. In volume one, you get:
1.) Complete right hand fingering suggestions for seventh arpeggios. Some may consider these obvious, but it's an erroneous assumption. This is the only book in my collection that gives clear instructions on practicing seventh chord arpeggios in all qualities (major, minor, dominant, half-diminished, diminished). Most other works focus exclusively on triads.
2.) Good fingering suggestions for diminished and half-diminished scales.
3.) Scale-tone sevenths in all keys.
4.) Inversions in all qualities.
5.) Dozens of progressions.
6.) Transcription exercises.
7.) Modal material.

The list goes on, and this is only in volume 1. There's enough for a few lifetimes. The other works in the set are just as complete.

As a final point, many readers have raised questions about the author's use of figured bass, but it's important to understand his goal. Early on in volume one, he argues that using letters for chords (Ab, Cm7, etc.) limits you to one key. If you learn the roman numeral relationships in a progression, you can transpose it to any key. In fact, he deliberately does this to get you to think across the keys. The author obviously knows chord progressions in original keys, but he is challenging readers to think in terms of the roman numerals in order to develop ease at transposition. The other part deals with the intervallic displacements that occur when you invert chords. Basically--you have four inversions, and he designates them with the figured bass system. But don't be intimidated by thinking that you'll be overwhelmed with new information. If anything, it can clarify your thinking--of course, if you're willing to do the work.

Serious students can't go wrong with these monumental and historical works--whether they use them sequentially or occasionally for great practice ideas.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The real deal - - and I mean it ! ! !, September 13, 2006

By 

Eddie Landsberg "My 10th year as a reviewer !... (Tokyo, Japan) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

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This review is from: Jazz Improvisation: Tonal and Rhythmic Principles (Paperback)

Good news and bad news about this book... It represents an older method, an older way of thinking... it is brutal to learn, requires a lot of intelligence and commitment, and there are "simpler" approaches out now. The good news:
Yeah, but who the heck is playing with the conceptual depth of the players who came out in this era when harmonic mastery was absolutely essential and players were, for the most part INTELLIGENT and profoundy conceptual, and why do players these days have all the "technique" in the world, yet seem to lack the depth of the older players ???

And so welcome back to the 60 chord system of Jazz... your block chords, their inversions... the way tones are added, roman numeral analysis, and all the scary stuff related to Jazz harmony - - not to mention the 60 scales and use of "sensitive tones", "open axis voicings" and a whole bunch of terminology not as common these days. In the end, this book is phenomenal because for those wishing to take the path you will receive the same type of training most of the masters came up on. However - - it is not for everyone. In fact, when I took my first Jazz lesson, and a teacher (with far lesser abilities to organize the info and articulate himself than Mehegan) laid this on me... I pretty much stopped showing up for the lessons and almost quit. Amadea's book saved my life and got me back into playing, but now I've come full circle, and I really appreciate this series.

In the end, my advice is that even though this WAS the info people taking Jazz courses were started on years ago, it might not be the right for everyone in the getgo, however, at some point, this is one of those vital documentations that is more than just an instructional method... it is a vital contribution to Jazz Harmony and its - - less than abstract truths.