Basic Jazz Theory: volume 1 Paperback – September 1, 2010

Gives all info a beginning jazz musician needs. TABLE OF CONTENTS COVERS ALL TOPICS AND MAKES IT EASY TO QUICKLY ACCESS THE TOPIC NEEDED AT THE MOMENT.

I wanted a book that would help teach me the fundamentals of playing jazz. I was primarily classically trained on the alto sax and wanted to broaden my horizons now that I am playing again after an almost 40 year lay off. The book is the right mix of stuff to get me started without making my head explode. I will likely buy the series.

This is what I have forgotten since school and I am enjoying it. It came timely and was exactly what I thought it was.

I like the whole friendliness of the book but...I have just started to formally study a bit of music theory. I have worked my way through about 70 pages of Berle, was having so much fun with it i figured id augment my experience with some Jazz specific theory.Much of what i like about this little book are his personal opinions and stories and views etc...i love to get insight into how these jazz musicians are thinking. But the material unfortunately doesnt seem to contain much not found in the first 50 pages of Berle--which is not an unpleasant book to read and work through! I guess thats why its volume 1 but still i cant help but get the feeling that its been made as short and insubstantial as possible so that you will be sure to get volume 2.I mean cmon circles of 5ths has to wait till volume 2???I was definitely expecting there to be some overlap with the material i have covered in the Berle but I am disappointed to really be finding nothing new.The exercises have their solutions right there so you can check your work which is nice...except I find they dont push me very hard...they are a little on the easy side.The style of this book is definitely cool but just a little light...i will still get volumes 2 and 3.

Poor job of editing, it detracted from it's value to the point that I would not purchase volume 2 or 3!

jazz is cool

If you're new to Jazz, it's a good starting point. If you have some music theory background, there isn't enough depth to it.

This is a good introduction to jazz theory. For advanced players, Mark Levine's Jazz Theory Book is a much better choice

Fantastic book for those wanting to understand music theory especially in relation to jazz. There are other books out there which you'll need as this is only an introduction, but if you're fed up opening huge jazz books which from page 1 are bewildering give this book a try!

Well, another example of a book which cannot be read properly on the kindle. The musical scores in the kindle version are simply too small to read. I suspect that the original book is great but the Kindle version is simply not worth buying because you cannot read the music scores. Why do they create kindle versions of some books - if I were the author I would be so upset by the kindle version - rubbish.

Best i have read to date, really helpful and fun to read, BUT, where is vol 2 & 3??