What is Reddit's opinion of The Jazz Theory Book?

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I suggest reading a jazz theory book. I think that if you got through this Mark Levine book it wouldn’t be nearly as big of a mystery: https://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Theory-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/1883217040/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=jazz+theory+book&qid=1610722853&sr=8-1

This isn’t tied specifically to bass but it has a load of good info. Then if you want to get a Real Book (bass clef version), you can start really playing and improving jazz lines in bass easily.

I haven't gotten around to reading it myself yet, nor am I any good at playing/understanding jazz, but people around here seem to recommend Mark Levine's book on jazz theory quite often: http://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Theory-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/1883217040

Here is the Amazon link I use with many students. I think you might find it enlightening, as would anyone who thinks the only music theory out there is found in 1st-year classical music studies. Seriously, I can write 4 part harmony, but many types of music aren't like that.... come on friend... open your mind, and get over your need to correct people on perceived tiny details.

https://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Theory-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/1883217040

I'd recommend the Jazz Theory Book by Mark Levine.

It's probably the most comprehensive book out there, but there are caveats: it assumes you can already play your instrument(s), that you understand score and you're willing to practice.

So not for beginners, but it's one of those tomes that you'll keep under your pillow for a lifetime of learning.

Can't go wrong with the Jazz Theory Book by Mark Levine

We actually used it in my jazz theory class.

Really I'd just suggest studying basic chord progressions like Bebop blues, minor blues, rhythm changes, etc. Once you can analyze those and understand why they work I feel like it wont be a stretch for you to understand most other things.

Jazz has a lot of typical chord progressions that reoccur in many different tunes and learning those 3 in all 12 keys would give you a lot of material to work with.

Basically whenever you see a dominant quality chord pay attention to how it resolves. Also pay attention to fully diminished chords and how they resolve.

A lot of the times diminished chords are also subs for dominant chords.

I don't normally recommend this book, but it deals in post-modal jazz harmony. It does often confuse functionality with non-functional modal chords - but then a lot of modern jazz mixes both concepts anyway.
IOW, get some other opinions if you think it looks like it could be useful! ;-)

Wow that looks like a great site.

Also there's the Jazz Theory Book for anybody else browsing this thread. But that site has a lot of info that's in the book. And some that isn't.

Ah that site is from the Walk That Bass youtube channel? Makes sense.

Great reply. So, essentially, your goal is musical literacy.

Over in /r/jazz there I seem to recall someone posting an online starter kit that was very good.

I used:

https://www.amazon.ca/Jazz-Theory-Book-Levine/dp/1883217040

It's pretty thorough.

The nice thing about jazz theory is that it is very applicable to pop music as well.

Have you read the jazz bible? It's a pretty good place to start if you have some theory knowledge and want to move it into the jazz realm.

https://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Theory-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/1883217040/ref=tmm_other_meta_binding_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

I'd also add that, for post-modal jazz, Mark Levine's Jazz Theory Book is a good resource. It's been criticised (properly) for not dealing fully with older functional harmony, and not acknowledging the controversy over "chord-scale theory", but as long as you approach it with that awareness it's very good - and uses conventional terminology throughout. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Jazz-Theory-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/1883217040

Good book I see you do not want to learn to play something but if you do not at least sit down at a piano while learning theory is like learning strategic chess moves and never playing the game.

If you can read a grand staff (or are willing to learn) I can suggest Mark Levine's The Jazz Theory Book. It starts assuming no prior theory knowledge, but moves very (very) quickly. You will likely need other guitar specific resources (especially for the topics on chord voicing) since the book is a bit geared towards keyboard.

The Jazz Theory Book is, in my opinion, the best book on the subject. It's good to get a grasp of what basic 2-5-1's sound like and slowly add in alterations. If you just jump into listening to Herbie Hancock and try to pick the chords out, you're gonna have a rough time of it.

Well the Jazz Theory Book by Mark Levine is very thorough and you should own it. I am a big believer in being solid with chord tone solos and then moving on to chord scales. Many reasons for that.

Good luck.

By far, the most helpful music theory book I've ever seen is The Jazz Theory Book by Mark Levine

It's definitely helpful in understanding the thought behind scales/modes/chordal relationships.

You will need to be able to read music somewhat, but if want to be the best you can be, you'll want to learn to read music anyway. I believe that book would help any musician to get to the next level.

I'd get Jazz Theory by Mark Levine. It isn't guitar-only centric, but nor should your understanding of jazz be guitar only, as you really need to understand all the other musicians to really play well with others and compose. Great book. Make sure to look up all of the listening examples.

Great book to check out is the jazz theory book. Here's an amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1883217040/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_YLNAzb4MBCS34

The Jazz theory book is pretty good (UK Amazon link: The Jazz Theory Book https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1883217040/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_1iIPBb6419EEZ)

Otherwise the ABRSM music theory books are pretty good as well but a little boring to read...

You should basically learn chord-scale theory - how scales and chords relate to each other. The easiest thing for you do to would be to buy a music theory textbook and go through it.

The Jazz Theory Book by Mark Levine would be a great place to start. Even if you're not interested in jazz, the harmony it uses is found in soul, RnB, funk and so many other genres of music.

You'll want to read through Chapter 1 Theory: Chords and Scales. It should take you through the basics of what you need to know. However, be aware that this book is quite dense, so I'd recommend only reading through a few pages at a time before going through the exercises at the piano for each practice session. If you do this regularly you should get through the book in no time.

The other two chapters of the book centre around improvisation and reharmonisation, so if this interests you keep going once you finish the first chapter. This book is a JAZZ theory book, so if you really want to understand what's going on I recommend you listen to some jazz (some good artists to start with are Miles Davis, Chet Baker, John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderly and the Jazz Messengers).

If you want a book that's more piano focussed with more details on voicings and such you can check out The Jazz Piano Book by Mark Levine.

If you find the The Jazz Theory Book doesn't go into enough detail or seems to leave things unexplained than I'd recommend reading The Chord Scale Theory & Jazz Harmony by Barrie Nettles and Richard Graff. It delves deeply into the specifics of how Chord Scale Theory works whereas The Jazz Theory Book is really just trying to get you up to speed on your theory knowledge so you can play jazz.

As has been mentioned many times on this subreddit, "Theory is descriptive, not perscriptive". So don't let music theory stop you from doing or trying something if it can't be explained.

I hope some of these books help you out. Good luck!

I think it's a worthwhile investment. The examples are clearly written, and even if it's above your head, you'll grow into it.

https://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Theory-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/1883217040

Check out the images from inside the book and see if you think it's a good fit... Ultimately, with youtube and the internet, you can probably get everything you need to learn your major scales, and Patterns for Jazz will give you an abundant amount of material to practice them inside-out and upside-down...

So you don't really need Levine's book... but it seems like a standard for folks who want to go deeper.

The Jazz Theory Book might be for you!

Listen to as much jazz as you can!

Jazz is an aural tradition, so everyone before you learnt it by listening to other players (either in person or through recordings) and then figuring out what they played.

The way to learn jazz is to learn songs by ear. I'm talking the melodies, chords, solos, rhythms, swing feel, comping and chord voicings.

If you're starting out it's okay to use a fake book or iRealPro to see what the chords to songs are, but as your ears improve and you get better at transcribing you'll want to move away from being reliant on them. Professional jazz musicians are expected to know a lot of tunes so the sooner you get good at learning songs by ear the better.

Having some understanding of Jazz Music Theory will help you a lot when transcribing. The Jazz Theory Book by Mark Levine is the standard jazz theory textbook in many music schools. Find a copy and work through it.

The other thing that will help you learn tunes by ear is ear training. Being able to both recognise and sing your intervals will help you both learn melodies and figure out chords and chord voicings. Daily ear training (even 5 mins a day) will help you improve. I recommend using an ear training app (e.g. I use Perfect Ear) since they're quite convenient. If you ever find yourself with a couple minutes to spare or are waiting on something do some exercises while you wait.

Eventually you'll want to go to a jam session. You can practice all day at home but playing music will help you grow the most. The first time you go just sit back, enjoy and see how the whole thing works. The next time you go come prepared with a tune you know back to front and feel comfortable soloing over. Ask to sit in if you get the chance and call that tune. Do your best, enjoy and once it's all over and you've gone home for the night you can evaluate what worked and what didn't work. Take those lessons to heart when as you prepare a new tune to play at a jam session.

If there aren't any jam sessions in your area just get a bunch of friends together at your house and play some tunes together. Generally musicians are happy to come over, hang and play music together.

There's plenty more to learn, but learning songs by ear and playing with other musicians are fundamental to learning jazz.

Good luck!

For modal jazz, the bible is probably Mark Levine's Jazz Theory Book. I don't normally recommend it for any beginner to jazz because of its mode/chord-scale bias (which doesn't really apply to the older jazz standards that beginners cut their teeth on), but it's later jazz that interests you (Bill Evans, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, McCoy Tyner, etc) it could be suitable.

As a pianist you'd probably like his Jazz Piano Book too, which is more widely recommended. (I'm not a pianist myself.)

But also, as a classically trained player with good skills just getting into jazz, I think you'd enjoy Hal Galper, whose classes seem to be mainly composed of students with your kind of background. But beware, he is old school bebop. He has great insights into how improvisation works, into the attitude you need to develop (in any form of jazz), the classical habits you need to unlearn, but is dismissive of modern jazz theory.

Can you sing a random tune to yourself? Congats, you can improvise. Now there's the task of being able to play what you sing to yourself on an instrument and also making sure what you play fits with whatever chords you're playing over. That is just a matter or practice. There are lots of great jazz pianists and guitarists that sing to themselves while soloing. I'm going to recommend you a book about jazz theory.

The Jazz Theory Book by Mark Levine explains how jazz chord progressions and harmony work. If you're interested in soloing and improvising it's a great idea to study the great jazz improvisers and to do that you need to understand jazz harmony. This book will help you with that. It explains different concepts of jazz harmony and include notated examples that you can play on the piano so you can hear what it describes. It's thick book with a lot of content to digest. My advice would be to spend 10 - 15 minutes (or however long until you can't focus anymore) a day working on it one concept at a time. Eventually you'll get through the whole book.

There's also a book by Jerry Coker called Improvising Jazz. I personally haven't read it but I've heard good things so it might be worth checking out.

My final piece of advice would be to transcribe the solos of players you admire. When I say transcribe I mean learn the solo by ear and be able to play along to it with your instrument. It's also a good idea to eventually write it out and analyse how the notes of the solo work against the chords. Do this enough and eventually you'll start to see how whoever you're transcribing constructs their solos. This is how all jazz musicians who have come before have done it so know that by putting in the time and effort you'll be making progress.

P.S. Don't forget the most important thing, actually take solos when playing with other musicians. Make sure to record yourself soloing on your phone when you do this and then listen back to the recording later. Make notes to yourself about what worked and what didn't work. This is a lifelong process so the sooner you become comfortable with the process of playing, practicing and improving, the sooner you'll start to see results.

I can't touch on everything that's involved in improvising since there's a lot but hopefully this will get you started.

Hey,

I am dropping some links from Amazon below.

Kind of a bible in jazz circles: The Jazz Theory Book - Mark Levine

Nice, summarized information: Jazz Harmony - Andy Jaffe

Total monster: A Chromatic Approach to Jazz Harmony and Melody - David Liebman

Total monster 2, comes in 2 volumes: Modal Jazz Composition and Harmony Vol. 1 - Ron Miller

Weird stuff with examples, does not have in-depth explanations: Beyond Functional Harmony - Wayne Naus

​

I would also check transcriptions and/or jazz songbooks for piano etc. for real life applications of how harmonic concepts are used in jazz. Books on the music of Monk and Bill Evans may be really informative if you really study the scores.

This book will give you the foundation of what you need in a nicely laid out manner (no affiliation). Don't be afraid of the word "jazz" in the title - the contents are great reading for any musician.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1883217040

Aside from that, my advice is to:

Study how chords are built and what a "key" means. First, learn triads of a major key, then learn the "7th" chords of the major key. Do this soon. This will make you a musician as well as a guitar player! Here's a random web site that goes over this, there are many others as well:

https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/lessons/chords/what_chords_are_in_what_key_and_why.html

Basically, you write down the scale, for example, C major:

C D E F G A B C

Start at each note and build a chord with every other note.

C = C E G

D = D F A

etc.

For "7th" chords:

C = C E G B

D = D F A C

etc.

Understanding what a "key" is and what chords are "in the key" is huge.

Where do you go to college? If there is a music school (esp. with a jazz studies dept.) connected to your school, make friends with music students and learn from your new friends in person, or even reach out to jazz faculty there.

Also, check out "The Jazz Theory Book" by Mark Levine. Its one of the definitive books on everything from chord and scale theory to "Coltrane" reharmonization. https://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Theory-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/1883217040/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1539372648&sr=8-2&keywords=the+jazz+theory+book

​

Mark Levine's The Jazz Theory Book is probably the go-to book on this topic.

I'm going to post my usual NB about that book...

If the OP already knows a "decent amount" of music theory, "The Jazz Theory Book" (cheeky definite article) ought to make a good introduction to contemporary jazz concepts, as widely taught.

However - while it's good for post-modal jazz, and has some great stuff on re-harmonization, its chord-scale bias is controversial. His outine of pre-modal functional harmony (the basis of what we generally know as "music theory") is a little thin, and he makes spurious claims about how chord-scales apply to it.
His real-tune examples are convincing at first, lending the book an apparent authority, but it's easy to interpret most of them other ways. IOW, they are mostly not good evidence for the theories he's presenting.

Having said that, it's well-written and well-designed - easy and enjoyable to read (spiral-bound version recommended). I can't say that for the book written by Robert Rawlins - Jazzology - to correct what he saw as Levine's bias. It's good on what Levine omits or skates over, but it's a dull read.

If you're interested in playing, definitely check out iReal Pro. It comes with the progressions for over 1,300 jazz standards and will play synthesized backing tracks that you can transpose to any key or adjust the tempo.

You can also make your own - for example, improvising a sloppy solo on "Auld Lang Syne" in F takes nearly zero brain power to do - but since I couldn't find a similar jazz standard, I ended up putting together my own based on The Public Domain Christmas Jazz Fakebook I found on /r/jazz a long time ago.

Also, while you're at it, start burning your scales (most major and minor modes across all keys, blues, bebop, pentatonic) into muscle memory. One good Youtube channel for jazz piano is Walk That Bass. I also have Mark Levine's <em>The Jazz Theory Book</em>, which comes well recommended but is rather heavy on the theory. For somebody getting started it's better to get a feel for jazz and the method to its madness by transcribing individual pieces and solos. Always use a metronome. Don't get too dependent on the pedal; avoid if possible.

I'm not the most experienced pianist, but playing jazz is by far the most heavy in mechanics and theory music I've ever approached, but it's very rewarding and extremely cathartic once you get into the groove of things. Churning out lines and licks one after another is wonderfully fun and pleasant to listen to once it starts getting even somewhat close to habit - well, except to any unfortunate neighbors who are stuck hearing the same progressions day after day.

When starting from zero I'd recommend music theory for dummies (and check out r/musictheory). For jazz specifically:

http://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Theory-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/1883217040

f you can read music then some guitar theory will help you. For starters, I recommend getting a copy of this: http://www.amazon.com/Basic-Elements-Music-Theory-Guitar/sim/0898987008/2 (Not pushing amazon) It's an inexpensive workbook that walks through some of the basics. This will help you determine if going the theory route is what you want to do. If you do then I recommend this book. http://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Theory-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/1883217040/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1403193441&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=mark+levine+the+jazz+theory+book

Knowledge is power, man. I say go for it.

EDIT: I agree with someone else that Jazz theory might be more helpful, but I honestly think it would be ideal for you to learn at least the basics of both.

http://jazzadvice.com/

This site is downright amazing. An absolute treasure chest for anyone interested in improvisation.

http://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Theory-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/1883217040

This book is the best one I've ever read bar none. It is SUPER comprehensive and really easy to get in to.

http://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Theory-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/1883217040

Also analyzing solos

If you can read music then some guitar theory wil help you. For starters, I recommend getting a copy of this: http://www.amazon.com/Basic-Elements-Music-Theory-Guitar/sim/0898987008/2 (Not pushing amazon) It's an inexpensive workbook that walks through some of the basics. This will help you determine if going the theory route is what you want to do. If you do then I recommend this book. http://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Theory-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/1883217040/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1403193441&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=mark+levine+the+jazz+theory+book

For starters, I recommend getting a copy of this: http://www.amazon.com/Basic-Elements-Music-Theory-Guitar/sim/0898987008/2 (Not pushing amazon) It's an inexpensive workbook that walks through some of the basics. This will help you determine if going the theory route is what you want to do. If you do then I recommend this book. http://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Theory-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/1883217040/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1403193441&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=mark+levine+the+jazz+theory+book

My only suggestion. The Jazz Theory Book

http://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Theory-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/1883217040

I recommend this book.

Not specific to guitar, but if you want to learn jazz theory this book is an amazing resource: Jazz Theory Book by Mark Levine.

http://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Theory-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/1883217040/ref=wl_it_dp_o?ie=UTF8&amp;coliid=I1MKMER866FZ1B&amp;colid=1FD0HWIDINQQK

This is a fantastic book on theory.

This is a very complex question. I strongly urge you to take lessons, follow a course or buy a really good book. Don't learn theory from people here, it will only confuse you. Distrust anything you read on the internet, (and yes, that includes this). a good start

I can understand the convenience of labeling your tunes, but these alphanumeric designations are totally unnecessary, counterproductive, and ultimately limiting. The necessity of speed is also why musicians who take theory study seriously practice its application daily on their instrument and invest considerable time in understanding and experimenting with the relationships between different notes.

No offense intended, but the link you're providing contains very limited and basic information on music theory. This is, essentially, the first twenty minutes of music theory study. There's much more to arranging and harmonic replacement than what's on that Wiki's articles. Not sure what's done outside of Canada, but here elementary music theory can be acquired from college courses and instruction books from the Royal Conservatory of Music. After you've gotten the first bit of general theory down, The Jazz Theory Book by Mark Levine will provide for most of your harmony-related curiosities.

No experience arranging myself -- of which DJing is, essentially, the theory applied in real-time -- so I can't suggest any useful materials as far as that goes. It might be worth the time to look into some of the more iconic arrangers and their processes to establish a method for real-time application of their theory.