A Jazz Improvisation Primer

This is the online version of my text, A Jazz Improvisation Primer. Here you can find information on almost every topic relating to jazz improvisation, from jazz history to music theory to practical advice on playing in a group. A German translation, by Edgar Lins, is online, at http://msjipde.uteedgar-lins.de. There is also a Hungarian translation at http://w3.enternet.hu/mbha/primer_hu/primer.htm, provided by Makrai Balzs. A Portuguese translation by Cludio Brandt can be found at http://www.jazzbossa.com/sabatella/. And now there is a French version at http://www.outsideshore.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/primer_french.pdf. Portions of this text are available in Italian, courtesy of Roberto Betti, at http://web.archive.org/web/20040518063107/http://www.geocities.com/brittu.geo/Jip/JIP main.html. A Jazz Improvisation Primer is brought to you by Outside Shore Music. While this text is freely browsable, there is no downloadable version of this material. If you would like a printed copy, you can purchase the published version, A Whole Approach To Jazz Improvisation. If you would like to support the online version, consider making a donation. By the way, this work has been online since 1992, so if parts of it seem a bit dated, thats why. Some day I may update it, but as it stands, its really a piece of Internet history almost without doubt, the first jazz education resource ever published on the web.

Contents

Preface Goals A Brief History of Jazz Jazz Fundamentals Chord/Scale Relationships Applying The Theory To Improvisation Accompanying Playing With Others Listening Analytically Breaking The Rules

Appendices

Annotated Bibliography Annotated Discography Jazz Standards

Thanks To:

Ed Price (edp@panix.com), for the conversion of this resource into hypertext! Joe Germuska (jazzweb@wnur.nwu.edu), who housed the primer on his WNURFM JazzWebserver until I found space for it myself. Gertjan van Oosten (gertjan@West.NL), for various suggestions and the circle-offifths image.

Richard M. Metzger (rmm4@lehigh.edu) Scott A. Lehman (slehman@mit.edu) Roger Chaplin (chaplin@keithley.com)

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