Concepts of Jazz for all Musicians
This instructional resource from 27-year-old Australia guitarist and music teacher Bill Palmer (the only student of AIM's Guy Strazullo - although Palmer did most of his study at Adelaide's Elder Conservatorium - to have played with MC Hammer), is just about the best we've seen in terms of demystifying the art of jazz and teaching the theory in easy-to-swallow mouthfuls. It's aimed at musicians who are already playing and covers everything from the basics, like the 2-5-1 pattern (the jazz equivalent of rock's 1-4-5 chord progression) and it's variations, through to tips for improvising with 7-, 8-, 5- and 6- note scales, arpeggios, triads, digitals, pentatonic and symmetrical scales. All manner of chord substations are included, as well as a guide to standard progressions, including jazz blues, Parket blues, minor blues and cyclic progessions. The appendices are extremely valuable, with notation for no fewer than 27 families of scales, and much more. The spiral binding also means you don't have to weigh each side of the book down when you're playing from it, and while there's no tablature, there's nothing really complex enough to require it.
BY AUTHOR BILL PALMER...........................................................................
