Ready, Aim, Improvise!


Book Description

As taught at Berklee College of Music Ready, Aim, Improvise!, Book 1: Preparation and Jazz Vocabulary by Hal Crook explores the critical areas involved in learning how to improvise, including: music theory, jazz harmony, ear training, jazz execution, jazz vocabulary, practicing, self-critiquing, career planning, and much more. Ready, Aim, Improvise! is filled with musical examples, exercises, and practice routines that help make the learning process easy and enjoyable. Two enclosed play-along CDs feature modal, key-area, and modulating chord progressions performed at a slow, manageable tempo. Ready, Aim, Improvise! is a clear, comprehensive study of the most important steps in a jazz musicians education. Don't be surprised if it gets you practicing more and playing better in no time at all! So get Ready . . . Aim . . . Improvise!




Ready, Aim, Improvise!


Book Description

An exploration of the critical areas involved in the learning of improvisation, including: music theory, jazz harmony, ear training, practicing, and self-critiquing.




I Want to Be Ready


Book Description

A conceptual framework for understanding the development of improvised dance in late 20th-century America




The Rhythm Changes Guide


Book Description

The only complete study on this important jazz song form.




The Improv Handbook


Book Description

The Improv Handbook is the most comprehensive, smart, helpful and inspiring guide to improv available today. Applicable to comedians, actors, public speakers and anyone who needs to think on their toes, it features a range of games, interviews, descriptions and exercises that illuminate and illustrate the exciting world of improvised performance. First published in 2008, this second edition features a new foreword by comedian Mike McShane, as well as new exercises on endings, managing blind offers and master-servant games, plus new and expanded interviews with Keith Johnstone, Neil Mullarkey, Jeffrey Sweet and Paul Rogan. The Improv Handbook is a one-stop guide to the exciting world of improvisation. Whether you're a beginner, an expert, or would just love to try it if you weren't too scared, The Improv Handbook will guide you every step of the way.




Beyond Time and Changes


Book Description

In Beyond Time and Changes, acclaimed jazz trombonist, pianist, composer, arranger, teacher, and author Hal Crook offers a methodology to guide the advancing improviser through the un-chartered musical territory known as "free jazz."




Creative Comping for Improvisation


Book Description

This book includes lead sheets in C, B-flat, and E-flat featuring chord progressions of standard jazz songs. The CD includes play-along tracks with chord voicings, and bass lines are played on an acoustic midi grand piano. Also includes MIDI files for computer sequenced work stations. Reharmonizations and rhythmic displacement of original chords included.




How to Comp


Book Description

How to Comp: A Study in Jazz Accompaniment is a comprehensive, one-step-at-a-time method for learning how to accompany an improvised solo. It offers precise explanations, practical exercises, recorded examples, four play-along tracks, and daily practice routines. Intended for intermediate-to-advanced players of harmonic instruments (piano, guitar, vibraphone), it can also be used by drummers, bassists, and horn players.




The Jazz Language: A Theory Text for Jazz Composition and Improvisation


Book Description

This text presents all of the materials commonly used by the jazz musician in a logical order dictated both by complexity and need. The book is not intended to be either an arranging or improvisation text, but a pedagogical reference providing the information musicians need to pursue any activity they wish.




Improv Wisdom


Book Description

In an irresistible invitation to lighten up, look around, and live an unscripted life, a master of the art of improvisation explains how to adopt the attitudes and techniques used by generations of musicians and actors. Let’s face it: Life is something we all make up as we go along. No matter how carefully we formulate a “script,” it is bound to change when we interact with people with scripts of their own. Improv Wisdom shows how to apply the maxims of improvisational theater to real-life challenges—whether it’s dealing with a demanding boss, a tired child, or one of life’s never-ending surprises. Patricia Madson distills thirty years of experience into thirteen simple strategies, including “Say Yes,” “Start Anywhere,” “Face the Facts,” and “Make Mistakes, Please,” helping readers to loosen up, think on their feet, and take on everything life has to offer with skill, chutzpah, and a sense of humor.