Book Description

"Sonic Resource Guide" is a reference book for the application of set theory principles to jazz improvisation. It is meant for the musician who wants to explore new sounds for improvisation or composition. The aim of "Sonic Resource Guide" is to bridge the gap between highly mathematical pitch class theory books and the often limited scope of jazz improvisation methods by demonstrating various musical relationships that an improviser can use to create fresh sounding musical content. The book reduces note relationships down to two hundred and twenty prime forms. Endless combinations of notes can be derived from these prime forms which are commonly referred to as pitch class sets. The various melodic and harmonic relationships of these pitch class sets are listed to help a musician locate and utilize these relationships within their own playing. Along with each pitch class set is a listing of possible related jazz chords. Where appropriate a listing of all three and four note chords can be found to aid in creating varied and unique harmonic pallettes, as well as three, four, six and eight note subset relationships to help in exploring subset based musical ideas. Jazz musicians will find this book user friendly because all relationships are listed as both pitch names and scale degrees. Set theory students will find each pitch class set is also expressed in its prime form. An index containing a simplified set list is also included to help in locating a prime form's scales from any note combination. There is also a brief theory section exploring some of the uses of the information presented. Further books will explore these theoretical relationships in depth.