(Part 2) Reddit mentions: The best books about jazz

I'll tell you a little about how I approached it, including things I think went poorly and well. Hopefully it will be helpful as general advise on learning any skill (I spend a lot of time learning new skills, you could say it's a hobby). As a child (early teens) I wanted to learn an instrument (mostly as friends were) so I went for the piano. I took 1 hour weekly classes for about 4 months, but more than that I spent a lot of time practising, or rather what I'd call practising for about another 2 months (6 in total).

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What I was really doing was learning the mechanics of playing a range of songs and putting those into my muscle memory. I developed a repertoire and could play most of the songs in triple time. The problem was that I didn't have the inclination to study theory or practise scales: "too boring". This is effectively why I stopped, my ability to read music was relatively weak and my understanding of music wasn't great either. I learned a mechanical skill.

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So what did I do wrong? I learned play the things that would sound the most impressive as quickly as possible. It would impress my parents, friends and non-piano players everywhere. The problem was that I became good at one thing (learning to mechanically play a piece of music) and spent my time practising that one thing. So lesson 1: practising things you are already good at is a waste of time; unfortunately a lot of youtube videos "teaching you piano" are focused on this type of thing: how to play song X! The easy way!

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Fast forward 10 years and I'm in college. A room mate leaves and can't be bother to transport his cheap keyboard with him. I play a few things I played before and find it enjoyable so I pick up a cheap book on playing the piano (which it turns out was not very good). I spend a little more time on basics but got a point in the book covering some theory that I don't really progress past it. This represented about another 6 months. So what went wrong this time? The main problem here was that I didn't spend the time to critically analyze the resource I was using. So lesson 2: Really decide if you are using the correct resources to learn.

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Fast forward 10 more years. I decide I want to give the piano another try. I buy a digital piano (one that basically only makes piano sounds and no auto accompaniment and the like) with the intention of learning to play the piano. I spend several months learning music theory without really playing anything: https://www.musictheory.net/ . I made sure I understood what underpinned a lot of the music I hear. I also started ear training, in particular what is known as "functional ear training" where you learn to identify the musical function of a note in the context of a scale (rather than learning to hear an interval); there is an app you can get to do this now: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.kaizen9.fet.android . Ear training is very handy in jazz and improvisation in general.

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I developed an intellectual understanding of how scales and chords were constructed then I started practising scales and chords (diatonics). I'd play a certain tonality (e.g Major) in each key and then play all the diatonics on that scale in all inversions. If you go this route, I'd recommend a way to randomly select the key/tonality or you will always practise your "favourite" aka the one you find easiest.

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Once I was fairly comfortable doing this I started trying to play music. I bought a book of lead sheets: https://www.amazon.com/Just-Standards-Real-Book-Books/dp/073903944X . Initially I would play only the melody to get used to it, then I'd play the chords only as triads, then 7ths, then eventually adding the full extended chords they indicated. (It took about 6 months to be reasonably competent at playing most of the lead sheets by sight on 7ths chords).

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At this point I had enough musical vocabulary to really start improvising. I'd either play a chord sequence from the circle of fifths, or a jazz standard and improvise a melody over it. The background I'd worked on (at this point 1.5 years spread over 20 years) was enough to make this fairly natural for me. At this point, for the first time, I felt like I could "actually" play the piano.

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At this point I started watching a few videos online. I quite like the tutorial videos on: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClw8Huc_XZcz46GJh5Z0wuA/ (a lot of the new videos are very strange). He focuses a lot on improvisational basics like 12 bar blues which I found very helpful. I also quite liked some of the tutorials from: https://www.youtube.com/user/pianoologist more focused on how to approach a piano; how to sit, how to press the keys etc. Between those two I think I gained a better framework around how to sit at and play a piano, and approaches to improvisation and chord creation/extension. Be aware that video watching is no substitute for practise, and practising should be challenging; if it always sounds great you are probably working on skills you already have: push yourself.

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Fast forward 5 years to today. For the last 3 years I've been interested more in music production and synthesizers, but I have my digital piano in my living room and often sit down to improvise (jazz or otherwise) or play something from my "fake book". I also try and jam on occasion with work colleagues or friends (jamming is great for building improvisational and ear training skills).

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What I hope you get from this story is that you can learn to play at any age. A teacher can be very helpful at any stage in your music playing career if they are good at what they do. They can identify the things you are weakest at and push you to work on them. You can learn by self study but to do this you need to be honest with yourself. You need to be honest about what you do well and what you do badly and work on the things you do badly. There are a huge number of resources out there for you but be a little critical when looking at each one to ensure you get good information. Also try and avoid getting caught up in the desire to sound good from day 1.

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So anyway, I realise I've just written an essay here so I'll stop; I hope someone gets something out of this post. Good luck!

Cool stuff man.

I started taking jazz and the piano both seriously at the beginning of this year, so definitely know how you feel. Here's what I did to help me:

• Learn all the major scales (with correct fingering)
  
• Learn the 251 progression in all keys
  
• Brush up a bit on Modal theory and how to apply it to your playing.
  
• Learn the basics of Jazz harmony ie chord function. Tritone substitution. The tonic-subdominant-dominant relationship. Secondary Dominants.
  
• Learning about the different types of chords I could play was a big breakthrough for me. Take C Major 7 for example. You can turn that into: C maj7 sus 2/4. C maj7 half diminished/whole diminished. Cmaj7 augmented. C Dom7. Although take note you might have to make some adjustments or subtle choices in your right hand improvisation when you play these chords to help boost their total effect. Ie new scales even.
  
  Most especially, learning all your major scales will help you in ways you'll be thankful for later. Knowing the things mentioned above will give you more creative ability on the piano. To the point where you know how to play chords outside of the ones in the base standard (when playing that standard. Tritone substitution and secondary dominants helps with this. So does something called Modal Interchange, which I didn't mention before). And, to some extent, you'll be able to know the number of scales you can use to solo on each chord (which is a step above improvising on one scale along the whole song).
  
  Judging from your playing, begin just messing around and just practicing with your right hand improvising. Passing tones are a fun thing I liked to do when I first started improvising (and I still use them a lot in my playing today).
  
  Its great that you're starting to experiment with 2 hand voicings, so continue learning the general practices for those. Ie the function of the 3rd and 7th in the chord, and also rootless voicings.
  
  You said that you're also a beginner on the piano, and honestly exercises help a lot. I just got this book and its been helping me feel a lot more comfortable as I've gone through it: https://www.amazon.com/Piano-Technique-Exercises-Etudes-Building/dp/1423498151
  
  This book is also something that helps a lot with all round jazz knowledge: https://www.amazon.com/Jazzology-Encyclopedia-Jazz-Theory-Musicians-ebook/dp/B00FJ6BYWI/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1504177798&sr=1-1&keywords=jazzology
  
  Hope that helps!
  
  Try to begin your practices with technique (for however long you like), then practicing over standards you know already and applying knew things you've learnt to them (if you feel comfortable), and then practicing new standards or whatever other song. At the least, thats what my usual practice routine is like.
  
  Hope that all helps!
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

If you want technical exercises, this book is the way to go. This will help you get the technique so that when you want to play what's in your mind's ear, you can without futzing around with notes and keys. You need to be more technically proficient in more keys and also more theory proficient than a non-jazz player because in jazz you're frequently moving very quickly through different key areas and you don't have time to think about it.

I'd also get iReal Pro. It's such an amazing tool it's virtually worth getting an Android or iOS device just for it alone. Use it as a band-in-a-box and play along with tunes out of a Real Book or virtually anything you want to play really since you can easily add your own exercises, which will be helpful with some links I'll give later. I personally prefer the Android version. It's literally easier to do custom stuff on my phone with Android than on my iPad with iOS. I also believe there are Android emulators if you need, though I've never had a need.

Do lots of listening and get used to the style you want and be aware of other styles out there. Try to play the tunes with those styles. There are different approaches to improv. I've found that one of the least intimidating ones is literally to pick 2 notes and make a solo out of it... listen to how it feels across different changes. Then add a 3rd note. Listen. This is especially easy over blues changes. Play simple solos... melodic. Think of playing a something you could sing rather than feeling like you need to jump right into crazy bepop with flying scales and arpeggios.

Use some basic theory knowledge (some of which is in the book I mentioned) of what scales and notes fit best over certain things. Learn to quickly think of your "guide tones" for a given chord (3 and 7). If you're playing over some changes with only a 2 or 3 note improv to get used to hearing things, start thinking about what those notes are in each chord you're playing. You might be playing an E... it's the 3rd over the C chord and 6 or 13 over the G chord and 9 over a D chord and a #11 over a Bb chord. That kind of thing. You'll start to find out what notes are purely "avoid" notes, though realistically, almost any note can technically work if you don't sit on it. Due to how chords work in jazz, you literally almost can't be on a wrong note, though some will work better than others depending on context and some will only really work as passing tones.

Your ear will tell you a lot what does and doesn't work. Another approach to improv is to simply be able to embellish the written melody. So do some of that. You basically will end up mixing ideas to get the best solos, but mostly use your ears, but also train them by doing lots of listening. Something like a b9 chord might sound jarring to someone who hasn't done much listening, but can sound amazing as you develop that acquired taste.

If you find a lick you like in a solo while listening to Chet or someone else... steal it! Transcribe it. Play it in every key. Figure out what changes it fits over. Add it to your tool belt.

Here are some long-tone studies that run through ii-V-I in every key focusing on different chord tone relationships that will stretch your ears and beef up your chops.

Here are some scalar exercises with the same ii-V-I idea.

This will probably melt your brain, but here are some very extensive scale things if you somehow ever run out of stuff to work on in the book I mentioned as far as technique.

Hope some of that helps. It's quite the rabbit hole.

EDIT: Oh, in case you didn't know, this is the Real Book most people play out of, though if you play a lot, you'll find that there's a ton in there you don't need and not nearly as many of the tunes you would like.

Also, here is a link to a ton of the Wikifonia files before it got shut down. Open the files with MuseScore and you can adjust keys or whatever you need to do. While I've found issue with some of the chords, the leads tend to be pretty good, so if there's a tune you like, you can probably find a lead there and then download the changes to iReal Pro and play over them that way.

Well if you did DJing then your creative streak is buried shallow in you so you may have some success learning guitar by experimenting. Few years back I was hosting a "couch surfer" from New York. She was a singer songwriter playing a gig in Austin. I played guitar for at least 20 yrs longer than she did but I still learned from her. She had this relentless drive to experiment and make new things on guitar. Most of it she probably did not understand from theoretical point of view but it sounded interesting.
I come from classical guitar as my first instrument so I always played a lot from written score. And that spirit of experimentation was a nice reminder.

Also biography of every rock musician usually starts with "when he was 12 his uncle gave him guitar and little Jimmy spent next two years playing melodies he heard on radio". That is VERY important - ear training - good ears will make your music career much much faster.

Anyways. You need some technical framework - correct way of sitting, holding guitar , fretting, picking, correct fingerlings for playing scales etc. for that I would recommend taking few lessons. Basic technique can make or break you. I have a friend who spend first few years playing guitar in a recliner chair and now has to struggle because of the habits he learned. You can get away with online sources like eg. courses at www.truefire.com or Julian Sander website. Make sure you get a mirror (no kidding) and practice in front of - that will allow you to correct a lot of errors. For scale playing I would suggest Jimmy Bruno book - it will give you left hand basic patterns that are ergonomically sound:

Six Essential Fingerings

One more thing. Beginners often learn few big 6 string chords and then think that somehow every chord must be like that - utilize all 6 strings. That often slow people down. It is essential that you understand and can play chords as on 3 or 4 strings and understand basic structure - can name notes in the chord root (if present), 3rd, 5th (if present), 6th or 7th, 9th. That knowledge and ability to play such smaller 3-4 note forms of the chord all over the neck will allow you to improvise you based on chords and not on "boxes".

Almost forgot. As soon as you start making stuff up on guitar - get a simple looper eg TC Electronics Ditto. And start layering things. Making up little riffs and mini songs. That will do wonders to your musicianship.

Good luck.

OK, you think his solos lack formal innovation. Is Cornet Chop Suey and West End Blues not formal innovation? I don't have the musicological vocabulary, so I really don't know. I concede that you could be right. Based on what I've heard & read, I tend to think he was formally innovative. Or at least he was such a virtuoso that he showed new things that could be done with a trumpet. Let's both ask Santa for [this book] (http://www.amazon.com/Armstrong-Master-Modernism-Thomas-Brothers/dp/0393065820/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top/179-1155808-8851854) and we can come back and compare notes. :)

That said, ODJB is light years away from the Hot Fives. You can't say that ODJB were doing the same thing 8 years earlier. Real New Orleans style didn't go on wax until 1923, and even then it was really stingy with the solos.

The Hot Fives were both the apotheosis of the older New Orleans style and the inception of jazz to come after that. And we have no clue what kind of music he was playing in the clubs, but it was certainly different from what he recorded.

I can oppose the 'great man' approach while at the same time understanding that Armstrong was the greatest influence on jazz at the time. If the 'great man' approach has any validity in jazz, then it's for Louis Armstrong & Charlie Parker. Yes, Bechet, Ellington, Tommy Ladnier and others were also great. But they did not reach God status, at least not by 1928.

I don't think the deification is modern. Read Mezz Mezzrow's Really the Blues -- he says they absolutely worshiped Armstrong back in 1925 & 1926. They memorized the scat from Heebie Jeebies & would recite it to each other in greeting. I can't find a source but I recall mention of an article from the mid-30s saying "Louis Armstrong stopped being God in 1932." So he had God status. He was the Bird of his day.

cheers

)

I have a copy of this one which has a lot of material. I don't necessarily like all the chord changes in it though (and many songs aren't setup for a nice turnaround to repeat the form for solos), but if you have some lead time you could definitely pencil in alterations. It's a little heavy though, and it takes up some space in your bag, so I've stopped gigging with it.

This one has some nice arrangements in it. Many of the songs actually include the verse instead of just the chorus that we get used to for jazz standards. That can be a great addition. There is overlap with the Real Books though and the addition of lyrics cuts down on the number of songs in the book.

I've been meaning to pick up a copy of this related one, but I haven't yet.

It's hard to beat a big three-ring binder that you add to year after year with charts that you enjoy playing. But that takes time to build up!

For your four hour gig, really don't be afraid to stretch out and solo a lot. I had a three hour "background restaurant music" gig a couple of months ago and I was able to play out of just one fake book (Real Book 1 or 2) and fill the time completely. 60 songs x 3 minutes per song can be a fun way to fill a long block of time. So pick out 60 to 80 songs ahead of time with your sax player.

If it helps at all, here is a 2 hour set list I fall back on when needed (numbers correspond to page numbers in the Real Book):

• 18 All Blues -Blues
  
• 22 All the Things You Are -Swing
  
• 28 Angel Eyes -Funk
  
• 49 Black Orpheus -Bossa
  
• 172 Have you Met Miss Jones -Swing
  
• 144 Footprints -Free Swing
  
• 151 Freddie Freeloader -Blues
  
• 79 A Child is Born -3/4 Ballad
  
• 217 Invitation -Funk
  
• 406 There is No Greater Love -Swing
  
• 52 Blue Monk -Blues
  
• 289 My Romance -Ballad/Swing
  
• 39 Autumn Leaves -Swing
  
• 207 In a Sentimental Mood -Funk/Swing
  
• 50 Blue Bossa -Bossa
  
• 287 My Funny Valentine -Balad
  
• 398 Take the A Train -Swing
  
• 180 How High the Moon -Swing
  
• 277 Misty -Ballad
  
• 224 It Don't Mean a Thing -Swing
  
• 367 Some Day My Prince -3/4 Swing
  
• 145 For All We Know -Swing
  
• 407 There Will Never Be Another -Swing
  
• 17 Alice in Wonderland -3/4 Swing
  
• 318 Out of Nowhere -Swing
  
• 337 Recorda-Me -Bossa
  
• 296 Nardis -Free Swing
  

I'd recommend Jazz Guitar: Complete Edition by Jody Fisher. It covers all the important topics in a fairly straightforward way and comes with a CD of examples and backing tracks. It's aimed at intermediate guitarists, but your experience should be sufficient.

The old standard was Mickey Baker's Jazz Guitar, but I'm not a huge fan. The learning curve is extremely steep and there's not a great deal of theory or explanation. It'd be a really useful companion to lessons with a teacher, but I think that most beginners would really struggle with it.

A good alternative to the Jody Fisher book is A Modern Method For Guitar by William Leavitt. The learning curve is fairly gradual, but it's tough going - everything is written in standard notation and there's no real instruction as such. It seems to be inspired by the Suzuki method. Everything is taught through progressively more demanding examples. You probably won't get stuck on anything, but you will need to do a bit of thinking to figure stuff out for yourself.

If you want to learn jazz theory in depth, I'd strongly recommend Jazzology by Rawlins and Bahha. It's the clearest, most elegant explanation of how everything fits together in jazz. It's not specifically written for guitar, but the theory is universal. The Jody Fisher book covers all the theory that you really need to know, but Jazzology would be a really good supplement if you like to understand things in detail.

In your jazz guitar journey, you'll probably come across The Real Book. It's an essential reference text, containing lead sheets for hundreds of the most popular jazz tunes. It's how most of us learned our repertoire and most of us still have a copy in our gig bag pocket. Today, you have a huge advantage in learning tunes because of the fabulous iReal Pro. It's an app version of The Real Book, but it can also play backing tracks for any tune in any key and at any tempo. It's an absolute boon when you're learning to play solos.

Finally, I'd suggest just listening to a whole bunch of jazz, not just jazz guitar. You should know Joe Pass, Ted Greene and Wes Montgomery, but you should also know Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Dizzy Gillespie.

One of the best books I've read on the topic is David Berkman's [Jazz Musician's Guide to Creative Practicing] (http://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Musicians-Guide-Creative-Practicing/dp/1883217482/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1451912483&sr=8-1&keywords=creative+practicing+jazz).

So, from my lessons with Donald Brown (pianist with Art Blakey group for a while) I kinda reverse engineered how one usually splits their jazz practice. I only played classical piano until my sophomore year in college, so I can understand some of the frustration you might have.

You have four areas, with transcribing being a huge part of all of them:

1. Tunes (Melody played by itself in unison LH and RH to work on phrasing/rhythmic variations. Then as you would play it in a piano trio and finally as a solo piano arrangement)
   
   
2. Voicings (2-5-1 patterns you transcribe/create or just 1 voicing taken through 12 keys then applied to tunes)
   
   
3. 1/2-2 measure melodic lines (usually transcribed)
   
   
4. Scale patterns (Major, Melodic minor, diminished)
   
   The first two are the most important. In any given tune, if there's a horn player, we spend about 70% of the tune's length comping. Also, nothing else you practice matters if you don't get used to applying everything to tunes.
   
   For the melodic lines, I have a notebook full of short 1-4 measure lines over various chord progressions that I've straight up stolen transcribed from other players or made up myself. Write the chord tones over the notes to make it easier to transpose. Ex) for C7 C-B-Bb-D-A-G is 1-b1-7-9-6-5. Practice that in twelve keys, start with shorter ideas at first. Then try applying the line to every spot in a tune's progression that it can be applied. Improvise in the gaps, but make sure to get back to the non-improvised line whenever you should! This trains your inner ear to hear this line as a part of your jazz vocabulary and will help it come out naturally while improvising.
   
   Scale patterns are 2-6 note ideas that are diatonically sequenced through a scale. For jazz, you basically need the major scale, melodic minor ascending, and diminished (octatonic) scale. Again, I have that notebook full of scale patterns. They're good for playing a lot of notes in a measure when you want that effect.
   
   Ex) Ascending 3rds (all single notes): C-E-D-F-E-G-F-A. Descending: E-C-D-B-C-A...
   
   This [book] (http://www.brownman.com/storage/temp/Patterns.For.Jazz.pdf) (Jerry Coker Patterns for Jazz) is full of these patterns, which can be very useful. These are your new Hanons. Look at #38-43 for more of what I'm talking about.
   
   I hope this helped! I remember struggling with wondering how to practice jazz for quite a few years, so I always try to help those who are a little lost like I was. Good luck!

Another really good use is for V7 chords with some alterations, but we'd be looking at a tetrad: major 7th chord with the raised fifth, or a +Δ7 (where the Δ7 refers to the raised 7th scale degree, and the + refers to the augmented triad beneath it all).

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For instance, if you stack a Bb+Δ7 over a C7 shell (E and Bb), you get a nice voicing for a C13(+11):

>LH: C-E // RH: Bb-D-F#-A

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In addition, stacking an E+Δ7 over the C7 shell is a nice C7(#9,#5) sound:

>LH: C-Bb // RH: E-G#-C-D#

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Lastly, as mentioned elsewhere, this tetrad makes a lovely -Δ7 sound as well. For a C-Δ7, we might voice with an Eb+Δ7 tetrad over C:

>LH: C // RH: Eb-G-B-D

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Walt Weiskopf and Ramon Ricker wrote a pretty great book on the matter (The Augmented Scale in Jazz) that looks at not just the augmented scale, but a baffling array of ways that the augmented sound has been used by artists like Coltrane, Michael Brecker, and others.

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[Edit]: I realize that if you're now discovering augmented chords, the above likely sound like absolute fluff and rubbish. Apologies.
Try using an augmented triad as a delayed resolution to the tonic or the I chord: G7 -> C+ -> C or C6.

The lack of electronics is a little annoying. Usually I would recommend doing a lot of transcription. Once you learn the basics, the best thing to do is jump right in and get first hand experience. Will you have any way to listen to music? If not, definitely pick up some books of transcribed solos from your favorite guitarists. You would be missing out on the ear training you get from transcribing and it would be harder to memorize licks, but you would get some good sight reading practice at least. It might also be good to pick up some transcribed bass lines if you can find a book of those, because looking at bass lines is a great way to get a feel for jazz harmony. And bring The Real Book, of course! You'll have plenty of time to memorize tunes, which is going to be extremely important in the future.

Real Book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002FL3JA0/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

The Jazz Piano book is a good start. I would also recommend Stylistic II/V7/I Voicings for Keyboardists by Luke Gillespie.

Basically you will want to know your vocabulary of scales and chords, especially all the 7th chords (minor, major, dominant, minor-major, half-diminished, fully diminished in all inversions, and in other combinations like drop-2 or drop 3). Jazz uses a lot of modes and altered scales as well. Start listening to jazz musicians, not just pianists, and transcribing their lines and/or chords. Pick a few standards you like and practice playing the chords.

It's a lot like learning another language: you learn the basic building blocks (voicings, melodies) and combine them to build larger ideas (tunes). Start slowly and practice with a metronome as well so that you don't neglect the rhythmic aspects of jazz and so you can play in time. As soon as you are ready, find other musicians to practice with. Jazz is live, dynamic music. Go see some live jazz near you as soon as possible and pay attention to how the musicians listen and interact. Listening is at least as important, if not more so, than what you actually play.

Hey Poopydicknick, "Lady Blue Eyes, My Life With Frank is a great read, but does not focus on the mafia angle you speak of. Great read though, and I would definitely recommend. Thats purely based off my own enjoyment Poopydick, so whatever gets you through the night.

No one is pointing to the one of the best jazz theory resources: David Baker

Yes, playing it is a great way to learn, but this book will help out a ton.

Fun story, I was always late to class at IU, and so to get around campus faster, I bought one of those razor scooters (yeah, I know, long time ago now), and I was kind of oblivious and one day I kind of ran into David Baker (just missed him, really). He just kind of moved back and said, "Cool scooter, man". I said, "Thanks!" and ran inside to class. I took his jazz history class a year later. Great teacher.

Silhouettes

Sometimes I get some stuff that are going out of stock soon. This is one of them. That first one is higher priority. But I understand if it is pricey. Here is something that is in a more acceptable price range! Both are going out of stock soon!

Hope you're having a great day :)

Historically speaking, the overtone/harmonic series is probably why we hear them as R-3-5-7-9-11-13. That's the natural order in which overtones occur, and it's actually the discovery of each partial that led to the evolution of music in the early days. A semitone wasn't a common interval in a melody a 1000 years ago.

But your post raises another point: Chord names are not literal instructions for how to voice a chord.

Cmaj#11, for example, is palette of tones you can choose from: C-E-G-B-D-F#.

You don't need to play all of those notes, and it's actually a very guitaristic thing not to. If you're playing with a bass player, you can voice chords without the root. The 5th–if unaltered–adds very little information to the chord. You could play the 3rd and 7th of every chord and totally hear the changes (this is fun to do with a blues, since you're literally moving a tritone dyad by a semi tone to achieve all your chords). The 9th and beyond colour the chord in tasty ways. There's no rule saying you can't voice the chord with the 9th in the bass–as in a 7b9 chord.

In the Jazz Theory Book, Levine suggests that chord symbols are synonymous with scales, which I like. Cmaj7, in the context of the I chord, is just C lydian (R-3-5-7-9-#11-13). So Cmaj7 can mean Cmaj9, Cmaj13, Cmaj#11/D, etc etc.

If you're looking for an exact result, then indicating the inversion (with a slash chord) and including a melody note will make most well-trained guitarist play exactly the chord you're looking for. So for example, if I see a B in the melody and a Gmaj7/D chord symbol, that really narrows down what to play.

A smart music-geek, drummer friend of mine said this book was great: http://www.amazon.com/Coltrane-Story-Sound-Ben-Ratliff/dp/0312427786/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1279924158&sr=1-3#_

Be sure to fact check - cymbal thrown on floor, not "at" Parker, by Jo Jones (Basie alum) at jam session (no Duke); Lee Morgan shot by common-law wife, no marriage.

Miles' book is a great source, as are bios/autobios of Louis Armstrong, Art Pepper, Mingus, Chet Baker, Mezz Mezzrow, Bird, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Billie Holiday, Monk, Duke, etc. Also YouTube interviews. Probably a good idea to find confirmation, when possible, as the artists aren't always reliable. There is a book called Jazz Anecdotes - haven't read it.

Here are my accessories in a backpack I take to every gig:

• Snark Tuner
  
• Sansamp Bass Driver DI
  
• Two extra 9V Batteries
  
• Vitamin C
  
• Herb Wong's Jazz Fakebook
  
• Two cables (I should be carrying two more)
  
• Pen
  
• Blank sheet music
  
• Strepsils (I sing)
  
• Two sets of earplugs
  
• Folder containing repertoire and lyrics of our set
  
• Extra set of strings
  
  I hope this helps!

For OP and those interested there's actually a pretty cool book that has a ton of the Blue Note album covers in it. I don't personally own the book so I can't speak for the quality or anything like that but its on my Xmas wishlist this year!

I'd recommend Pops by Terry Teachout.

Also, Subversive Sounds, while not an biography per se, talks a good deal about Armstrong while contextualizing the careers of early jazz musicians within the social atmosphere of early 20th century New Orleans.

Scriabin is great - I'm currently working on his 4th piano sonata.

Also, if you understand the chord notation, look through a fakebook! I'm looking to get more into jazz myself.

there is a book that collects them and it's great (though i have the larger format paperback edition that's a little pricey I haven't seen the more recent edition) https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/Books/Cover-Art-Blue-Note-Records-Graham-Marsh/1843405997

For more info on the man read Pops by Terry Teachout - he had an amazing life. Link: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0151010897/ref=redir_mdp_mobile

It's not free, but I really recommend this book

You could try breaking the stamdards down into smaller sections and looping them. This works for me.

If you're okay reading a bit of treble clef, then Mike Steinel's book 'Building a Jazz Vocabulary' is worth a read.

Get yourself a copy of The Real Book in Bb and start learning the heads and chords to some songs that you are familar with. Youtube can help you find recordings of songs. Most of what makes Jazz different is in the rhythms and articulations, and you can learn those by listening to the greats and emulating them. Then there is the art of improvisation, which will takes years to master, so start now.

If you like these sorts of jazz stories, you should pick up a copy of Jazz Anecdotes.

Additionally, check out this book by pianist Luke Gillespie on chord voicing. Its only like 20 bucks for a goldmine of chordal information

https://www.amazon.com/Stylistic-II-V7-Voicings-Keyboardists/dp/1562240846

Like this it's basically all the jazz tunes with the melody and chords written out. The only thing it doesn't give you is a written out score, so you have to improvise how to play out the chords over the melody.

That's a well know Sinatra story that he's been telling since the 70's.

Technically, it could have been you, but Occam says otherwise.

I'll find sources when not on mobile.

Edit: Sources -

Here's a TIL from reddit posted by u/Whispercry telling the stroy, from over a year ago

Here's another refence for the famous story, this time from a lifestyle/ettuquette zine titled ["The Five O'Clock"] (http://fiveoclock.harrys.com/post/104/tips-on-tips). This one is from early 2014.

The TIL references the memoir of Frank's ex-wife, Barvra titled "Lady Blue Eyes". She references the story from the time of their marriage, which was the mis 70's until his eath in 98.

Again, I'm not sying it's NOT you, but when we look at your post history and see you have a habit of karmawhoreing I'm less inclined to believe you.

Now, the fact you're a mod at the /r/pithforkemporium makes me respect your balls, but you're lies could use some work.

I'm reading a biography of Louis Armstrong, Baldwin's contemporary. The author notes that the non-racist reputation early 20th century France has is at least a little oversold. Of the critics who were less than impressed with young Armstrong's music and stage antics, during his first trip to France, there were clearly racist comments, including remarks, in print, of him carrying on like "a gorilla."

Keep your ears open. Check out Ben Ratliff's book on John Coltane when you take some time off playing music.

They released a couple of books documenting the covers a few years ago. The Cover Art of Blue Note Records https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1843405997/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_hp48BbT627AT8

Get this http://www.amazon.com/Real-Book-Flat-Sixth/dp/0634060848

For jazz, get the Real Book. Start with the first one. I've got the first three volumes, but there are more.

https://www.amazon.com/Augmented-Scale-Jazz-Players-Guide/dp/1562240315

The Jazz Theory Book: http://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Theory-Book-Mark-Levine-ebook/dp/B004KA9UX4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1417884159&sr=8-1&keywords=jazz+theory

fakebook?

I don't think there's one book that covers flatpicking, pima classical and fingerpicking with thumb and finger picks (let alone tapping, hybrid picking etc) (Similarly for piano there's Czerny, Bach, Liszt, Pischna, Dohnanyi (the gnarliest), Schmitt, and a bunch of other exercise books)

There are exercise books from "for Idiots", for Dummies, Guitar Aerobics, Guitar Grimoire, Troy Stetina, Culpepper (terrifying technique), also look at Guthrie Govan's 2 volumes, you can find lots of things to practice on for flatpicking. I've seen pumping nylon recommended a lot for classical/fingerstyle, but haven't tried it

also: Steinel, jazz vocabulary

http://www.amazon.com/Building-Jazz-Vocabulary-Mike-Steinel/dp/0793521610

Check out The Jazz Fake Book; my high school music teacher had a copy for each key and our jazz ensemble was always looking through it.