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Reddit mentions of The Jazz Theory Book

Sentiment score: 60
Reddit mentions: 88

We found 88 Reddit mentions of The Jazz Theory Book. Here are the top ones.

The Jazz Theory Book
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Release dateJune 1995
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Found 88 comments on The Jazz Theory Book:

u/theOnliest · 11 pointsr/musictheory

Mark Levine's Jazz Theory Book is essential reading, and worth the expense, since you'll probably use it a lot. There's also this PDF, which I just found, but it looks to be a decent quick reference (if you can stand reading the annoying "jazz" font).

u/shoestringbow · 8 pointsr/WeAreTheMusicMakers

How's your theory? I'd recommend The Jazz Theory Book by Mark Levine. It has lots of examples of most concepts taken from classic jazz recordings and simplified for piano.

u/Xenoceratops · 8 pointsr/musictheory

Dariusz Terefenko - Jazz Theory: From Basic to Advanced Study

Others will undoubtedly recommend Mark Levine's The Jazz Theory Book, but I advise against it until you have a much more developed understanding of music because it assumes former knowledge and does a poor job of presenting topics in a progressive ordering. Plus, Levine's approach is idiosyncratic and requires you to learn terminology and concepts that do not form bridges to other areas of jazz or other music study. Terefenko, on the other hand, assumes no former knowledge and takes you deeper than Levine, even making explicit connections between jazz and other areas not traditionally covered in jazz pedagogy (such as reductive analysis and pitch-class set theory). In other words, Terefenko takes you far beyond the little box Levine draws.

u/Glen_The_Eskimo · 7 pointsr/musictheory

"The Jazz Theory Book," by Mark Levine is a great place to start.

The Jazz Theory Book https://www.amazon.com/dp/1883217040/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_VAffzbVAAS6WH

u/blobbyghast · 6 pointsr/ableton

You should start studying actual music theory if you'd like help with that. Music theory will teach you how to start coming up with good chord progressions, and how to develop more complicated ones than you would naturally come up with. There is jazz theory, and classical music theory, and both would be helpful. You could start with a free resource like http://learnmusictheory.net/. Eventually you might want to pick up a book like https://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Theory-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/1883217040 or a comparable one for classical theory. Once you start learning you want to start looking at chord progressions in songs you like.

There really is no useless information to pick up from all of this. I blew off learning from my jazz theory courses, thinking it only applied to jazz, but now I see the same information in endless modern pop songs and am re-teaching myself all of it.

u/wirther · 6 pointsr/guitarlessons

i don't know about an online course, but i do know this book by Mark Levine is fantastic. the book is a jazz theory book meant to be applicable to musicians of all instruments, so it's not guitar oriented, and all of the examples are in standard music notation. but that should not discourage you. if you've been playing guitar for years and already know your way around the fretboard with some basic knowledge of music theory, then you shouldn't need pages of neckboard diagrams anyway to learn jazz theory.

this book single-handedly demystified jazz music for me. previously, i was trying to learn by a 4 book long jazz guitar method series by Jody Fisher, and i can honestly say that the Fisher series is shit compared to the Levine book. while the Fisher books were all about giving like a paragraph or two of explanation, followed by scale diagrams then practice songs you were expected to learn, the Levine book is more about giving pages of explanation, followed by a few very small examples that you are not expected to learn necessarily, but are just there to illustrate the point.

i don't know. i think the "method" books/courses just leave too much out. you need to read/learn something theory and explanation driven to really understand jazz. all the scales and exercises you can figure out on your own. so that's what i would suggest looking for in a course, in whatever form of teaching you learn best with.

u/organic · 6 pointsr/piano

The Mark Levine books The Jazz Theory Book and The Jazz Piano Book are both good resources.

u/savemejebus0 · 6 pointsr/Jazz

The Jazz Theory Book by Mark Levine is a great place to start.

u/tomlegit · 6 pointsr/Jazz

Listen, transcribe, analyse. Also, the Mark Levine jazz theory book has some great stuff in it.

http://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Theory-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/1883217040

u/Cat_Shampoo · 6 pointsr/Bass

Bass Fitness is, for me, the golden standard to which I hold all guitar practice books. It's a no-nonsense text that offers little in the way of guidance or assistence, but stick with it and you will notice a difference in your playing in due time. It's not perfect by any means -- in fact it is quite rough around the edges -- but it works.

For more general resources, check out 101 Bass Tips, which features of a plethora of different tips and tricks for the working musician -- everything from set-up and maintenance, to technique, to recording and tone, and much more. It's also accompanied by a CD with examples and practice songs you can play along to.

Once you've got the basics down and you're ready to move into the more advanced facets of bass playing, you might want to try out some books on musical theory. I suggest this, this, and these. Hope these help!

u/SuperDuckQ · 6 pointsr/musictheory

People smarter than I will come along with useful advice, but I have found this book to be overflowing with jazz knowledge:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1883217040

u/StrettoByStarlight · 6 pointsr/piano

I was in the same boat as you a few years ago, I played classical my entire life then started to pick up some jazz when I entered college. This is super useful, as it has really helped my playing overall and now I can make a decent amount of money playing around town because i have diversified my skillset. As a classical player I can understand where you are coming from when you say you want to learn scales. I was definitely the same way when I started, very obsessive with the theory and involved in jazz, and I think that if you have been training your brain to approach the piano a certain way your whole life, you shouldn't try to change it now. I agree with OnaZ on his book choices, and you should start picking up your modes, but don't worry about them a whole lot, they are not the end-all-be-all of jazz music. Modes are just a tool you can use to achieve a desired sound or color. If you understand the way you find modes (different configurations of a major scale) then you don't need to spend hours and hours drilling them into your head. I think you'll find that once you start playing jazz and picking up tunes, etc, the modes and bebop scales will kind of fall into place.

More than anything, I suggest you find a teacher! And a good one! One that plays jazz primarily. I would suggest contacting a university nearby and see if you can get connected with some people in your area for lessons.

So! If I had to go back in time and give myself some advice to how to really pick up jazz it would probably go something like this:

  1. Listen to Jazz:

    Only recently has jazz become something that you can learn in a school/university. Throughout the majority of jazz history, jazz was learned by people listening to jazz musicians. It is, more than anything, aural tradition. Find jazz that you enjoy, not just stuff that people say you should like (although you are going to have to listen and learn to appreciate some albums you may not care for). Definitely check out An Introduction to Jazz Piano (Although it leaves out my main man Red Garland:( )

  2. Transcribe:

    Start picking up licks and riffs from your favorite players. Just steal them. The first step to becoming a good jazz musician is emulation. You don't have to transcribe whole solos (although this is ideal) you can just grab parts of them and learn some riffs here and there. Blatantly rip off the greats and start building up a bag of tricks. If you are already a little comfortable with some blues scales, I would highly suggest maybe doing a few transcriptions of Horace Silver. He is a great guy to start on and his timing/feel is impeccable. He plays a lot of blues that you check out on youtube or grooveshark.

    Listening and transcribing are going to probably be the most helpful, I find that a lot of players (especially guys coming out of classical into jazz) have more trouble with the rhythm and timing of jazz, and not the scales or notes. Honestly, I like to make the argument that rhythm is superior to harmony/melody in jazz (but that's just my opinion). The Jazz Theory Book is a great place to start. I would definitely recommend picking that up, although it is cheaper than a teacher, it definitely will not replace a good one!

    Wow, that is a pretty intimidating wall of text (sorry about that)! I tried to edit it down as much as possible, I could talk about this stuff all day. Although jazz can seem very intimidating at times, don't get frustrated! Your classical chops will really help you out. I really hope you find this music to your liking, I think it is the best stuff around. Good luck!!
u/OZONE_TempuS · 5 pointsr/Bass

I subscribed to Mark Michell's (Scale the Summit bassist) website Low End University that covers a myriad of topics both bass and non bass related, I'd say its a little more advanced material than what Scott Devine offers but both are great and have some good stuff for free.

As for books, I'd always been really interested in music theory behind jazz and certain video game OSTs and I can't recommend Mark Levine's The Jazz Theory book if that's your sort of thing. As someone else posted, Alex Webster's book is marvelous for not so much composition but being able to fluidly play intense rhythms and using three fingers.

u/sheven · 5 pointsr/jazztheory

It's not free, but I've heard a ton of people recommend this book. I haven't even gotten partially through it yet and I've learned a lot.

http://smile.amazon.com/Jazz-Theory-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/1883217040/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1452998111&sr=8-1&keywords=jazz+theory+mark+levine

u/callofdukie09 · 5 pointsr/edmproduction

7th and 9th chords are the most common in jazz. I'd say if you have some theory knowledge already this book is an invaluable resource http://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Theory-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/1883217040

Otherwise start with musictheory.net and get a grasp on basic chord progressions first.

u/Ellistan · 5 pointsr/jazzguitar

At my school everybody takes classical theory for at least 2 years.

We used this book

Here's the work book

You'll probably need the answers too since you're teaching yourself

Really what I got out of it was being able to just instantly know chord spelling. I don't really have to think about a lot of things any more. It's just second nature. You don't really use classical counterpoint rules unless you plan on composing classical music. But it's a good vehicle for learning theory since it's rather specific and you have to consider a lot of things at once.

We use this book in our jazz theory class

But mainly I learned most from the lectures since our professor is really good. We also have to write a jazz tune every week and learn and improvise on it. As well as the ear training.

I wouldn't really even say that theory is "extremely challenging." You just have to spend a lot of time on it. There was a lot of assignments from the work book every week during classical theory. Probably spent like 6+ hours a week just on the homework for those classes. And that's not even including ear training. With any of this stuff you just have to be consistent, I don't think it's really that hard to understand and I started playing music much later than a lot of my peers.

But if you're trying to understand jazz before understanding really basic concepts like knowing your key signatures, how to spell basic triads, the chords in a given key, simple time vs compound time, etc, you're going to have a lot of trouble. Everything builds on to itself so you really have to understand the basics first which might be a little boring but you have to do it.

u/frajen · 5 pointsr/musictheory

Not sure what you mean by "advanced" but "The Jazz Theory Book" by Mark Levine is kind of standard at least for jazz harmony

u/YogurtBatmanSwag · 5 pointsr/musictheory

You mentioned you like jazz, feel free to hang out with us /r/Jazz

Internet is great, and there is a lot for good free ressources. You'll have to go through a bunch of crap though, it can be confusing for a beginner and takes valuable time away to an already time consuming hobby.

So here are a few books I personally recommand.

Jazzology, an encyclopedia of theory centered around jazz that you can use with any genre. It's really good.

The real book, a good way to learn jazz standards with sheets that aren't so painful, using solfège for melody and letters for chords. This is the format I use with students.

The Jazz Theory book, or anything from mark levine.

The Complete Musician is good if you can find it for cheap, which is no easy task.

The definition of perfect pitch includes knowing the names of the notes. Without this knowledge, it's just "having a good ear". A good way to practice it is picking random notes and visualizing what the chord will sound like before playing it. That vizualisation aspect is the amazing thing about absolute pitch and helps with composing. The tuning or knowing what key you're in things are cute but fairly irrelevant.

Anyway, have fun.

u/[deleted] · 4 pointsr/Saxophonics

Get a teacher man. Even if it's for a few lessons to get you started. I'm mostly self-taught, and only started taking some lessons here and there later in life and I really wish I had started earlier as I wouldn't have had to correct some bad technique. Tone production and articulation are so esoteric that it's nice to have someone explain to you exactly what you need to do and getting instant feedback on whether you're doing it right or not will make you progress 10X faster. The rest (fingerings, scales, chords, etc) is easy to learn on your own.

If you REALLY can't get a teacher I'd recommend the following books:

  • A Complete Approach To Sound For the Modern Saxophonist. There are other books on saxophone tone production but they are antiquated and too often sort of unclear (like Rascher's "Top Tones For the Saxophone" or Dave Liebman's "Developing A Personal Saxophone Sound".) This is a clear, well organized and well explained book about everything related to tone production. Every concept has corresponding exercises and clear explanation on how and why to practice them and achieve the set goals. Also, most of these exercises have sound sample demonstrations downloadable for free on the guy's website.

  • The Jazz theory Book
    A great start, again very well explained, on theory. Scales, chords, etc...

    The rest (like fingerings) you can find easily online for free, or figure out by listening and transcribing.
u/Jongtr · 4 pointsr/musictheory

Let me dive in with the usual recommendation: Terefenko.

Mark Levine's Jazz Theory Book is a widely known and often recommended one (one of the oldest jazz theory books), and is definitely useful if studying modal and post-modal jazz, as a supplementary text, but not recommended for studying the harmony of jazz standards.

EDIT: let me just add that I agree with the Real Book recommendations. Books on "theory" would only ever be in support of books containing actual music. :-) Music first, theory second.

u/BCTM · 4 pointsr/Jazz

Great book to check out is the jazz theory book. Here's an amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1883217040/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_YLNAzb4MBCS34

u/cuntbitchdick · 3 pointsr/Jazz

get all of your scales down. And I just mean like major/minor or Ionian/Aeolian. Just know your way up and down all of them, as well as all arpeggios. Knowing these shapes will help you to navigate charts easier. Second just start looking at charts, and don't even start playing in time with the music right away. Go through slowly and play the arpeggios (up to the seventh) of every change. Then play the song at speed and just go up and down each arpeggio. Eventually just start adding notes in between here and there and keep going like that until you are a master, and are ballin for shock calling. Seriously though, after doing that for a while start to look at things like major minor scales, and the altered scale, which are both very common in jazz (herbie hancock, wayne shorter). A good piece of literature on the subject is a book by Mark Levine called "The Jazz Theory Book" here it is on amazon for like thirty bucks, but well worth it imho. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1883217040/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_5?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A2D0XUFQTHPTMU Best of luck.
The beginning of this part of learning jazz always sucks but it will be as much fun as you make it. Don't give up. This is a genre very worth learning how to play well.

u/NickCorey · 3 pointsr/Guitar

My advice is to buy some books. There's a lot of info on the internet, but it's all spread out and often chopped up into pieces, which can make it a bitch to make sense of. If you're going to go the internet route, though, check out guitarlessons365.com (not affiliated in any way). The vast majority of the lessons are free and the music theory section is completely free, not to mention very good.

http://www.guitarlessons365.com/lessons-archive/music-theory-lessons-archive/

Regarding books, this is a great, easy to read book on music theory that won't hurt your head. I'd start either here or with guitarlessons365.

http://www.amazon.com/Everything-Music-Theory-Book-understanding/dp/1440511829

For guitar books, Fretboard Logic is a must read. Definitely buy this. It focuses on the 5 position system (CAGED). If you're interested in learning the 7 position system for the major scales and other 7 note scales, check out guitarlessons365.

http://www.amazon.com/Fretboard-Logic-SE-Reasoning-Arpeggios/dp/0962477060/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1348759781&sr=8-1&keywords=fretboard+logic

After that, I'd check out this as well.

http://www.amazon.com/Music-Theory-Guitarists-Everything-Wanted/dp/063406651X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1348759708&sr=1-1&keywords=guitar+theory

Worth checking this out as well.

http://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Fretboard-Workbook-Barrett-Tagliarino/dp/0634049011/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1348759937&sr=1-3&keywords=guitar+theory

Here's another important book. I'd probably buy this last, though.

http://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Theory-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/1883217040/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1348760257&sr=1-1&keywords=jazz+theory+book+by+mark+levine




u/James_reddit_llama · 3 pointsr/Guitar

The Jazz theory book is pretty good (UK Amazon link: The Jazz Theory Book https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1883217040/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_1iIPBb6419EEZ)

Otherwise the ABRSM music theory books are pretty good as well but a little boring to read...

u/alithemighty · 3 pointsr/Saxophonics

If you want to learn some basics and beyond if jazz theory I recommend The Jazz Theory Book by Mark Levine

u/DebtOn · 3 pointsr/Guitar

Other books mentioned in this thread are good, but so is the Jazz Theory Book by Mark Levine. Even if you're not interested in jazz, this book is useful for most styles of music, though for classical you're better off with something like Tonal Harmony

u/HutSutRawlson · 3 pointsr/piano

I'd recommend The Jazz Piano Book or The Jazz Theory Book, both by Mark Levine. There's a ton of great stuff in both, and they'll teach you how jazz musicians conceive of how they play—not to mention give you a foundation to play pretty much any popular style that strikes your fancy.

u/elephantengineer · 3 pointsr/Jazz

if you don't have a copy of the jazz theory book, i recommend it highly for theory and examples. the index of the book contains a list of about a thousand songs. about 300 of those are starred, with a footnote implying you better learn them or you'll be run of of new york on a rail, or something to that effect.

one thing i did that proved very useful was to make a playlist of those 300 tunes to start. i would listen to it often (i love jazz so this was definitely not a chore), and remove any song if i could hum through the entire head and name the song. after a few months i knew what all 300 sounded like, which makes it a lot easier if someone calls something random on the bandstand.

as for what to memorize and know cold:

my book 2 memorize list, made from the one's i've had to play fairly often:


  • bolivar blues
  • caravan
  • chameleon
  • doxy
  • dindi
  • fly me to the moon
  • gentle rain
  • in walked bud
  • hot house
  • killer joe
  • let's cool one
  • lover man
  • mercy, mercy, mercy
  • miles ahead
  • moanin'
  • move
  • my little suede shoes
  • nature boy
  • old devil moon
  • perdido
  • rhythm-a-ning
  • softly, as in a morning sunrise
  • st. thomas
  • st. louis blues
  • straight life
  • tenor madness
  • willow weep for me
  • whisper not
  • yardbird suite
  • you'd be so nice to come home to
u/coffeefuelsme · 3 pointsr/Guitar

If you have an understanding of music theory this is a great book to check out:

http://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Theory-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/1883217040

u/OnaZ · 3 pointsr/piano

How much transcribing are you doing?

Do you have the hand independence of someone like Keith Jarrett or Brad Mehldau? Are you practicing that skill?

How's your re-harmonization ability? Can you take something simple and make it more complex or take a folk tune and make it jazzy?

How's your jazz theory? Do you recognize which scales are possible with each chord beyond the simple ones? Have you worked your way through The Jazz Theory Book or Jazz Theory Resources?

Are you active in your local music scene? The best way to find a teacher is to find someone who is out there playing who really impresses you. You're not going to find players at or above your level in the yellow pages or online, it's all word of mouth.

u/darknessvisible · 3 pointsr/piano

Do you already have The Jazz Theory Book by Mark Levine? That starts from first principles and goes through to fluent proficiency.

u/steve0nator · 3 pointsr/Jazz

Check out this book:

https://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Theory-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/1883217040/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1510250111&sr=8-1&keywords=jazz+theory+levine

Great theory in this book, and I think it would be interesting even if you don't play.

If that's too technical then my advice would be to listen, listen, listen! Miles, Monk, Coltrane, etc didn't have these music theory classes and technical books, they listened and played to learn the craft. If you can't/don't have time to invest in learning to play then keep listening

u/shadewraith · 2 pointsr/Guitar

If you want to get into jazz theory, I recommend The Jazz Theory Book. I'm also a fan of The Real Book and the Aebersold books (especially volumes 1-3).

u/blind_swordsman · 2 pointsr/Saxophonics

I recommend The Jazz Theory book by Mark Levine. If you want to understand how to build chords, chord progressions, and improv, it's a great resource. You can buy it online or torrent a PDF easily enough.

u/Russian-Spy · 2 pointsr/piano

That is all very useful information, and thank you for even looking up recordings of all of the songs. Your response gives me a much better idea of how to teach him these pieces. Also, in spite of another commenter, I think I should brush up on and expand my knowledge of jazz. What do you think of this particular book? https://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Theory-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/1883217040/ref=s9_simh_gw_g14_i1_r?_encoding=UTF8&fpl=fresh&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=&pf_rd_r=M6709RMPFXXZBNG5JHYH&pf_rd_t=36701&pf_rd_p=a6aaf593-1ba4-4f4e-bdcc-0febe090b8ed&pf_rd_i=desktop

u/Citizen-man · 2 pointsr/Guitar

That's the right scale, and you can arrive at that answer using either way of thinking: list the notes of a Bflat major scale, but starting on C; or, start with a C minor scale (C, D, Eflat, F, G, Ab, Bb) and raise the sixth note (C, D, Eflat, F, G, A, Bflat). They're just different ways of thinking about the same SOUND. As with all theory, it's the SOUND that's the key.

As for resources, try the Fake Dr. Levin Zelda modes series: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayBYqpeOAvQ&list=PLJTWoPGfHxQFCOnSiRNVangyEy7IfUDsX)
and, depending on what you're looking for, The JAzz Theory Book by Mark LEvine is excellent (http://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Theory-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/1883217040)

u/kingpatzer · 2 pointsr/Guitar_Theory

Music theory is not different on a guitar than on any other instrument. And it gets very hard to get music theory correct when it is taught by largely self-taught guitarists, because they have a tendency to think every shape they play requires a name (a trait shared by musicians on most chromatic instruments).

Go get a basic music theory book like Music Theory for Dummies or Music Theory: From Begginer to Expert. After youv'e gone through and really understood what's in those texts, you'll be ready for more advanced stuff like Mark Levine's Jazz Theory or Walter Piston's books such as Harmony or Counterpoint.

Alternately you could look at texts on arranging and orchestration at that point as well.

Stay away from instrument specific texts, particularly those related to chromatic instruments (of which the guitar is one) because you'll almost find something that is a well-intended, but mistaken, concept. Also avoid texts aimed at Berkelee school of music. While they are a great school in terms of their performance degrees, they have an odd fascination with modes that is shared by virtually no other music school in the world.

u/Nolanola · 2 pointsr/Guitar

https://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Theory-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/1883217040/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1499754614&sr=8-1&keywords=jazz+theory+book

I used the shit out of this book in high school when I was preparing to go to university. This was also the period where I wanted to move from blues into jazz. If you have technique, then this is a great launching point for jazz. It's pretty comprehensive (until you get quite advanced) and could be used as a sort of desk reference when you're done studying it. It's by far the most useful music book I ever bought in my development. It's super no nonsense and because it's written for people of all instruments it takes guitarists out of that "guitar culture" mindset which isn't always a good thing musically.

To apply the things in the book, listen to a shit load of recordings and start going through the Real Book. Pick out tunes you really like and learn them in basic ways. Look up charts for jazz guitar chord voicings and start comping along with records. Then throw in the melody. Next improvise by messing with the melody. Then start improvising with modes and chord tones. Finally, start transcribing your favorite solos, doesn't have to be just guitar players.

That's how you learn jazz.

u/asgiantsastros · 2 pointsr/musictheory

If I understand what you're saying, then yes, Amaj7 with a 9 will sound good in certain cases. It's actually pretty popular to combine the 7 and the 9 in jazz chords. You can definitely have more than one extension to a chord, it's just pretty cumbersome to write Amaj7 add 9, so most of the time it is omitted to be just A9 or Amaj7.

If this kind of thing interests you (combining different types of chords and adding notes in the chord), definitely get a jazz theory book. Below is one a fairly popular one. It is one of the best ways to progress from amateur to journeyman, in my opinion. Get through that book and you'll be able to play in jam sessions with other musicians, be comfortable talking theory, while elevating your own playing to a degree you probably didn't think possible, etc.

http://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Theory-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/1883217040

u/MoonRabbit · 2 pointsr/Guitar

You would benefit from a theory book or course.
http://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Theory-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/1883217040

I recommend that one.



u/LightBulb1913 · 2 pointsr/Jazz

Miles Davis wrote an autobiography that was really great and told you a lot about the history of jazz, although it didn't give you too much theory. It was called "Miles", i think.

Mark Levine wrote a great book on Jazz theory. https://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Theory-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/1883217040

He wrote one for piano specifically as well.

u/lwp8530 · 2 pointsr/Guitar

They are both brilliant and will last a lifetime, I've had them for around 5 years and they still blow my mind, and keep me learning.

Some others I own and think a great are:

[Creative Guitar 1 and 2 by Guthrie Govan] ( http://www.amazon.com/Guthrie-Govan/e/B0034Q44JU/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_pop_1) In my opinion the best guitarist around. He has a mastery over the guitar at a level I have never seen! These books are excellent a written in a ways that enjoyable and easy to understand

[Single Note Soloing, Volume 1] (http://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Guitar-Single-Soloing-Volume/dp/0769209726/ref=pd_sim_b_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=0MRB4A99W8P09SX6GMQG) and [Volume 2] (http://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Guitar-Single-Soloing-Volume/dp/0739053841/ref=pd_sim_b_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=1GGV91GVW1H6MM5AQ6C0) by Ted Greene. Excellent for jazz soloing.

[The Jazz Theory Book by Mark Levine] ( http://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Theory-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/1883217040/ref=pd_sim_b_17?ie=UTF8&refRID=1FP5R211R7V7ZDP5Q4GT) THE book on jazz, this is without a doubt a must own!

If you want to get really deep and crazy take a look at the Scott McGill books:

[Scott McGill] (http://www.amazon.com/Scott-McGill/e/B00J36EZ58/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1)

And lastly for an insane look at rhythms [Advance Rhythmic Concepts for Guitars by Jan Rivera] (http://www.amazon.com/Advanced-Rhythmic-Concepts-Foreword-Machacek/dp/0615979831/ref=pd_sim_b_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=0J05GGH3PGDQRWPRB298) Metric Modulations, Polyrhythms and Polymeters galore! I feel with most guitarists rhythm is often overlooked and getting your rhythmic playing down separates the men from the boys. It's amazing how good rhythm can make the simplest of solos mind melting.






u/danw1989 · 2 pointsr/Woodshed

Get your hands on some improvisation books. Doesn't necessarily mean they all have to be just guitar books...jazz theory books will come in handy for any musician. Get your hands on a Real Book Listen to great performers - I'll suggest Pat Metheny, John Scofield, and Herb Ellis for starters. Become really familiar with their music and the way they improvise... when you hear little bits and pieces of things they do and you like them, write them out - transcribe. Hearing and practicing these will enable you to incorporate them into your improvisation, and the more you study and 'shed your heart out, the more you will pick up on how great improvisors do their thing.

Also, practice all your scales... slowly. When you are transcribing, you'll be surprised how much easier it is when you have a good understanding of every type of scale and how they are used (theory books will explain).

Hope this helps. Cheers.

u/jazzyjacck · 2 pointsr/musictheory

I learned a lot from taking classes and private lessons, as well as self study by reading books and analyzing music. I'm not really aware of that many good resources for jazz theory online unfortunately, but there is this site: http://community.berkleejazz.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

EDIT: I love the Jazz Piano Book, it's not really a theory book but I thought it was great. The author has also written a Jazz Theory Book which a lot people seem to like, but I haven't really gone through it yet. Some other options are the Berklee Book of Jazz Harmony and the Jazz Harmony Book

u/japanesetuba · 2 pointsr/WeAreTheMusicMakers

A big thing is to not let your practice routine stagnate. Take it from a (tuba) performance major who learned most of his stuff without lessons. You need to keep fresh material under your fingers. Pick up the Jazz Theory Book and use some of the examples in there for scale and key studies.

Also, I would highly recommend studying classical rep as well, work ona new solo peice every month, and try to play (and work up) one etude (at least) every week.

You practice should look like this, in essence:

10-15min of warm-up with long tones (focusing on superb sound and tone at ALL dynamic ranges), and easy, finger warming chromatic scales and the like.

30min of etude practice (try to do a new one every week)

30min of solo rep/stuff from band you need to work on

whatever time is left to you doing scale studies and jazz improv.


As far as getting better at jazz, the biggest one I know of is simply transcribing solos of other players and playing them. It takes for FUCKING ever, but if you're serious, it's what you do. Since I only ever play Bass Trombone in jazz band, it's not really worth it to me, but if you're looking to get better at tenor, man, listen to some coltrane and write down what he's doing for at least one chorus and play it with him. You start to assimilate some of the licks he uses and get an innate understanding of how to navigate the chords. Start with blues based songs, since they're the easiest. Move up to rhythm changes when you have solid material for any blues song. After that, man, you'll be set.


ALSO, you can always google and find some great stuff written by other great players, either on forums or on professional player's personal websites. I learned alot of what I know doing that when I didn't have lessons.

If you have any questions, send me a PM and I'll do my best to help out.

u/RainbowGoddamnDash · 2 pointsr/Guitar

I second this, a really good book on Jazz is The Jazz Theory Book by Mark Levine.

It explains progression, scale usage, and chord usage in depth.

u/HashPram · 2 pointsr/guitarlessons

> Say if I can't find a teacher right away, how would you say I should try striking that "balance" you talked about? Any resources you'd suggest for each element (technical/musical/theoretical)?

Technical and musical elements are quite difficult to advise on because they are quite individual. Some people are very expressive but aren't necessarily brilliantly technical players and some are brilliantly technical but make music that sounds like robots, and all shades in-between.

If you pushed me I would say that something like Yousician's free lessons will get you off the ground as far as basic technique is concerned. Their free service is perfectly adequate for a complete beginner.

As far as musicality goes that's more difficult to teach. Really you're looking to try and "feel" something while you're playing and it's not quite the same as feeling an emotion - you're trying to feel the flow of the music. I found it helpful when I was first learning to play along to a track and not worry too much about getting it right - just noodle around trying to get into the feel of the thing. Playing with other people helps here too.

As far as theory goes that's easier.

Standard theory (you can call it 'classical' theory if you like but it applies to pretty much any form of music except really early music and more modern experimental stuff):
The AB Guide to Music Theory Part I
Music Theory in Practice Book I

(As you'll see from the Amazon listings there are more books in the Music Theory in Practice series, and there's an AB Guide to Music Theory Part II as well).
Get someone who knows what they're talking about to check your answers!

Jazz theory:
The Jazz Theory Book

Songwriting:

Chord Progressions for Songwriters

Bear in mind that music theory is a bit like art theory in that it's largely descriptive rather than prescriptive - it describes common practice and therefore gives you some guidelines but it's quite possible to follow all the rules and still come up with something that's fucking dreadful. So when you're writing try not to get bogged down with "is it correct?" - just ask yourself "do I like it? does it sound good?".


> What would an ideal (or even okay) progress would look like according to you?

I would say classical guitar grade 1 within 1-2 years is normal progress. If you're ambitious then 6 months to 1 year.

u/xxjaxon · 2 pointsr/Geelong

Oh okay, make sure to tell the teacher what you what to learn and make sure they agree to it. No use wasting time and money with someone who teaches the same thing to everyone.

If you're looking at learning theory to help with prog metal I recommend reading The Jazz Theory Book. It's pretty dense but it really helps with understanding chords and chord extensions.

u/rcochrane · 2 pointsr/jazzguitar

> Obviously if I were to jump into a jazz improv session I couldn't say "wait everybody, tell me the exact order of the chords you're going to play and I'll memorize some scales to them really quick".

Exactly, this is how rock players tend to approach jazz and it's hopelessly difficult for most situations. Plus, even if you manage to do it you're unlikely to sound like a jazz musician. I wasted a fair bit of time trying to do this back in the day. Here's a clip of Hal Galper laying into this approach; incidentally, you should watch all his clips, they're great.

In particular, I wouldn't worry at all about "jazz theory". I'm not even convinced such a thing exists. I mean, if you want to you can work through a college textbook like Levine but it won't make you a jazz player. I think /u/awindupgirl is 100% right on this.

Echoing what others have already said I would say your first steps are:

  • Start listening obsessively to jazz. Not jazz-rock, not avant garde, not recent stuff but bebop and similar stuff from the '40s & '50s. Include some vocal jazz (Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan etc) because you'll also need to...
  • Start learning standard tunes. That means you can sing and play the melody and play the chords without looking at the lead sheet. I know everyone moans about them but get the Real Book and use that for now. This list is useful guidance. [EDIT: Also, lead sheets for most standards can be turned up by a Google image search.]
  • It will help to learn some jazz chord grips, which tend to be different from what rock players use. This resource will get you started. When you go to a jazz jam, most of the time you'll be comping (playing chords) so this is a key skill.
  • Slowly start attempting to solo on the changes to tunes you know using chord tones, like /u/beardling described. If you know your CAGED arpeggios from your rock days, that will help massively. When trying to solo, always keep the melody of the song in your head. You're playing the song, not noodling to a backing track.
  • Also, start transcribing. That means picking a solo that's not too fast and complicated-sounding on a tune you already know, and listenign to it over and over with your guitar in your hand until you can play some of the phrases you hear. This takes a long time and is extremely frustrating. As with many things, the people who succeed are the ones who don't give up just because it seems impossible.

    Most of the time you spend on the above should be spent listening and playing, not book-learning.

    You'll probably find this page, and the whole rest of the site, useful. It's not everyone's thing but I'd also recommend checking out Kenny Werner [EDIT: link].

    Finally, good time is the single most important thing in jazz. Set the metronome to click on the 2 and 4 like Emily Remler tells you in the video in the sidebar and really nail your timing. You can play any note on any chord and make it work but if you're out of time nothing will sound good.
u/ahipple · 2 pointsr/Jazz

Mark Levine's excellent The Jazz Theory Book includes a great list of mandatory repertoire at the end of the book, which I've edited down considerably to this list based on my experience in jam sessions and gigs. For a full-time working jazz musician though, there are many, many more essentials that I'm sure I'm missing. Also, I've tried to omit tunes already mentioned.

I've noted (Alternate Titles) in parentheses and [parent tunes with the same changes] in square brackets.

The tunes:
Ain't Misbehavin', All Blues [3/4 blues], All of Me, All of You, Alone Together, Autumn in New York, Beautiful Love, Billie's Bounce, Black Orpheus (Manha de Carnaval), Blue Bossa, Blues for Alice [Parker blues], Bluesette [3/4 parker blues], Cantaloupe Island, Caravan, Ceora, Chelsea Bridge, Cherokee, Corcovado (Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars), Darn That Dream, Days of Wine and Roses, Desafinado, Dolphin Dance, Donna Lee [Indiana], Doxy, Embraceable You, Footprints [3/4 minor blues, sort of], Four, Georgia on My Mind, Giant Steps, God Bless The Child, Green Dolphin Street, Have You Met Miss Jones, How Deep Is The Ocean, I'll Remember April, In A Mellow Tone, Invitation, In Walked Bud [Blue Skies], In Your Own Sweet Way, I Remember You, Israel [minor blues], It Could Happen To You, It Don't Mean A Thing, Joy Spring, Just Friends, Limehouse Blues [not actually a blues!], Lover Man, Maiden Voyage, Milestones, Misty, Moanin', Moonlight in Vermont, My Favorite Things, My Foolish Heart, My Funny Valentine, My Heart Stood Still, My Little Suede Shoes, My One and Only Love, My Romance, Night And Day, Now's The Time [blues], Oleo [rhythm changes], One Note Samba, Out Of Nowhere, Over The Rainbow, Poinciana, Recordame, Rhythm-A-Ning [rhythm changes], Ruby My Dear, St. Thomas, Satin Doll, Scrapple From The Apple [Honeysuckle Rose], Skylark, Softly As In A Morning Sunrise, Someday My Prince Will Come, Song For My Father, Sonnymoon For Two [blues], So What, Stardust, Stompin' At The Savoy, Sugar, Summertime, There Is No Greater Love, There Will Never Be Another You, Tune Up, Wave, The Way You Look Tonight, Well You Needn't, When Sunny Gets Blue, Whisper Not, Without A Song, Yardbird Suite, Yesterdays.

u/tibbon · 1 pointr/Guitar

I'm having a bit of a problem understanding your question. I don't know what you mean by 'skim up to' a C or C#. Those notes are diatonic to A minor and A major scales respectively.

In the blues, yes... you're frequently playing off the key of the first chord. However, just playing nonstop over the pentatonic scale of that key get boring fast and is limiting if that's the only thing you do.

I might suggest that if you've been playing for two years with a teacher and you haven't dove into theory that you do so immediately. The Jazz Theory book by Mark Levine is a great way to get started and covers a lot of ground with solid musical examples to play and listen to. It says "jazz" but really its applicable to all western non-classical music.

u/zredzitz · 1 pointr/guitarlessons

This book will give you the foundation of what you need in a nicely laid out manner (no affiliation). Don't be afraid of the word "jazz" in the title - the contents are great reading for any musician.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1883217040

Aside from that, my advice is to:

Study how chords are built and what a "key" means. First, learn triads of a major key, then learn the "7th" chords of the major key. Do this soon. This will make you a musician as well as a guitar player! Here's a random web site that goes over this, there are many others as well:

https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/lessons/chords/what_chords_are_in_what_key_and_why.html

Basically, you write down the scale, for example, C major:

C D E F G A B C

Start at each note and build a chord with every other note.

C = C E G

D = D F A

etc.

For "7th" chords:

C = C E G B

D = D F A C

etc.

Understanding what a "key" is and what chords are "in the key" is huge.

u/EjRak · 1 pointr/violinist

Oh! In that case, get this one:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1883217040?pc_redir=1397560256&robot_redir=1

He shows real life examples of the harmonic exercises. Like, while you're learning where to throw a Dorian scale, he shows you an excerpt of Coltrane doing one over the same progression.

Good luck!

u/portuga · 1 pointr/YouShouldKnow

You gotta learn your scales, man. One other thing I see recomended a lot is solo transcribing. As for books, I really like [mark levine's] (http://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Theory-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/1883217040) for the theory, and this one, but since you're a bass player, you might get more out of a book specifically tailored to your instrument.

But the really most important thing is to practice improvisation whenever you can, preferably in a group. Maybe you can organize a small jazz combo where you live, or join classes with other aspiring jazz musicians like yourself?

u/Zerocrossing · 1 pointr/musictheory

The Jazz Theory Book is, in my opinion, the best book on the subject. It's good to get a grasp of what basic 2-5-1's sound like and slowly add in alterations. If you just jump into listening to Herbie Hancock and try to pick the chords out, you're gonna have a rough time of it.

u/ljud · 1 pointr/musictheory

http://jazzadvice.com/

This site is downright amazing. An absolute treasure chest for anyone interested in improvisation.

http://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Theory-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/1883217040

This book is the best one I've ever read bar none. It is SUPER comprehensive and really easy to get in to.

u/Disney_Jazzcore · 1 pointr/musictheory

I have this book in my storage bag https://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Theory-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/1883217040

But I haven't read it because I am trying to get the fundamentals right down perfectly.

So, C6 becomes Cmaj7 during solo. That means a lot of the chords would also change accordingly. Like Cdim7 would become... Csus4 would become... ??? Etc.

I dont play the piano so I am not sure if Noah Baerman is my thing, or is it?

During Jazz colleges, do they expect you to know these complex stuff or do they have a course to teach for that?

u/tmwrnj · 1 pointr/Guitar

Traditionally, jazz theory was learned and taught informally. Today, a large proportion of jazz players learned theory through formal training at a music school or conservatory. If you want to learn jazz theory, I strongly recommend the book Jazzology, which is widely regarded as the clearest introductory guide. The Jazz Theory Book by Mark Levine is the most popular alternative, but it is very demanding, particularly if you aren't a piano player.

For learning jazz guitar, I recommend The Jazz Guitar Handbook by Rod Fogg. It's a practical and accessible introduction that covers all aspects of jazz guitar. Mickey Baker's Jazz Guitar was traditionally the default option and is a very good book, but it is brutally demanding and I find it puts a lot of students off. It might be a good choice if you are already an advanced rock or blues guitarist. Similar praise and criticisms apply to the books by Jody Fisher and Garrison Fewell - lots of useful information, but very challenging for the beginner.

u/sexytimepiano · 1 pointr/piano

You can start by buying these two books and reading them cover to cover: Jazz Theory by Mark Levine and Jazz Piano Book by Mark Levine That's a good first step. There's plenty of other books out there obviously, but I've had good success with these. Learning Jazz is all about becoming acquainted with a new musical language and internalizing it to the point where it becomes as natural and automatic as speaking. This takes a lot of practice. Good luck and be sure to listen to lots of jazz!

u/o0evns0o · 1 pointr/ableton

I recommend the Jazz Theory Book by Mark Levine. Learn that stuff and you can always dumb down for other genres. The Jazz Theory Book https://www.amazon.com/dp/1883217040/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_u6aTAbDEPAEN5

u/coltranedis · 1 pointr/musictheory

Great reply. So, essentially, your goal is musical literacy.

Over in /r/jazz there I seem to recall someone posting an online starter kit that was very good.

I used:

https://www.amazon.ca/Jazz-Theory-Book-Levine/dp/1883217040

It's pretty thorough.

The nice thing about jazz theory is that it is very applicable to pop music as well.

u/TheEmancipator77 · 1 pointr/Jazz

Where do you go to college? If there is a music school (esp. with a jazz studies dept.) connected to your school, make friends with music students and learn from your new friends in person, or even reach out to jazz faculty there.

Also, check out "The Jazz Theory Book" by Mark Levine. Its one of the definitive books on everything from chord and scale theory to "Coltrane" reharmonization. https://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Theory-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/1883217040/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1539372648&sr=8-2&keywords=the+jazz+theory+book

​

u/Tony_T_123 · 1 pointr/WeAreTheMusicMakers

I've been reading this book, because it covers theory, piano, and learning to read music, which are all things I'm trying to learn

https://www.amazon.com/Piano-Handbook-Complete-Guide-Mastering/dp/0879307277

If you want a book that's focused just on theory, there's Music Theory for Dummies which I've read, it's a very easy introductory book. For more advanced books I'm not sure, I usually just look at reviews on Amazon to try to find something that looks good.

I've also tried to read "The Jazz Theory Book"

https://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Theory-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/1883217040/ref=sr_1_28?ie=UTF8&qid=1486656226&sr=8-28&keywords=music+theory

but it's way above my current skill level. You might be able to get something out of it though.

Also check out this page, it's actually pretty good. I had forgotten to mention it

http://www.tobyrush.com/theorypages/index.html

u/temp9123 · 1 pointr/TrueAnime

If you're interested in playing, definitely check out iReal Pro. It comes with the progressions for over 1,300 jazz standards and will play synthesized backing tracks that you can transpose to any key or adjust the tempo.

You can also make your own - for example, improvising a sloppy solo on "Auld Lang Syne" in F takes nearly zero brain power to do - but since I couldn't find a similar jazz standard, I ended up putting together my own based on The Public Domain Christmas Jazz Fakebook I found on /r/jazz a long time ago.

Also, while you're at it, start burning your scales (most major and minor modes across all keys, blues, bebop, pentatonic) into muscle memory. One good Youtube channel for jazz piano is Walk That Bass. I also have Mark Levine's The Jazz Theory Book, which comes well recommended but is rather heavy on the theory. For somebody getting started it's better to get a feel for jazz and the method to its madness by transcribing individual pieces and solos. Always use a metronome. Don't get too dependent on the pedal; avoid if possible.

I'm not the most experienced pianist, but playing jazz is by far the most heavy in mechanics and theory music I've ever approached, but it's very rewarding and extremely cathartic once you get into the groove of things. Churning out lines and licks one after another is wonderfully fun and pleasant to listen to once it starts getting even somewhat close to habit - well, except to any unfortunate neighbors who are stuck hearing the same progressions day after day.

u/original_nam · 1 pointr/piano

When starting from zero I'd recommend music theory for dummies (and check out r/musictheory). For jazz specifically:

http://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Theory-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/1883217040

u/IIbc · 1 pointr/bluesguitarist

To be honest, I like Mark Levine's Jazz Theory better https://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Theory-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/1883217040
But I only ever saw the first edition of the Beato book

u/disaster_face · 1 pointr/musictheory

the reviews aren't really wrong... it does have its flaws, but there isn't really another book that does it better. i've read quite a few harmony books and it is the most comprehensive basic harmony book that i've found. it's also pretty much the standard for college courses.

Tchaikovsky also wrote a book on harmony. It is good and very inexpensive, but very short. he writes extremely efficiently though, so there is really a lot of info in such a small book, but obviously not as much as Tonal Harmony. It's also older than Tonal Harmony, so some more modern ideas are not included. That said, it's a great way to quickly learn a lot, and at the price it's really a no-brainer. It doesn't have exercises or lots of examples... just good info.

Also, I should mention that all these harmony books teach using the classical tradition of placing heavy emphasis on voice leading. If you are, for example a guitarist writing pop and rock songs, you may not see how the information will be relevant to what you do, but I would encourage you to go ahead and read through it, as it will make your writing better, and give you a more complete understanding of music. Also, there isn't really a good basic harmony book that doesn't teach this way.

Also, if you are interested in Jazz Harmony there is absolutely no better book than this one.

u/totalwerk · 1 pointr/edmproduction

I have read that and personally didn't take a whole lot away from it. For mixing I would recommend Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio. For theory I would look into this, or maybe jazz stuff depending on your style, e.g. The Jazz Theory Book.

There are a whole lot of free resources that are worth checking out too, like Pensado's Place, r/musictheory , Pro Audio Files, Freejazzlessons.com, SeamlessR, etc.

u/kidbeer · 1 pointr/WeAreTheMusicMakers

Get The Jazz Theory Book by Mark Levine. This book starts at the beginning, so you're sure to be able to learn from it regardless of level. It doesn't matter if you want to do jazz or not. Jazz is about the most harmonically complete music there is. If you get the hang of jazz theory, then all you need to do for most other kinds of music is figure out what stuff to leave out to make it sound like that genre.

You'll probably discover a few little tricks and sounds that you didn't know you were looking for. For instance--learn what a lydian dominant scale is, start playing around with it, and you might realize that literally every single note of The Simpsons' theme is from this scale.

u/candyA25 · 1 pointr/singing

You mentioned you're motivated enough to practice for an hour or two. Did you ever consider teaching yourself Basic Music Theory?

Get this book. I bought it a few weeks ago to start teaching myself as well. It comes with a CD of exercises you can complete. This could be a good starting point onto other books to buy in the future. For example, one of my goals is to play Jazz Guitar someday. My plan is to finish the Complete Idiots Guide, then move onto this.

This way, you wouldn't be dropping money for a college degree. Combine a few lessons with your studies, watch singing lesson YouTube Videos, and who knows where you might end up! Then you wouldn't have to rely so much on your teacher. My voice lesson teacher used to be cancel on me often, so I understand how frustrating that can be.

u/Nasdijj · 1 pointr/Guitar

Not specific to guitar, but if you want to learn jazz theory this book is an amazing resource: Jazz Theory Book by Mark Levine.

u/urgent_detergent · 1 pointr/Bass

By far, the most helpful music theory book I've ever seen is The Jazz Theory Book by Mark Levine

It's definitely helpful in understanding the thought behind scales/modes/chordal relationships.

You will need to be able to read music somewhat, but if want to be the best you can be, you'll want to learn to read music anyway. I believe that book would help any musician to get to the next level.

u/LudwigVanBeethoven2 · 1 pointr/musictheory

There is no one size fits all bible of music theory. To be extremely well rounded you need to look at a few different books:

For just starting out in the sense that you don't know how to build chords or intervals, Carl Fischer's grimoire books are excellent.

For classical harmony this is the book I used in my classes:
http://www.amazon.com/Tonal-Harmony-Introduction-Twentieth-Century/dp/0073401358/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1465247193&sr=8-2&keywords=tonal+harmony

For jazz harmony:
http://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Theory-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/1883217040/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1465247235&sr=8-1&keywords=jazz+theory

For deeper classical/counterpoint:
http://www.amazon.com/Counterpoint-4th-Kent-Kennan/dp/013080746X/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1465247274&sr=8-3&keywords=counterpoint


Also, try to get lessons with a university teacher because none of these books are comprehensive or perfect.
I remember in one of my beginning classes we went over the omnibus, and the deepest the book went was "this is an omnibus".
It wouldn't be until college where a professor ACTUALLY explained to me what the omnibus is and how to make one.

Also, the mark levine book can probably be condensed into 20 pages of meaningful material. He uses a lot of filler/examples...

u/intheotherwords · 1 pointr/jazzguitar

Can't go wrong with the Jazz Theory Book by Mark Levine

We actually used it in my jazz theory class.

Really I'd just suggest studying basic chord progressions like Bebop blues, minor blues, rhythm changes, etc. Once you can analyze those and understand why they work I feel like it wont be a stretch for you to understand most other things.

Jazz has a lot of typical chord progressions that reoccur in many different tunes and learning those 3 in all 12 keys would give you a lot of material to work with.

Basically whenever you see a dominant quality chord pay attention to how it resolves. Also pay attention to fully diminished chords and how they resolve.

A lot of the times diminished chords are also subs for dominant chords.

u/camelFace · 0 pointsr/todayilearned

I can understand the convenience of labeling your tunes, but these alphanumeric designations are totally unnecessary, counterproductive, and ultimately limiting. The necessity of speed is also why musicians who take theory study seriously practice its application daily on their instrument and invest considerable time in understanding and experimenting with the relationships between different notes.

No offense intended, but the link you're providing contains very limited and basic information on music theory. This is, essentially, the first twenty minutes of music theory study. There's much more to arranging and harmonic replacement than what's on that Wiki's articles. Not sure what's done outside of Canada, but here elementary music theory can be acquired from college courses and instruction books from the Royal Conservatory of Music. After you've gotten the first bit of general theory down, The Jazz Theory Book by Mark Levine will provide for most of your harmony-related curiosities.

No experience arranging myself -- of which DJing is, essentially, the theory applied in real-time -- so I can't suggest any useful materials as far as that goes. It might be worth the time to look into some of the more iconic arrangers and their processes to establish a method for real-time application of their theory.