Theory Book

Jazzaferri

As a number of people here have been discussing basic theory questions I thought I would make a recommendation for a theory book written for real world musicians.

Te book is called a players guide to Chords and Harmony by Jim Aiken... I have pm'd Michael about possible carrying it.

Ch 1 Getting Started explains the basics. Ch 2 Intervals. Ch 3 Triads. Ch 4 Chord Progressions

Ch 7 deals with 7th chords and symbols, Ch 6 extended chords Ch 7 scales and modes Ch 8 more on Chord progressions including 6 pages of really clear ideas on voice leading.

If you are interested in getting this book let Michael know, if he gets enough i terest it may be worth him carrying it.

kevorkazito

I just ordered it Jay. Your recommendations are always spot-on!

(P.S. I'm luvin' the Sal Salvador Single String book)

thanks

kevorkazito

I got this book last week. It truly is as it's title says, "Music Theory for Real-World Musicians".

Many years ago as an engineering student I was humbled by a professor grilling me on rudimentary concepts. I thot you could just forget the basics for the sake of the big picture. Oh, to look back on oneself when one was so naive :oops:

The lesson I learned is that your foundation is the basics theory and concepts. It never hurts to go back and see how your experience can color them. This book has a great flow of concepts and I like books with Q&A's to reinforce them.

This is a fantastic book for the novice, or a dabbler in theory like me. I've read it all before however reading through this book I find it's nice to have a reminder.

The Djangobooks library would be a great place to make this book available. Thanks again Jay for another excellent recommendation.

anthon_74

I would perhaps like to get this book as well, mainly as a tool to help me teach theory. One question Jazzaferi, does this book make sense to those who don't read music, but only read tab ?

My biggest issue in teaching theory to my students is that I don't teach them to read standard notation, but rather tab, chord boxes, speaking the language of notes letter names and rhythmical values, etc, and as a result, it is surprisingly hard to teach someone how to understand the various ins and outs of music theory when you skip the "note reading" step.

Your thoughts ?

Anthony

Jim Kaznosky

That is a great question. Without scale theory, how might you teach people to recognize ii-V-I passages or other common phrases?

kevorkazito

jkaz wrote:

That is a great question. Without scale theory, how might you teach people to recognize ii-V-I passages or other common phrases?

This is exactly the place I was at when I was working on Gypsy Rhythm and I got to the Major V-I. I was clueless. Then I had to find some webpages to lay it out... the scale, build triads, then what those chords are... it all made sense after that. This book has a great section on it (chapter 3) that made more sense than what I could figure out on the net.

Jazzaferri

Yes Anthon...this book works jsut fine even if you only read chord charts and Nashville numbering.

AS teh title says for ...real world musicians.

AmundLauritzen

I don't know the book but from what you describe it seems to be what guitarists with little knowledge might benefit from when learning gypsy jazz.

I have a BA in music paedagogy and have some thoughts about what aspects for theory are effective.
As I am relatively new to gypsy jazz myself, I can't comment on what works when teaching others in that particular style of music, but I can comment with regards to what kind of theory I actually use myself when practicing and playing.

Major scales are useful, but not for creating lines! As kevorkazito pointed out, they are key to understanding chord progressions. Analyzing gypsy jazz licks, you'll find find very little vocabulary that is based around scales used extensively. It's more fragments here and there. Stochelo likes to play from the fifth to a root. Sounds much less scale-ish than going from the root.

Scales as an organizational tool however, are great. Seeing scale notes in lines is good. Arpeggios too, and a lot of lines outline chord shapes.

When I say major scales are not good for creating lines I don't mean that one should never use a scale. But players who improvise from a scale basis tend to sound very linear: too much scales!

This is why learning vocabulary is important. If you have some basic scale knowledge, as you learn vocabulary you'll learn to use scales in a musical way and not let them ruin your playing by making you sound like you're meandering around haphazardly hoping to nail a good note.

So the key elements of theory that are beneficial to gypsy jazz from my perspective would be these:

-Knowing key signatures and how chords are built from a key. This will help you understand roman numerals and therefore chord progressions and how to transpose them to other keys.

-The visual fragments of chord, scale and arpeggios. The visuals of the shapes on the fretboard. This is as an organizational concept, what I like to call a "visual" trigger. You attach your lines to chord shapes. So when the chord comes around in the chorus, all your lines attached to that chord will light up on the fretboard and you can pick elements from each to create new lines.
When you have these "triggers" all over the neck, you'll be moving freely and fluid and your playing will start to make sense musically.

-Upper extensions and substitutions. Relative major and minor. Chord synonyms. This will enable you to take vocabulary for one chord type and play it on another. Like you can often play A minor lines on C major or vice versa. Or Db7 lines on G7. It will open many doors.

So judging from what you describe, the books seems legit. What those new to theory want to avoid though, is heavy chord-scale "modal" theory like "The Jazz Theory Book" by Mark Levine. That book is more of a reference. Trying to learn in modes is not beneficial to gypsy jazz unless you're already an advanced player.

Anyway, those are my 2 cents. Hope it can contribute positively to the thread

Jazzaferri

Having had to use Levine for the last 3 years and one more to go.............I heartily agree with you Amund.....I find his examples very insightful but the book itself is a pedagogues dream..

it is easier to read and discuss things if you know the alphabet but you dont really need it to talk....or play....Django could do both and knew neither.

kevorkazito

AmundLauritzen wrote:

...What those new to theory want to avoid though, is heavy chord-scale "modal" theory like "The Jazz Theory Book" by Mark Levine. That book is more of a reference. Trying to learn in modes is not beneficial to gypsy jazz unless you're already an advanced player.

Whoa! I'm glad I read this. I was just about to buy that book, now I'll hold off for time being. Thanks!

Jim Kaznosky

kevorkazito wrote:

jkaz wrote:

That is a great question. Without scale theory, how might you teach people to recognize ii-V-I passages or other common phrases?

This is exactly the place I was at when I was working on Gypsy Rhythm and I got to the Major V-I. I was clueless. Then I had to find some webpages to lay it out... the scale, build triads, then what those chords are... it all made sense after that. This book has a great section on it (chapter 3) that made more sense than what I could figure out on the net.

I know this stuff from past explorations into chord-scale theory. I guess the question is really, if you are avoiding using chord-scale theory and want to teach folks a way to recognize certain key progressions in songs, who do you teach it without getting bogged down into chord-scale?