-
By Instrumentation
Books on Music
-
-
-
Accessories
|
|
|
|
| 
 enlarge | Author: Mark Levine
Publisher: Sher Music
Category: Book
List Price: $42.00
Buy New: $28.90
You Save: $13.10 (31%)
New (8) Used (10) Collectible (1) from $27.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  53 reviews
Sales Rank: 6630
Media: Spiral-bound
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 522
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.8
Dimensions (in): 11 x 8.3 x 1.3
ISBN: 1883217040
UPC: 073999783162
EAN: 9781883217044
ASIN: 1883217040
Publication Date: June 1, 1995
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
|
| Customer Reviews:
 Everyone interested in Jazz Theory would do well to refer to this volume. January 5, 2007
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
An excellent presentation of Jazz theory, which whilst not essential to the enjoyment of Jazz, does provide a useful and well explained background to what is going on from the point of view of the construction and basic nuts and bolts of Jazz music. Most of the examples quoted are from the post 1950s, and perhaps it would have been good to have some more of the earlier innovators, though in fairness to the author I am still working through the book and may have to "eat my words". I would recommend this book to anyone with a serious interest in Jazz.
RH
Five Stars, but. . . November 18, 2006
14 out of 14 found this review helpful
My frustration with this book is the considerable overlap between it and the Jazz Piano Book, also by Mark Levine. I bought the Jazz Piano book first worked through a lot of it before purchasing this book. The number of pages copied verbatim from one book to the other appears to be significant, particularly at the beginning. I could not help feeling a little like I paid twice for the same not inexpensive book. However, the material unique to this book is great, especially the chapters on reharmonization. Just don't be surprised if you own the Jazz Piano book and end up skipping some sections in this book.
Essential book for those interested in jazz theory. August 5, 2006
Mark Levine's "Jazz Theory Book" is an important resource for anyone interested in learning jazz harmony, in a complete fashion. Most books on jazz theory leave some things out, or don't explain something fully, forcing the player the buy another book to try to fill the holes. This book covers all the bases and the concepts can be applied to any instrument (reading music is necessary).
The book starts off pretty basic, but then quickly gets into such wide-ranging concepts as chord/scale theory, reharmonization, Coltrane changes, and others. Levine explains things clearly, sometimes in musical examples rather than words (this means you must be self motivated and actually analyze the examples, that's why they are there). Some reviewers have complained about the amount of musical examples, but I liked seeing the concepts applied a few different ways in the context of real tunes. For me, all the examples were a plus, not a minus. The footnotes were also helpful.
This book is not going to do the work for you. It has the answers, but simply reading the words while you are waiting for dinner to cook is not going to make you into a great jazz musician. Play through the examples, read things over more than once, apply the concepts to other tunes in your own playing, and you will have everything covered. Also, the spiral binding is a great touch; the book can be opened easily to any page and stay there (I wish every book had this binding, actually).
Overall this book is a great learning tool for musicians of any skill level. It has a wide variety of topics, all well laid out, and will provide the musician with some much-needed skills.
 A decent reference book for jazz June 30, 2006
6 out of 9 found this review helpful
This book is loaded with pretty much all the information a jazz player needs for good improvisation. The writing is understandable if you have decent knowledge of music and are patient enough to read some parts over more than once. If you are looking to work on jazz theory, this is probably the right book to start with.
That said, all of the criticisms stated by others are quite valid. There are so many musical examples (not provided with the book) that they are a little overwhelming. It is also hard at times exactly what to do with some of the information presented. If a section was dedicated to helping someone set up their practice sessions, that would be helpful.
Understandable June 30, 2006
This book is very understandable. It assumes that you have a general understanding of music theory. From there it takes you through a very clear sequence of concepts specific to jazz. It's very clear and offers lots of examples and suggestions for practice and approach. An excellent book.
|
|
|
| |
