Chop-Monster, Book 2: Teacher's Score with 2 CDs

Book 2 builds directly on the foundation of Book 1 without overwhelming students. By isolating the ii-V-I progression and presenting it in three essential keys, Berg gives students a progression they'll encounter constantly in jazz standards, making the investment in this material immediately practical.

The call-and-response format creates an active, engaged learning environment where students hear authentic jazz phrasing before they produce it themselves. Each phrase builds confidence and internalization, transforming a potentially intimidating progression into something students can navigate and eventually personalize.

Jazz ensemble directors and private jazz piano instructors working with intermediate students who have completed Chop-Monster Book 1. Students should be ready to tackle the ii-V-I progression as a harmonic and improvisational unit and be comfortable listening, imitating, and responding to recorded jazz phrases.

• Establish the tonal center firmly before improvising. Students should hear the i chord multiple times in each key before attempting their own ii-V-I lines.
• Use the recorded examples strategically as a model, then step out of the accompaniment track and let students respond independently so they develop confidence.
• Work through one key completely before introducing the next. Mastery in B-flat, E-flat, and F in sequence is more effective than jumping between them.

Integrate Book 2 into your jazz curriculum during the middle third of the academic year, once students have absorbed the fundamentals in Book 1. Use it as a daily warm-up tool or as part of a structured improvisation unit leading toward student jazz solos in concert.

• Hearing and internalizing the ii-V-I progression in three concert keys
• Improvising over chord changes through call-and-response listening and imitation
• Building vocabulary of idiomatic jazz phrases and reapplying them in new harmonic contexts
• Developing rhythmic and harmonic accuracy by matching recorded examples before improvising independently