Easy Jazz Conception: Viola: Viola Book & CD

Snidero anchors every etude in real harmonic and melodic contexts that viola students will recognize immediately. Hearing Mark Feldman articulate these lines with a world-class rhythm section transforms the learning process from silent study into active listening, letting students absorb phrasing, articulation, and time feel directly from accomplished musicians rather than descriptions in a textbook.

These etudes move with the relaxed confidence of someone who knows the blues inside out. The harmonic progressions ground the work in familiar territory while the melodic lines invite playfulness, leaving space for students to add their own inflections once they've internalized Snidero's core phrasing.

Violists ready to step into jazz but lacking a foundation in its language and conventions. This book works best for students already comfortable with position shifts and vibrato control, who can now redirect those technical skills toward understanding swing, blues vocabulary, and the rhythmic subtleties that distinguish jazz phrasing from classical interpretation.

• Study the soloist version first without playing along. Listen for how Feldman approaches the melody rhythmically and where he places accents relative to the beat.
• Play with the rhythm section-only tracks repeatedly until your groove feels locked rather than tentative. Jazz time requires a different relationship to pulse than classical reading.
• Return to the etudes with fresh ears after a week or two. You'll hear details in Feldman's interpretation that aren't obvious on first hearing, and you'll notice which phrases your own playing doesn't yet match.

Assign one or two etudes each week during the second semester, once students have built their principal technique. These work particularly well for advanced middle school or high school soloists preparing to explore jazz improvisation, and for heterogeneous chamber ensembles that want to include a jazz standard in their year-end concert. The dual-track format also makes these ideal for independent practice outside rehearsal time.

• Jazz phrasing and articulation (swing eighth notes, dynamic shaping, placement of melody relative to beat)
• Blues and standard chord progression literacy
• Listening for time feel and groove rather than relying on written rhythmic notation
• Stylistic differentiation between classical and jazz approaches to vibrato and tone production