Jazz Theory and Practice: CD-ROM (Macintosh)

Practical and grounded. Rather than treating jazz theory as a separate academic discipline, this resource keeps your ears and fingers engaged throughout, letting you understand why jazz musicians make the harmonic and melodic choices they do.

Jazz performers working toward fluency with chord changes and harmonic analysis, arrangers building their foundation in voice-leading and reharmonization, and composers developing their jazz vocabulary. Students and instructors who benefit from multiple reinforcement methods will find the combination of text explanation and interactive exercises especially valuable.

• Work through the ear-training exercises on the CD-ROM in short, focused sessions rather than all at once. Your ears develop faster with daily 15-minute practice than with occasional marathon sessions.
• Use the sight-reading drills to build fluency with jazz notation conventions and unfamiliar harmonic symbols before tackling real lead sheets.
• Cross-reference the CD-ROM tutorials with specific passages in the textbook examples to cement the connection between theory and the actual jazz sounds you hear in recordings.

Use this as the core text for a jazz theory course or as a self-directed study resource for ensemble members preparing for jazz band auditions or sectional rehearsals. The CD-ROM exercises work well as supplemental homework assignments alongside weekly repertoire study.

• Harmonic analysis of jazz standards and blues changes
• Voice-leading and chord substitution in jazz contexts
• Ear-training for jazz intervals, chord qualities, and functional harmony
• Sight-reading of jazz notation and lead sheet symbols
• Understanding chord extensions and alterations in jazz harmony