Modal Jazz Composition & Harmony, Volume 1: Book

Miller's chromatic-modal system removes the intimidation factor that often stops young composers from experimenting. By decoupling composition from strict harmonic rules, students encounter jazz on their own terms rather than through the lens of bebop or standards, which opens up genuine creative problem-solving.

Stepping into a practice room where the walls have disappeared. The chromatic-modal approach feels simultaneously expansive and grounded, offering enough structure to guide your thinking while resisting the harmonic predictability of traditional jazz pedagogy.

Jazz students ready to move beyond standard harmony, composition teachers seeking a fresh pedagogical foundation, and musicians interested in ECM and fusion aesthetics. This book suits intermediate-to-advanced learners who want both structural rigor and creative freedom.

• Work through the modal exercises sequentially before attempting original compositions; the system builds logically from simpler to more complex harmonic thinking.
• Record yourself improvising over the suggested harmonic frameworks to internalize how the chromatic system sounds in practice, not just in theory.
• Study the stylistic examples across jazz, fusion, and contemporary music to see how the same modal principles adapt to different aesthetic contexts.

Assign this as a core text in jazz composition or advanced harmony courses where students are ready to develop individual voices. The flexibility of the system makes it valuable for interdisciplinary programs that blend jazz, classical composition, and contemporary music studies.

• Composing in modal harmony without functional chord progressions
• Understanding chromatic voice leading within a modal framework
• Developing original compositional voice across multiple stylistic contexts
• Analyzing asymmetric form and non-traditional structural approaches
• Improvising fluently over chromatic-modal harmonic systems