Book Suggestions - Jazz Progressions & Comping

[Genghis]

I've been getting started with Sheets of Sound and as I've mentioned already a few times I just love it. It's got me thinking that I need to improve other areas of my playing and general musical knowledage as well. I'm looking for suggestions on some good books that get into a study of jazz chords and progressions.

I haven't studied jazz seriously since the early 90's, and even then I didn't stick with it long enough for it to really sink in as much as I'd like it to. I do have a Real Book and a few dozen other jazz standards that I read through occasionally, but I'm looking for something that gets more into theory and analyzation of the progressions. Anybody have some good suggestions?

Thanks!

[Tom Gross]

"Chords and Progressions for Jazz and Popular Guitar" by Arnie Berle really helped me.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0825610567/qid=1088734712/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-0079404-8176809?v=glance&s=books

[sws1]

I like this book.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0634016555/qid=1088774352/sr=8-2/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i2_xgl14/102-2715826-1562522?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

I starts off showing the most basic ii-V-I progression. Then changes one note, and does it again. So after 4 pages of of progressions, you can really see how the various extensions sound.

No tab though - so you have to read notes to figure out the fingering.

[TonyV]

http://www.melbay.com/product.asp?ProductID=20414BCD&Title=&mediatype=&Author=&Series=Private+Lessons+Series&Difoverall=&Publisher=&Category=&SongTitle=&TypeOfSearch=criteria&mode=advsearch

[Genghis]

Thanks for the suggestions. I found "Chords and Progressions for Jazz and Popular Guitar" at Barnes & Noble and it looked like the kind of thing I could use, so I went ahead and grabbed it. It's nice to start with the basics and fill in some of the gaps I have in my weird self-taught education. It seems to be pretty comprehensive once you get into it as well.

I saved links to those others so I can take a look at them at a later date too.

I like this message board! There's lot of people here who have a high degree of mastery and really seem to be into learning more all of the time. Very Cool!

[jzucker]

I'd also recommend Mark Levine's jazz theory book

[forestryguy]

I believe Mickey Baker's books (two volumes) are still in print. I found those to be a great place to start, but am in no way as qualified as some of the other contributors to this thread. Book 1 is especially good on chord substitution for many standard progressions.

[jzucker]

Originally posted by forestryguy
I believe Mickey Baker's books (two volumes) are still in print. I found those to be a great place to start, but am in no way as qualified as some of the other contributors to this thread. Book 1 is especially good on chord substitution for many standard progressions.

I also started with those. I think they're good for starting out.

[Genghis]

Originally posted by jzucker
I'd also recommend Mark Levine's jazz theory book
I saw that book when I was doing a little research on Amazon.com. It looks like it probably covers much of what I want to study. They didn't have it at the local book store, but I ordered it from Amazon. With your endorsement of the book I know it's gonna be good.

"Chords and Progressions for Jazz and Popular Guitar" is working out great. I read quickly through a lot of the intro stuff that I already know pretty well and I'm starting to work through the jazz chord inversions now. I really like the way the book is written. It has just enough info to explain why you do things a certain way. Looking ahead just a bit I really like the way it gets into the extended chords. I think by building a better foundation with the basic inversions I will have a better understanding of the varied colors you get from different chords when I start adding in the extensions.

[Tag]

Originally posted by sws1
I like this book.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0634016555/qid=1088774352/sr=8-2/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i2_xgl14/102-2715826-1562522?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

I starts off showing the most basic ii-V-I progression. Then changes one note, and does it again. So after 4 pages of of progressions, you can really see how the various extensions sound.

No tab though - so you have to read notes to figure out the fingering.

That sounds cool! Thats how I was taught to hear the extensions and it really helped my tin ear. Once you hear where each extension resolves too, its easy to see (and hear) that playing "out" is just playing and grouping different extensions together.

[Frank Prince]

These 2 from Ted Greene will take you a long way, but they are not for the faint-hearted.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-form/104-0989842-8304739

Chord Chemistry has hundreds of voicings, plus many tips on progressions, chord substitution, and a very cool section on blues turnarounds.

Modern Chord Progressions lists hundreds of progressions with chord diagrams, mostly I-IV-V, II-V-I, III-VI-II-V, and has plenty of helpful tips on arpeggios and a bunch of other stuff.

Both of these will take you pretty far but are completely based in harmonic content only.

If anyone knows of a good book that addresses different variations of rhythmic comping in jazz, such as swing, bossa, samba, rhumba, afrocuban, bop, etc., please let me know.

[dkaplowitz]

I like Jerry Coker's books a lot. Two in particular (with tons of progressions) are Jazz Improvisation and Hearin' the Changes. Between the two, it's a fairly exhaustive study of common progressions with/without subs.

[Old Tele man]

...another book to look at is ex-Gibson artist-rep Johnny Rectors' Deluxe Encyclopedia of Guitar Chord Progressions, Hal Leonard (with CD).

[gennation]

Here's a couple of great sites someone from another forum linked today...

http://people.uncw.edu/russellr/rhythm.html

http://abel.hive.no/trompet/tpin/rhytm-changes.html

The Chord Chemistry suggestion is great as it'll show you the bulk of the concepts.