One of the all time great jazz education texts by Jerry Coker, Jimmy Casale, Gary Campbell and Jerry Greene. Available for treble and bass clef instruments.
Denis, thanks for the video. My dad (Jimmy Casale) was one of the authors of the book and I've never been able to find anything on the internet about him. I enjoyed your review of the book more than I could possibly write.
I just bought this book for the third time! The first 2 copies I had given away but never really used it. Now I'm using and mad at myself for not seeing the big picture! Great advice!
Who would have thought that one day, (today, Sept. 22-2021 Montreal 16h43) I would meet the other half of my two all-time favourite musicians on TH-cam, Maynard Ferguson and Denis DiBlaio. (Salt Peanuts) you really killed it on that one, I must have listened to it 50 times. Thank you for posting all of your videos, you are such a great teacher and of course, musician.
it s a great book i have it i think from 1980 but never use it now i am 63 and a little more serious -:) and i practice the book 3 time,s 30 minutes a day for 2 month's now and still the first 21 page's -:) first i get a little bit frustrated but now the last 2 weeks i discover a great step forward in mine improvisation great greetings Peter
Denis, thank you ! I bought it in 1999 (after attending Siena jazz classes) and it did changed my way of playing. But I'll pick it up again, still need a lot of work...
The first two times I tried to get into this book, I got nowhere. Then I figured it out, at least for myself, what I needed to do. Here are, more or less, the steps that I use. Let’s start with the preparation of the major triad section. Ex. 1-12 Step 1. Be able to spell all 12 major triads up and back at a fairly rapid pace. Ex. 2 is a good one for this. CEGEC FACAF BbDFDBb etc. Step 2 Say out loud the names of each note in the major arpeggio while visualizing your fingers playing those notes on the instrument. Have no instrument in you hand. Do this throughout the range of the instrument as you would a scale. Step 3 Once you can do step 2 on a particular arpeggio, practice playing that arpeggio slowly throughout the range of the instrument. If you make mistakes, go back to step 2. Step 4 Once you have mastered steps 1-3 on all 12 major triads, you will find you will have little trouble playing Ex 1-12 at some tempo. Practice slowly with (hopefully) no mistakes. Step 5 Once you can play an exercise slowly, you can gradually increase the speed. Remember, with accuracy comes speed not the other way around. Step 6 Do the same with the Major 6th chord section. Notice that you can work the preparation process for more than one section at a time. A good good chunk to start with is Ex, 1-28.book.
The first exercise has 3 bars on the treble clef. Under that there are 10 bars starting from Eb , so we need to transpose the top lick to the undermentioned chords
The best thing about this book is that irrespective of whether the exercises are written out in bass or in treble clef, it is clearly mentioned at the beginning of book that these can be played on any instrument. Great book nonetheless.
Hi Denis, I stumbled across your video on Jerry Coker's book 'Patterns for Jazz,' and decided to get me a copy along with a few of his other books (Clear Solutions/Elements of Jazz Language/Patterns for Jazz/Complete Method for Improv/How to Practice Jazz). I randomly started with 'Clear Solutions' and understood everything until Topic 18: 'Improvising on the 2-5-1 Progression in Minor'. I was able to comprehend everything until he discussed The Hypothetical Minor Triad System (pg, 55-57); specifically step 3. For some reason, I don't understand the example he provides nor how it all ends up rendering the scale roots for the V and I chords. Perhaps there is a typo someplace within the text or I'm pathetically overlooking the obvious but, could you please help me understand with a more in-depth, dissected explanation? Thanks
Started going through the book, I'm wondering about the approach to the exercises.. When to move on to the next one, say a given tempo is 110-138, does that mean that you can move on when you can play it mistake-free at a given tempo, or do you try to repeat the exercise 3-5-10 times without any mistakes? What would be the right approach?
You’ve got to figure out what you need to do. It’s a constantly moving target. I personally started out following the book’s recommendations for tempo. I set the goal of 10 x’s without mistakes. After a while, I realized I wasn’t playing the bell keys or palm keys (saxophone.) So I started as low as possible and went as high as possible then worked my way backwards to low as possible. Ultimately, you’re trying to control the beast. Go as fast as possible WITHOUT MISTAKES and you’ll improve. Good luck!
Paolo Jiz de ortega yes it is for all instruments. I have it in treble clef on amazon for $27 or so, spiral bound as shown in the video. Also available in bass clef.
Denis, thanks for the video. My dad (Jimmy Casale) was one of the authors of the book and I've never been able to find anything on the internet about him. I enjoyed your review of the book more than I could possibly write.
Thank you so much!!!
I just bought this book for the third time! The first 2 copies I had given away but never really used it. Now I'm using and mad at myself for not seeing the big picture! Great advice!
All of Denis's videos are gold! His students are very lucky.
Thanx, Maestro 🌹🌹🌲🌹🌹
Who would have thought that one day, (today, Sept. 22-2021 Montreal 16h43) I would meet the other half of my two all-time favourite musicians on TH-cam, Maynard Ferguson and Denis DiBlaio. (Salt Peanuts) you really killed it on that one, I must have listened to it 50 times. Thank you for posting all of your videos, you are such a great teacher and of course, musician.
Thanks denis!!!, you are such an inspiration to me. Great education tips.
it s a great book i have it i think from 1980 but never use it now i am 63 and a little more serious -:) and i practice the book 3 time,s 30 minutes a day for 2 month's now and still the first 21 page's -:) first i get a little bit frustrated but now the last 2 weeks i discover a great step forward in mine improvisation great
greetings Peter
Denis, thank you ! I bought it in 1999 (after attending Siena jazz classes) and it did changed my way of playing. But I'll pick it up again, still need a lot of work...
Thank you!
Just purchased it. So excited! 😎
The first two times I tried to get into this book, I got nowhere. Then I figured it out, at least for myself, what I needed to do. Here are, more or less, the steps that I use.
Let’s start with the preparation of the major triad section. Ex. 1-12
Step 1. Be able to spell all 12 major triads up and back at a fairly rapid pace. Ex. 2 is a good one for this. CEGEC FACAF BbDFDBb etc.
Step 2 Say out loud the names of each note in the major arpeggio while visualizing your fingers playing those notes on the instrument. Have no instrument in you hand. Do this throughout the range of the instrument as you would a scale.
Step 3 Once you can do step 2 on a particular arpeggio, practice playing that arpeggio slowly throughout the range of the instrument. If you make mistakes, go back to step 2.
Step 4 Once you have mastered steps 1-3 on all 12 major triads, you will find you will have little trouble playing Ex 1-12 at some tempo. Practice slowly with (hopefully) no mistakes.
Step 5 Once you can play an exercise slowly, you can gradually increase the speed. Remember, with accuracy comes speed not the other way around.
Step 6 Do the same with the Major 6th chord section. Notice that you can work the preparation process for more than one section at a time. A good good chunk to start with is Ex, 1-28.book.
Very late to the party I know, but thank you so much for this video. Great ideas and very inspiring
The first exercise has 3 bars on the treble clef. Under that there are 10 bars starting from Eb , so we need to transpose the top lick to the undermentioned chords
The best thing about this book is that irrespective of whether the exercises are written out in bass or in treble clef, it is clearly mentioned at the beginning of book that these can be played on any instrument.
Great book nonetheless.
Hi Denis,
I stumbled across your video on Jerry Coker's book 'Patterns for Jazz,' and decided to get me a copy along with a few of his other books (Clear Solutions/Elements of Jazz Language/Patterns for Jazz/Complete Method for Improv/How to Practice Jazz). I randomly started with 'Clear Solutions' and understood everything until Topic 18: 'Improvising on the 2-5-1 Progression in Minor'. I was able to comprehend everything until he discussed The Hypothetical Minor Triad System (pg, 55-57); specifically step 3. For some reason, I don't understand the example he provides nor how it all ends up rendering the scale roots for the V and I chords. Perhaps there is a typo someplace within the text or I'm pathetically overlooking the obvious but, could you please help me understand with a more in-depth, dissected explanation?
Thanks
Started going through the book, I'm wondering about the approach to the exercises.. When to move on to the next one, say a given tempo is 110-138, does that mean that you can move on when you can play it mistake-free at a given tempo, or do you try to repeat the exercise 3-5-10 times without any mistakes? What would be the right approach?
there is a specific video by Bob Reynolds talking about that topic. the video its called Patterns for Jazz
You’ve got to figure out what you need to do. It’s a constantly moving target. I personally started out following the book’s recommendations for tempo. I set the goal of 10 x’s without mistakes. After a while, I realized I wasn’t playing the bell keys or palm keys (saxophone.) So I started as low as possible and went as high as possible then worked my way backwards to low as possible. Ultimately, you’re trying to control the beast. Go as fast as possible WITHOUT MISTAKES and you’ll improve. Good luck!
would this book apply on guitar?
Paolo Jiz de ortega yes it is for all instruments. I have it in treble clef on amazon for $27 or so, spiral bound as shown in the video. Also available in bass clef.