The Jazz Harmony Book

i usually hate books about music theory and even music instruction. i didn't go to music school, but classes at a good university were lousy. they take the perspective you must first under stand say Bach, and may qualify to compose something serious (that isn't just an exercise) years down the road (often highly accomplished classical players never get there, will still refuse to even improvise a solo).about 99% of this stuff covers (what i'll call) step 1, which is proficiency enough to impress friends, start a band that plays originals, maybe book gigs at bars. classical students can practice scales and work on intonation. though these musicians may enjoy dabbling in jazz, they aren't getting paid for it (not a prerequisite, just a generality).(note: step 0 includes the musicians who complain on amazon that fake books aren't good transcriptions, that transcriptions aren't fun to play for enjoyment at home, that the piano "arrangements" in song books are good/bad, ... am not so much critical of em, but they just aren't "studying" musicians. most folks don't need/want to move on from step 1. cool, but that's why so much of the market is geared toward step 1. this book is not even close to anything they'd want.)to find a book that goes beyond step 1 is amazing. but this one (primarily about how chord progressions work) is especially cool, because he's really laid back, not didactic. instead of "this is the right way to do it, practice this over and over, and the reason may eventually come to you by osmosis." he explains why these things might work, IF you choose to use em. it's not a matter that readers need to correct their perspectives (isn't jazz just a matter of not being too strict about music theory rules? do what works, not what's "right".), so much as he offers a new helpful one.but you really have to have a pretty solid grasp of step 1 stuff. this book answers the question: classical music theory and jazz diverge at some fairly advanced point. where does jazz go next? (or possibly you might wonder: when classical music theory peters out, jazz seems to go beyond. so what's next?)

Finally found what I was looking for after all these years.Let's start with the fact that you need a fundamental music knowledge to enter into the realm of jazz harmony. The book does start from the very beginning of I IV V I cadence, but if you're absolutely new to music chances are you wouldn't know what that means. I would say the prerequisite for this book is basic sight reading (treble clef and bass clef), major and minor scales, triads, and intermediate piano skill (which fortunately provided as one of the appendices).The book is piano focused, which is excellent for all jazz pianists out there. All examples are written on grand staff and voiced using piano on the 2 CDs. Other instrument players will have to transpose the piano voicing into their own instrument which is not always possible if you want to copy exact voicing e.g. 8 note voicing in piano cannot be exactly replicated in guitar which only allows a maximum of 4 (or 5 if you use the thumb) finger note voicing.Now let's get to the meat of the book. I finding a hard time to explain anything but saying this is it! I have nothing else to say. If you want to learn jazz harmony I haven't found and cannot recommend anything else but this book. I do have a library of jazz tutorial books but I cannot find a book on the same calibre and effectiveness compared to this one. It's kinda puzzling why this books only comes out in 2013. Well it's better late than never I guess. It would save me years of training had this book was available the first time I fell in love with jazz.The book departs from a very basic I IV V cadence progressing to very advanced concepts. Surely there are other books out there which deliver the same material, but the additional star of this book belongs to the delivery. Dave's teaching flows very well and it makes sense. When I understand something, I remember it easily. He talks why and how harmony works, whereas other books talk about only which harmony works. And the book encourages you to apply the theory. Although the CDs are very clear, it feels like you just want to try it on the piano asap.I have not much else to say. Despite a few typos here and there, and Track 32 on the CD is not what's written on the book, I find this book perfect regardless. So thank you Dave Berkman, I made a huge leap of progress in my jazz harmonic study thanks to your book. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in learning practical jazz harmony.And since there is no content page on either Shermusic or Amazon, here it is (hope it helps with your buying decision):IntroductionPART 1 - THE HARMONIC UNIVERSE OF A KEYThe First Circle: I, IV and V& ChordsThe Second Circle: Diatonic Seventh Chord Substitutions for I, IV and V7The Third Circle: Secondary Dominant Seventh and Related ii Minor7 chordsUnderstanding the Geography of Standard Tunes: Jazz Cadences and TurnaroundsThe Fourth Circle: Passing ChordsThe Fifth Circle: Modal Interchange ChordsThe Last Circle: Tritone SubstitutionsThe Harmony of Minor TunesAnother Approach to Jazz Harmony Using Diminished ChordsDeep Structure, the Right Changes and Re-HarmonizationPART 2 - BEYOND THE HARMONIC UNIVERSE: RULES FOR NON-FUNCTIONEleven Organizing Principles of Non-functional Chord ProgressionsSame Root, Different Chord QualitySlash ChordsHarmonizing a Bass LineChords Built in Fourths"Giant Steps"Color ChordsParallel Chords that use Exact Transposition (planning)PedalsChord SubtractionUnavailable TensionsIncomplete ChordsConclusionAppendix A: Tips for ComposersAppendix B: Piano Basics

Over the years I've read, scanned, and studied many theory books and most over detailed and writing like rulebooks for sports. Were we're talk music there are no rules, but they are commonly used concepts and labels for them. A Jazz theory really is about concepts and things to experiment with not play this on that or learn a million riffs. To me this book is talking about common concepts, newer concepts and gives you enough so you can go to your instrument and start trying ideas out. So if you're looking for a rulebook go buy some traditional theory book, this book for people who want to try some examples of concepts then play with them and work them into your playing.

My husband wants this book fora while, so I bought it as a Christmas gift. He loves it and work on it daily.

David Berkman has to be a genius. All of those terms like tritone substitution, drop two, add four, sharp nine, flat thirteen, backdoor two - five...I used to feel like they were stabbing my heroes in the heart. Thank God I read Frankfurt School and learned the term Reification. Otherwise I would've had no language for why I hated all of this so much. But with all my rage I was still just a rat in a cage...That is to say that with all my schooling I was still really dumb when it came to Jazz Harmony because of my resistance. So much resistance. So many of these guys - and BELIEVE me, I want to name names - come from the "more is better" school. Like, take a tune which is beautiful with 2 chords and add 25 chords to it and it's DEFINITELY better. Where is the "hate" emoji; where is the "nauseous" emoji?David Berkman does not do it that way. He gives you tools. He explains how you can use them. Or not use them. He does something so simple and so brilliant: he presents them as OPTIONS. David Berkman, your book changed my life and I recommend it to everybody. Bless you.

This music book has lots of graphics including musical notation, but only the pure text was readable. Any graphics came out as strange characters like little squares, asterisks, percent signs etc. Hence, it is unusable on my Lenovo Android Tablet / Kindle app, so I returned it immediately & got a refund (Thanks, Amazon!).

It explains Barry Harris 6th Diminished scale music theory to a tee.The only book to really do this

Easily the best book about harmony in the jazz context I have read. Everything is organized in a way that makes it really easy to grasp. However, do take into account that you will probably have to work through this book at the piano but any amount you invest into this book is given back tenthfolds.

If you’re looking to gain a better understanding of harmony (jazz in particular) and broadening your understanding of how to implement different chord progression in a wide range of harmonic situations, this book is for you.

Systematic approach. From basic to advanced. Highly recommended.