Jazz Theory

From Basic to Advanced Study

Dariusz Terefenko

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781315305370
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Music

Jazz Theory: From Basic to Advanced Study, Second Edition, is a comprehensive textbook for those with no previous study in jazz, as well as those in advanced theory courses. Written with the goal to bridge theory and practice, it provides a strong theoretical foundation from music fundamentals to post-tonal theory, while integrating ear training, keyboard skills, and improvisation. It hosts "play-along" audio tracks on a Companion Website, including a workbook, ear-training exercises, and an audio compilation of the musical examples featured in the book.

Jazz Theory is organized into three parts: Basics, Intermediate, and Advanced. This approach allows for success in a one-semester curriculum or with subsequent terms. If students sense that theory can facilitate their improvisational skills or can help them develop their ears, they become more engaged in the learning process. The overall pedagogical structure accomplishes precisely that in an original, creative—and above all, musical—manner.

KEY FEATURES include 390 musical examples, ranging from original lead sheets of standard tunes, jazz instrumentals, transcriptions, and original compositions, to fully realized harmonic progressions, sample solos, and re-harmonized tunes. The completely revamped Companion Website hosts:

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• 46 "Play Along Sessions" audio tracks, offering experiences close to real-time performance scenarios.
• Over 1, 000 (audio and written) exercises covering ear training, rhythm, notation, analysis, improvisation, composition, functional keyboard, and others.
• Recordings of all 390 musical examples from the textbook.
• Links: Guide to Making Transcriptions, List of Solos to Transcribe, Selected Discography, Classification of Standard Tunes, and more.
• Lists of well-known standard tunes, including a comprehensive list of 999 Standard Tunes – Composers and Lyricists.

NEW TO THE SECOND EDITION are instructors' tools with answer keys to written and ear-training exercises, 380 rhythmic calisthenics featuring exercises from the swing, bebop, and Latin rhythmic traditions, a new improvisation section, a set of 140 Comprehensive Keyboard exercises, plus an expanded ear-training section with 125 melodic, 50 rhythmic dictations, and 170 harmonic dictations, plus 240 written exercises, 25 composition assignments, and 110 singing exercises.

The paperback TEXTBOOK is also paired with the corresponding paperback WORKBOOK in a discounted PACKAGE (9780367321963).

Part One
Basics

Chapter 1
Music Fundamentals

Chapter Summary

Chapter 1 lays the foundation for the study of music theory. The basics of music notation are introduced as well as an understanding of intervals, their names, and the inversion of intervals. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the five triadic formations: major, minor, diminished, augmented, and suspended.

Concepts and Terms

• Accidentals
• Bar line
• Bass clef
• Beat subdivision
• Beat value
• Chords
• Chromatic
• Clefs
• Diatonic
• Enharmonic equivalence
• Flat sign (♭)
• Grand staff
• Half step (semitones)
• Intervals:
  • – Augmented
  • – Compound
  • – Diminished
  • – Harmonic
  • – Major
  • – Melodic
  • – Minor
  • – Perfect
  • – Quality
• Inversions of intervals
• Inversions of triads
• Key signatures
• Ledger lines
• Major scales
• Measures
• Meter:
  • – Duple
  • – Quadruple
  • – Triple
• Minor scale:
  • – Harmonic
  • – Melodic
  • – Natural
• Natural sign ( ♮)
• Notes
• Octave
• Octave equivalence
• Pitch
• Registers
• Relative keys
• Rhythmic duration
• Scale degrees
• Sharp sign (♯)
• Staff
• Time signatures:
  • – Compound
  • – Irregular
  • – Simple
• Treble clef
• Triads:
  • – Augmented
  • – Diminished
  • – Major
  • – Minor
  • – Suspended
• Whole steps/tones

Pitch

Pitch refers to the relative highness or lowness of musical sounds. Figure 1.1 illustrates the placement of pitches on the keyboard with the lowest notes on the left and the highest notes on the right.

Figure 1.1 Keyboard—Pitch Layout

To label pitches, we use the letters from the alphabet—A, B, C, D, E, F, and G—to denote the white notes and accidentals (sharps or flats) to denote the black notes. Each note on the keyboard has a distinct sound; notes that have the same letter name sound similar in spite of their location on the keyboard. Theorists refer to this idea as octave equivalence. The distance from C4 to C5 includes eight diatonic pitches (counting C4 and C5) and is therefore known as an octave. Integers 1 through 8 following the letter names indicate eight different registers or specific pitch locations characterized by their sound. With higher integers we experience higher sounding pitches, and with lower integers we experience lower sounding pitches. Labeling black notes is more complicated because they can be described in two ways. For example, the black note between C and D can be labeled either as C♯ or D♭. Since C♯ and D♭ sound the same on the piano, theorists often refer to them as being enharmonically equivalent.

Music is notated on a staff that consists of five lines (the first line is at the bottom of the staff) and four spaces (the first space is located between the first and the second line of the staff). The addition of extra lines called ledger lines (up to five) at the bottom or top extends the staff and allows for the notation of pitches that lie outside the boundaries of the five-line staff. A clef written at the beginning of the staff indicates the location of pitches, which are notated with a system of notes. Although there are many different clefs, only treble and bass clefs will be used in this book.¹ The grand staff combines two staves joined by a brace, with the top stave using the treble clef and the bottom stave using the bass clef. Figure 1.2 illustrates the notation of pitches from A0 to C8 on the grand staff.

Figure 1.2 Grand Staff—Notation of Pitches

The octaves, C1–C2, C2–C3, etc., create a specific pattern of whole steps and half steps. A half step (or semitone) is the shortest possible distance between two keys (or notes). For instance, the distance between E4 and F4 or B4–C5 is a half step. A whole step (or whole tone) combines two half steps and represents the distance between two keys with a single key between them. For instance, the distance between C4 and D4, D4–E4, F4–G4, G4–A4, or A4–B4, is a whole step because there is a single black note between these notes.

Major Scales

The collection of notes from C4 to C5, shown in Figure 1.3, represents a specific pattern of whole steps and half steps known as a major scale.

Figure 1.3 Major Scale

The major scale has five whole steps, beginning between scale-degree one (written as $\widehat{1}$) and $\widehat{2},\widehat{2}-\widehat{3}$, $\widehat{4}-\widehat{5},\widehat{5}-\widehat{6}$, and $\widehat{6}-\widehat{7}$, and two half steps between $\widehat{3}-\widehat{4}$, and $\widehat{7}-\widehat{8}(\widehat{1})$. This arrangement of pitches represents one type of diatonic scale. The other diatonic scales also contain five whole steps and two half steps but those intervals between different scale degrees occur at a different location within the scale. For instance, the spans F4–F5 or G4–G5 filled in with white keys only (G4–A4–B4–C5–D5–E5–F5), shown in Figure 1.4, contain five whole tones and two semitones, yet their placement is different than it is in the C major scale. In order to duplicate the locations of whole tones and semitones as they occur within the C major scale, accidentals—a sharp sign (♯) and a flat sign (♭)—have to be implemented. The sharp added to F5 (in the G4–G5 octave) raises the sound of F5 by a semitone and becomes F♯5. The flat added to B4 (in the F4–F5 octave) lowers the sound of B4 by a semitone and becomes B♭4. With these added accidentals, the arrangement of whole tones and semitones occurring in the C major scale can be duplicated. These collections are labeled using their opening pitches: G major and F major, respectively.

Figure 1.4 G Major and F Major

There are 12 possible major scales, one for each white and black note (C major, C♯/D♭ major, D major, E♭ major, E major, F major, F♯/G♭ major, G major, A♭ major, A major, B♭ major, B/C♭ major).

Key Signatures

Another method of representing major scales is to use key signatures written to the right of the clef. Since there are 12 distinct major scales, there will be 12 corresponding key signatures. For instance, the G major scale that we saw in Figure 1.4 has one sharp, F♯. The key signature places that sharp at the beginning of the staff immediately after the clef.

Figure 1.5 Key Signatures—Major Scales

Just as the G major scale has one sharp (F♯), so D major has two (F♯, C♯), A major has three (F♯, C♯, G♯), E major has four (F♯, C♯, G♯, D♯), B major has five (F♯, C♯, G♯, D♯, A♯), F♯ major has six (F♯, C♯, G♯, D♯, A♯, E♯), and C♯ major has seven (F♯, C♯, G♯, D♯, A♯, E♯, B♯). Similarly, whereas the F major scale has one flat (B♭), B♭ major has two flats (B♭, E♭), E♭ major has three (B♭, E♭, A♭), A♭ major has four (B♭, E♭, A♭, D♭), D♭ major has five (B♭, E♭, A♭, D♭, G♭), G♭ major has six (B♭, E...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• PART I BASICS
• PART II INTERMEDIATE
• PART III ADVANCED
• Appendix A: 200 Essential Standard Tunes That You Should Know
• Bibliography
• Credits
• Index