The Jazz Musician's Guide to Creative Practicing
by David Berkman
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Book Summary Information
Author: David BerkmanBrand: Sher Music
Edition: Spiral-bound
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2007-01-08
ISBN: 1883217482
Number of pages: 153
Publisher: Sher Music Company
Book Reviews of The Jazz Musician's Guide to Creative Practicing
Book Review: A systematic approach to improving your jazz improvisation
Summary: 5 Stars
How well do you practise? My practising is often a bit aimless and I got this book to help me develop a more structured approach. Berkman certainly has some good ideas on how to improve your jazz improvisation skills.
There are a many great points that he makes throughout the book on how to approach practising. Here are some that I found particularly helpful:
1. You should not practise what is not fun (This one takes some get used to - practising is meant to be hard and tedious isn't it? No!)
2. Don't practise too far beyond what comes easily to you (or it won't be fun and you will eventually give up!)
3. Break hard problems into easier problems and work on the easier ones first
4. Try to find many different ways of approaching the same problem
5. Look for natural tendancies or strengths in your playing (perhaps you play a lot of triplet patterns), first try to exploit them by exaggerating them even more than usual and also try to learn to play without using them.
6. Learn to honestly assess what you are good and bad at
7. Don't wait to be spoon fed!
The style of the book is often light hearted and humorous, and peppered with loads of interesting anecdotes from the author's own playing and teaching experiences. This often gives fascinating insights into the way other jazz musicians manage to work their way through the problems we all face in mastering this great art form.
Berkman says that the book is 85% for all musicians, and 15% for pianists. I am a trumpet and guitar player. I agree with the author that even non-piano players benefit from some keyboard skills so the 15% did not disturb me. Besides there is still plenty of interesting material in the remaining 85%.
While I think the real benefit of the book is helping readers understand how to practise, the bulk of the book is still in providing various ideas on what to practise. At the start of the book he mentions the areas he believes that most jazz students need to work on.
The author says that we should approach the book as a series of master classes on various topics and it does come across this way. It does not really try to design a specific practise program (that would be spoon feeding!), but is instead a comilation of ideas and approaches which you are encouraged to explore and find what works best for you. Clearly he can't tell us individually what we need to work on or what approach will best help us solve our problems - everyone is different and we each need to discover these answers for ourselves. It's definitely not a book of patterns and licks.
He begins with a brief chapter on theory - which is probably useful as a review, though I'm not sure if it would be sufficient if this was your first exposure to this material. He then talks about approaches to practise playing over changes including scale and arpeggio based ideas as well as a great section on the use of chromatic approach notes and guide tones.
There is a chapter each on how to approach the songs "Body and Soul", "Giant Steps" and "Rhythm Changes". These songs each have their own particular challenges, whether it be the interpretation of a ballad, playing over rapid changes, or knowing which of a possible multitude of reharmonisations to use.
He also has a useful chapter on rhythm and odd meters which I found particularly valuable.
I recommend the book highly to jazz musicians who need some guidance on how to practise jazz improvisation.
Summary of The Jazz Musician's Guide to Creative Practicing
The only book specifically designed to help jazz players organize their woodshed time so that practicing becomes fun and productive. This is done by showing the reader how to take big problems and break them down into manageable tasks, each one of which is easy to accomplish. Covers basic theory, soloing, comping, ear training, rhythm practice, tune analysis and much more!Music Books
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