Here are 100 books that Improvising Jazz fans have personally recommended if you like
Improvising Jazz.
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The central theme connecting the books on my list is the idea that our personal growth comes from creativity, straight talk, and honest reflection. All of these books are first-person accounts, which gives them credibility and authority, and they are quite inspiring. They encourage bravery, curiosity, resilience, and healing.
I wrote Morning Leaves as a way of processing the loss of my younger sister. I leaned into creativity and writing as a way of clarifying my thoughts, prioritizing, and ultimately healing from the grief. This collection of books taught me to trust my instincts, nurture my creative impulses, and find a path to joy.
I love this book because it gave me the structure to start writing.
The practice of Morning Pages opened a door and allowed me to express myself without judgment. I enjoyed Cameron’s prompts and have gone through them multiple times over the years, which has allowed me to track how I am evolving.
Cameron shows us that creativity is a spiritual and healing act that all of us should pursue in order to feel truly human.
"With its gentle affirmations, inspirational quotes, fill-in-the-blank lists and tasks — write yourself a thank-you letter, describe yourself at 80, for example — The Artist’s Way proposes an egalitarian view of creativity: Everyone’s got it."—The New York Times
"Morning Pages have become a household name, a shorthand for unlocking your creative potential"—Vogue
Over four million copies sold!
Since its first publication, The Artist's Way phenomena has inspired the genius of Elizabeth Gilbert and millions of readers to embark on a creative journey and find a deeper connection to process and purpose. Julia Cameron's novel approach guides readers in uncovering problems…
The dragons of Yuro have been hunted to extinction.
On a small, isolated island, in a reclusive forest, lives bandit leader Marani and her brother Jacks. With their outlaw band they rob from the rich to feed themselves, raiding carriages and dodging the occasional vindictive…
As a self-taught guitarist at age 18, I was limited to certain styles I could do justice. I began listening to artists that were more schooled, such as Steely Dan, Weather Report, and Yes. I became obsessed with getting the background musical knowledge to expand into these styles. Easier said than done! The difficulty was in blending my “street” knowledge with the more legit “college” knowledge. As I began to write books, I realized my claim to expertise was not that I was overly schooled, but that I was “just like you,” and somehow developed these shortcuts that brought the higher concepts within reach, unifying all musicians.
I found his book to show a great comparison of chord construction to chemistry. For example, if I asked you for H2O, you could really only give me water. The naming of a molecule tells you all you need to know about what’s in it. In the case of a chord, if I said play me a G13b9, even if you had never played one, you could construct it from the name only, knowing that a letter name followed by an odd number implies dominant, and that in this particular dominant you will be adding two other elements: a 6 and a flat 9. Brilliant!
Ted Greene's Chord Chemistry was originally published in 1971 and has become the classic chord reference book for two generations of guitarists. Whether you are just beginning to search beyond basic barre chords or are already an advanced player looking for new sounds and ideas this is the book that will get you there. Designed to inspire creativity this book is a musical treasure chest filled with exciting new ideas and sounds.
I'm a guitar player, a writer of music and a bandleader. I've made 12 records—working on my 13th—have written 2 books, and made an app called "Humanome," which is a metronome that intentionally doesn't keep steady time. I have a Patreon page and a YouTube channel. I've devoted most of my life so far to playing music, touring, practicing—lots and lots of practicing—and more or less thinking about music non-stop. As a player, I care strongly about improvising—the spontaneous creation of music—and as a writer, I care deeply about melody, rhythm, and form. I get a lot of inspiration from visual art and from soulfulness in all its forms.
This Zen-like book affirmed, for all subsequent generations of guitarists, that music instruction books didn't have to be dull, theory-laden texts filled with patterns and cliches. Mick was all about creativity, open-mindedness, exploration, and thinking outside the coffin.
Ultimately, many years after reading it as a teenager, I was greatly inspired by its refusal to adhere to the status quo when I wrote my own book. All musicians, even those less creative, are aware that the essence of great playing is spontaneity: the willingness to stand close to the primal fire of creation, even though there's a danger of being burned. One of the most important guitar books ever and worth a look even for non-musicians.
Veteran musician and educator Mick Goodrick presents practical information for guitarists who want to improve their playing technique and style and simply become better musicians. Rather than a step-by-step method book, the information is presented in a general essay format, discussing ways that the various techniques covered may be applied by the advancing guitarist to enhance his/her own style of playing, some of the areas discussed include: basic fingerboard mechanics • modes, scales and chords • contemporary harmony, • harmonica and overtone influences • being self-critical • improvising short pieces • different playing situations.
When Annie Thornton, midwife and apprentice witch, falls through time to a 15th-century Yorkshire village with her telepathic cat, Rosamund, she befriends Will and Jack, two soldiers returning from the French Wars. Mistress Meg, Annie’s ancestral aunt living in the 15th century, is…
If my early childhood was any indication, I would be the last person you would want to take financial and retirement advice from. Why? Growing up, we never had any money! Every day was a struggle for my single mom of five. At an early age, I knew I didn’t want to be poor and struggle for everything. I knew I wanted to enjoy life and experience it to the fullest. I’d watch adventure movies such as Raiders of the Lost Ark and dream of going to exotic countries and on adventures like Indiana Jones. From those early years, I’ve been committed to creating and living the best life possible for myself and my clients.
Too many retirees think that as they age, they must lose their energy and their health. That's crap.
You can upgrade your health as you age. You can gain more energy and vitality with each passing day, week, month, and year. This is a great book to introduce you to thinking about your health and aging differently.
Don't feel like you need to implement everything the author discusses, but use the book to expand your view of aging and what's possible. Your #1 job in retirement is to stay healthy. This book can help.
From Bulletproof creator and bestselling author Dave Asprey comes a revolutionary approach to anti-aging that will help you up your game at any age.
Dave Asprey suffered countless symptoms of aging as a young man, which sparked a life-long burning desire to grow younger with each birthday. For more than twenty years, he has been on a quest to find innovative, science-backed methods to upgrade human biology and redefine the limits of the mind, body, and spirit. The results speak for themselves. Now in his forties, Dave is smarter, happier, and more fit and successful than ever before.
I’ve spent my career as a sociologist studying how creative people work, what social settings are most conducive to creativity, and how to foster creativity for everyone in our daily lives. I know that creativity is often not easy and can even be met with hostility much more frequently than we might think. Creativity is, after all, a type of deviance and creative people can face real obstacles in finding and following their vision. But a richer understanding of how and why creativity happens – and of its obstacles – can be a tool for making a more vibrant, creative, inclusive, and just world.
How do jazz musicians think about what they are doing when they are improvising within a group? How do they learn to do such a thing in the first place – going their own way, but still going there together?
This is an immersion into the minds of musicians, starting with their earliest days and going through the rigors of learning their craft and then mastering it. The combination of discipline and freedom, hard work and wild inventive joy, finding an individual voice, and being part of the larger whole – the things that make improvisation a breath-taking artistic high-wire act – come together in this book.
I can’t carry a tune in a bucket, but this book made me wish I was a jazz musician.
This text reveals how musicians, both individually and collectively, learn to improvise. It aims to illuminate the distinctive creative processes that comprise improvisation. Chronicling leading musicians from their first encounters with jazz to the development of a unique improvisatory voice, Paul Berliner demonstrates that a lifetime of preparation lies behind the skilled improviser's every note. Berliner's integration of data concerning musical development, the rigorous practice and thought artists devote to jazz outside performance, and the complexities of composing in the moment leads to a new understanding of jazz improvisation as a language, an aesthetic and a tradition. The product of…
I’ve been fascinated by jazz, classical, and film music since I was in junior high school. As I grew older, I came to believe that music was a unique form of expression and that through music, I could attain a high level of spiritual awareness. While studying privately in Philadelphia and New York, I began searching for books that could help me attain greater facility with my craft. As I found myself pursuing a full-time career as a jazz musician and composer, I was drawn to the books on my list. These books became invaluable resources for me as a professional musician and educator at the Manhattan School of Music.
I love this book because it is a truly comprehensive textbook on contemporary film scoring, covering invaluable sections on musical techniques, the relation of music to film, the technology of film scoring, and the business and lifestyle of film composers. It features references to 150 films as well as interviews with many film composers.
The extensive practical information on musical techniques and technology, as well as the relation of music to picture and drama, are timeless and still valid in today’s world. I also love the way this book presents a wealth of information on the relation and interaction of the composer and filmmaker.
On the Track offers a comprehensive guide to scoring for film and television. Covering all styles and genres, the authors, both noted film composers, cover everything from the nuts-and-bolts of timing, cuing, and recording through balancing the composer's aesthetic vision with the needs of the film itself. Unlike other books that are aimed at the person "dreaming" of a career, this is truly a guide that can be used by everyone from students to technically sophisticated professionals. It contains over 100 interviews with noted composers, illustrating the many technical points made through the text.
Chasing Light is a lyrical meditation on grief, memory, and the fragile beauty of everyday life. At its core, it is a story of resilience, forgiveness, and the transformational power of human connection. It sheds light on the overlooked realities of homelessness and addiction, while emphasizing the importance of compassion…
I grew up hearing jazz thanks to my dad, a big swing fan who allegedly played Duke Ellington for me in the crib. My father couldn’t believe it when I developed a taste for “modern jazz,” bebop, even Coltrane, but he never threw me out. Fifty years later I still love to play jazz on drums and listen to as much as I can. But along the way, I realized the world might be better served by me writing about the music than trying to make a living performing it. I had the great privilege of studying jazz in graduate school and wrote about big-band jazz for my first book, which helped launch my career.
I came across this book when I decided to focus my graduate study on the history of jazz and was reading everything I could find. It’s a short book, full of incredible vintage photographs, and it taught me so much about what swing is, how music and dance are joined at the hip. How it’s all rooted in the blues. And about the link between the “Saturday Night Function” of celebrating life with music and dance, followed a few hours later by the “Sunday Morning Function,” singing and celebrating God and community in church. The two are not all that far apart. Along with Ralph Ellison, Albert Murray was probably the first author to write about jazz with a real sense of lyricism and poetry. In this book, the writing itself carries the energy and exuberance of jazz.
In this classic work of American music writing, renowned critic Albert Murray argues beautifully and authoritatively that "the blues as such are synonymous with low spirits. Not only is its express purpose to make people feel good, which is to say in high spirits, but in the process of doing so it is actually expected to generate a disposition that is both elegantly playful and heroic in its nonchalance."
In Stomping the Blues Murray explores its history, influences, development, and meaning as only he can. More than two hundred vintage photographs capture the ambiance Murray evokes in lyrical prose. Only…
I am a professional guitarist and music teacher specializing in American roots music. For more than 35 years I taught, wrote curriculum, and oversaw programs at Los Angeles' Musicians Institute (formerly Guitar Institute of Technology) while creating and directing instructional videos, writing method books, and publishing magazine articles and columns. Since 1996 I have been recording and touring as the guitarist for American music icons the Blasters. In 2014, I developed the online School of Electric Blues Guitar at Artistworks, where I interact every day with students from around the world.
Howard was a top Los Angeles session guitarist (one of the fabled Wrecking Crew), jazz stylist, and brilliant visionary who combined his skills to create the Guitar Institute of Technology, an innovative, intensive program that trained thousands of professionals and transformed guitar education.
The Guitar Compendium is the result of Howard’s decades of research into learning theory and information flow applied to the guitar. It’s not a standard guitar method (and not designed for raw beginners), but rather a collection of practical, thought-provoking solutions to the universal challenges of learning and playing the instrument, from developing technique to breaking through creative roadblocks. If you’re an aspiring, curious, and perhaps frustrated guitarist, The Praxis System is a unique source of wisdom and inspiration from one of the greatest.
This is the first instructional book of its kind, taking a strikingly new and refreshing approach to learning guitar, carefully designed to guarantee efficient practice with rewarding results. Whether your playing falls under one of the more traditional styles, or whether you're a composer and arranger or exploring new musical regions and establishing your own musical direction or personal fusion of musical ideas and influences, The Praxis System has what you need. The name of the system (Praxis" comes from the Greek word meaning "practice" and "to do") accurately reflects its general orientation. Play it first, getting sound and satisfaction…
After dabbling in music in my youth, I returned to playing roots music over fifteen years ago. I’ve joined music circles, jammed, made new friends, and learned a lot. My husband Gene and I have recorded three albums and played at bars, festivals, weddings, and listening rooms. Professionally, I’ve spent years as a writing teacher and writer, and I also teach at an annual folk music camp. I wanted to share the joys of music with others, so I talked with dozens of musicians, dug down to find rare resources, and pulled it together into Making Music for Life to make it easier for others to pursue their own musical journey.
This book comprehensively addresses a wide range of topics geared toward teen music students, from the foundations of practicing and understanding theory to working with a teacher and parents, playing in an orchestra, or planning a music career. Although some of the topics are useful for any musician (such as practice ideas and improving one’s musicality), this book is best for guiding adolescents on a musical path.
In her follow-up to Making Music and Enriching Lives: A Guide for All Music Teachers, Bonnie Blanchard offers students a set of tools for their musical lives that will help them stay engaged, even during the challenging times in their musical development. Blanchard discusses issues such as finding an instructor, selecting the right instrument, and choosing a college or conservatory. The book includes lessons on music theory and history as well as a guide to finding additional materials in print and online. Blanchard's strategies for making practice productive and preparing for auditions are useful tips students can return to again…
Portrait of an Artist as a Young Woman
by
Alexis Krasilovsky,
Kate from Jules et Jim meets I Love Dick.
A young woman filmmaker’s journey of self-discovery, set against a backdrop of the sexual liberation movement of the 1970s and 1980s. In Portrait of an Artist as a Young Woman, we follow Ana Fried as she faces the ultimate…
I am the former Principal bassist with the Cincinnati Symphony and am currently active as a soloist, educator, and author of three books on the mind, body, and spirit of music. My first book is about the mind, The Inner Game of Music, followed by The Mastery of Music on the human spirit of over 120 great musicians and Bringing Music to Life exploring physical skills of communication of all artists, actors, and dancers. I hope to inspire artists of all disciplines, that our performances come from our hearts and souls and not the technical form of dance, music, or words. Performers express feelings and use this gift to spread inspiration and joy to the world.
The Listening Book is about rediscovering the power of listening as an instrument of self-discovery and personal transformation. By exploring our capacity for listening to sounds of music, nature, and one’s own breathing, we can awaken and release our full creative powers. Mathieu guides the reader to hearing the connections between all sounds of music and everyday life. It is insightful and surprising to notice what is around us at any moment of the day and apply this heightened awareness to understanding and connecting with music listening or performance. This awareness can be neglected but applicable to connecting our inner soul with the outside world and to life. Brilliant illuminations from a genius composer, musician and teacher W.A. Mathieu.
The Listening Book is about rediscovering the power of listening as an instrument of self-discovery and personal transformation. By exploring our capacity for listening to sounds and for making music, we can awaken and release our full creative powers. Mathieu offers suggestions and encouragement on many aspects of music-making, and provides playful exercises to help readers appreciate the connection between sound, music, and everyday life.
![Keith Wyatt Author Of Blues Rhythm Guitar: Master Class Series [With CD]](https://media.bookdna-cdn.com/cdn-cgi/image/format=avif,width=160,height=160,fit=crop,gravity=face,zoom=0.55,quality=75/media/profiles/Keith_Wyatt_wjhehh "Keith Wyatt Author Of Blues Rhythm Guitar: Master Class Series [With CD]")
