Harmony

For about a year now, I've been studying post-bop jazz harmony: partly on my own, using Mark Levine's incredibly comprehensive, careful and accurate Jazz Theory Book, Marc Sabatella's invaluable The Harmonic Language of Jazz Standards, and partly - perhaps mainly - in a class at City Lit, where as an instrumentalist who is also a singer, I've had the privilege of learning and practising in a group that's mostly composed of vocalists. Eartraining has also been an important part of the study process. As a classically trained musician, I've found that both eartraining and linear/chordal harmony are aspects of music that are neglected in classical music education, and it's only now, in seeking to develop my improvisational skills, that I feel I am really getting grips with this material for the first time.

One of the big hurdles for those who take the path of the improvising musician is trying to develop the ability to recognize and reproduce intervals and chord progressions aurally - i.e. without reference to the printed page. This skill is vital in improvisation, as it makes it possible for the soloist not only to relate to the overall harmonic and rhythmic texture of the ensemble, but also to build solos that are securely anchored in the harmonic basis of the music being played. I still have occasional trouble with minor sevenths, major sixths and fourths, though other intervals seem to come easily, and I don't have much difficulty in recognizing them. I've used a number of software programs as aids in this process of eartraining, among them Earope, which presents a piano keyboard on the screen, together with numerous exercises in intervals, scales, chords, inversions, melody, rhythm, chord progressions, and more. There is also useful guidance to be had at the Yahoo group Just Jazz.

But the best training I've received has undoubtedly been in the City Lit class, where the live setting makes it possible for the group to interact musically - some of the most useful hours have been spent in improvising sessions, where ideas have been exchanged not so much verbally as musically, and our teacher, who is not only a singer but also a pianist and drummer, has guided us with carefully measured frameworks for our solos. The final class this year is on Saturday, when we will go through all the melodies we have studied during the year, in a kind of extended jazz theory jam session. It should be fun! Next year I plan to take the second year course.