Back in 2018, I reviewed Jeff’s previous book, “Developing Bebop Lines” which until today I feel is a monumental work.
In this book, Jeff goes through in a systematic way what feels like every single possible scale or arpeggio choice for a minor II-V-I progression. He also gives a lot of lines and also the building blocks and in fact what he calls “the Lego Approach” appears at page 47 of the book.
The difference between what Jeff does in this book compares to most books is that this isn’t a “lick book”. It really is a breakdown of what makes different licks… and because of that, we get to see how we can create even more licks from the concepts he shares.
Also, since Jeff includes a bebop approach from the start, the lines include passing notes that help place chord tones on the beat, approach note ideas and bebop type vocabulary. Jeff doesn’t leave you hanging with a scale or mode and not show you how to play it idiomatically… he gives you good lines from the start and goes to deliver throughout the book.
From the common choice of using an A harmonic minor scale over a Bmin7b5 E7(b9/b13) Amin7 chord progression to pentatonics, triad pairs and hexatonics, Jeff has you covered.
Jeff even mentions this process that led to the book:
All of these materials are concepts that are created for my own practice to get deeper into a musical topic, passed on to my students and developed more through the teaching process.
My approach to teaching is line development using smaller music fragments. It’s important to show a student how to build language as opposed to just teaching them lines.
As I read through the examples, I could see that this is the real stuff – ear opening and eye opening stuff. Couple this with listening, transcribing, jamming and playing with other musicians – this book can potentially help your playing develop tremendously.
I also appreciate that Jeff didn’t make this book any thicker than it needed to be. He kept the examples in the key of A minor to help you see the different harmonic possibilities. The job of the student is then to shed this material in this key and others.
All in all, this book delivers and I again congratulate Jeff on creating a valuable teaching and practice resource for jazz musicians. I look forward to practicing this material and also recommending it to my serious private students. Good stuff!
For guitar players, do note that this is a book for all instruments so there is no tablature. Read and shed!
Pros: Well organized, systematic approach to learning how to improvise over the minor II-V-I progression.
Cons: None.
TLDR: If you’ve been confused in any way about how to create strong lines over a minor II-V-I, this might be the book that solves that problem once and for all.
Get it here: https://payhip.com/b/pzNb5
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