When Italian jazz guitarist Ettore Quaglia reached out to me regarding his new book, I was intrigued. It’s been a while since I’ve explored a pedagogical release from the Italian jazz scene (the last one was from Eleonora Strino in 2023) and after diving into his method, I found a refreshing perspective on the age-old ‘rules vs. creativity’ debate.
It’s important to note that this book was originally an Italian book and it was only later that he translated this into English. In addition to the book, we also have over two hours of supporting video material explaining and demonstrating the book in Italian, with English subtitles. As far as I noticed the translation is clear and the concepts lose nothing in the transition from Italian to English.
In the beginning of the book, Ettore Quaglia talks about the challenge of teaching jazz: how to apply rules (harmony, rhythm, melody) without killing the student’s creative spirit. The book explains that rules exist to be understood and eventually broken, allowing the musician to be able to express themselves authentically. I definitely can relate to this, and since it’s been 27 years since I first starting exploring jazz, I wish I understood the depth of how important what he says here. But, then again, we can only really understand things reflecting back to the past (and rarely in the moment). Looking back on my 27-year journey with jazz, I realize that I would have progressed much faster had I embraced these ‘rules’ as foundational rather than seeing them as restrictions.
Looking at the concept of the book, it does feel that it provides a platform or “bridge” for intermediate players. It can help students who might have the technical basics (scales, arpeggios) and show them how to turn these into more musical solos via the musical studies provided.
There are four key concepts introduced:
- The II-V-I Progression: Identified as the most important cadence in tonal jazz.
- Tension and Resolution: The heart of jazz improvisation. The author explains that “Tension” (dissonance) usually occurs over the V (Dominant) chord, while “Resolution” (consonance) occurs at the I (Tonic) chord.
- The “Pencil Connection”: This is basically to manually write out solos. This process helps students connect the ideas one has in a compositional manner before improvising on the spot. This is the first time I’ve seen this refered to as the “pencil connection”, which is kind of catchy to be honest. I do this myself a lot, and is a part of my personal approach, so it’s nice to see he recommend this as well.
- Chromatic Approach Notes: He describes these as the “glue” that connects melodic ideas, making solos sound less like exercises and more like music.
He also talks about different technical tips specifically for guitarists including the physical relationship of the melodic material, picking techique and the importance of rhythm, especially swing feel. He also points this out more in the supporting video material as well.
The book is logically divided into these chapters:
- Introduction
- The Concept of Harmonic Tension and Resolution
- Tension and Resolution in Melodic Improvisation
- The Pencil Connection
- Practical Suggestions
- Matching the Position of Chords With Melodic Lines on the Fretboard
- Chromatic Approach Notes
- Guitar Music Notation /The Importance of Swing in Your Playing
- YouTube Videos of Examples and Studies
- Examples – Group A
- Melodic Study Based On “Autumn Leaves” Chord Changes
- Examples – Group B
- Melodic Study Based On “All the Things You Are” Chord Changes
- Examples – Group C
- Melodic Study Based On “Green Dolphin Street” Chord Changes
- Examples – Group D
- Melodic Study Based On “How Insensitive” Chord Changes
- Final Considerations
He begins by explaining the concepts behind the material before going into the examples and etudes. Essentially you get 4 songs that are used as a way to internalize the basics of the jazz language. For each song, we get 8 examples that are explained (what scales, arpeggios, devices are used) and after the examples, we have a full melodic study (that’s basically a written solo in the style of jazz) that is over the song’s chord changes.
I find that this format is logical and helps the student manage the material. Sometimes with some books we might get a lot of II-V-I lines but miss out on the context of how the material fits in a solo. Other books might give etudes by themselves but miss out foundational more “bite-size” material leading into that.
In this regard, Ettore Quaglia has done a cool thing that is helpful for us not to just buy the book but potentially complete studying it.
After checking out the book I would say that the fact that it has 32 examples and 4 full melodic studies based on famous standards makes it a very practical book for study. I also dig that that you get the videos to accompany the book. This is also important because so much of jazz requires the aural aspect, rather than just having licks and solos notated.
In terms of balance, it’s good that the book does not just teach what to play but also explains how the these things are practiced and why they work. Sometimes if it’s just a collection of exercises, it can get confusing real quick. Also, the material is designed for guitar players but could be used for other instrumentalists as well. It is a good book to teach us to learn by doing, speaking the language rather than just obsessing about music theory.
All in all, this is a cool book that would be helpful to guitarists who want to get more bebop language and learn to outline chord changes in a jazz way. There are good bebop phrases outlining the changes and good notated fingerings. If anything, to be the only downside is that some of the phrases are downbeat heavy (starting on the downbeat) and there are a lot of 8th note heavy lines. While the third and fourth studies introduce more rhythmic syncopation, the earlier material leans heavily on on-the-beat eighth-note lines. This is great for foundational ‘tracking’ of the changes, but students should be mindful to incorporate their own rhythmic phrasing as they progress. I think for future volumes (if he writes more books), expanding on the rhythmic language could be helpful for students.
I also feel that this book has a good mix of exercises and etudes. It feels like it could be a good book to teach students, so there’s that possibility for guitar teachers to use this as part of a class. For more advanced students, they would benefit by memorizing these lines and learning them in different positions all over the neck or transposing them in all keys. Although this is pretty standard practice, I do feel I need to mention it here since I got even more from the book when I did that.
Pros: Good systematic method book for intermediate guitarists learning jazz.
Cons: Rhythmic phrasing in early chapters is somewhat predictable (downbeat heavy). Video instruction might require focused attention on subtitles for non-Italian speakers.
TLDR: If you’ve learned some jazz licks but have problems putting them together into a solo, this book might be a useful resource to invest in!
You can get the book in English from Amazon here.
Thanks to Ettore Quaglia for sending me a review copy of this book!
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