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Jazz Preparation Pack
Theory
 Congratulations on your successful audition to study Jazz at Leeds College of Music.
We are very much looking forward to welcoming you to our community!

The exercises in this ‘Preparation Pack’ will help equip you with the necessary tools for your course and should be
incorporated into your daily practice and studies prior to starting your studies in Jazz, as well as throughout your
time on the course. It has been structured mainly into three sections: Melody, Harmony and Rhythm.

These are the three core elements to making any kind of great quality of music.

Most of the great musicians (particularly in Jazz) would agree that if any of these elements are lacking, the music
will suffer. These elements are likely to be familiar to you in one way or another, but it will be extremely helpful to
you as a studying musician to use these exercises to broaden your sense of understanding and improve in your
ability as an overall musician. These exercises will assist you in: composition, analysing how a tune is structured,
interpretation of music, reading music, improvisation, transcription and many other areas of your musical
development.

Jazz can be hard to define, but many of the masters of the Jazz world have described it as a ‘language’. Much like
when learning the dialect of a new language to give you the tools to communicate better, similarly; furthering your
understanding of these three important elements can help you become a more effective and expressive musician,
particularly in an improvised context.

The exercises in this ‘offer pack’ will equip you with many of the necessary tools for your course and should be
incorporated into your regular practice routine prior to starting your studies in Jazz, as well as throughout your time
on the course.

Melody

Topics covered in this section will include: ‘AABA’, ‘Repeat and Add’ and useful ‘Melodic Devices’ to practice.

A key part of understanding melody is to analyse great melodies in the history of Jazz. The staple reference area
for any well structured jazz melody are from the ‘American Songbook’. Many musicians today refer to these as
‘Jazz Standards’ but these are popular tunes predominantly from the early 20th century and are played by most
musicians all over the world today. As Jazz musicians we are encouraged to learn as many of these as possible.

One of the most popular and most played standards is ‘All The Things You Are’ by Jerome Kern and Oscar
Hammerstein. This is an exceptional melody to study for numerous reasons.
All the Things You Are
 AABA

The structure of this tune in simple terms is AABA (or A1A2BA3) .

There are many different ways a tune can be structured such as AABC, ABC, ABABC and many others you
will come to discover.

This is a common structure of most great songs not just in Jazz but most popular music played today.
The first A is the first 8 Bars, the second A is bar 8 to 16, B is Bar 17 to 24 and the final A is bar 25 to 36.

Look at the first 2 A’s. The melody is almost identical in both sections. The only differing factors is the
modulation (down a fourth) and the slight variation in bar 14. Modulating the melody in this way is
extremely effective and can create the illusion of a completely new melody, when in fact it has only
modulated down a fourth with the same melody starting from Gm7 but this time from Dm7.

It does exactly the same in the B section (the bridge).

The slight variation in bar 14 is a new addition to the the melody as is in the Last A in bar 30 onwards.
This effective use of melody structure can be translated into many other areas of music particularly in an
improvised context. This is known as ‘Repeat and Add’.

Repeat and Add

You will have probably heard this device being played by many of the great Jazz musicians but probably
have not been able to identify it or understand why it sounds so good!

Repetition is a great tool to use in improvisation but any idea can get stale if you repeat it over and over
again for a long period of time. Repeat and add allows the soloist to continue this idea of repetition but
develop the solo at the same time keeping the idea fresh and avoiding it from becoming overplayed.

The blues or any melody relating to the blues is a great example of how effective this concept can be.
Some would call this ‘call and response’ rather than ‘repeat and add, but in essence they are both the
same thing.

Listen to ‘Work Song’ by Cannonball Adderley which is a direct reference to the black slave labour and
how they used to sing the blues together in a ‘call and response’ type manner to escape from the labour
of the gruelling slave work (hence the name ‘work song’). This is where the origins of the blues first began,
surely that gives you an indication of how effective repeat and add can be.

Another great example would be John Coltrane’s solo on ‘So What’ from the Miles Davis album ‘Kind Of
Blue’ (one of the most important albums in Jazz).

On the next page is an example of a few initial ideas of a phrase. The first one is developed as an
example.

Try completing the others.

 Other useful melodic devices to practice

There are many useful melodic devices to practice, repeat and add is just one of them.

Work on some of these in your improvised solos:

Pivoting around one note or referring back to the Leaving space

same note. (play four, rest four, play three rest three , etc.)

Playing with limited range, Singing melodies,

staying in one octave or in a certain range then try playing them on your instrument

Pointillistic or short staccato improvising Dynamic practice, p, mp, mf, f, ff , etc.

Start ff and end pp. Try it the other way around

Playing Legato
Quoting the melody or a melody from a different
song,
Contrasting Melodies e.g. transitioning between
pointillistic (short, staccato) and legato
Harmony

Topics covered in this section will include: ‘Intervals’, ‘Cycle/Circle of Fifths’, ‘Modes’ and ‘Harmonic Devices’

Intervals

All music with harmony is made up of different intervals:

It’s extremely important in Jazz to improve your harmonic awareness and listening skills. Being able to
sing all the intervals is the foundation for this. Using a piano test yourself using C as a root.

Observe how different songs use particular intervals. Look at the strong intervalic shape of ‘All The Things
You Are’. It starts by moving a perfect 4th up and down then moves a semitone down and does the same
thing. Use references to songs to describe an interval. The beginning of ‘All The Things You Are’ could
be your reference to a perfect
4th, the same could be said for
the ‘Bridal Chorus’, otherwise
known as ‘Here Comes The
bride’. Find your own. This will
become second nature the
more you practice it and will
also help you to transcribe
melodies with ease. Find a
lick or a melody you want to
transcribe, listen to each note,
sing each one in isolation and
work out the intervals between
them.

The same importance should

be taken with chords. To the
right is a list of important
chords. Play each chord, sing
the notes and notice the
intervals between them.
 Cycle / Circle of Fifths

Another key component of understanding harmony is the ‘Circle/Cycle of Fifths’:

Notice how clockwise from C the cycle progresses in

fifths and anti clockwise it progresses in fourths.

For fourths you can see how the keys include more
flats each time and for fifths how it includes more
sharps each time.

C is the only scale without any sharps or flats.

The cycle of fifths is a very effective tool in jazz when

transposing melodies to different keys as well as being
useful for many other reasons, which you will come to
understand further in this pack and throughout your
studies.

Modes

Another key component and arguably the most important area for increasing your understanding of
harmony in Jazz are the ‘Modes’, particularly the modes of the major scale.

The example to the right relates

to the C major scale.

There are seven modes for each

note of the major scale and
each of the modes relate to a
chord.

For example the 2nd degree of

the C major scale starts on D
and is called Dorian.

The scale of each of these are

below and the chord is made up
of four notes: The 1st, 3rd, 5th
and 7th of the dorian scale to
form a D minor seventh (Dm7).

There are different ways to

practice the modes.

There are a couple of useful suggestions on the following pages.

 Suggestion #1

Work on these modes diatonically (within one key).

Play them all in one key up and down slowly and in time and say out loud what the scale is. For example: Play
the C Ionian scale up and down and say the chord and the scale it relates to: “C major 7th, C Ionian scale”.
Do the same method for the others: Play the D dorian scale up and down and say the related chord: “D minor
7th” and the related scale: “D dorian scale”. Continue round the circle of fifths until you get back to C.

Suggestion #2

Do the same as above but instead of moving up to D dorian which would be the same scale as C Ionian, stay
on the same note, so it would be C dorian. You would play this scale up and down and say: “C minor 7, C
dorian scale”.
This is now relating to a different major scale which would be Bb major and continue this process through all
the modes with phrygian being C minor 7th (with a b2nd also named b9, b3rd, b6 also named b13 and b7th)
and Lydian being Cmajor 7th (with a #4 also named #11).
Continue round the cycle of fifths doing the same for the modes of G major.
Both of these suggestions are effective and in time you may find your own way of learning these modes. As
has been pointed out earlier, practice these very slowly and in time with a metronome.
In addition to practicing these suggestions on your instrument, It’s also helpful to practice these at a piano as
you can also visualise to modes as well as hear them.
Knowing your modes helps you understand chord progressions more effectively. By far, the most common
chord progression in Jazz is the 11 V 1 (2,5,1 but chord progressions in jazz are normally written out in roman
numerals when speaking numerically). Look at the first four bars of ‘All The Things You Are’. This show an
example of a where a 11 V 1 is used and clearly shows you how useful it is to understanding the modes of the
major scale as all the chords are derived from one scale: The modes of Ab major.

The major modes to the most part, are the most common modes you’ll hear in Jazz, however there are many
others including the ‘melodic minor’ and the ‘harmonic minor’.
Try and avoid overwhelming yourself with memorising all the modes from the other scales such as the
harmonic minor and melodic minor.
These modes will become more familiar throughout your studies as you come across them in different types
of music, but it is greatly encouraged that you start investigating these sounds now.
(Continued next page)
 Other useful melodic devices to practice

Similar to the melodic devices, here are some harmonic devices for you to practice in your improvised solos:

Guide tones (3rd’s and 7th’s only) Inserting the augmented scale
outlining and voice leading to them.
Inserting the whole tone scale
Chord tones (1st, 3rd’s, 5th’s and 7th’s only)
outlining and voice leading to them Extensions

Inserting a diminished line Common tones between chords

Inserting a harmonic minor line Changing tones between chords

Inserting a melodic minor line

Rhythm

Topics covered in this section will look at: ‘Rhythmic Independence’, ‘Subdividing’ ‘Metronome Practice’,
‘Transcribing’, ‘Time Feel’.

Rhythmic Independence, metronome practice and subdividing

Rhythmic Independence can refer to a few different aspects of music but in simple terms it usually
refers to being able to hold a rhythm or a pulse by yourself without the assistance of a drummer or
accompanying musician. This is why it’s extremely important to practice with a metronome.

This is most likely a concept you’re already familiar with, but there are a few ways of using the
metronome which you might not be familiar with such as: Practicing with the metronome on 2 and 4.
This is a very useful way to use the metronome as it emphasises the strong accents (2 and 4) of a swing
rhythm, or the majority of any groove based rhythm. It often becomes obvious when an ill-informed
audience member at a concert claps on 1 and 3 for example.

You can also take this even further by practicing with the metronome on just beat 2 of the bar or just
beat 4. This means the gap becomes longer between the metronome clicks forcing you to hold a strong
internal pulse. Further challenging metronome practice could also include: the click on the and of 2. The
‘and’ being the ‘off beat’ of the pulse if you’re subdividing in semi-quavers. For example: “1 e and a 2 e
and a 3 e and a 4 e and a ”. Subdividing the pulse into smaller like this is very important when holding
a strong internal pulse, especially when trying to lock in two or more rhythmic figures together. Try
practicing with the metronome and in this way with a tune or a phrase you’re currently working. Notice
how much easier the passage can feel when you subdivide the beat.

It’s the duty of all musicians (not just drummers) to have good time keeping or a strong internal pulse.
Rhythmic independence exercises are a great way to achieve this and can be practiced away from your
instrument. Below is an Iconic calypso rhythm that gives a clear example of how to practice in this way
using your voice, hands and feet the same time.

Keeping in mind what we’ve already discussed about subdivision, try the following exercises below.
Practice each part slowly and separately before putting them together.

Try singing the top rhythm whilst stamping the second rhythm (crotchets) with your feet.

When you feel ready, practice adding the rhythms shown on the following page with your hands
(clapping).
You can incorporate similar rhythms into standard Jazz tunes. You should start by using simple tune that
you can sing such as ‘C Jam Blues’. Look at the example below of ‘C Jam blues’ with he dotted crotchet
rhythm throughout. Dotted crotchets is used as an example but there are numerous rhythms you can
use as clapped rhythms whilst singing the melody to a tune. Experiment with different rhythms.
Time Feel and Transcribing

One of the best ways to obtain a great time feel is to listen to the masters of Jazz and transcribe their music. If
you analyse the swing feel of someone such as Olaidscar Peterson and compare that to someone like Dexter
Gordon, you’ll probably hear that one of them has a really laid back swing feel and one of them plays their
quavers right on the beat (also known as ‘in the pocket’). However both of these players swing very hard despite
their different feels. When transcribing don’t just write out what they play, It’s important to play along with these
musicians as they solo so you can experience what it feels like. Transcribing is not only useful for time feel but
for: sound, harmony, melody, rhythmic language, phrasing, articulation, pacing and endless other characteristics.
Find a musician you would want to sound more like and transcribe some of their solos or even just some of
there phrases and really absorb these characteristics. After a while, with focused practice and patience, these
characteristics will start to come out in your own playing. This is a stepping stone into discovering your own
sound/style of playing. Also if you’re not sure musically what is going on when listening to something, make it a
habit to play it back and analyse what’s happening. Slow it down if you need to and transcribe one section at a
time.

Kickstart into your studies

There is a lot of material to work on here, some of which you may already know or perhaps you’ve never come
across them before. However, the aim of these materials is not to overwhelm you, but to equip you with the
necessary skills to start your studies and give you insight into your overall musical development. It is important
to practice these exercises slowly until it becomes comfortable before progressing to the next stage. In fact it is
recommended that all of your practice on and off your instrument should be conducted in this manner.

Below is a list of suggested practice/study material that will give you further insight into the topics covered:

’The Jazz Piano Book’

Mark Levine
‘Developing A Jazz Language’: Vol. 6.’
Jerry Bergonzi
‘Melodic Rhythms: Vol. 4.’
Jerry Bergonzi
‘Creative Rhythmic Concepts For Jazz Improvisation’
Ronan Guilfoyle
‘Effortless Mastery’
Kenny Werner
‘Charlie Parker Omnibook: For E-Flat Instruments’
Charlie Parker
‘The New Real Book Volume 1’
Sher Music Co.
‘The New Real Book Volume 2’
Sher Music Co.
‘The New Real Book Volume 3’
Sher Music Co.
If you have any questions about
your offer, please don’t hesitate
to contact our Admissions team
via [email protected].

Leeds College of Music

3 Quarry Hill
Leeds, LS2 7PD

Email: [email protected]
Telephone: 0113 222 3400
www.lcm.ac.uk

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