Rhythm Changes Soloing
Master this corner stone of jazz repertoire and its many variations
Each book includes 128 play-along audio tracks
Develop authentic jazz language using chord tone soloing
Do you find the many different versions of rhythm changes confusing?
Do you struggle to cope with two chords per bar at fast tempos?
Do you need a better understanding of chord substitutions?
Do you wish you could play more authentic sounding bebop language?
Then this thorough, step-by-step guide to rhythm changes is for you!
This jazz method book explains chord tone soloing over rhythm changes and is aimed at intermediate players. It starts simple and offers a step by step approach, working through each section in detail. By the end of the book you should feel confident dealing with any version of rhythm changes and have a solid foundation to develop your own ideas further.
This book uses a variety of improvisation techniques including chord tone soloing, voice leading, applying rhythmic phrasing, as well as how to embellish arpeggios with chromatic passing notes, scale tone passing notes, chromatic approach notes and enclosures, to develop authentic jazz language.
It also explains how chord substitutions work and can be combined to create new sequences (including tritone subs, diminished subs, iii for I subs, Vi for vi subs and adding ii before V) and offers clear strategies of how to improvise over all of them.
As well as play-along backing tracks, every single notated exercise is also played for you, on the real instruments, by some of the finest jazz musicians in the UK. This is a great advantage when learning, as it means you are using your ears as well as your eyes. You are able to hear the proper articulation and jazz feel for every exercise, which the notation alone cannot provide. And for those who are not strong readers, having each exercise played for you is a massive help.
Click HERE for a free 1hr jazz improvisation lesson featuring Rhythm Changes Soloing content
Don't Take Our Word For It!
"Buster has developed a systematic way of improvising using chordal notes and chromatic notes that will enable the improviser to develop jazz vocabulary and harmonic detail. I thoroughly recommend this book and will be using it in my teaching.”
Steve Waterman - Professor of Jazz Trumpet at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music & Dance, The Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama, The Royal Northern College of Music, Canterbury Christ Church University and The Purcell School. (Carla Bley, Andy Sheppard, Tony Coe, Victor Mendoza, Mal Waldron, Graham Collier, Colin Towns)
"A clear and easy to follow guide to improvising on one of the most important vehicles in jazz repertoire, which goes meticulously by step from simple chord tone improvisation to chromatic alterations and harmonic substitutions."
Chris Batchelor - Senior Lecturer of Jazz Studies at Middlesex University, Professor of Jazz Trumpet at Trinity Laban conservatoire of music. (Michael Brecker, Sam Rivers, Hermeto Pascoal, Tim Berne and Uri Caine)
"Once again, Buster Birch has found creative and efficient solutions for some of the thorniest problems in jazz pedagogy. Highly recommended!"
Rex Richardson - (International trumpet artist, Yamaha Performing Artist, Joe Henderson Quintet).
"I like the way Buster takes the learner through those important steps needed to tackle these types of chord progressions. Simple to follow and enjoyable to play along to, the student should find it easier to progress using his methods.”
Andy Panayi - Professor of Jazz and Classical Flute at The Royal College of Music and The Birmingham Conservatoire of Music.
“Another excellent publication, an invaluable resource for jazz students and students of the music”.
Simon Purcell - International Chair in Improvisation at the Guildhall School of Music in London. Formerly Head of Jazz at Trinity-Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance from 2005-2017 and member of the Pop and Jazz Steering Group for the Association of European Conservatoires from 2009-2018.
"Buster is not only a great musician, but he also presents such an accessible and well-rounded teaching approach. This is nothing short of jazz learning gold!"
Julian Nicholas - Jazz Course Leader Chichester College. (Loose Tubes, Harry "Sweets" Edison, Dudu Pukwana, Kirk Lightsey, Jimmy Witherspoon)
“ I wish there had been more books like this when I started out, a clear and informative springboard into jazz improvising. A great addition to the library"
Stan Sulzmann - Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music, Fellow of Birmingham Conservatoire. Professor of jazz saxophone at the Guildhall School of Music, Trinity Laban conservatoire of music. Former head of Jazz at the University of Exeter. Guest artist at the Thompson Jazz Studies Program, Boulder Colorado.
Customer Reviews
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The book is a revelation to me because it goes through the art of soloing in well structured steps, complete with audio tracks. A revolution because it makes music theory necessary for rhythm and soloing much easier to understand.
This is a fantastic book and learning resource for aspiring jazz players ! An understanding of Rhythm Changes is essential for anyone interested in playing jazz. This book not only helps you understand Rhythm Changes but leads you step by step through a series of exercises to playing proficiency and mastery. Every written exercise is supported by a professional player who plays each extract thus providing a template for the learner. I am an intermediate sax player. The sample extracts are played by Jo Fooks. Her precise, beautifully phrased, sensitive playing makes this learning resource doubly special. I am learning how to play Rhythm Changes and am inspired to sound a bit more like her! Another brilliant product of jazz education by Buster Birch.
Working my way through the book, very useful to help with understanding music theory for improvising. And for beginning to improvise on my Sax.
Incredibly useful. The organised ...methodical approach is superb
A great tuition book, for guitarists, too.
This is a really good book and tuition method from an excellent musician and teacher. It says "for Jazz Flute" on the cover but it works really well for the jazz guitar, and would work for any instrument in concert pitch. There is just standard notation and no tab, but all of the notation includes the musical interval of each note (root, 3, 5 etc.), so if you know your basic chords and what the intervals are it is easy to follow and a very good way to get better at reading music. It takes one of the most ubiquitous and important chord sequences in Jazz and, starting with just playing the roots of each chord for each change, gradually introduces additional intervals, going on to moving these about to make simple and then more complex solo lines, eventually adding chromatic passing notes and 'enclosures' between the chord tones and scale notes to make 'proper' really good sounding jazz solo lines. This is an excellent method. It is very well thought out and explained. The book ends with some well worked out pastiches of different ways of treating the changes in different styles.
