Getting Into It is the first of three book/CD packages in music educator Bradley Sowash's That's Jazz series. The series is a top quality resource for beginning improvisers who are comfortable with eighth notes. (Sowash also performs and composes.)

The most important contribution that Sowash makes in Getting Into It - and he begins making it almost immediately - is stating that jazz is about self-expression thru improvisation and then following up in each of the eight lessons with opportunities for beginning to express what you personally are feeling about this tune at this moment.

Newcomers are advised that, at first, process is more important than result. And, he says, "If you like it, it works!" In effect Sowash is presenting a way of making music which is based on personal resources and feelings, rather than on playing music, including transcriptions of someone else's creativity, exactly as written. Sowash compares improvising to a conversation in which you apply what you believe are appropriate resources to that particular context.

That said, improvising can be intimidating at first. It may be helpful to know that not improvising is in fact an aberration in the history of making music. Approximately 1200 years ago, the Imperial Chinese wrote down rules for performing. One of the rules is that the soloist is expected to improvise. In Western music, improvising continued to be considered normal right up thru 18th Century concertos, which might include a cadenza section - soloist improvises here.

Because you'll be developing a different approach to making music, expect to make multiple attempts at using each resource. For example, neighbor notes. It may be a while before you actually look forward to using them to rewrite a melody. And what to do when you see blank measures? Well, try humming the previous ones until you can do it without looking at them. Then get up from the piano and start humming or whistling or singing whatever occurs to you.

Don't worry if you're not successful, the first time you try. Just keep trying. At some point your subconscious mind will start working on it. When the subconscious is ready, what you were looking for will suddenly pop into your conscious mind. Been there, done that.

Jazz building blocks are not neglected. Swing eighths, syncopated rhythms, and backbeats - emphasizing beats two and four - are all there. Rhythmic pulse is a recurring theme and you'll gain experience with it in the jazz lessons and via excursions into Latin rhythms, boogie woogie, and blues.

The distributor, Neil A. Kjos Music Company, has a large portfolio of music education material intended for the young, and the cover images in the That's Jazz series are of young players. Please don't be put off by that. Self-expression is not age dated.

Other reviews are on the author's site. Link (Scroll Down.)

Reviewed here by David Ferris. Review copy obtained from the publisher.

David,
Thanks for sharing this. It looks very interesting. When I play I do some improvising, but nowhere near what a jazz pianist would do. I'd like to learn more about this, so your review is very helpful. I appreciate it.

Glad it was helpful.

Re "some improvising," I think that that's what most jazz musicians do. Combine prepared material with improv.

Hope you'll have time to give Getting Into It a try. Sowash is a talented teacher, and his suggestions are well presented.

Humming almost always works for me, tho sometimes I have to wait for the subconscious to send me something;-) I feel more free away from the keyboard. I didn't want the review to go any longer, so I didn't include that I routinely hum into a tape recorder and later try to work out the notes. When I like the result, I enter it into a notation program.

Thanks for the review. I'd love to hear from others who are using this series.

Cheers,