After 25 years of teaching, Dan Haerle has made available this wonderful pocket-sized resource, Jazz Improvisation: A Pocket Guide, detailing the materials and techniques needed to play jazz. Includes chapters on chords and chord symbols, voicings, blues, functions, ii/V/Is, guide tones, and more! Over 90 pages.

Materials and Concepts in Jazz Improvisation is a comprehensive and concise compilation of the various harmonic and melodic devices used by jazz musicians. It attempts to deal with these materials, (and later, the concepts), in a manner that allows for the greatest possible freedom and flexibility without resorting to mere "licks." The text presents the student and teacher with a conceptual framework that explains "why" as well as "how." It can be used by musicians at any stage of development, but it does assume a rudimentary grounding in music theory. For students and teachers of jazz at any level, it provides a linear perspective on improvisation and harmony from the simplest to the most advanced concepts; it can also function as a reference text for anyone involved in jazz at any level from hobbyist to professional, providing quick and easy descriptions and definitions of the musical materials found in jazz. It can be used for individual study, in classroom settings (jazz theory, jazz improvisation, or jazz pedagogy), in private lessons, or simply as a resource volume.

Jazz Improvisation focuses on the communicative and technical aspects of improvisation and makes an excellent resource for both pros and aspiring improvisers. Assimilate and execute chord progressions, substitutions, turn arounds and construct a melody and jazz chorus.

(Meredith Music Resource). If grading music students in any creative course for credit is a challenge, how much more difficult is it to grade something as personal and nebulous as jazz improvisation? Should students be evaluated on their creativity in soloing or simply on technical skills such as chords and scales? What are the objectives in an improv course, and how can they be graded? The instructors whose responses are presented in this book represent over 700 years of combined experience teaching jazz improvisation over 400 of those years for credit.

This is a book for students and seasoned performers who want to know more about the thought processes for improvising Jazz. It is also for teachers who wish to control the subject in graduated steps. It shows promising students that it won’t do to play just anything at any time, and that there is a difference between mere self-gratification and really connecting with a much larger audience. If, as a movement, Jazz has lost its way, this book shows the way back.

"This book is for guitarists who are new to jazz, but not beginners on guitar."--page 3.