Jazz Practice Exercises

[Keith88]

"Two, Five, One" is a chord chart for Example 12 from Jazz Etudes by Michael Orta (Alfred, 2004). The book is poorly named, as it does not contain études (fully realized instructional pieces) at all. Rather, it is an instruction book containing fully written-out right-hand solos for a dozen or so standards as well as good advice on how to analyze and recognize many soloistic ideas. The solos themselves are very hip and contain many real nuggets that can be introduced into the developing soloist's vocabulary. The solos are idiomatic to the piano yet avoid virtuosic runs and gestures that might discourage their being learned by the student. I've only had this book for a few days and I have already incorporated ideas that I have picked up from the first few "études" in this book into my soloing. I highly recommend anyone with a Kindle or Kindle app to download the sample of this book that Amazon makes available for free to get an idea of what the book is about.

The note at the bottom of the chart contains a reminder of suggested Upper Structures to use with several different altered dominants.

Two, Five, One - Michael Orta