"Jazzitudes" (72 pages)

"Jazzitudes" is a collection of 12 solo-style etudes, composed over the chord changes of selected Jazz and Popular Standards, all of which are likely to be familiar to the vast majority of contemporary improvisers.

The list includes:

"Doxy"

"Manteca"

"Love for Sale"

"Wave"

"All of Me"

"Inner Urge"

"Night & Day"

"Softly as in a Morning Sunrise"

"Misty"

"Moment's Notice"

Creating lines for oneself over the changes of a given tune is a great way to slow down, examine, practice and internalize its potential melodic, harmonic and rhythmic aspects, as well as to create personalized material for use in actual

improvisational performance.

The dozen etudes selected here are presented in Concert key, as well as Bb and Eb versions and were created with specific accompanying Aebersold play-a-long tracks in mind - matching style, key and tempo.

For each etude, the corresponding volume on which its compatible Aebersold playalong track can be found is listed in the table of contents, as well as on the initial page of the etude itself.

While it's not necessary to use a playalong to study the material in "Jazzitudes", if you so desire, they can be purchased individually as single file mp3 downloads

from jazzbooks.com. Use the advanced search to locate the particular song / sound file you're looking for.

In the creation of these etudes, I've aimed for a natural degree of rhythmic variety and balance within the lines themselves by judiciously employing the use of rests and triplets, in order to avoid an uninterrupted and potentially monotonous stream of eighth and sixteenth notes.

I believe these etudes are a fun, challenging and above all, musical way to study, practice and get intimate with these tunes.

Hopefully, you will be inspired to create your own as well.

Bobby Stern