Arranging for Small and Medium Ensembles Book Reviews

I just picked up a terrific book on arranging for smaller ensembles.  The authors are from the Berklee school of music, a place that has churned out some great writers over the years.  The book is not for newbies however.  You have to be pretty well verse in jazz harmony to really get something out of it.  They assume you know quite a bit about chordal structures and jazz theory, and they tell you so right in the front of the book.  It's nice though because they don't waste alot of space in the beginning going over that stuff, they get right to the meat of arranging for smaller ensembles, combo type of groups.  I just got it yesterday and haven't listened to the CD yet, but it looks like it will be terrific.  You gotta love Amazon.com.  What the hell did we do before the internet?  check out the book below and some buyer comments......

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Modern Jazz Voicings: Arranging for Small and Medium Ensembles Rating: List Price: $24.95 Sale Price: $16.47 You save: $8.48 (34%) Buy Used From $16.43 Sales rank:   96602 Catalog:   Book ASIN:   0634014439 EAN:   0073999996715 Binding:   Paperback ISBN:   0634014439 Publisher:   Berklee Press Publications Publication Date:   2001-05-01 Usually ships in 24 hours

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Product Description:

The definitive text used for the time-honored Chord Scales course at Berklee College of Music, this book concentrates on scoring for every possible ensemble combination and teaches performers and arrangers how to add color, character and sophistication to chord voicings. Topics covered include: selecting appropriate harmonic tensions, understanding jazz harmony, overcoming harmonic ambiguity, experimenting with unusual combinations and non-traditional alignments, and many more. The accompanying CD includes performance examples of several different arranging techniques. "A no-nonsense, meat and potatoes source of basic and not-so-basic information about everything relating to jazz writing - covers several courses worth of information." - Kenny Werner Pianist, Composer and Author of Effortless Mastery

Reviews for Modern Jazz Voicings: Arranging for Small and Medium Ensembles

Great book with great recording examples Modern Jazz Voicings teaches how to write in fourths, clusters and uppers structure triads in an easy way. The best feature in this book is the recording examples. Any book that claims to be a great arranging book needs to have decent recording examples. The readers can easily digest the techniques since they are available to their ears. Also, the recordings not only include horn section, but they use different orchestration to illustrate the voicings explained. Berklee teaches this course called as Chord Scale Theory. I strongly recommend this book. Great Jazz modern sound Modern Jazz Voicings teaches how to write in fourths, clusters and uppers structure triads in an easy way. The best feature in this book is the recording examples. Any book that claims to be a great arranging book needs to have decent recording examples. The readers can easily digest the techniques since they are available to their ears. Also, the recordings not only include horn section, but they use different orchestration to illustrate the voicings explained. Berklee teaches this course called as Chord Scale Theory. I strongly recommend this book. Modern Jazz Sound Modern Jazz Voicings teaches how to write in fourths, clusters and uppers structure triads in an easy way. The best feature in this book is the recording examples. Any book that claims to be a great arranging book needs to have decent recording examples. The readers can easily digest the techniques since they are available to their ears. Also, the recordings not only include horn section, but they use different orchestration to illustrate the voicings explained. Berklee teaches this course called as Chord Scale Theory. I strongly recommend this book. A Great Resource "Modern Jazz Voicing" answers the fundamental question: How do you get that modern jazz sound? Divided into 2 separate sections, Part I provides the foundation for understanding basic techniques, voicings, and chord scales. Part II discusses the use of fourths, clusters, triads, and six-parts. At the end of each chapter are a series of exercises used to reinforce and demonstrate the techniques of that chapter. The felxibility I have found in being able to apply these techniques in different situations has greatly improved my capabilities. I strongly recommed this book to anyone seeking to increase their arranging capabilities.