Blog
Editorial reading notes on major music theory, composition, rhythm, ethnomusicology, and jazz improvisation books.
Published Jun 13, 2026, 9:00 AM
Read Russell as a practical ear-training system for tonal gravity, not only as a Lydian scale shortcut.
Published Jun 13, 2026, 9:00 AM
Use Messiaen's treatise as a working palette for modes, non-retrogradable rhythm, color, resonance, and form.
Published Jun 13, 2026, 9:00 AM
Approach Jones as a dense archive of ensemble rhythm, interlocking parts, and transcription problems.
Published Jun 13, 2026, 9:00 AM
Treat solo transformation as a disciplined process: motif, variation, displacement, register, harmony, and form.
Published Jun 13, 2026, 9:00 AM
Read Van Eps as a complete fretboard-thinking system: moving voices, harmonic grids, inner-line control, and guitar-specific counterpoint.
Published Jun 13, 2026, 9:00 AM
Read Hofstadter through music: canon, recursion, self-reference, formal rules, and emergent meaning.
Published Jun 13, 2026, 9:00 AM
Use Willmott as a practical harmony map: chord quality, function, voice leading, substitutions, voicing families, and application.
Published Jun 13, 2026, 9:00 AM
Read Patterns for Jazz as a disciplined vocabulary laboratory: sequence, transposition, articulation, and musical placement.
Published Jun 13, 2026, 9:00 AM
Use David Baker as a complete jazz craft curriculum: language, rhythm, analysis, teaching method, and historical accountability.
Published Jun 13, 2026, 9:00 AM
Read Miles Davis autobiographically and musically: sound, decision-making, band chemistry, risk, taste, and reinvention.
Published Jun 13, 2026, 9:00 AM
Read Bergonzi Vol. 1 as a focused practice system for small interval cells, triadic shapes, and four-note structures that can move through changing harmony.
Published Jun 13, 2026, 9:00 AM
Read Bergonzi Vol. 2 as a focused practice system for five-note collections used as modern melodic engines over static harmony, dominant color, modal vamps, and substitutions.