The New Ultimate II-V-I Primer (PDF Book)

The “New and Improved” Ultimate II-V-I Primer is finally done.  The purpose of this book is to give beginner to intermediate jazz improvisers a complete and thorough method to learn many of the note possibilities in a II-V-I progression in a systematic and organized way.  I have written this book so that it starts with the simplest of exercises and progresses to more advanced exercises as you work through the book.

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The book is divided up into 10 lessons.  Each lesson is focused on adding one note to each chord of a II-V-I progression.  I give you a number of patterns for each new note that is added.  The goal of these patterns is to master the new note in relationship with each chord and to add these new notes to the notes mastered in the previous lessons.  I’ve written the patterns out in a number of different combinations that I think sound good.  Mastering these patterns will give you a multitude of melodic options while improvising.

After the patterns in each lesson, I give you 10 examples of how to apply 10 different approaches to the patterns already studied.  These approaches help to connect the chord tones from measure to measure as well as multiplying the various lines and ideas you can use over the progression.

The last section of each lesson is focused on giving you some ideas to use to create more melodic lines.  Many times students who are studying and learning patterns have trouble making the jump from pattern to melodic improvisation.  For this reason, in each lesson I give you 5 melodic lines based off of the patterns and approaches. I give you some insights into why they sound good and how I created them.

This PDF book is a massive 750 pages long because it is written out in all 12 keys.  I suggest just printing out pages 1-78 for the section in C major for a reference and then printing out other keys and pages if you need them later when stuck.

Included with this book are:

40 Play along tracks, 12 of piano at 85bpm, 12 with a trio at 110bpm,  12 with trio at 140bpm and 4 tracks at different tempos of a 12 key play along.

This book is an excellent resource for any student of jazz improvisation.  It will help you  internalize the chords, learn a number of approaches, learn to play melodically and  improve and grow your creativity.  When you have completed this book, you will have laid a great foundation on which you can build.  I hope you enjoy the journey.

Steve