I decided to offer a free video lesson on my book The New Ultimate II-V-I Primer-Major Keys (Digital PDF Book) for everyone. I have sold many of these books and really want to make sure that everyone is getting the most they can out of them. You can consider this an “overview” lesson on the various chapters in the book. I cover tips on the best way to use the book as well as demonstrating the various exercises so you can have a better understanding of how to use the book. Here is a description of the book:
The purpose of this book is to give beginner to intermediate jazz improvisers a complete method to learn all the notes 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. It is very important that you take the time to fully master each exercise before moving on to the next one. For example, if you are having trouble playing through the 12 keys II-V-I play along with just roots and thirds, then it doesn’t make sense to move on to the 1, 3 and 5 exercises. You will just become overloaded and frustrated. On the other hand, if you master the root and thirds lesson then when you add the 5th to the exercises you can just focus all of your attention on learning just the 5th.
The New Ultimate II-V-I Primer-Major Keys (Digital PDF Book) 14.99
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. Although this section only gives you 10 examples, you should apply the approaches liberally to the patterns studied so that you can come up with your own lines and melodies.
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 and give you some insights into why they sound good and how I created them. Your goal should not be to just regurgitate patterns while you solo but rather to use the patterns and ideas to truly improvise. Each practice session should end with a time of improvisation where you try to use what you have learned to create your own lines and melodies. I stress this concept throughout the book.-Steve Neff
The New Ultimate II-V-I Primer-Major Keys (Digital PDF Book) 14.99
The Ultimate II-V-I Primer Free Overview Lesson
I hope you enjoy the lesson and find it useful. There are 600+ more lessons in my Neffmusic store on a variety of subjects to check out. If you have a question on anything in the lesson feel free to email me or send a message and I will do my best to answer your questions. If this lesson stirs your curiosity in my The Ultimate II-V-I Primer-Major Keys book, you can purchase one below as a PDF you can download immediately after purchase. As I talk about in the video, the book is in all 12 keys and is 739 pages long. I suggest only printing out one key and then trying to play the exercises in the other 12 keys without looking at the book if possible. Thanks, Steve
The New Ultimate II-V-I Primer-Major Keys (Digital PDF Book) 14.99
About Steve
Hi Steve! I am a saxophone player and teacher in San Sebastian, a city located in the Basque Country, in the north of Spain. I use to check regularly your blog, because I find it very interesting and guiding, specially in these times that we have lots and lots of disordered information available everywhere!
I’m interested in your book as I consider it could give me an interesting approach to teach how to use many jazz lines over the II-V-I progression, but before buying it, it would be great if we could take a look inside the book, so that we can get a better idea of it. I would be very pleased if you’d put some images of the inner pages here.
Many thanks for your help!
Ibon
Hi Ibon, There is a sample page posted at this link from a number of years ago when I released it. Steve
https://www.neffmusic.com/blog/2008/10/the-ultimate-ii-v-i-primer/
Hi Steve, Just downloaded your Ultimate II V I Primer and viewed your great 46 minute video review of the book. The book looks awesome and the video did a good job of explaining its purpose, content and how to approach and maximize it’s value.
You’ve given me years of work to do. Thank you!
Great job!!
Frank