The CD-ROM:
A Supplemental Text, Linked to Audio Examples, plus Sheet Music!
Once you find the key-center sheets on these tunes so practical, you'll probably
want to know how to analyze similar tunes yourself so that you can create your
own key-sheets for other repertoire. So if you want to learn more jazz theory,
the CD-ROM includes an additional text of more than 70 pages in PDF format.
In a reader-friendly manner, this interactive supplement shows you how to analyze
chord progressions and reduce them to basic key centers for you and your students.
Not only can you print out the material, you can interact with it on your computer:
it includes almost 70 musical examples, with audio linked to visuals in the
supplemental text, prompted by a click of your mouse.
Also included
as a self-test are several tunes in typical chord-symbol style that you can
analyze yourself and then compare with the answers shown in the nearby key-center
answer sheet.
Since the
print book is available in five key/clef versions, the CD-ROM for each also
includes an appendix of concert-key PDF lead sheets with chord symbols so that
non-C instrumentalists can easily compare them with the theory analyses of the
PDF text. Among the other appendices included is a Chord Symbol Primer and an
annotated list of more than 10 pages discussing over 50 recommended recordings
for the 13 tunes examined.
A tremendous
bonus also awaits you on the CD-ROM. The good folks at Kjos Music had suggested
that I make it possible for musicians to perform their own accompaniment, such
as in an improv or ensemble classroom, rather than rely only on the excellent
Play-Along CD. So the CD-ROM also includes printable PDF scores and parts for
rhythm section (optional guitar, plus piano, bass, and drums). These charts
match the form and style of the Play-Along CD and provide the level of notation
you'd want for musicians newer to the jazz tradition: voiced chords plus chord
symbols for piano, fretboard-guides for guitar, bass lines, and drum grooves.
Any one or two of those printable rhythm sets elsewhere would probably cost
the price of this entire book!
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NOTE: The book came out in the pre-download days, and the publisher never made a move to establish that feature for the book; so book-owners have to have a CD drive. However, I've at times directed students to a library to put the CD or CD-R into a disc drive s/he can rip all its contents to a flash drive or whatever. The user then gets everything. The only functionality that is lost is that the mp3 examples that are otherwise linked to visual examples in the PDF theory/improv book simply exist unlinked. But they are numbered!
So the user still gets:
Concert-key lead sheet PDFs of all the tunes.
PDFs of fully notated charts for all the tunes.
A 70 or so-page theory/improv PDF book.
All the mp3 examples that follow along with the PDF book.
And of course the user can rip the CD's play-along tracks from that CD as well.
ALTERNATIVELY, if your interest is more in the play-along tracks than the CD-R resources, a student can probably find a good version of all 13 CTC tunes on iReal Pro, choose the corresponding key (if not already so) and any tempo of choice, and play along with that rather than the book's CD. It's not the great human artistic accompaniment, but it will get the job done; and you still get the benefit of learning from the key centers and melodies illustrated in the CTC book!