Bach Shapes – The Jazz Etudes Special Release

So I’ve decided to put out a separate mini-book of all of the jazz etudes from the upcoming book, previous book, and some unique to this release. This will be done in C for flute, Eb, Bb Tenor, Bb Trumpet and bass clef! Pretty exciting stuff.

Bach Shapes Jazz Etudes Cover
Jazz Etudes from Bach Shapes

The best part is that I’m currently recording backing tracks for all of the etudes with great NYC musicians! You’ll be able to hear me play the etudes and then try it yourself with or without me. There will be a variety of grooves and feels, really looking forward to this!

For a taste of what’s to come, I’ve compiled some of the etudes posted so far here. These are NOT the backing tracks, just the recordings I made when I first wrote the etudes. There will be about 12 tunes total. Some stay very close to the original Bach Shapes they are based on, others are more freely inspired by Bach’s sensibilities. This will be a great tool for classical musicians hoping to bridge the gap between the melodies they know and playing jazz.

This will be out in the next 2 months so stay tuned!

Thanks and remember you can get the current books here in my shop, or on Amazon!

Bach Shapes Book(PRINT): Diatonic Sequences from the Music of JS Bach

(1 customer review)

$19.95

Diatonic Sequences derived from the music of J. S. Bach, for saxophone. Includes 4 jazz etudes, an explanatory introduction and the Shapes transposed into all keys. More information at www.bachshapes.com.

48 in stock (can be backordered)

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Description

The first Bach Shapes book of sequences derived from J.S. Bach, for saxophone and all treble clef instruments.

“Jazz musicians have naturally gravitated towards the music of JS Bach for years, so a book like this one has been a long time coming. Jon has done a wonderful job capturing various snapshots of Bach’s seemingly infinite musical language, organizing these shapes in a setting that could be very useful to improvisers. A truly interesting and enjoyable book that will hopefully lead to more volumes in the future.”

Miguel Zenon, International Touring Artist

A unique approach to scale/interval practice, Bach Shapes is the music of J.S. Bach distilled to its basic elements: beautiful melodic shapes. These can be studied as technical exercises, or used as building blocks for jazz improvisation. Suitable for any instrument and currently being used by guitarists, oboists, clarinetists and more. The studies are drawn from Bach’s violin, cello, flute and keyboard music and ordered by difficulty, transposed into all keys. Learn to stretch your range and play intervals more evenly with these musical studies. At the end are four etudes based on jazz standards. The cover and interior has been beautifully designed by Chrissy Kurpeski. “I really dig this book, there are so many musical ideas that one can find in Bach’s music. It’s about time someone like Jon comes along to organize it to be practiced by jazz musicians. It’s good both for the chops, vocabulary and knowledge of harmony. You really have to know what you’re doing when you utilize his devices.” Dmitry Baevsky, NYC Saxophonist “This book is great for practicing and learning really nice sounding passages from Bach in a more focused manner. All passages are transposed as well so you can focus on a particular key that needs work. The engraving is very clear and spacing very well done, its been on my music stand for a while now and has really been fun!” –Andrew Hadro, NYC Freelance Saxophonist   More info on bachshapes.com Check out the Bach Shapes Etudes now for sale too!
Bach Shapes Etudes ebook up for Preorder Now!

Additional information

Weight .8 lbs
Dimensions 9 × 12 × 2 in

1 review for Bach Shapes Book(PRINT): Diatonic Sequences from the Music of JS Bach

  1. Everette Macy Colquette

    LOVE this book. I actually use it for flute. I start every practice by turning on a drone of whatever note I’ll start with, then I run through the exercises. For fun, I practice different modes with the exercises 🙂 Great book for a beginner like me that has significantly improved my expression, my tone, and my speed.

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Bach Shapes eBook Now Available!

I had a surprising amount of requests for a downloadable version of Bach Shapes last week, so here it is!

 

Bach Shapes – Digital Download

(2 customer reviews)

$16.00

Bach Shapes: Diatonic Sequences for Saxophone, PDF edition.

Category:

Description

Downloadable PDF version of Bach Shapes: Diatonic Sequences Derived From the Music of J. S. Bach, for saxophone. Includes 4 jazz etudes, an explanatory introduction and the Shapes transposed into all keys. More information, including reviews, articles, videos, recordings and more at www.bachshapes.com. Great for interval and scale practice,sight reading, transposing by ear, altissimo and more. When purchased, some customers have reported the download email going to their spam folder. Please check there if you don’t see an email. Otherwise I will send it along myself!

2 reviews for Bach Shapes – Digital Download

  1. Ruud

    Great book! Good
    For technique, but mainly very good for inspiration. Beautiful lines!

  2. Michael Robbins

    Wonderful book! I am an upright bassist, and one aspect of this book that I’ve really enjoyed, is that, once I’ve gotten an exercise under my fingers and can play it fluently I get a very similar gratifying feeling as when I play through a cello suite. Very musical, and I highly recommend it!

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I humbly request that you don’t share this to Scribd or any such sites if you can help it! The download is a good option for our European customers until I can find a better way to ship books to Europe. Enjoy!

 

 

And if you missed the first three analysis posts from the Bach Shapes sub-blog, which includes my breakdown of some of Paul Desmond’s improvisational methods and a full transcription, here they are:

Paul Desmond and Bach Part One

Paul Desmond and Bach Part Two 

Paul Desmond and Bach Part Three

The solo I didn’t get around to covering is “Tangerine,” a really great one, transcribed by pianist Bill Mays in Doug Ramsey’s book. For now I would pick up his ebook here, or transcribe that solo yourself. Here it is:

 

 

Thanks and if you enjoy the book please do write us a review on Amazon!