Bach Shapes Etude Contest and Updates

First bit of news, Bach Shapes, the first book, will be available on the Amazon Kindle for only $9.99 on November 23, 2020. You can in fact already preorder it here: Bach Shapes for Kindle. You will need a Kindle that supports graphics, like cookbooks and comics, in order to view the book properly.

It will also now be sold print-on-demand from Amazon as well, starting the same week. This means I could really use all of your reviews on Amazon if you get a chance! Leave a review for Bach Shapes on Amazon.

Excited to announce that the Bass Clef edition of Bach Shapes will be up next on Amazon, which means you’ll be able to order print copies of that soon too. It will include a foreword from the great bassist Lincoln Goines, along with a revamped introduction. Digital pdf’s directly from my site here are still the best option of course!

Now, to celebrate the imminent arrival of Book Two, I am holding an Etude contest on Instagram or Facebook. Using the hashtag #bachshapesetudecontest record yourself playing along with me on one of the etudes below. You can download the videos from the links and edit them together with your own clip.

Number One is from Book One, on the tune “How Deep is The Ocean.” Number Two is from Book Two, still to come, on the tune “Indiana” or “Donna Lee.” These studies are both great at implementing Bach’s melodic material to jazz chord progressions. The third option is to write your own etude using the patterns available in Book One, which I highly recommend trying. Either way use the same hashtag and I can’t wait to see what you put together!

I’ve included PDF’s in Eb, Bb, Concert and Bass Clef below.

Etude Number One

Google Drive Link to Download Video

Etude Number Two

Google Drive Link to Download Video

Winner gets a digital and/or physical copy of the new book when it is done, or if they prefer in the 50 states a print copy of the first book asap. More perks to be announced later. Good luck!

P.S. Complete this survey if you have Bach Shapes One. Your input is much appreciated: Bach Shapes Two Survey

New FB Live Workshops starting September 10th!

FB Live Workshop Sept 2020

This Thursday I will be doing a short workshop on Circle of Fifths progressions from the new Bach Shapes book. If you have a chance please join me, I will embed the feed here, or you can watch on Jon De Lucia Music.

Also, I am putting physical copies of the first book on sale for only $14 plus shipping. This is for two weeks only, and includes my newest quartet CD, As The River Sings out on Fresh Sound New Talent. Order now and I’ll ship it right away!

Bach Shapes Etude Videos

For some reason I never got around to posting a video for the final etude in the book, “Bachground Music.” I have posted all four here now for you to hear if you have the book and want some ideas for interpretation. These are the order they appear in Bach Shapes. Accompanist is Stefan Vasnier, these were all recorded back in 2017.

Free Downloads for FB Live workshop on Thursday April 9th, 1pm EST

Hello everyone, I hope you all are safe in this difficult times. My friend from the Berklee days, Alex Terrier, has graciously invited me to broadcast from his facebook page, Alex Terrier Music, an hour workshop on my book , Bach Shapes, focusing on new materials I am preparing for the second book. I am posting the handout for the lecture here, along with some auxiliary materials that will eventually end up in book two. I hope they are useful!

Handout

Pattern in Circle of Fifths

Cherokee Etude

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!