Bach Shapes Etudes ebook up for Preorder Now!

In my first year of Berklee, there was an eccentric piano player that lived down the hall in the dorms who was obsessed with Bach. I didn’t get it at the time, and I remember saying to him that “Bach just sounds like a bunch of predictable sequences” or something like that. 20 years later I’m putting out a bunch of books on Bach sequences. Anyway!

The new book covers are almost done,

and the books are up for preorder now at jondelucia.com/shop. You can also still buy the original Bach Shapes print edition for only $10, though you may have to purchase them separately from any preorders, due to the way the system is set up. The Etudes books are going to be officially out on Bach’s (updated) birthday of March 31st. It will be his 336th birthday, 3+3+6 = 12 etudes. They include playalong audio, recorded by a great NYC band, that will be linked to once you download the book.

There are 7 pages of analysis, breaking down which shapes were used to construct the etudes.

10 of the 12 are based on standard progressions. They are:

  • All The The Things You Are
  • Just You, Just Me
  • Autumn Leaves
  • Love Me or Leave Me
  • Gone With The Wind
  • Just Friends
  • All of Me
  • How Deep is the Ocean?
  • Lady Bird
  • Indiana (Donna Lee)

Some preliminary feedback:

“I really like these!”

“the chord outlining in the melody and the way leaps between octaves are incorporated, make it super helpful for practicing finger evenness and center-of-pitch clarity”

“yeah man”

And some recent performances by friends:

Preorder here:

Bach Shapes Bass Clef now available in print!

On January 19 the print edition of Bach Shapes for bass clef will be released here and on Amazon.

This includes a brand new intro from bassist Lincoln Goines, a new cover design and bonus pages from Bach Shapes II. The kindle edition will be available the same day on Amazon.

Order now through my shop and the book will ship to you on 1/25/21.

I have also updated the PDF ebook here.

If you already purchased the older version of the ebook, send me an email and I’ll send the new one along for free!

Otherwise you can order from Amazon next week! Excited about this, next up Bach Shapes II for Treble and Bass instruments.

Original Press Release

At the prompting of the Berklee College of Music Bass Department and other institutions, Jon De Lucia has rewritten the successful book of saxophone studies for bass instruments. In addition, there is bonus material presented from the upcoming Bach Shapes Two, which will be released in volumes starting Summer 2020.

“Who doesn’t love some Bach?! Jon has done a great job in researching the Bach vocabulary and finding phrases that fit in the jazz idiom. Great melodic snippets that can be applied to common standards and in any contemporary music style. And also great reading material, from the intermediate to the advanced player, with enough variations to keep focused on the page.” –Sandro Scoccia, Assistant Chair of the Berklee Bass Department.

“This is a great book for reading and diatonic fingerboard dexterity.” – Lincoln Goines, Faculty at Berklee College of Music, played with Dizzy Gillespie, Michael Brecker, Sonny Rollins.

“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

“Excellent. Beautiful presentation and great content.” –Walt Weiskopf, Freelancer and Educator/Author

The book presents four original etudes on jazz standards, along with many unique patterns taken directly from the music of J.S. Bach and presented in all 12 keys.

These sequences can form a strong foundation for melodic invention. The range is from E below the bass clef up to B middle of the treble staff. There are numerous articles written by De Lucia available at bachshapes.com that further expand on the material. Videos and masterclasses are presented on the Jon De Lucia Youtube channel.