Melodic lines
Put one cell, pattern, or short line on each line of the exercise. In Edit, set Bars to the length of that example, usually one or two. Stay in one key until every example has come up. Then save the next key as a new exercise, or edit the lines into that key.
Play starts the click and keeps time. When the bars finish, the next example comes up. Each example comes up once. Then the order changes.
Open Approach Notes when the line walks into a target. Open Motivic Development when you repeat a cell and then change it. The book stays yours. Type the line you are practicing today.
Jerry Bergonzi, Inside Improvisation Vol. 1: Melodic Structures
Type one short melodic cell per line, in one key. Play it for the bars you set. Next brings the next cell. When the list has gone around, move the same cells to the next key.
Jerry Bergonzi, Inside Improvisation Vol. 3: Jazz Line
Type one phrase shape per line. Hear it, then play it with the metronome. Each shape comes up once before you start the list again.
Jerry Bergonzi, Inside Improvisation Vol. 5: Thesaurus of Intervallic Melodies
Type one interval melody per line. Keep the key still until every melody on the list has come up. The metronome holds the tempo while the intervals change.
Jerry Bergonzi, Inside Improvisation Vol. 6: Developing a Jazz Language
Type one sentence you can sing per line. Play that sentence for the bars on screen. Next brings a different sentence, so the familiar one does not take every turn.
Jamey Aebersold, Vol. 1: How to Play Jazz and Improvise
Type one scale, chord, or short pattern from the chapter you are on. The play-along can wait. Here the metronome gives each example one turn.
Dan Haerle, The Jazz Language
Type one phrase shape per line, in one key. Play it in time. Each shape comes up once, then the order changes.
Jerry Coker and others, Patterns for Jazz
Type the one pattern you are memorizing today, then the next one, each on its own line. Stay in one key for a full pass of the list.
Bert Ligon, Comprehensive Technique for Jazz Musicians
Type one technical pattern per line. Set Bars to how long you need to play it cleanly. The click keeps that length the same for every pattern.
Scott Reeves, Creative Jazz Improvisation
Type one idea from the chapter you are practicing, a motive or a short line. Each idea comes up once before the list starts again.
Jerry Coker, Elements of the Jazz Language for the Developing Improvisor
Type one language element per line, something you are learning to hear. Play it with the metronome. Next brings the next element.
David Baker, How to Play Bebop, volumes 1–3
Type one bebop device per line, in one key. Give every device a turn before you transpose the list.
David Baker, Jazz Improvisation: A Comprehensive Method
Type one focus from the chapter you are in: a pattern, a chord tone path, or a short line. One example per line. Play keeps time.
Bert Ligon, Connecting Chords with Linear Harmony
Type one line that joins two chords. Set Bars to the length of that connection. The next example is the next connection, not a repeat of the one you just played.
Shelton Berg, Jazz Improvisation: The Goal-Note Method
Type one path into a goal note per line. Open Approach Notes if you want the target on screen. Each path comes up once.
Joe Riposo, Target and Approach Tones: Shaping Bebop Lines
Type one approach into a target tone per line. Play the approach, then the target, inside the bars you set.
Joe Riposo, Developing a Jazz Vocabulary
Type one vocabulary phrase per line. Sing it, then play it with the click. Each phrase comes up once, then the order changes.
Ed Byrne, Linear Jazz Improvisation
Type one linear idea per line. Keep the tempo still. Next brings the next idea when the bars are done.
John McNeil, The Art of Jazz Trumpet
Type one line shape per line. Any instrument can play the pitches. The metronome keeps the length the same for each shape.
Oliver Nelson, Patterns for Improvisation
Type one pattern you are learning per line, in one key. Each pattern comes up once before the list starts again.
Nicolas Slonimsky, Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns
Type one melodic pattern per line. Play it for the bars you set. Leave the rest of the thesaurus in the book until you choose the next pattern yourself.
Hal Galper, Forward Motion
Type one phrase that aims at the next chord. Set Bars long enough to arrive there. Each phrase comes up once.
Gary Campbell, Expansions: A Method for Developing New Material
Type one developed motive per line: the cell, then a changed form of it if you want that as the next example. Motivic Development is the exercise that matches this work.
Yusef Lateef, Repository of Scales and Melodic Patterns
Type one scale or one melodic pattern per line, not a page of them. The click gives that one example its bars, then moves on.
John O’Gallagher, Twelve-Tone Improvisation
Type one row shape you are practicing per line. Play it in time. Each shape comes up once before the order changes.
Wayne Krantz, An Improviser’s OS
Type one constraint per line, a rule you keep for those bars. The metronome marks the time. Next brings the next rule.
Mick Goodrick, The Advancing Guitarist
Type one voicing or one moving voice per line. Any instrument can play the pitches. Each example comes up once.
Miles Okazaki, Fundamentals of Guitar
Type one fundamental per line: a path of pitches or a rhythmic grid. Set Bars to the length of that grid. Play keeps time.