Jake Epstein Music Site
Jazz Improvisation and Tonal Music

Back in the spring semester of 1972 at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, I designed and taught my very first course on Jazz Theory and Improvisation. At that point I was the first graduate assistant in the Music Department’s African American Music and Jazz Studies Program directed by Dr Frederick C Tillis. For the next 8 years I worked with Dr Tillis, colleagues and students to develop Music department programs serving first as a Graduate Student and then as an Assistant professor. Today, I am grateful to Professor Jeffrey Holmes, program chair and his colleagues and students for carrying on and extending the traditions that we fostered so many years ago.

I originally put these notes together for a Master Class presented at the UMass Jazz in July Summer Program held at Amherst in 2007. The class leader, Bruce Diehl of Amherst College, and I discussed that there was not much time available to cover improvisation and theory topics during ensemble and master classes. I also learned that over the 31 years of the program, Professors Jeff Holmes, Fred Tillis  and others have provided instruction in this area. We hoped to build on their groundwork.

You may download the following .pdf files of the book and a .pdf with printing instructions:

Normal Printing Format - See the print instructions .pdf for more information.

Jazz Improvisation and Tonal Music Edition 4 2018

Booklet Printing -See the print instructions .pdf for more information.

Jazz Improvisation and Tonal Music Edition 4 2018-2up-magazine

Print Instructions

Jazz Improvisation and Tonal Music Print Instructions

Amazon Kindle:

A Kilndle Book is available for one dollar ($1.00) at http://amazon.com. Please search Amazon Web Site for keywords Jazz Improvisation Epstein

The booklet has been tested on Kindle for iPad, iPhone, Mac OSX and Windows 7 and 10.