On December 19th, I dropped my membership at DMusic.  I would have linked in my user page, where I wrote a sort of epitaph . . . but, appropriately enough, the site is down right now.

I think I’ll let that stand as “my sentiments exactly.”

(I wrote a bit more about my decision on Dandelife.)

If you’re into playing jazz, there are two absolutely essential books that will help you understand music theory:

• The Jazz Theory Book, by Mark Levine
• The Jazz Piano Book, by Mark Levine

Both of these are available from Sher Music, and both are by the same author.  I am making this recommendation because over the years, I have come back to these books again and again, and each time, I seem to learn something new.

Now, some of the non-pianists out there might wonder how a book on Jazz Piano could help.  Then let me make an additional recommendation: learn to play the keyboard.  Jamey Aebersold has been recommending it for years in his free Jazz Handbook.  You don’t have to become a virtuoso, or even take lessons.  The greatest use is in truly understanding chords and intervals.

I started off with the guitar, but moved to electric bass.  Guitar I learned from the technical standpoint, but bass I learned by ear.  When I started learning to play organ, however — that’s when the two sides suddenly came together.

As of today I’ve been practicing a lot on keys.  Having started off with organ, I developed a sparse system of chording — the organ has such a rich voice that some two-note chords can sound better than two hand chords on another instrument.  However, recently, I’ve been learning to create chord voicings on the piano as well.

If I had to point to one feature that makes these books worthwhile, it is that they are very complete and full of detail — yet are also clearly written and highly readable.  That’s not an easy task, but Mark Levine succeeded eloquently.