I have had success with Mike Steinel’s “Essential Elements for Jazz” (Hal Leonard) and Dean Sorenson’s “Standard of Excellence Jazz” (Kjos). 90% of the material deals with playing in the jazz style, and there is thankfully very little about improvisation. I think students first need to get a feel for what jazz sounds like and how to play swing before they can even think about improvising.

The problem I keep running into comes after students have played with the blues scale and other one- or two-scale excercises. Most of the jazz standards shift tonal centers often, and learning to navigate the changes is a challenge. I’m still on the hunt for some good transitional material.