Jazz Fiddle Wizard: A Practical Guide to Jazz Improvising For Strings by Martin Norgaard Sheet Music + CD (Paperback, 2000)

Very good clean condition. CD in excellent unmarked condition.


Jazz Fiddle Wizard is a book and audio tailored for advanced violinists who want to learn to improvise in the jazz tradition. The book contains practical theory lessons, presenting rhythms and scales that are immediately put to use. Concepts are introduced progressively, requiring comprehension of previously introduced techniques and terminology. Each lesson includes a theory section and an exercise or performance section.

The book's companion play-along audio provides professional full rhythm section accompaniment for each exercise and tune. As the method was designed for college students and advanced players, no violin tracks are included on the audio. The Stuff Smith solo from 'Knock, Knock- Who's There?'transcribed at the onset of the book is readily available at http://www.rhapsody.com/stuffsmith/tracks.html

This method assumes that the reader/player has a basic technical command of the instrument and reads standard music notation at an elementary level or higher. Jazz Fiddle Wizard is the most challenging of Martin Norgaard's fiddle improv books. If you are a novice jazz player, the author recommends beginning with Jazz Fiddle Wizard Junior, Books 1 & 2 followed by Getting Into Gypsy Jazz Violin, all of which include violin tracks on their respective companion audio.