A SERIES OF PRACTICE MATERIALS SOURCED FROM J.S. BACH
BACH SHAPES
A unique approach to scale/interval practice, Bach Shapes is the music of J.S. Bach distilled to its basic elements: beautiful melodic shapes. These can be studied as technical exercises, or used as building blocks for jazz improvisation. Suitable for any instrument and currently being used by guitarists, oboists, clarinetists and more. The studies are drawn from Bach’s violin, cello, flute and keyboard music and ordered by difficulty, transposed into all keys. Learn to stretch your range and play intervals more evenly with these musical studies.
The series consists of three primary books:
Bach Shapes: a set of diatonic shapes in all keys, and four etudes.
Bach Shapes II: twice as long as Bach Shapes, including tons of jazz analysis, transcriptions, etudes, patterns over chord progressions and diatonic shapes.
Bach Shapes: The Etudes: the etudes from both books along with backing tracks, and transpositions by instrument. Includes analysis.
“A valuable tool for students who would like a refreshing change from regular forms of scale exercises. The challenging intervals and ranges would give any serious player a good workout! Thank you for this wonderful addition to our study materials!”
Kenneth Tse,
Professor at University of Iowa
“Jazz musicians have naturally gravitated towards the music of JS Bach for years, so a book like this one has been a long time coming. Jon has done a wonderful job capturing various snapshots of Bach’s seemingly infinite musical language, organizing these shapes in a setting that could be very useful to improvisers. A truly interesting and enjoyable book that will hopefully lead to more volumes in the future.”
Miguel Zenon, International Recording Artist
“No matter what instrument you play, if you’re looking for a book to live on your music stand for the next several decades, this is the one. With some careful and attentive work on these sequences, these excerpts are sure to expand your musical vocabulary, as well as your sound and technique. There’s endless possibilities here.”
Sam Sadigursky, NYC Freelancer, Philip Glass Ensemble
“Jon De Lucia has created a compelling set of new studies, combining intrinsic musical elements with precise technical challenges in the tradition of the best etudes. Rather than targeting classical, jazz or pop saxophonists, these studies focus on issues of interval, intonation and musical phrase making in ways that are central to any style. Thanks for new stuff to practice and teach with!”
Andrew Sterman, NYC Freelancer, Philip Glass Ensemble
“Excellent. Beautiful presentation and great content.”
Walt Weiskopf, Freelancer and Educator/Author
Articles
Intervallic Studies from Toccata and Fugue
Review of Bach Shapes by Az Samad
Using Bach’s Melodic Material
“I used this book with a few of my new students and loved it – it is such a nice collection that one can use in many different ways. One just has to be a little creative. Especially the excerpts with the big leaps are really helpful for many saxophonists. Congrats on creating a great book!!”
-Diane Hunger, International Performer and Educator
Building Bebop Vocabulary with Bach
“What a great book…such a great concept using these amazing melodies and motives to create new practice material.”
–Dino Govoni, Faculty at Berklee College of Music