Exercises designed to help players leap between notes with precision, breaking the habit of step-by-step motion.
The book is dense and often described as "dry" or "mechanical" because it is essentially a rigorous calisthenics manual for the fingers and ears. eddie harris intervallistic concept pdf
Because Eddie Harris independently published his books (such as The Intervallistic Concept , The Jazz Cliche Book , and 200 Chromatic Exercises ), finding authorized print versions today can be challenging. Exercises designed to help players leap between notes
Most jazz education is scalar or chord-tone based. The Intervallistic Concept frees you from "correct notes" and trains your ear to hear distance , which is how many avant-garde players (Ornette Coleman, Dewey Redman, even later Coltrane) think. It’s particularly useful for: Most jazz education is scalar or chord-tone based
Traditional jazz pedagogy often prioritizes "running the scales"—matching specific modes to chord changes. Harris’s "Intervallistic Concept" challenges this by focusing on intervals as the primary building blocks of melody. He famously posited that "there are no wrong intervals if played in succession," suggesting that any note can function within a harmonic context if the intervallic logic remains consistent. This philosophy encourages musicians to think in wide leaps—fourths, fifths, and beyond—rather than stepwise motion, a technique central to his masterpiece "Freedom Jazz Dance". Structural Breakdown of the Method