Sight-reading setup

Choose NYSSMA level, key, tempo, measure count, and style for level-regulated reading.

Step 1: Style

Swing / Bebop

Eighth notes are played with a long-short triplet-esque feel, and the natural accent falls on beats 2 and 4 (called a backbeat). Melodic lines are played in a bebop style: seen in the use of chromatic approach notes, arpeggios, etc.. Rhythmic feel is flexible, with a lot of syncopation and use of triplet subdivisions.

Swung 8th notes based on triplets In a standard manner, beats 2 & 4 are accented Bebop style characterized by approach notes, triplet rhythms, etc.

Bossa Nova

Straight 8ths. Melody built around the tresillo figure (3+3+2 grouping). Accents on beat 2 and off-beats. This is found to create a sparse, cool, and forward-leaning feel.

Two-bar comping

Soft bass drum, cross-stick answers, and piano/guitar anticipations on a straight-eighth grid.

Straight 8ths Tresillo 3+3+2 Beat 2 sway "4-and" accent Son clave feel

Clave

Two-bar 3-2 / 2-3 son-clave attack skeleton for comping and drums, with straight eighth melodic phrasing and syncopated ensemble figures.

3-2 / 2-3Straight 8thsCross-stick answers

Funk

16th-note pocket, backbeat, short brass/sax hits, and rhythm-section stabs. Standards can still be played in this style for practice.

16th pocketBackbeatHits and stabs

Jazz Waltz: 3/4

Triple meter with a jazz swing feel. Generally, beat 1 is accented, with beats 2 and 3 being lighter. At higher levels, hemiola (2-against-3) adds tension.

3/4 time Beat 1 strong 3-bar phrase arcs Swing triplet feel Hemiola at Lv 5+

Step 2: NYSSMA Level

or practice a full standard form

Rhythm Changes

AABA, 32 bars

Bb recommended · Swing style

Based on Gershwin's "I Got Rhythm." In an AABA format, in which A-sections are what is referred to as an 8-bar blues. The more difficult bridge or 'B-Section' is traditionally a dominant cycle moving in fifths: III7-VI7-II7-V7.

Circle bridge Bebop staple Dominant subs

12-Bar Jazz Blues

12 bars

F recommended · any style

Jazz blues as seen in iRealPro and many jazz blues forms.

SubV7 subs Turnaround Any style

All of Me

ABAC, 32 bars

C recommended · Swing style

A quintessential jazz standard. Staple of a beginning improviser's repertoire.

Secondary doms Modal interchange ABAC form

ii-V-I Extended

Custom length

Any key · any style · set bars below

Repeating ii-V-I cycles for practice in a single key area. Created for isolating vocabulary, but is not meant as a repository of 'classic' licks to practice.

Customizable Any key Drill tool

Exercise Type

Key

Select a level above

Bars (ii-V-I only)

Tempo override

Choose a level above to continue.