Playing & Learning Jazz

Playing & Learning Jazz

Jazz means freedom – it is wild, sophisticated, and emotional. Discover tips & background information here, as well as recommendations from our extensive range of Jazz sheet music and Jazz textbooks:

Jazz ImprovisationJazz HarmonyJazz StandardsRealbooksJazz ComboJazz EnsembleBig BandSymphonic Wind Orchestra

PianoGuitarDouble BassDrumsVocalsTrumpetTromboneSaxophoneClarinetFlute

Information & Tips

Play & learn jazz piano

Play & learn jazz piano

The piano offers a wealth of improvisation opportunities, which is why it is so popular in jazz. Within jazz itself, there is a wide range of styles, from blues for piano and bar piano to experimental jazz. Whether you play jazz on the piano solo, four-handed, or in an ensemble, you will find a variety of sheet music and method books for jazz piano with us.

read more
Random Progressions: Practicing Jazz with Chance

Random Progressions: Practicing Jazz with Chance

Quality beats quantity. This also applies to practicing. Much more important than the number of hours we spend with our instrument is how we use that time. Endless, monotonous repetition of difficult passages is not always helpful. Creativity is the key. Or chance: Random Progressions allow us to easily create a variety of personalised exercises that are perfectly suited to our abilities.

read more
The Bigband

The Bigband

Composing and arranging for big band today is no easy task, as Jazz Award winner Thorsten Wollmann knows from personal experience. Here is a brief overview of the past and present of this quintessential jazz ensemble.

read more

Jazz Sheet Music – New Releases & Recommendations

Major Jazz Festivals

Portrait

"The world needs more artists" – in memoriam Chick Corea

Chick Corea, one of the greatest jazz pianists, has left the stages of the world forever at the age of 79. For Stretta Journal, composer and musician Jan Reinelt describes the significance of the brilliant improviser for the music world—and for him personally.

read more

Influences & Precursors

Blues

“The blues is the foundation of all music. It is the root.” (John Lee Hooker).

With this bold, self-confident statement, the famous blues guitarist and singer John Lee Hooker wasn’t entirely wrong, at least when it comes to popular music after 1900. Jazz, Rock 'n' Roll and Soul have their roots in the blues, and even in the currently popular Hip-Hop, the connection is still evident.

Emerging among the Black US population around the turn of the 19th to 20th century, it contains elements of African, European, and Caribbean music.

Famous Blues Legends:

Blues – Sheet Music

We use YouTube to embed video content. This Google service has its own cookies and may collect data about your activity. You can find more information in the data protection declaration of the provider. We need your consent to display YouTube videos:

Show YouTube content

Spirituals & Gospel

Spirituals are Christian songs that emerged in the 17th century in the USA, created by slaves who had been forcibly taken from Africa. Having encountered Christianity, they expressed their suffering, but also their hope, musically. Most well-known spirituals like “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” or “Go down, Moses” depict scenes from the Old Testament.

In contrast, Gospels are more about the New Testament and express love and faith in God. Gospels are an evolution, incorporating Jazz and Blues elements. While Spirituals are considered folkloric group creations, Gospels are often composed. Additionally, the Gospel Choir is often accompanied by a band.

A key link between these genres were the "Field Hollers" or "Worksongs," the work songs of African American slaves.

Spirituals & Gospels – Sheet Music

We use YouTube to embed video content. This Google service has its own cookies and may collect data about your activity. You can find more information in the data protection declaration of the provider. We need your consent to display YouTube videos:

Show YouTube content

Ragtime

Ragtime is a highly rhythmic piano style, and as such, a precursor to jazz. It emerged in the USA at the end of the 19th century and had its heyday in the first two decades of the 20th century.

Ragtime consists of a regular bass line, while the melody – often syncopated – provides the rhythm. One of the most famous works of Ragtime is Scott Joplin's “Maple Leaf Rag”. It was published in 1899 and became a sales hit for its time.

In the 1920s, Ragtime was replaced by jazz and then by swing, but experienced a revival in the 1970s. The 1973 film “The Sting” with Robert Redford, set to a soundtrack of Ragtime music, contributed significantly to this revival.

Ragtime – Sheet Music

We use YouTube to embed video content. This Google service has its own cookies and may collect data about your activity. You can find more information in the data protection declaration of the provider. We need your consent to display YouTube videos:

Show YouTube content

Dixieland

Dixieland is the "smoother" interpretation or imitation of the original black New Orleans jazz by white musicians in the 1910s. From 1930 onwards, there was no longer a clear distinction between the forms of "Traditional Jazz" (which also includes the slightly later and simplified Chicago jazz). Even Louis Armstrong played Dixieland.

A typical Dixieland ensemble consists of trumpet, clarinet, and trombone as the melody group, with the trumpet taking the lead position. The rhythm section is made up of a drum kit, piano, tuba (or sousaphone), double bass, and guitar (or banjo). Musically, collective improvisation is particularly characteristic.

Dixieland – Sheet Music

Livery Stable Blues "Livery Stable Blues" for 5 Brass Players
Best of Dixieland Best of Dixieland for 4 Brass Players
15 Traditional Dixieland Classics 15 Traditional Dixieland Classics

We use YouTube to embed video content. This Google service has its own cookies and may collect data about your activity. You can find more information in the data protection declaration of the provider. We need your consent to display YouTube videos:

Show YouTube content

Swing

"It don't mean a thing, if it ain't got that swing." (Duke Ellington)

Swing, arguably the most popular form of jazz, developed in the 1920s from Dixieland and Chicago jazz.

Big Bands played Swing, whose danceability contributed to its rapid spread. The most famous musicians who entertained people with their Big Bands were the clarinettist Benny Goodman, the trombonist Glenn Miller, and the pianist Duke Ellington. Many songs from the musicals of Cole Porter became true classics, or evergreens.

Swing – Sheet Music

Gypsy Jazz

Gypsy Jazz, also known as Jazz Manouche, is a form of Swing and became popular in France in the late 1920s through the guitarist Django Reinhardt. It is also called "String Jazz" because it is predominantly played with string instruments.

Gypsy Jazz – Sheet Music

We use YouTube to embed video content. This Google service has its own cookies and may collect data about your activity. You can find more information in the data protection declaration of the provider. We need your consent to display YouTube videos:

Show YouTube content
18 Swing Standards for Piano 18 Swing Standards for Piano
Swing Starters for Saxophone Swing Starters for 1–3 Saxophones
The Swing and Jazz Choirbook The Swing and Jazz Choirbook
Cole Porter – The Definitive Songbook Cole Porter – The Definitive Songbook
Gypsy Jazz Lickbook for Guitar Gypsy Jazz Lickbook for Guitar
Gypsy Jazz Violin Sheet Music Gypsy Jazz Violin

Modern Jazz

Since the 1950s, Modern Jazz has been used as a collective term for all jazz styles after the Swing era, starting with Bebop.

Modern Jazz – Sheet Music

Bebop

Bebop developed in the mid-1940s from Swing. Unlike Swing, it was no longer aimed at danceability. This made the tempo faster, the harmonies more complex, and allowed for greater rhythmic freedom for drums and bass. The saxophonist Charlie Parker is considered one of the creators of Bebop.

Famous Bebop Artists:

Bebop – Sheet Music

We use YouTube to embed video content. This Google service has its own cookies and may collect data about your activity. You can find more information in the data protection declaration of the provider. We need your consent to display YouTube videos:

Show YouTube content

Fusion / Jazz Rock

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, musicians increasingly experimented with genres and crossed the boundaries of various styles to create something new. This led to the development of the Fusion style, a blend of jazz, rock music, and funk.

While the success of rock music is defined by catchy, emotionally appealing riffs and chord progressions, jazz thrives on complex harmonies. Spiced up with the energy of funk, Fusion forms a sophisticated yet catchy music style, which also laid the foundation for progressive rock.

Famous Fusion Artists:

Fusion / Jazz Rock – Sheet Music

Smooth Jazz

Smooth Jazz is a commercially oriented crossover jazz that developed in the mid-70s. The style mixes jazz with pop or R&B and can be seen as a response to the bolder jazz fusion. It avoids the improvisational "risk-taking" of jazz fusion and emphasises melodic form.

Smooth Jazz – Sheet Music

We use YouTube to embed video content. This Google service has its own cookies and may collect data about your activity. You can find more information in the data protection declaration of the provider. We need your consent to display YouTube videos:

Show YouTube content
The Best of Charlie Parker for Saxophone Sheet Music The Best of Charlie Parker for Saxophone
A Thelonious Monk Study Album A Thelonious Monk Study Album
Funkdawgs Don't Bite Funkdawgs Don't Bite
Jazz Fusion Sheet Music Jazz Fusion for Melody Instrument & Rhythm Section
Smooth Jazz Piano Sheet Music Smooth Jazz Piano
Smooth Jazz Classics Sheet Music Smooth Jazz Classics for Melody Instrument & Rhythm Section
Verband deutscher MusikschulenBundesverband der Freien MusikschulenJeunesses Musicales DeutschlandFrankfurter Tonkünstler-BundBundes­verb­and deutscher Lieb­haber-OrchesterStützpunkt­händ­ler der Wiener Urtext Edition

© 2004–2025 by Stretta Music. Order and buy sheet music online.

Your specialist for all kinds of sheet music. Online shop, sheet music, music scores and play along for download, books, music stands, music stand lights, accessories.

There is a separate Stretta website for the country Worldwide. If your order is to be delivered to this country, you can switch, so that delivery times and shipping conditions are displayed correctly. Your shopping cart and your customer account will remain the same.

en-netswitch to Stretta Music Worldwideen-fistay on Stretta Music Finland