Mark Levine > Quotes

“The real quantum leap for successful jazz musicians comes not when they can play all the licks, but when they can play them on any tune, in any key.”
― Mark Levine, The Jazz Theory Book

“With the generous variety of chords available in the major, melodic minor, and diminished scales, you can convey a wide range of emotions. You can easily express happiness and calm (major 7th chords); triumph (major triads); darkness, sadness or mystery (almost anything from melodic minor harmony); tension (dominant 7th chords); extreme tension (diminished chords); and more. With the whole-tone scale, the emotional range is largely limited to enchantment, or as one musician not-so-cynically suggested, “Bambi emerging from the forest at dawn.”
― Mark Levine, The Jazz Theory Book

“Although triads can sound good in any inversion, all things being equal triads sound strongest in second inversion.”
― Mark Levine, The Jazz Theory Book