The Jazz Harmony Book, is an engaging and witty guide to developing a nuanced sense of harmonic color, drama, and movement. It is a course in the process of adding chords to melodies, in understanding how a single melody can give rise to rich harmonic variations. This book will help you learn to speak the language of harmony, learn the changes of standard tunes, better understand and create the “right” chord progressions to songs, and re-harmonize songs freely in the manner of great jazz artists. The book comes with two CDs of author David Berkman playing many of the written examples in the book.

The Jazz Harmonic Book, by David Berkman, www.shermusic.com.

Local 47 (Los Angeles, CA) and 399 (Asbury Park, NJ) member Bruce Springsteen’s 2014 album, High Hopes, debuted at number one in the US and nine other countries. This album-matching folio contains guitar songbook arrangements with guitar TAB and separate lyric pages for each of the 12 songs on the album: “High Hopes,” “Harry’s Place,” “American Skin (41 Shots),” “Just Like Fire Would,” “Down in the Hole,” “Heaven’s Wall,” “Frankie Fell in Love,” “This Is Your Sword,” “Hunter of Invisible Game,” “The Ghost of Tom Joad,” “The Wall,” and “Dream Baby Dream.”

Bruce Springsteen High Hopes, www.alfred.com.

In most areas of our lives, “minor” and “major” have meanings that relate to their relative importance, such as when dealing with minor problems versus major problems. However, in the world of music, “major” and “minor” carry specialized meanings that have nothing to do with their significance. While standard music education often begins with the major scale as the main theoretical and practical focus, minor modes are no less basic and fundamental to Western music culture. Minor Is Major! is dedicated to minor key harmony with chapters covering harmonic minor, melodic minor, chord/scale theory, plus a series of etudes to illustrate the utility of common jazz harmony.

Minor Is Major!, by Dan Greenblatt, www.shermusic.com.

Anshel Brusilow’s memoir, co-written with Robin Underdahl, is a fascinating look at American classical music through the eyes of a working-class immigrant child. Raised in Philadelphia by Russian Jewish parents, Anshel Brusilow soloed with the Philadelphia Orchestra by 16, while studying at Pierre Monteux’ summer conducting school. Though he served as associate concertmaster at the Cleveland Orchestra under George Szell and in Philadelphia under Ormandy, he was driven to conduct. At Philadelphia, Brusilow couldn’t resist conducting on the side, to Ormandy’s displeasure. By 40, he’d formed his own chamber orchestra in Philadelphia. Later, he conducted the Dallas Symphony and shaped the orchestral programs at Southern Methodist University and the University of North Texas. Over the years, he either played with or conducted many top-tier musicians and has something to say about each.

Shoot the Conductor: Too Close to Monteux, Szell, and Ormandy, by Anshel Brusilow and Robin Underdahl, University of North Texas Press, www.untpress.edu.

This book describes a blueprint for success as a professional musician and provides tools to develop your unique vision of success and bring that vision to reality. The Musician’s Journey shows you how to develop an entrepreneurial mindset using practical strategies for career development. A companion website provides worksheets, checklists, and questionnaires to help guide you along the way.

The Musician’s Journey: Crafting Your Career Vision and Plan, by Jill Timmons,  Oxford University Press (www.oup.com).