My hypothesis about jazz theory

Although my failing and unfortunate efforts to improve my ears have been well documented in this space, I feel it is time to look on the bright side. Namely, my jazz theory course appears that it is going to have a profound effect on my ability to understand jazz. Although we've only had two classes, I have one clear example.

Last week we covered the modes of the scale. Now, I learned about these from my piano instructor in something like my third lesson, but I never much paid attention to them, because I didn't really understand how they were (or could be) applied. It all just seemed a lot of excessive, unapproachable, forced idiom and jargon meant to discourage the uninitiated. Which in fact, it is. I mean, the chances are really good you'll never hear a jazz musician go, "Okay, man, this is A-flat mixolydian, so let that sax solo rip!" Musicians, and especially jazz musicians are supposed to infer what notes will work and what notes won't when they hear the tune. How uncool it would be to have to actually analyze jazz before you could play it, right?

But how much easier it is if you can decipher the tune and know in your own brain that A-flat mixolydian is correct and B-flat Ionian or whatever is not, because then if you know what A-flat mixolydian is, you automatically know what notes to play.

And the 1-3-5-7 notes of the mode define the ii-V-I progression, and so, if you know the mode you know the notes, and if you know the notes you know the chords, and if you know the chords you can play a song, any song, correctly, and guess what? You're suddenly a real jazz musician! So now I'm in the process of forcing myself to learn all the modes more or less by heart, or to at least be able to figure them out in a couple of seconds so I can use them on tunes right away. I completed our class homework assignment, but that wasn't enough practice, so I developed my own chart for going through and learning the modes. I can just pick one, write it out, cross it off, then pick another, and so on, until I've gone through them all, then I can start all over again. It shouldn't take too long to program them in my brain.

Here's the chart I made, with the modes and keys altering in different patterns around the circle of fifths:


So my hypothesis about jazz theory is simply: jazz is a mental music made easier by doing the mental work and understanding the theory behind it. It is possible to be a phenomenal jazz musician without grasping the theory, but I estimate you can take one or two years off the time it takes to become virtuoso, just by taking a jazz theory course. Someday, I may even turn out to be the proof of my hypothesis.