Masaya Yamaguchi


Masaya Yamaguchi is a guitarist and educator residing in Manhattan, New York City.

Career

Yamaguchi grew up in Tokyo, Japan and decided to study in the U.S. at the age of 26. He became the first Japanese person to complete the master's program in Jazz Performance at City College of New York. He has written for Down Beat magazine and Annual Review of Jazz Studies, which is peer reviewed and published by the Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers University.
According to his profile in Marquis Who's Who in America, Yamaguchi has been a musician and educator who established his conceptual system to explore the imaginative formation of musical scales in The Complete Thesaurus of Musical Scales. His representative work, The Complete Thesaurus of Musical Scales was reviewed by John Kuzmich as "It's worth mentioning that this book comprehensively covers all theoretical possibilities in constructing scales...Take this Thesaurus Scales seriously, you will not be disappointed in the options available for jazz improvisation." "The Subsets of Limited Transposition" and "Appendix: Scales for Jazz Improvisation" in The Complete Thesaurus of Musical Scales are very helpful to organize musician's mind and ear. "The Subsets of Limited Transposition" was introduced in The Complete Thesaurus of Musical Scales, "Symmetrical Scales for Jazz Improvisation" and his academic article, "A Creative Approach to Multi-Tonic Changes: Beyond Coltrane's Harmonic Formula." The concept of "The Subsets of Limited Transposition" has been updated by the "Lexicon of Geometric Patterns for Jazz Improvisation" as "Systematized The Subsets of Limited Transposition Families." Chapter VI of "Lexicon of Geometric Patterns for Jazz Improvisation" is also given to "Messiaen's Modes for Jazz Improvisation"
Masaya Yamaguchi is also known as a scholar and researcher of the music of Charlie Parker and John Coltrane. David Damsey is a co-author of John Coltrane Plays Coltrane Changes and a professor of music and coordinator of jazz studies at William Paterson University.

Selected works

The Complete Thesaurus of Musical Scales Pentatonicism in Jazz: Creative Aspects and Practice Symmetrical Scales for Jazz Improvisation Lexicon of Geometric Patterns for Jazz Improvisation YAMAGUCHI Improvisation Method Chromaticism in Jazz: Applying Techniques and Concepts The Bird Book John Coltrane Plays Coltrane Changes Charlie Parker Yardbird Originals originally published in 1955

Works in Japanese

  • Jazz Approach ni yoru Daionkai Jiten ジャズ・アプローチによる音階大辞典
  • Jazz Approach ni yoru Onkai Kyohon ジャズ・アプローチによる音階教本＜シンメトリカル・スケール編＞
  • Jazz Approach ni yoru Onkai Kyohon ジャズ・アプローチによる音階教本＜ペンタトニック・スケール編＞

Selected articles

  • A Creative Approach to Multi-Tonic Changes: Beyond Coltrane's Harmonic Formula, Annual Review of Jazz Studies 12, 2002
  • John Coltrane and Carlos Salzedo: A Surprising Connection, The American Harp Journal, Vol.23, No.2, Winter 2011, p. 59.
  • Note Groups of Limited Transposition: A Key to Unlocking Multitonic Change Possibilities," Down Beat 67, No.9, p. 70.