By Shelly Berg

Chop-Monster is a sequential jazz improvisation method by acclaimed jazz pianist and educator Shelly Berg that utilizes a "call-and-response" approach: students listen to a jazz idea, imitate it until it is internalized, and then "try it on their own." In Chop-Monster 1, students will hear and improvise to the Ima7, iimi7, and V7 chords in the key of B-flat, plus a basic blues progression. In Chop-Monster 2 students will hear and improvise to the ii-V-I progression in three keys (concert B-flat, E-flat, F).