The non-jazz improvisation series is a concept that germinated in Dick Weissman's mind while he was attending music school. He wrote a 15-piece arrangement of the old square dance tune, Cripple Creek, and wanted the trombone to take a solo as part of the arrangement. When the trombonist kept playing a bebop solo that was totally unsuitable for the chart, Dick realized that - in addition to the many musicians who do not improvise - there are even jazz musicians who don't know how to improvise outside the limits of their own stylistic backgrounds.

The non-jazz improvisation series mostly includes new original tunes that are intended to show how to improvise in many musical styles, including;

* Blues
* Country
* American folk
* Latin-American
* World music including South American, Eastern European and Asian
* Odd meters (playing in a variety of time signatures)
* New Age
* Classical
* Folk-Rock

In short, the books are an encyclopedia of virtually every musical style, excluding jazz.

Foreword
What you should know before starting this book

PART 1–Techniques of Improvisation
Getting started
Grace notes
Multiple grace notes
Mordents, turns, and trills
Neighbor notes, upper and lower neighbor notes
Passing tones, diatonic
Passing tones, chromatic
Improvising with Melodies (summing up)
A Bit of Music Theory
Major scales
Improvising with major scales
Jingle Bells
Minor scales
Harmonic minor scales
Improvising with harmonic minor scales
Melodic minor scales
Improvising with melodic minor scales
Improvising with modes
Ionian mode; Ionian Item
Dorian mode; The Drunken Sailor
Phrygian mode; The Spanish Tinge
Lydian mode; Lydia's Lunch
Mixolydian Mode; Old Joe Clark
Aeolian mode; Shady Grove
Locrian mode; Transposing modes
Specialty scales; D minor hexachord; Pretty Polly
Pentatonic scale on C; Oh Susanna (part 1)
Pentatonic scale on F; Shortnin' Bread
Tetrachord; In the Pines
Improvising with Chords
Major chord arpeggios
Minor chord arpeggios
Seventh chord arpeggios
Minor seventh chord arpeggios
Major chord arpeggio variations
Minor chord arpeggio variations
Seventh chord arpeggio variations
Using arpeggios to improvise melodies
Using arpeggios to create backgrounds

PART 2 - Tunes And Styles
Country and Western
Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie
Railroad Bill
Country waltz: Beautiful Brown Eyes

Bluegrass
The Eighth of January
Little Maggie

Cajun Music
Joli Blon
J'Ete au Bal; Bayou Pon Pon

Celtic (Irish) Music
The Irish Washerwoman
Straight Jig
Danny Boy

Latin-American, South American, and Caribbean Music
The Clave Beat
The Rhumba
The Cha-cha-cha
The Bolero
The Mambo
The Meringue
The Beguine
Calypso, Conga, Tango, and Samba

Ragtime
Temptation Rag

Gospel
White Gospel: Will the Circle Be Unbroken
Black Gospel: Wade in the Water

American Folk Music
Wildwood Flower
Sweet Betsy from Pike
Fly Around, My Pretty Little Miss

The Blues
Blues progressions
Blues scales
Blues in G
Boogie a la Flute
Rockin' the Blues

Rock and Roll
The I VI II V progression in C
Back to the '50s
The boogaloo or double-time feel

Disco
Disco Daze

Country and Folk Rock
Nevada Motels

Odd Meters
5/4, 7/8, 9/8
Five Times Four
The Other Bela
Odyssey in 9/8

Exotic scales
Whole tone scale
Klezmer music; Misherabach: Chosen Kalle Mazel Tov
Klezmer music; Harmonic minor: Havah Nagilah
Fraigish or Greek scale: Goodbye to Piraeus
Gypsy scale: Ochi Tchornya
Scottish music: Highland Fling
Romanian music: Horra
Palestinian music: Artsa Alinu
Japanese pentatonic scale
Indian scale
Korean scale

Brazilian Bossa Nova and Extended Chords
Minor and major 7ths, 9ths, 11ths, and 13ths
Bossa nova clave beat and The Girl from Rio

Diminished and Augmented Chords
Diminished chord arpeggios
Improvising with diminished chords
Augmented chords
Playing with other people
Planning your arrangements
Developing an original style
Flute books of interest
Flute recordings of interest
Dick Weissman
Dan Fox