Poll: Which Beginner's Jazz Book Helped You the Most?

[markerhodes]

Please select one of the following. If you learned the most from a book not listed, check OTHER and please mention the book (and how it helped you) in the comments section below. Thanks!

1) A Modern Method for Guitar, Volume 1 by William Leavitt
2) Beginning Jazz Guitar by Jody Fisher
3) Chords And Progressions for Jazz and Popular Guitar by Arnie Berle
4) Hal Leonard Guitar Method: Jazz Guitar by Jack Schroedl
5) Joe Pass Guitar Method (or Joe Pass Guitar Style) by Joe Pass
6) Mel Bay Complete Jazz Guitar Method by Mike Christiansen
7) Mel Bay's Guitar Method, Grade 1
8) Mel Bay Jazz Guitar Method by Ronny Lee
9) Mickey Baker's Complete Course in Jazz Guitar: Book 1 by Mickey Baker
10) Other

[billkath]

I said Mickey Baker, but the first one I really studied was Jazz Rhythm Guitar by Roger Edison, and also Berklee jazz guitar chord dictionary as well- both very helpful. Bare in mind, though, that what I wanted to learn first was jazz rhythm guitar, to play as a backing player in various bands and pit orchestras. Learning the big band Freddie-style guitar and the soloing came later.

[markerhodes]

I said Mickey Baker too, though it wasn't the first book I used. My test for guitar books is simple (though perhaps flawed): do I take this stuff and put it into songs of my own (or change--for the better--the way I play songs I've known awhile.) In that sense, I got more out of Mickey's book than any other except for Herb Ellis' books.

[gingerjazz]

The book that i feel came to my rescue is one i dont see mentioned too much,it is called an introduction to jazz soloing by the MI and focuses alot on chord tones and arpeggios,this cleared up a lot of the fog for me and i recomend it highly

[Dad3353]

No-brainer for me; Mickey Baker has been my staple diet for years. I have most of the others (and many more besides, almost all of which are very useful...), but MB is what I would take to a desert island.
(I would perhaps cheat, and smuggle through Ralph Patt's Vanilla Book, too...)

[matt.guitarteacher]

I'd have to say Mel Bay Complete Jazz Guitar Method by Mike Christiansen just because it's the first one I really used a lot. After your first book I guess other books end up being kind of supplemental. I learned my first arps, freddie greene-type Drop-3 chords, basic chords, chord/arp substitution and superimposing, and fundamentals of chord construction from that book. It's got some good stuff.

I also got a lot out of Leavitt's Modern Guitar Method books. His chord etudes give a lot of practical fingering for playing jazz, especially re. chord melody. He introduces chords in groups by voice-leading and fingering similarity (ii-V-I's with voice-leading fingering considerations for example).

Also, it may not be a dedicated jazz method, but Leavitt's book does incrementally build on a wide range of concepts, where other methods tend to do one thing, exhaust it completely (sometimes taking it to a very high level), before moving on to a new area of study. For me, this kind of breaks down midway through book 2 where triad studies and such take over for long stretches. Jody Fisher's book is probably the worst in this regard, but it's also more of a dedicated jazz method at heart.

[mr. beaumont]

I also said Mickey Baker, but I didn't come across it until I was a few years into my jazz journey.

When I cracked it open ans went through the first lesson, I thought to myself, "boy, this would have been damn helpful 4 years ago!!!"

[ten left thumbs]

I await the results with interest. As a newbie I have finally managed to make some sense out of Mickey Baker's book. It's pretty user-unfriendly though. Seems to me it might be better as a book for the initiated to come back to and say 'ahhh!' than for a the beginner it is advertised for.

[RonD]

I picked A Modern Method - Leavitt, simply because it allowed me to read the others.

[mr. beaumont]

Originally Posted by RonD

I picked A Modern Method - Leavitt, simply because it allowed me to read the others.

Well, ain't that true enough!

Baker's books are great for a jazz beginner, not necessarily a beginner to guitar that's interested in jazz.

[jscjr64]

Originally Posted by mr. beaumont

Baker's books are great for a jazz beginner, not necessarily a beginner to guitar that's interested in jazz.

At the risk of hijacking the thread, what would people recommend in this latter category? This is where I live . . . I played jazz for years as a woodwind player, but only took up the guitar about a year ago. I've been working on strumming the chords in the Hal Leonard book "Best Jazz Standards Ever (Easy Guitar)", which is full of basic arrangements of standards using simple open-string voicings. It's a pretty good book (my instructor has become a fan of it over the past few months), but you can't do any quarter-note comping (for example) because of all of the open strings. When I look at the first page of Mickey Baker, my immediate thought is "there's no way my fingers will do THAT!".

[markerhodes]

Originally Posted by jscjr64

When I look at the first page of Mickey Baker, my immediate thought is "there's no way my fingers will do THAT!".

I know the feeling, but it passes. It takes a while to get comfortable with some of those grips, but boy when you do, you'll have accomplished something! It's worth the effort.

[jzucker]

mickey baker for very early beginner. Later on Joe Pass Guitar Style. Those two are must haves

[NSJ]

Not for beginners --but I just picked up volume one of George van Eps harmony and the fingerboard book, which is 328 pages, and volume 2 is like 364 pages.THIS is the book I will be working with for years--it's incredible in terms of the application of theory to the fingerboard, two voice movements, the ability to play the guitar like a piano.When I showed it to my teacher yesterday, he immediately said, "that's the very Bible itself". many years ago, Mr. van Eps told him that this monumental work was, in fact, heavily edited--the original manuscripts were the size of phone books! My teacher also said that no one finishes these books, burn out occurs prior to the finish line.

When I return to playing with a pick, I gotta hunt down my copy of "Sheets of Sound for Guitar"--I bought it a couple years ago, started working on it, promptly lent it to someone, and it has yet to be returned. I hope it's not lost!

In terms of jazz, I recommend OTHER--anything by Bert Ligon.

another great jazz --not guitar specific--book is "Forward Motion".

[His Hollowness]

Are Joe Pass Guitar style and Joe Pass Guitar Method different books?

[Extrapolation]

Andrew Green has three books that are quite good: Jazz Guitar Technique, Jazz Guitar Comping, and Jazz Guitar Structures. They cover, respectively, Technique, Comping, and Soloing; the latter two come with CDs. These are the ones I am using as well as Peter Sprague's The Sprague Technique which is a nice, concise method book.

[brad4d8]

There's no single book that comes to mind, but if I had to pick one, it would be the 2 volume Johnny Smith method. I picked it up in the early 70s, about the same time as Chord Chemistry and it was a whole lot less intimidating. I worked through both volumes and still pull it out from time to time. Shortly after that I concentrated on classical until the last few years, now I've forgotten most of what I once knew.
Brad

[markerhodes]

Here's a link to Volume One of Smith's Guitar Method. I'm unfamiliar with it.

Amazon.com: Mel Bay The Complete Johnny Smith Approach to Guitar (9781562222390): Johnny Smith: Books

[abracadabra]

I went for the Jody Fisher one. It's a pretty good series of books.

[brad4d8]

Originally Posted by markerhodes

Here's a link to Volume One of Smith's Guitar Method. I'm unfamiliar with it.

That's the one, it used to be in two volumes. Bear in mind it's written in actual pitch so uses bass and treble clef, no tab. We sometimes forget that the guitar is actually a transposing instrument, sounding an octave lower than written. There are chord diagrams though.
There weren't a lot of options in the early 70s, but if I had known about it I might have opted for the Mickey Baker book. I'm working through it now, although some things keep getting in the way, time wise.
Brad

[markerhodes]

Originally Posted by brad4d8

There weren't a lot of options in the early 70s, but if I had known about it I might have opted for the Mickey Baker book. I'm working through it now, although some things keep getting in the way, time wise.
Brad

I'm working through the Mickey Baker book too. I had a copy decades ago and learned more from it than I realized at the time, but I never got through the first half of it (-the chord part.) Now, every day I give at least 15 minutes to something in the second part (-bridge solos this week) and something in the first (-intros). That may not sound like much time, but the gains are real. (And sometimes--a lot of times--I spend more than the minimum amount of time with the book; but I never skip a day, period.)

[randalljazz]

how to adapt what i already knew...usable voicings, importance of space, functional comping patterns...

[markerhodes]

Wow, I'd never even heard of that book.

[whatswisdom]

Wayne Krantz - "An Improvisor's OS." This book sets you up to be creative, original and self-reliant. By far the most unique approach to improv I've seen.

[DanFan]

I voted for Jody Fisher's book but I got frustrated and didn't finish it. I took lessons for a few months after giving up on the book and the teacher concentrated on songs (from the Real Book) and the theory behind the songs. Recently I returned to Fisher's book and found that it makes MUCH more sense to me now, but its still drab for my attention span.

I also have the Arnie Berle Chords and Progressions book, but I've only used it for a reference. It has some great explanations, but I would not call it and instruction method. Arnie's book doesn't give you much to practice to master what you've just learned. He kind of leaves that to the student to map out on his own. I need a little more than that, which is why I needed a teacher.

Returning to the books and jazz in general 6 years later, I'm still mapping out a beginner plan on my own. At least I know myself well enough to include lots of songs this time.

[markerhodes]

Originally Posted by whatswisdom

Wayne Krantz - "An Improvisor's OS." This book sets you up to be creative, original and self-reliant. By far the most unique approach to improv I've seen.

I went to the site but still don't have a sense of what's in the book. Could you provide some detail?

http://www.waynekrantz.com/newWebsite/IOSinfo.html

[whatswisdom]

Originally Posted by markerhodes

I went to the site but still don't have a sense of what's in the book. Could you provide some detail?
http://www.waynekrantz.com/newWebsite/IOSinfo.html

(Love your Herb Ellis quote. So true.) If you know where the notes are on the fingerboard and how intervals work, you will quickly get lots from his book. He has devised a system in which he organizes all the notes on the guitar into what he calls "formulas." Within the system is every possible scale/chord/arp. It's the real deal in that he advises one to learn to read standard notation and identify every note on the fingerboard asap. (The book definitely teaches you how to do the latter.) After that, there's loads of ways to apply the material to whatever you want to play in his clearly written step-by-step approach.

[maxyG]

Did anyone here go through Ted Greene's Single Note Soloing Book?
It's the melody counterpart to his Chord Chemistry / Modern Chord Progressions Book.
An incredible amount of instantly applicable melodic material, that makes you sound authentic rightaway


In my opinion - and I figure a lot of people here share my point of view - most books tend to focus too much on theory.
play dorian over m7, lydian over maj#11, and altered over dom7#9, yeah yeah we all got that. but where's those jazz sounding lines?

so now i'm at the point where i'm just so grateful for books like the one i mentioned and mickey baker's book which is awesome too and just so practical. (and from the 50's - come on guys from the 50's and probably still not matched by many methods in terms of usefulness, unbelievable!)

theory is important of course as we all know, but it doesn't exactly get you started to sound like a jazz guitarist in my opinion.

so... did anyone get ted greene's book? (who was nothing short from being a musical genius btw... did you watch his autum leaves solo on youtube that evolves into a baroque improvisation thing)

[Drumbler]

Most jazz books are not good for beginners to jazz with the exception of Mickey Baker's book.

[brwnhornet59]

Yeah, Ted is awesome.

I believe that you are asking about how to develop vocabulary. You will find some good books that help with this process. Currently I am going through Mel Bays Complete Book of Jazz Guitar Lines and Phrases by Sid Jacobs. I have found some beautiful idiomatic lines and sequences that can be extended to any set of intervals, not just the ones being referred to in the book. I have also found Don Mocks book on melodic minor and his studies on harmonic minor and h/w to be quite helpful. Also Joe Diorio has some really great books as does Mick Goodrick and Vic juris.

Like Drumbler said, most jazz study books are not good beginners material. Also listen, transcribe and listen some more. The key to the material I have been studying is not using set licks or phrases over set chord sequences, it is about seeing what makes it tick in the first place and transcending those ideas into my real time playing. I spend hours picking this stuff apart, finger, re-finger, multiple finger everywhere. Learn how to apply these ideas at will. Easier said than done, but definitely doable. For me the more I hear this stuff over chords changes in tunes, the easier it becomes to identify and act without much thinking. To me that is what all the wood shedding is about. Vocabulary is the answer to playing jazz, not just sounding like it, IMHO.