Top Ten, Must Have Jazz Guitar Books

[Tom Z]

If you join yahoo jazz guitar groups, you can download a whole howard roberts book in pdf. Its really a challenging book/course. It even describes the fingerings similar to what Jimmy Bruno uses in his teaching method (although the lessons are not based on the fingerings). Its cool, maybe unrealistic, but it gets you into a really good practice routine. Prob an illegal download but worth checking out.

Chord Chemistry is cool but hard to use. I pick a page and focus for a while...I always come up with new ideas or sounds. Its cool for an intermediate level.

Books are cool, but really its play time and listening time. I found that out after spending waaaay too much money.

[Dystonian_Mode]

Howard Roberts: Guitar Manual -- Chord Melody

I picked this one up about 20 years ago after I finished G.I.T.
This is a great little book/manual featuring very interesting chord melody ideas. It's probably suited more for a slightly advanced chord melody student. I still look back at it every now and then

Howard Roberts "super/monster chops is a another great book that teaches students how to develop smooth, uninterupted lines when playing over changes.

[martinopass]

I meant to add the chord melody book I like:

Chord Melody Assembly Line by Robert Conti - A great introducntion of how to do chord melody along with charts to match a chord with any melody note.

[Tom Z]

The free pdf book in yahoo! Groups Jazz Guitar is the Howard Roberts Superchops book.

[dimlocator]

I strongly recommend the 2 Mimi Fox materials already mentioned. Both books are very accessible & don't overwhelm you with too much material.

"Jazz Anatomy" (DVD set, not book): breaks down jazz into manageable chunks, with some comping & soloing ideas for 5 areas: major blues, minor blues, modal jazz, major II-V-I, minor II-V-I.

"Arpeggio Studies on Jazz Standards" (book & CD): self-explanatory, but it really helps you navigate arpeggios & start using them yourself.

I've only been playing jazz more or less seriously for about 18 months (before that I played blues & rock, also Brazilian standards on nylon string guitars), so I'm still working through these 2 books, but even having only covered some of the material, I have learnt a lot, improved, & had a lot of fun.

Another good book is:

"Walking Bass Lines for Jazz Guitar" (book with CD) by Stephan Badreau. You need to be reasonably conversant with the basic chords for this, but it's still very accessible. It's also a good introduction to basic chord substitution. Most of the time I'm a one man rhythm section in a small combo, so getting a handle on this skill has been great!

[RedV]

Just happened upon this thread - I see that the last post was some time ago but I just got here. The Mickey Baker book was my first introduction (almost 50 years ago) & there may not be a better starting point. For anyone who's a year or two past that I'd recommend (emphatically) anything by Vic Juris. The Juris recommendation would be for anyone interested in in structures ranging from pure "Jazz guitar" to fusion.

[markerhodes]

Herb Ellis has three books---Swing Blues, Rhythm Shapes, and All The Shapes You Are--that show you his approach, which is similar to Charlie Christians: build lines from simple chord shapes (mainly, F, A, and D). The first book (Swing Blues) has Herb improvising several choruses of blues in C, F, and Bb (the latter a slow blues). "Rhythm Shapes" has many lines for the A and B sections of the rhythm changes, as well as two complete solos. The final book, "All the Shapes You Are" has "vamps" over each chord of the progression (-ranging from eight bars to sixteen) and two complete chorus as the end. You're hearing Herb play and that's always a plus! Lot of *useable* material, very little theory.