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Every Jerry Bergonzi book.
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10-04-2012 10:10 AM
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My recipe (I am a rookie).
Comping - Three note voicings and beyond Randy Vincent
Soloing - Garry Fewell melodic approach
Tunes
Bert Ligon - Connecting...
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What are the books that helped you and inspired you the most in your playing and understanding the music? I've had and read a lot of books about guitar and general music theory, but when I think back, these would be the books that had the biggest influence on my playing:
- I don't even know the title of the first book, I copied it from a friend's copy when I was a teenager and starting to play the guitar. It contains explanations of the parts of the guitar (acoustic and electric), relation of notes between the guitar and piano, short tutorial on how to read music notation, diagrams with all kinds of chords, notation of some famous pop and rock hits, and on the end of it a part about how to play blues and jazz, explaining the basic rhythms and scales, with some music examples, and it was pure notation, no tabs or anything. It's too bad I don't know the title and the author's name of it, because now I would buy it just to have it, although I've outgrown it. It was a valuable source of information back then, when there was no Internet.
- "Speed Mechanics for Lead Guitar" by Troy Stetina. Great book for introducing some discipline and developing technique and dexterity.
- "The Harmony Basics of Jazz" by the Macedonian author Ilija Pejovski. It helped me understand the basics of jazz harmony and reharmonization. I copied it from a friend while I was studying, and recently bought it from a street bookseller just to have it in my library.
- David Baker's "How to play bebop" series. Nice introduction to bebop scales, and some cool licks.
- The "Contemporary Chord Khancepts" by Steve Khan and Joe Pass' "Guitar Chords" got me going for comping.
- Sheet music: "Kurt Rosenwinkel Compositions", "John Coltrane Improvised Saxophone Solos", "The Bill Evans Guitar Book", "Wes Montgomery Guitar Folio".
And lately I'm reading through Jerry Bergonzi's "Inside Improvisation" series. Wow! I wish I had those books a lot earlier!Last edited by aleksandar; 08-16-2015 at 10:09 AM.
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Paul Berliner "Thinking in Jazz"
Ashley Kahn "Kind of Blue"
Christopher Small "Music of the Common Tongue"
The latter only has a distant relation with jazz, but was relevant and hugely inspiring.
Sheet music: the Real Book (any version)
I've never had any inspiration from "how to" books, or books on guitar technique. (Not since Bert Weedon's "Play in a Day" in the 1960s, which I wouldn't recommend today
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For me:
"The Advancing Guitarist" by Mick Goodrick. This is the only book I've had for over 25 years now and still take from time to time and use it.
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The Books by Bert Ligon
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chord chemistry--ted greene
intervallic designs--joe diorio
no matter how many times I have read and reread .. there is always something new to learn..with the greene book-the many ways to voice a basic triad opens an entire new dimension to understanding the fretboard and voice leading..
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I never found how-to books or books of transcriptions much of an inspiration for some reason. I did buy them, but I found I got more progress by listening and copying things from the records.
The one exception was the Joe Pass chord book, that gave me most of the chords I still use.
But I did find biographies of jazz musicians fascinating, Bird, Miles, Trane, Bill Evans, Art Pepper, Hampton Hawes, Dexter Gordon - I loved reading those. Even the dark aspects were educational, to say the least.
I certainly learned a lot about the racial problems these guys had to deal with, which really surprised me. Like when Miles got beaten up by a cop for standing outside the club he was appearing in, in NY in the 1950s.
So I think I got some real insight and inspiration about how serious the music is, from reading these things.
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I never got inspired by how-to books. Just like grahambop, I bought a few but rarely went through them. I groked what I needed to do from teachers and listening. And bios inspired me.
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Mickey Baker and Mel Bay's Complete Jazz Guitar Method by Mike Christiansen back in the day , Joe Elliott's Introduction to Jazz Guitar Soloing, Leavitt's Modern method.
Probably the most helpful for my personal enjoyment of the music would have to have been Robert Conti's CM methods (The Assembly Line and The Formula) and Real Books.
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George Van Epps Guitar Method, a lifetime's worth of material.
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It seems that a book has most relevance to you when you're just starting to learn a certain aspect of jazz.
I found the orange Joe Pass book great for single line improv when I was first getting into that.
I found Reese Markevitch's book, "Inside Outside" great for learning about chord substitution when I was really interested in that.
Since then I've looked at hundreds of other books, but none of them had the same impact as the two books I mentioned above...
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Improvising Jazz by Jerry Coker
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ditto. I wasted years fumbling with books before I got serious 4 years ago. Such a waste of time. Berliner's "Thinking in Jazz", biographies, learning by ear, memorizing tunes and hanging out with people who can play is how I learned to hang. And shedding like a mofo.
Originally Posted by henryrobinett
I did not know about Clapton's tirade. Wow, despicable stuff...especially for a guy who learned all his music from African Americans. Just another example of how much better Duane Allman was than Clapton.
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Yes, more material in those few pages than in his later Mechanisms. That book and Barry Galbraith's Comping Book taught me how to comp. Originally Posted by eddy b.
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The first two made me realize there is more to life than some bitchin power chords.
Mel Bay's Deluxe Encyclopedia of Guitar Chords
Guitar Grimoire A compendium of Formulas for Guitar Scales and Modes
The next two helped me realize that I could try this.
Beginning Jazz Guitar
Real Book of Jazz
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Maybe it's just because of the method of teaching that my first jazz teacher had with me...which was just for me to learn the music by learning tunes...but the only book that I consistently go back to and recommend to students is the real book. And yes I know...it's not always correct, and I always go to recordings to check things out...but it's a great starting point and reference point.
I actually lost a student over this point once.
He once came into a lesson really worked up about what he perceived to be his lack of progress. Was venting about things. In frustration he asked if there was just ONE book I could recommend him that he and I could work through together from beginning to end that would make him a good jazz player. I surprised him by saying yes. Then I pulled the Real Book off the shelf and said, let's learn every tune in here together...You'll be amazing.
I don't think he appreciated my point...as he wasn't my student much longer after that lesson.
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Hahahaha! that's a great story! Originally Posted by jordanklemons
Really rings true with some of the students I've had who insisted that I was not telling them everything or that I was making them learn in a harder way than what I had done myself
Jens
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08-17-2015, 08:45 AM #44destinytot Guest
Alan Kingstone's The Barry Harris Harmonic Method for Guitar
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Books that inspired me are Leavitt's Modern Method books (help in understanding the guitar layout) and David Baker's how to play bebop (for understanding jazz improvisation). You can't go wrong with those.
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All of Jerry Bergonzi's books, especially Vol. 6.
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Joe Pass chord book probably has had the most effect on my playing.
By far I have learned the most from, and been inspired the most by, video lessons from Joe Pass (youtube), Rich Severson, Jimmy Bruno, and Barry Greene
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Mel Bay Rhythm Guitar Chord System opened up the fretboard for me like no other book. It even improved my lead playing.
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Originally Posted by rsclosson
At some point they renamed that book. It used to be called the Orchestral Chord System.
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Actually my first run through this book was from the Orchestral Chord System. It was given to me by a friend who didn't see the value. I still have that rather tattered version. Kind of a funny cover. It actually says:"Put Atomic Power in Every Chord." Originally Posted by DanielleOM
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