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I believe once you become intermediate or advanced level, you don't need much explanation in the books. You just need more complicated chords, chord progressions, licks and technical skills shown in the notation? I could be wrong.
Originally Posted by Beats_and_Guitars
As a beginner, I seem work better with the books describing and telling what and how to do practice in detail. For advanced readers, they would find the beginner level books boring.
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03-13-2026 06:33 AM
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I understand where you’re coming from but I also believe there’s something good about stretching yourself a little out of your comfort zone as long as it isn’t too much of a stretch. Personally, I tend to see more growth when I’m study something slightly out of my level of understanding. If I need clarification on something I’ll do some research or ask someone. Originally Posted by GBRow
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I was addicted to jazz guitar method books and still have a few but they are perhaps the slowest track to learning. These are the days of miracles and wonders…like video. Granted there is tons of b.s. on YouTube* but a subscription to Chris Whiteman’s Patreon channel or Frank Vignola’s TrueFire channel will propel you forward much quicker then struggling through books. You can LISTEN and WATCH and ASSIMILATE jazz guitar being played. Slow it down loop it. Print TAB and sheet music.
An iPad makes it so convenient.
Sometimes we don’t want to be beholden to an electronic device enter the printed page. But if you want to really learn why not take advantage of modern technology?
* wading through (and ignoring) all the jazz instruction noise out there is an art unto itself…..that is why I think the song based approach is the way to go…pick a song and then seek support on how to deal with that song from your favorite sources…at the end of the day at least you can play that song
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Definitely agree about the iPad. When I can find a PDF I prefer to have that on the iPad. Fortunately Randy’s books are all available in PDF. My practice setup is actually two iPads one for recording and the other for whatever I’m studying. Originally Posted by alltunes
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If the book's content is hard to digest, then you tend to just mull over what it could mean, or wonder why it is relevant to your practicing wasting time, instead of grabbing a guitar and follow the instructions or ideas in the book. Originally Posted by Beats_and_Guitars
Owning books automatically won't make the student a good guitarist. The student must pick up a guitar and has to play the songs, tunes, scales, arpegios, chords or phrases in order to improve. Books can only assist with some ideas and knowledge on know-how, if books can deliver the know-how on the practice and skills in coherent way, and the student can interact with the book's content making conscious effort for highly motivated and focused manner for improvement.
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[QUOTE=Mick-7;1453573]This is from a book sample I found online.....
Attachment 130317
The notation used in the page above has been around a long time, I first encountered it in big band charts in college over 50 years ago. They suggest particular rhythms, e.g., the notation of the eighth note tied to the "diamond" note in the 1st/2nd bars indicates a dotted whole note that starts in the first measure and is held over into the 2nd measure. In this instance, the diamond is a whole note but it's also used to represent a dotted half note in the first bar (a stem is added to the diamond to indicate a half note).
The sample did not include the book's appendices, which I would think explains the notation symbols used in the book? If it doesn't explain them all, it would be a deficiency.[/
QUOTE]
Yes..this would be a good inversion study in the minor 6 / dom9th/7#5b9/min7b5 chords .. replace the half-diminished chord symbol with an Eb9/G may help understand the progression (but not much)
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Originally Posted by Mick-7
Judging by the book sample, the material is presented in an overly scholastic way for a "beginner" book, e.g., I wouldn't name all the chords in the example above, since some of them are a product of voice-leading - maybe if it was a chord melody book. Originally Posted by wolflen
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This is great reference book (it's less of a course as the title suggest) for many topics.
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Came across this FREE eBook on Scales and Arpeggios, and looks good. Anyone owns / using it? Any comments on it?
FREE Arpeggio and Scale Resource PDF (400+ pages)
Reddit - The heart of the internet
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Why and in what respect is this great reference book? Originally Posted by dharma2020
This is great reference book (it's less of a course as the title suggest) for many topics.
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Originally Posted by GBRow
This looks like a great resource. The caged shapes for arpeggios and scales are exactly what I need to double check my own charts.
direct link
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Yes indeed. I did some reading on it last night, and found the writing style is excellent and the content has depth and clarity. The diagrams were clear easy to see. Being in PDF format means it can be expanded if needed. It is a massive 400+ pages book, which is impressive. I thought it would be a good learning resource. Not sure if it would be available in paper book format. There seem to be good FREE online learning / reference resources available like this one, it is cool. Originally Posted by AllanAllen
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Joe Pass Guitar Style
The Barry Harris Approach for Guitar (Alan Kingstone’s book)
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Yes, I have Joe Pass book, and it is a great book to work with. Originally Posted by Mark M.
The BH book was unknown to me. Did a quick internet search and found a FREE downloading site for the EBook copy.
It looks good book too. Thanks for your recommendation.
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The excellent "Guitar Basics" book seems to be aimed at my level of incompetence:
(As recommended by Christian)
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Allan Kingstone's Barry Harris book is a very advanced book. More advanced than meets the eye at first. Like almost all Barry Harris material, it doesn't teach you what to play, instead it shows a bunch of germinal ideas that open the door for self exploration. Thomas Echols, for example, produced a lot of material on harmony and counterpoint just based on the "Expand and Contract" concept which is less than two pages of the book.
Last edited by Tal_175; 03-27-2026 at 08:35 AM.
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Great stuff from both of them but yeah … very deep wells you go back to many times Originally Posted by Tal_175
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It contains many of the essential topics: chords, harmony, scales but also phrases and licks to demonstrate the concepts. You don't have to work through the book linearly, you can just pick a topic and work on that. Originally Posted by GBRow
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David Berkman's The Jazz Harmony book I think is the best resource to study jazz harmony. It's very applied and grounded in the harmony of the standards. There is also a separate section dedicated to post-bop harmony.
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Isn't it book for PIANO? Originally Posted by Tal_175
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Yes, it looks excellent book for reference. Thanks for your info on the book. Originally Posted by dharma2020
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No, it's instrument agnostic. It's written by a pianist but most jazz harmony books are. Originally Posted by GBRow
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I'd think there should be an exceptional interest in
those jazz guitar books CC, JR, and WM liked most.
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I’ve really enjoyed Jazzology too. Originally Posted by Tal_175
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All harmony books will strongly encourage plunking at a piano. Harmony is visible there in a way that it isn’t so obviously on guitar. Originally Posted by GBRow
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