Jim Ferguson - All Blues Soloing for Jazz Guitar

[Paxikonic]

Does anyone have any experience of Ferguson's book "All blues soloing for jazz guitar" and if so what are the thoughts ?

[ragman1]

You can buy one cheaply here:

All Blues Soloing for Jazz Guitar: Scales, Licks, Concepts & Choruses by Ferguson, Jim: Good Paperback (1999) | ThriftBooks-Dallas

Product synopsis:

'The most complete guide to jazz/blues soloing ever written! This comprehensive book details the sounds, elements, and approaches that make the blues such an integral part of the jazz vocabulary. Moving from blues progressions to fingerboard organization to phrasing, essential blues scales, riffs, lick development, and an array of advanced concepts and devices, including substitute scales and extended super arpeggios are covered. Throughout this process 38 solos, over 100 music examples, and hundreds of licks are featured. Written in notation and tablature.'

It sounds as though the whole book is only dedicated to the Miles Davis tune 'All Blues' but I don't think that's the case :-)

[ragman1]

This book has a 4.5 out of 5 rating on Amazon. That's very good. The only complaint is that the CD with it isn't of very good quality.

To my mind, that's par for the course. Not many CD's that come with instruction books are of great quality. It's instructional, not a commercial performance by a known artist. It's not that great a sacrifice, if any.

On Abe Books, the link I posted, there's only one copy left. Abe Books is a very dependable site, they have a very good reputation. They are good people. Most copies of this book are selling for £20 +, this one is going for £6 and it's the last one.

If I were you I'd snap it up while you can. Just saying. And no, I do not work for Abe Books :-)

[Paxikonic]

i've just got a copy of a pdf of the book from a friend .I wanna know if its worth the trouble

[ragman1]

I understand that but, you know, a bargain's a bargain. Thing is, you won't know if it's 'any good' till you've been working at it for quite some time. So much depends on your own ability, the amount of time you give, and the intensity you put into it. No book is a magic pill to make you play.

But if your pdf is good enough then that's fine. Glad you got it without any expenditure!

[Paxikonic]

20 years ago, 've never looked at it

[Ascend to Victory]

Does anyone have any experience of Ferguson's book "All blues soloing for jazz guitar" and if so what are the thoughts ?

I haven't used the whole book, but there are some nice phrases in the 102 licks chapter from Kenny Burrell, Jim Raney, Wes, Grant Green, and many others. The audio quality isn't good on the book's corresponding tracks, but i liked a lot of the lines so I dealt with it.

[GuyBoden]

I had the book maybe 20 years ago, I don't know where it's gone, but it's not on the shelf with the others gathering dust.