Jazz Guitar Technique Book(s): what do you recommend?

[MarkRhodes]

Lots of choices for the aspiring guitarist. Here are just a few titles.

Mel Bay, "Technic"
Andrew Green, "Jazz Guitar Technique"
Barry Galbraith, "Fingerboard Workbook" and "Daily Exercises"
Bert Ligon, "Comprehensive Technique for Jazz Musicians" (not guitar-specific)

Which book would you recommend to someone who has been playing awhile and wants to solidify his (or her) technique? Also, why that book?

[docbop]

I use various things a couple of them are: Alan Hanlon - Kreutzer Violin Studies for Guitar. It's out of print, but there are copies floating around the internet. Got it when playing bass and use it with guitar too the Hanon Virtuoso Pianist in 60 Exercises. It's one of those classical books that's only $4.00. Last I'll throw in is Technique of the Saxophone - Volume 2: Chord Studies by Joe Viola it's a Berklee Press book. I first used the trombone version of the book when playing bass and pickup up the sax version when back on guitar.

As my teacher says any book of patterns or even making up patterns works, just take a pattern and alter it for different scales, then play the patterns through changes and tunes.

[monk]

I'll second the Hanon piano etudes. They basically take a pattern or cell through a two octave scale.

Also Kreutzer and Wohlfahrt violin etudes are short and melodic. I have Volume 1 of Opus 60 by Wohlfahrt. That's where most of Bob Conti's stuff that he learned from Joe Sgro came from.

HR was fond of the Klose' clarinet etudes when I was at GIT.

The Berklee Classical Studies for Pick Style Guitar is good. It has some Bach and Paganini etudes along with other classical pieces.

I've heard some guitarists swear by Bach's Cello Suites but I've never used them. Everything else I've mentioned I've used at one time or another.

I've also tried some Czerny's School of Velocity. Wickedly difficult stuff. I'm going to have to give it another shot someday.

[nick1994]

For technique, I use Shearer's classic guitar technique volume 1 and slur, ornament and reach development sup.1. I recommend them both if you're interested in slurring and finger picking.

[JPP65]

Gotta put in a plug for Frank Gambale's Technique book Vol. One (I keep looking for Vol. two, but haven't seen it for years.) That's the book that first started me branching out from basic scales.

[MarkRhodes]

I'll second the Hanon piano etudes. They basically take a pattern or cell through a two octave scale.

Also Kreutzer and Wohlfahrt violin etudes are short and melodic. I have Volume 1 of Opus 60 by Wohlfahrt. That's where most of Bob Conti's stuff that he learned from Joe Sgro came from.

I have Conti's "Precision Technique" and have learned a lot from it.
I just started working in Barry Galbraith's "Fingerboard Workbook" and I think that's going to do me a lot of good. BG also has a play-along of 2-part Bach inventions for guitar. I'm not there yet but I hear that book is a) a worthwhile challenge to read and b) a joy to play.

[online jazz]

Mark Levine's "Jazz Theory" is really good. It will keep you busy for years and can be applied to all styles.

[MarkRhodes]

I'm using Barry Galbriath's "Fingerboard Workbook" (-Volume #1 in a 5 volume series published by Jamey Aebersold).I like it a lot. The emphasis is on 'logical fingering' and the etudes give are challenging for me without being overwhelming. Also, he has some exercises in the back for working through 7th chords in a cycle and a few pages of ii-V lines in major and minor. (<<<These are a cut above most ii-V etudes I have tried.) Finally, a one-chorus solo on the changes to "All The Things You Are."

The second volume in the series is called "Daily Exercises in the Melodic Minor and Harmonic Minor Modes." I look forward to getting into that one next.

Barry Galbraith # 1 - The Fingerboard Workbook: Barry Galbraith: 9781562240387: Amazon.com: Books

[nick1994]

I'm using Barry Galbriath's "Fingerboard Workbook" (-Volume #1 in a 5 volume series published by Jamey Aebersold).I like it a lot. The emphasis is on 'logical fingering' and the etudes give are challenging for me without being overwhelming. Also, he has some exercises in the back for working through 7th chords in a cycle and a few pages of ii-V lines in major and minor. (<<<These are a cut above most ii-V etudes I have tried.) Finally, a one-chorus solo on the changes to "All The Things You Are."

The second volume in the series is called "Daily Exercises in the Melodic Minor and Harmonic Minor Modes." I look forward to getting into that one next.

Barry Galbraith # 1 - The Fingerboard Workbook: Barry Galbraith: 9781562240387: Amazon.com: Books

I was looking at that the other day, but I wasn't sure if it was worth ordering.

[MarkRhodes]

I was looking at that the other day, but I wasn't sure if it was worth ordering.

It's good stuff, and for $7 or $8 bucks, it's hard to go wrong with instruction from a top pro. But so much depends on what you already know. I think if you go to the Aebersold site, you can view a few sample pages. That might help you decide.

[inwalkedbud]

The Serious Jazz Practice Book

More of a "yo check all this crap out now go practice" kind of thing but I've had it for years and go back to it all the time for bits and pieces of stuff.

Also intended for all instruments so it's not an actual "technique book" in the traditional sense. Sort of like the Bert Ligon one that someone mentioned. I've got both... never used the Ligon one for anything but sight-reading. I use this one all the time for whatever it's worth.

[Dana]

Expansions by Gary Campbell

[jishnudg]

Joe Diorio, Giant Steps... The intervallic studies improved my alt. Picking and sweep picking quite a bit.

[David B]

Learning all the Charlie Parker heads.

[jishnudg]

Learning all the Charlie Parker heads.

Yep definitely.... Any recordings of people who've made etudes out of those?

[vintagelove]

I am a bit torn on the subject, and I have never opened a single technique book in my life.... so....


I would suggest that if your technique is not so great, learning guitar player friendly things would be far more valuable in getting your technique up to speed.

In other words, a person with no so great technique would IMO be better off waiting to tackle the hannon book, because it is not "easy" to play. It contains many of the little "roadblocks" that tend to trip people up (for instance going from the E string to the A with an upstroke, "up with an upstroke"). IMO those roadblock are best solved individually by dedicated exercises.

Up with and upstroke
down with a downstroke
3 notes per string
string skipping
etc

Now once you can do all those things well, by all means get after those hannon exercises.

As far as books go, personally I think your much better off learning real music. Bach inventions, Pagginini violin stuff, Jazz heads/solos, etc etc. Whatever makes you want to pick up the guitar. There is always something to learn from great music.

Also remember, there is not one correct way to play the guitar (which is why books fall short, if your having issues with your picking hand, a Bach invention will quickly tell you everything you need to know). You have to find what works well for YOU.

[docbop]

Why not practice technique by using music you would actually perform for people? Heads, lines, chord-melody, and comping all require fluency, proficiency, and efficient left/right hand coordination; and since the end is to make music, it makes sense to me to start with music, rather than spend time getting up to tempo on an etude and then try to apply what you've learned to a tune. When you look back, the time you spent learning how to play 20 exercises could have been used to learn 20 heads, 20 ii-V licks, 20 turnarounds, or anything else of practical value. Tunes -- that's where it's at.

Funny after going to music school on guitar and later on bass many things you thing would be told to guitars like above don't. Bass it was said having a technique issue find a song that requires that technique and learn it.

Something I notice that many times working on exercises and running scales that how a person plays them is different than when using the same scales or etc in a playing situation. That when in a playing an exercise mode hands and pick shift a bit, versus when in playing music.

Also noticed classical teaching material for instruments exercises are more musical, than the mechanical ways guitarists tend to approach working on technique.

Just some observations of mine.

[inwalkedbud]

Cross between the two. Find a particular part of a tune that highlights a technical issue you're having (the first measure of Dewey Square because your triplet arpeggio sweeping stuff is weak) and construct your own étude. I totally get the "practice what you'll play" thing and your exercises should always be musical and very precise to what you're working on but you shouldn't limit yourself to ideas that Charlie Parker used in melodies. Ideally w improvising "practice what you'll play" should eventually encompass anything and everything that enters your ear

[Stuart Elliott]

A few comments on Mark's suggestions that started this thread.

The Mel Bay Technics (by Roger Filberto?) should be useful to developing guitarists from relative beginners to more advanced. Good for basic warm-up, hands coordination, etc.

I'm working on Barry Galbraith's Fingerboard Workbook right now and am finding it very useful and helpful. The challenge, of course, is to internalize the position changes, fingering leaps that Galbraith teaches in order to play the entire fingerboard and not just from one position and to seamlessly move from one tonal center to another.

I bought Andrew Green's Jazz Technique recently in a local music store, after debating between it and a couple of others and being swayed by blurbs by Goodrick and Abercrombie. It has lots of very good stuff, but one very controversial and key technique recommendation. Green opposes the conventional jazz practice of "rolling" fingers to play notes at the same fret on different strings (e.g. C and F and fifth and fourth.) Instead he advocates that the note on the thicker string (eg. C on the fifth string) be played with the longer finger and the note on the thinner string (e.g. F on the fourth string) be played with the shorter finger and provides exercises to develop the new fingering practice. Green's fingering ideas probably deserve their own thread, but, in my opinion, they are so radically different from the norm that recommending the book should probably have a disclaimer (whether take a look and make up your own mind, ignore, or absolutely valuable--don't skip.)

The George Van Eps Guitar Method might be helpful to some and is not the tremendous commitment of Harmonic Mechanisms. It is very good on harmonized scales and would be good preparation for those interested in chord melody playing.

[TH]

Wayne Krantz wrote a book An Improvisor's OS which is a do it yourself book of fingering permutations that have a minimum of explanatory material. This approach puts a lot of initiative on the student but the possibilities are rigorous, exhaustive, far reaching and an exercise in imaginative application too. For the advancing student with strong motivation, this little book is a powerful opening into melodic, kinesthetic and improvisational technique. It doesn't hold your hand, and I was really grateful it didn't. I'm still working on it and it fits really nicely into the pouch of a gig bag.
David

[MarkRhodes]

Also noticed classical teaching material for instruments exercises are more musical, than the mechanical ways guitarists tend to approach working on technique.

I've noticed that too. Robert Conti has several Wohlfahrt exercises in his "Precision Technique"---they're fun because they sound like music and really work the pinky finger.

I'm using some Mel Bay books from the library (-primarily to practice reading, though I enjoy many of the pieces) and some of the classical pieces are enjoyable to play / learn because, as you say, they are more musical than most guitar exercises. So too are the ragtime-y pieces, but that's another story.

[dasein]

all the suggestions here are good. it really just depends on what you want to practice. if something is so boring that you don't want to practice it, it's not going to do you any good.

so while the Kreutzer etudes and Paganini caprices are all good for building technique, i rarely play them simply because i don't find them that musical or interesting. the Bach Sonata and Partitas are much more musical to me. but this is all subjective.

i would also look into various classical repertoire for violin, flute, trumpet, clarinet, and saxophone. many of these instruments have solo pieces written for them that make great technical practice. and you have a wide range of composers to choose from, everyone from Bach to Berios. even guys like Chopin often have pieces that have been transcribed for other instruments (Moyes transcribed a number of Chopin etudes for solo flute).

you could also look into classical guitar repertoire. i am not classically trained in the slightest, but i've found working through some Leo Brouwer or Villa-Lobos pieces to be really beneficial. sure, some classical purists might cringe at the thought of these pieces being performed on an electric guitar without any attention to classical technique, but who cares. it's not like you're going to give a recital, you're just shedding.

for jazz specific stuff, i would listen to other's advice and start working on a whole bunch of bebop heads. Ted Dunbar had a list of 50 bebop heads that he required his students to learn, some of them fairly obscure. and of course, solos by all the masters make great technical pieces (Warne Marsh used to warm up by playing Lester Young solos).

again, what you want to do will dictate what you practice. going through George Van Eps material will give you group of sounds. Wayne Krantz, Joe Diorio, or Eddie Harris material will give you another.

I bought Andrew Green's Jazz Technique recently in a local music store, after debating between it and a couple of others and being swayed by blurbs by Goodrick and Abercrombie. It has lots of very good stuff, but one very controversial and key technique recommendation. Green opposes the conventional jazz practice of "rolling" fingers to play notes at the same fret on different strings (e.g. C and F and fifth and fourth.) Instead he advocates that the note on the thicker string (eg. C on the fifth string) be played with the longer finger and the note on the thinner string (e.g. F on the fourth string) be played with the shorter finger and provides exercises to develop the new fingering practice. Green's fingering ideas probably deserve their own thread, but, in my opinion, they are so radically different from the norm that recommending the book should probably have a disclaimer (whether take a look and make up your own mind, ignore, or absolutely valuable--don't skip.)

[docbop]

I bought Andrew Green's Jazz Technique recently in a local music store, after debating between it and a couple of others and being swayed by blurbs by Goodrick and Abercrombie. It has lots of very good stuff, but one very controversial and key technique recommendation. Green opposes the conventional jazz practice of "rolling" fingers to play notes at the same fret on different strings (e.g. C and F and fifth and fourth.) Instead he advocates that the note on the thicker string (eg. C on the fifth string) be played with the longer finger and the note on the thinner string (e.g. F on the fourth string) be played with the shorter finger and provides exercises to develop the new fingering practice. Green's fingering ideas probably deserve their own thread, but, in my opinion, they are so radically different from the norm that recommending the book should probably have a disclaimer (whether take a look and make up your own mind, ignore, or absolutely valuable--don't skip.)

I did the Tim Miller lessons for a little while and he says basically the same thing to use separate finger and don't roll. Tim's only exception is if its the index finger then he said rolling makes sense. I would say after working on it Tim is correct you get a better timbre using separate fingers. Tim's not the first I've heard say this over the years, so I don't know if I'd say rolling the conventional Jazz practice, I'd say many doing it because it easy or no one has suggested they work on using individual fingers (exception the index finger). I say in long run work on both so you have both at your disposal.

[MarkRhodes]

I did the Tim Miller lessons for a little while and he says basically the same thing to use separate finger and don't roll. Tim's only exception is if its the index finger then he said rolling makes sense. I would say after working on it Tim is correct you get a better timbre using separate fingers. Tim's not the first I've heard say this over the years, so I don't know if I'd say rolling the conventional Jazz practice, I'd say many doing it because it easy or no one has suggested they work on using individual fingers (exception the index finger). I say in long run work on both so you have both at your disposal.

Barry Galbraith suggested rolling. "Another important point: The finger tip should be rolled, not lifted, when consecutive notes appear on adjacent strings of the same fret." ("The Fingerboard Workbook," page 3.) I read about rolling in Leon White's "Styles for the Studio" as a teen. I think Ted Greene recommends it too.

That doesn't mean it's the only way, or even that most good teachers recommend it, but clearly some good ones do.

[coolvinny]

In this amateur's opinion - some heads are just very tricky and require a custom approach. I try to avoid rolling where I can, but sometimes there is no choice for the desired tempo...at least with my technique (which is decent but not amazing).

Anybody here play Lester Young's "Tickle Toe"? It's no Donna Lee, but the first 8 bars are tough to finger on the guitar. I went through a few different "fingerings" before settling on one that seemed to make the most sense. And once I did that, I was able to up the tempo immediately, by a quite a bit, and it is much easier to make tempo gains with the new fingering too. (I am trying to keep up with a pro alto player who burns through this tune well over 200! I'm not there yet)

There are other tunes where I noticed pro guitarists would change the head in order to gloss over particularly tricky portions. Groovin High is an example...the phrase in the last bar of the first A section (i.e. bar 16) is tricky (but totally playable since it's a short burst of notes). Reg Schwager plays it differently, simplifying it. It sounds just as good. Inspired by Reg's approach, I have done the same thing with the Monk tune "Sixteen", which is very hard at bar 1 of the bridge - four 16th notes, repeat, four 16th notes, repeat. So I substituted a quarter notes for each of the "repeats". And now I can play the entire tune quite a bit faster, and I think it sounds just fine.

But I do like the idea of using tricky parts of tunes to work on technique.