If you only had 1 book to work through…

[Bach5G]

… which one would it be?

The H Roberts Superchops course got me thinking a little. I have more books than I know what to do with. If I could only sit down and work through one book for an extended period of time. But which one? Or maybe concentrate on my Barry Greene videos or maybe explore full access to True Fire courses. Or go back to the start - Mickey Baker. But somebody posted a link to Joe Pass Guitar Style yesterday.

Too much information.

[mr. beaumont]

Sher New Real Book (along with a stack of recordings)

[kris]

Pat Martino-"Linear Expressions"

[Tal_175]

It really depends on what "working through" means. It seems to me that for a lot of people working through books or video courses is just a way of avoiding doing the real work. That's why I think it's not that uncommon to meet musicians who have been dabbling with jazz for literally decades and still hoping that the next book or the course will open the door to jazz improvisation, comping or chord-melody arrangements.

[frabarmus]

Mick Goodrick's Advancing Guitarist

[FwLineberry]

The Advancing Guitarist by Mick Goodrick.

.

[Bach5G]

It really depends on what "working through" means. It seems to me that for a lot of people working through books or video courses is just a way of avoiding doing the real work. That's why I think it's not that uncommon to meet musicians who have been dabbling with jazz for literally decades and still hoping that the next book or the course will open the door to jazz improvisation, comping or chord-melody arrangements.

That’s basically where I’m at.

Never found anything helpful in Advancing Guitarist. Sold it along will Okazaki and Willcock.

[Jimmy Smith]

The Real Solos book. I don't understand people's preoccupation with method books. I like to pick and choose the concepts I work on based on what I need and check videos on youtube with demonstrations. Instead of trying to slog thru a dumb book chronologically.

[supersoul]

Charlie Parker Omnibook

[Bach5G]

The Real Solos book?

[Tim Clark]

It really depends on what "working through" means. It seems to me that for a lot of people working through books or video courses is just a way of avoiding doing the real work. That's why I think it's not that uncommon to meet musicians who have been dabbling with jazz for literally decades and still hoping that the next book or the course will open the door to jazz improvisation, comping or chord-melody arrangements.

This is spot on and no doubt where many of us have found ourselves.

Here's what worked for me: picking one song I really loved—one that moved me—and learning a simple chord melody version of it, then practicing until I could play it well and play it for other people. This gave me a lot of pleasure and reinforced the learning effort (or you might want to figure out a solo against backing tracks or whatever interests you rather than chord melody).

In my experience, there's no substitute for learning and performing songs, as Jeff implied above.

[Jimmy Smith]

The Real Solos book?

Or it's called The Real Jazz Solos Book. It's a real book made up of a few solos from each of many of the greats.

[NSJ]

Great American Songbook. everything you need to put into practice and perfect every thing you’ve practiced.

[Tal_175]

That’s basically where I’m at.

Never found anything helpful in Advancing Guitarist. Sold it along will Okazaki and Willcock.

Taking one idea, (whether that's a comping phrase, a lick, a rhythmic idea, harmonic concept, anything really) and breaking it down and experimenting with it, applying it to tunes etc. is when the real progress happens in my case. Part of the progress is trusting your own creativity because that's really all you've got to work with. It doesn't even take that much creativity to deeply explore an idea. Everybody is capable of coming up with a cool lick or an idea that Joe Pass or Barry Harris wouldn't have thought of because the musical possibilities are infinite.

Internalization is more a product of experimentation and exploration than memorization. Intervallic awareness of the fretboard makes this process a lot easier, IMO. Also seeing comping, soloing and chord-melody as one and the same has been very transformative for me and it is facilitated by intervallic awareness.

As some other people have suggested, I agree that songs are great sources of ideas.

[StringNavigator]

Which one...?? I would smuggle one book inside the other. They truly compliment each other.

[Roger Edison Jazz Rhythm Guitar]
(Roger Edison) Jazz Rhythm Guitar | PDF | Popular Music | Jazz (scribd.com)

[Johnny Rector Encyclopedia of Guitar Chord Progressions (Mel Bay)]
Amazon.com: Deluxe Encyclopedia of Guitar Chord Progressions: 9780786689057: Rector, Johnny: Books

You have to "work" both books because of the exercises and changes/tunes covered.
They're not chatty. Not Real Books, but Real Finds.
With these two books, you could make up your own "Reals".
For anyone wanting to play changes with chords, they are treasure chests of Jazz.
They outstrip the mainstays oft mentioned on forums.

I don't use them as a crutch, They're on a shelf in the basement and I'm playing in the garage, but I know where I'm headed on the FB as they organised my thinking as an accompanist. The Edison book does have a twin dealing with lead guitar, but these two books are grips and changes only.

They even cover Runout (how to make a seamless transfer from say a Gm6 acting as a C7 in second position to an F7 in sixth position - Key of Bb.). No one teaches this anymore.

I've had them for years, their covers are shredded. They cover back-cycling, passing chords(o7 aug m7), shell chords, chromatic m7's, original vs modern changes, repeated changes with gradual extensions(M6 M7 M9 m7 m9 m11 7 9 13), alteration(+/-5 +/-9), substitution(m6 9 m7-5 tritone), inversions(/3 /5) 60 + 100 useful grips of all qualities, 12-Bar, Rhythm Changes, Back-Door changes, Dominant March(Sweet Georgia Brown) and quick changes like 1M7-1M6-2m6-59.

Some folks look down on self-directed books, and there are some bloviated time wasters out there, but I wish I had these two back when I started out. I'd leave the rest and take the best.

::

[AllanAllen]

Mickey Baker. You learn a few grips, a few scales, and arpeggios in a year of effort and have enough foundation to play. That Dm7b5b9b13 will teach you to get comfortable being uncomfortable, the repetitive chromatic runs will teach you how to be patient and work on reaching new places. It’s all in there if you don’t give up. The book itself can teach you how to read music and a byproduct of reading is learning the notes on the fretboard.

It’s a really great book if you can play the long game.

Edit to add: you don’t need a book to learn tunes.

[Jimmy Smith]

Taking one idea, (whether that's a comping phrase, a lick, a rhythmic idea, harmonic concept, anything really) and breaking it down and experimenting with it, applying it to tunes etc. is when the real progress happens in my case.

Really agree here. Trying to focus on upping one aspect of your playing and get the topic internalized. To me, trying to slog through a book is counter productive to this. I want to get an explanation, and a demonstration as efficiently as possible so I can absorb the idea while minimizing discouragement.

Part of the progress is trusting your own creativity because that's really all you've got to work with. It doesn't even take that much creativity to deeply explore an idea. Everybody is capable of coming up with a cool lick or an idea that Joe Pass or Barry Harris wouldn't have thought of because the musical possibilities are infinite.

I agree, it shouldn't take much creativity to explore an idea. Once you get the idea, the creativity is able to flow.

Internalization is more a product of experimentation and exploration than memorization. Intervallic awareness of the fretboard makes this process a lot easier, IMO. Also seeing comping, soloing and chord-melody as one and the same has been very transformative for me and it is facilitated by intervallic awareness.

Some of internalization does come from playing the aspect correctly.

As some other people have suggested, I agree that songs are great sources of ideas.

To me it takes more than only tune work to get all aspects of playing in ship shape.

[John A.]

My vote is for taking some lessons and trying to get yourself into some sort of playing situation with other people. Books are fine as reference and exercise material, but on their own they can't teach you to improvise.

[vintagelove]

A book with tunes.

[Jazzjourney4Eva]

It’s more like, which 10 books - per level - would you benefit from?

plus the one you write yourself (your notebook, however informal or formal you like).

There is NO jazz guitar bible.

[pamosmusic]

Advancing Guitarist really is great, with the added benefit that you can never really “work through” it.

I also love the “Serious Jazz Practice” book. So many melodic ideas in it, and it suggests so many more. If you get creative, all those melodic ideas suggest harmonic ideas. And there’s no guitar method per se but you can’t get past page one without running into some serious technical challenges you’ll need to work out.

Though I’ll second the “no jazz guitar Bible” sentiment. I think the problem here is that any “guitar” book is going to need to spend a ton of time covering technique, and will have less space for language and repertoire. Any book of transcriptions or tunes or whatever is going to leave the technical part up to you. Generally I think that’s great … puzzling through technical challenges is good for the soul … but it’s also a heavy lift without a technical foundation going in.

I guess I would opt for the technical stuff for that reason. And also, strictly speaking, you don’t need a book to learn the tunes or the solos

[pamosmusic]

My vote is for taking some lessons and trying to get yourself into some sort of playing situation with other people. Books are fine as reference and exercise material, but on their own they can't teach you to improvise.

Also if the question is a way of saying you’re in a rut and are having trouble getting out, then yeah … I would second this advice right here.

Especially the part about finding someone else to play with. Doesn’t even have to be someone better than you or a whole band. Someone else in a rut would do just fine.

[Christian Miller]

I don’t think I’ve ever used one book from end to end. I might get one or two ideas and move on.

[NSJ]

I don’t think I’ve ever used one book from end to end. I might get one or two ideas and move on.

Pretty much. Vic Juris, the late great master who wrote a few books, said that was his goal as both an author and practitioner: To get a couple (one-two-threee) important things or concepts down from a book. If one gets that, it woud have been worth it.

Now, that leaves unsaid the following why the above approach works: it would work because the student has a solid foundation (studying with a. Good teacher initially who laid it all out) and knows what they are looking for, has a good idea of what they want to achieve, and knows how to find and allocate resources to fit their vision and overall plan.

The alternative is to throw crap against a wall and see what sticks: go from book to book, YouTube video to YouTube video, never with an idea of what one is doing or trying to achieve, overall.

A good teacher instructs their student to be their own teacher-to begin a lifetime of personal inquiry.

[AllanAllen]

The alternative is to throw crap against a wall and see what sticks: go from book to book, YouTube video to YouTube video, never with an idea of what one is doing or trying to achieve, overall.

Been there and done that. nothing sticks.