The Jimmy Raney Book Study Group

[lawson-stone]

No, but this forum runs hot and cold. People participate in a thread heavily, then pull back a bit usually to do more work, then come back again. I hope it continues. I've profited greatly from reading the thread.

[RaneyJR]

No, but this forum runs hot and cold. People participate in a thread heavily, then pull back a bit usually to do more work, then come back again. I hope it continues. I've profited greatly from reading the thread.

I see, well glad you got something out of it. I'm around in case any questions

Cheers,

Jon

[lawson-stone]

I see, well glad you got something out of it. I'm around in case any questions

Cheers,

Jon

I learned every solo in the Aebersold set featuring Jimmy's solos. Memorized them, got most of them up to a decent tempo though the really fast ones had to be slower for me. It was the very best learning experience I"ve ever had on the guitar. So I have a natural interest in the new book, but these days I have some heavy family obligations and my time to really study the instrument is limited. That's why I am reading and following the thread, and hope to post.

Thanks for giving us the magnificent book so full of good guidance for playing richer lines.

I used to joke that when I was playing your dad's solos, my amp wondered if it had been sold to a real jazz guitar player.

[RaneyJR]

I learned every solo in the Aebersold set featuring Jimmy's solos. Memorized them, got most of them up to a decent tempo though the really fast ones had to be slower for me. It was the very best learning experience I"ve ever had on the guitar. So I have a natural interest in the new book, but these days I have some heavy family obligations and my time to really study the instrument is limited. That's why I am reading and following the thread, and hope to post.

Thanks for giving us the magnificent book so full of good guidance for playing richer lines.

I used to joke that when I was playing your dad's solos, my amp wondered if it had been sold to a real jazz guitar player.

Re: personal stuff. I get it. I'm in the middle of a move and I'm not the young lad I used to be.
Re: Amp. . He tends to sit on my shoulder rather than the amp...

That Aebersold book came out in 1976 I think. it has retained a great deal of popularity. It was pretty unique for its time.

[CliffR]

Pretty quiet around here. Has the book project been put to bed?

Hey Jon,

I still have the book open on my desk, but have been a little distracted by a shiny (gold glitter) new Les Paul copy. I recently discovered I can turn the gain down for a clean sound, so I should soon be switching back from Jimmy Page to Jimmy Raney mode.

[RaneyJR]

Hey Jon,

... should soon be switching back from Jimmy Page to Jimmy Raney mode.

Heartbreaker

lol

[CliffR]

Heartbreaker

lol

Well, it had been a long time....

[lawson-stone]

Re: personal stuff. I get it. I'm in the middle of a move and I'm not the young lad I used to be.
Re: Amp. . He tends to sit on my shoulder rather than the amp...

That Aebersold book came out in 1976 I think. it has retained a great deal of popularity. It was pretty unique for its time.

I can't say enough how much I enjoyed learning those solos, and while I didn't steal a lot of licks, I felt like a lot of the feel and vibe of the solos did come into my playing. Lines that are logical, flowing, seemed to make more sense to me after doing the project. It was a study-group on this forum and a lot of the videos are still on YouTube done by those of us who were in it.

[CliffR]

I re-started chapter 3, and am now struggling to get fig 3-1 under my fingers, along with a little slurring into the downbeats where I can. Maybe it's the displacement that's making this so tricky, but I feel like it's going to take a while .

[CliffR]

I'm unsure how to interpret the second B note in bar 2, Fig 3-10. The first and third Bs in the same bar both have a flat sign in front of the, but this one doesn't. Should it be a B natural?

[RaneyJR]

I'm unsure how to interpret the second B note in bar 2, Fig 3-10. The first and third Bs in the same bar both have a flat sign in front of the, but this one doesn't. Should it be a B natural?

Bb, It's on the Bb-7 chord

If there is any discontinuity between the Printed and electronic versions (which has the Bb) my apologies. it was a mad dash to printing in July of 2024 honestly

[CliffR]

Bb, It's on the Bb-7 chord

If there is any discontinuity between the Printed and electronic versions (which has the Bb) my apologies. it was a mad dash to printing in July of 2024 honestly

Thanks Jon!

[Mick-7]

I figured you would have added a natural sign if you wanted a B.... Bb throughout unless otherwise indicated.

[CliffR]

My confusion was why bother with the b sign on the very last B, since it would pick up the accidental from the first B. So I figured two interpretations: either that last b is not needed, or there was a missing natural on the previous B that made it required to return to a Bb. To be clear, I'm talking here about the second bar, over Eb, not the third.

[Mick-7]

The standard notation rule is that an accidental applies throughout a measure, so the third flat (Bb) is superfluous, that's how I read it - and the Bb is a pedal point in the ascending chromatic line. Playing the last three notes as A-B-Bb could be interesting.

[JazzKatua]

My confusion was why bother with the b sign on the very last B, since it would pick up the accidental from the first B. So I figured two interpretations: either that last b is not needed, or there was a missing natural on the previous B that made it required to return to a Bb. To be clear, I'm talking here about the second bar, over Eb, not the third.

Accidentals only apply to the note for the measure and on that line (so not for octaves higher or lower).
It has been done by convention and even J.S. Bach applied it in his compositions when necessary 300 years ago.
Music Software like Sibelius or Musescore also have this convention built-in, so when in doubt try it out in Musescore (it's free) to be sure.

[CliffR]

Minor note - the 'alt notes' arrow for the 2nd bar of figure 4-4 is pointing to the wrong pair of notes. I don't think I know what the term 'broken chord' means here?

[RaneyJR]

Minor note - the 'alt notes' arrow for the 2nd bar of figure 4-4 is pointing to the wrong pair of notes. I don't think I know what the term 'broken chord' means here?

Yes there is some contra-notal drift there. Need to fix that in next edition. Broken chord is an inherited term I picked up that means arpeggiated chord rather than struck. I tend to differentiate that further where note order change is employed (rather than uniform direction). Will have to look that up.

[CliffR]

Yes there is some contra-notal drift there. Need to fix that in next edition. Broken chord is inherited term I picked up that means arpeggiated chord rather than struck. I tend to differentiate further when note order change is employed (rather than regular order). Will have to look that up.

Thanks Jon!

[CliffR]

Anyone else still working on this but too shy to post videos? I got to the end of chapter 4 and am taking a break. I believe I've noticed a couple of ideas from the book seeping into lines I compose: more rhythmic variety, and some use of sequences with variation also. I've been learning to play mostly using arpeggios, but this book, among other sources, has introduced me to more scalar playing. I think the polyrhythmic ideas, beyond the simple 3-note groupings at least, is a little above my pay grade however . I plan to let what I've picked up gestate for a while and then take another look to see what I've missed. Probably a great deal.

[RaneyJR]

Anyone else still working on this but too shy to post videos? I got to the end of chapter 4 and am taking a break. I believe I've noticed a couple of ideas from the book seeping into lines I compose: more rhythmic variety, and some use of sequences with variation also. I've been learning to play mostly using arpeggios, but this book, among other sources, has introduced me to more scalar playing. I think the polyrhythmic ideas, beyond the simple 3-note groupings at least, is a little above my pay grade however . I plan to let what I've picked up gestate for a while and then take another look to see what I've missed. Probably a great deal.

Thanks for sticking with it Cliff. I'm living out of boxes right now in my new apartment. Will check in soon!

[Mick-7]

I usually learn more from transcribing people's music than from studying books about them, especially if the books are not accompanied by audio or video recordings. If I can hear the examples, I can quickly play them, but it's more work when I can't - which explains why I have a few boxes of old guitar instruction books I've never read through.

[pamosmusic]

I usually learn more from transcribing people's music than from studying books about them, especially if the books are not accompanied by audio or video recordings. If I can hear the examples, I can quickly play them, but it's more work when I can't - which explains why I have a few boxes of old guitar instruction books I've never read through.

I feel I should point out that posting about how you don’t find books useful in a study group about a book, in which the books author is participating intermittently, is somewhat inconsiderate, Mick,

[Mick-7]

I feel I should point out that posting about how you don’t find books useful in a study group about a book, in which the books author is participating intermittently, is somewhat inconsiderate, Mick

That was not my point. I'm suggesting that the book would be more attractive to potential buyers, and Jon would be likely to sell more books, if he included audio clips of his examples. I imagine he considered that but he mentioned that he published the book in a hurry.

There are a lot of guitarists who don't read or interpret standard music notation well, won't learn to do so just so they can study this book, and therefore they won't buy it. Most jazz guitar books now come with supplementary audio or even video clips because they know that people want or expect it in this era of YouTube, TrueFire, etc.
.

[RaneyJR]

That was not my point. I'm suggesting that the book would be more attractive to potential buyers, and Jon would be likely to sell more books, if he included audio clips of his examples. I imagine he considered that but he mentioned that he published the book in a hurry.

There are a lot of guitarists who don't read or interpret standard music notation well, won't learn to do so just so they can study this book, and therefore they won't buy it. Most jazz guitar books now come with supplementary audio or even video clips because they know that people want or expect it in this era of YouTube, TrueFire, etc.
.

My thinking is I will definitely avail audio examples via Chuck Sher's site once I release the new edition. I need to check inventory to see what this is looking like. I have found small errors that I want to fix so that they all match the examples. And you are right I was considering but the mad dash to publishing was a factor, because I had to rewrite/export all the music graphic examples in less than 2 weeks. And make word --> Acrobat translations (for the designer). Absolute chaos.

If this would make the book more enjoyable for people that don't read well and would make it easier for you and others in the same reading boat, I will address it. I do have a number of record snippets already. Perhaps I will devote a new tab on my website with the excerpts as an interim measure. As far as the original examples that have no recording, will have to work that out.

Jon