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Originally Posted by DS71
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02-01-2019 09:32 AM
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Currently working on the Jerry Bergonzi series, just on the lowly Volume 1 but it's a great book and full of very good advice. There's something to be said for simple material and really having it down, you know? Anyway, if 1235 permutations are hip enough for Coltrane to play a gazillion times then surely I can spend some time on them in addition to transcribing language. I'd heard great things about the Lovano series and I'm glad I finally took the plunge. I'll be continuing with the series.
Learning - like really learning - all the chord shapes from the Alan Kingstone book on Barry Harris' approach has also been very helpful in terms of getting me to see the fretboard more deeply. Also nice to get all those shapes smoothly under my fingers.Last edited by coolvinny; 05-13-2019 at 01:06 PM. Reason: oops I meant Jerry Bergonzi not Joe Lovano
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A very underrated book is Payin' your dues with the Blues by Jay Umble. It covers all aspects of jazz guitar improvisation in the context of jazz blues. Comping, rhythm, bass lines, improvisation, chord solos. He covers both traditional and modern approaches. It looks at different areas of blues changes and goes over various harmonic variations and improvisation approaches for these areas. It's not a thick book because there is a lot of music in it, rather than blah, blah. It's not an introduction to jazz for beginners kind of book. More like an overview of various tools and devices in different areas of jazz guitar applied to blues.
A lot if music books are half-baked attempts that are aimed at trapping in casual bookstore browsers. I like books written with sincerity and perfectionism. This book classifies as one.
MBGU Jazz Curriculum: Payin' Your Dues with the Blues eBook + Online Audio - Mel Bay Publications, Inc. : Mel Bay
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Never just from a book, but a combination of book and teacher has helped a few times.
Complete Rhythms by Colin and Bower taught me how to read (after a couple of Mel Bay's).
One of Warren Nunes' books which explained what a tonal center is.
I got a good deal from Nelson Faria's Brazilian Guitar Styles - which is probably the single most useful book I've seen on comping.
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"Approaching the Guitar" by Gene Bertoncini.
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Originally Posted by Cunamara
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There has never been a time when so many guitarists have been able to share the secrets involved in playing jazz guitar! I call them secrets because up until now nobody has shared very much! Now we have Garrison Fewell, Carol Kaye, Robert Conti and others sharing detailed arpeggios and roadmaps on how to improvise! I tried Robert Conti and Garrison Fewell, both are great, but they just weren't for me! The best book I've ever bought on the subject of improvising is Steve Crowells' "Formulas for Jazz Guitar Improvisation"! He shows you everything you would ever want to learn about improvising! The great thing about the book is the 8 Solos! You learn the solos and you're learning how to improvise! The first part of the book goes over the modes, which are the same fingerings that Warren Nunes used, see attached. He breaks down the modes into his 84 equations which is extremely eye opening and helpful as they're simply arpeggios, triads and roadmaps to improvise with! I'm super focused on the Solo's tho'! So what's your favorite instructor or book, and why?
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The Barry Harris Workshops by Howard Reevs
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Interesting!
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I’ve had scores of books and was a terrible jazz guitar player, but Pat Martino’s “Linear Expressions” provided me with a simple approach I could apply anywhere (and I did, lol). Using his line examples and varying them plus thinking of everything as minor was not perfect, but it covers a LOT of ground. That was a breakthrough for me as compared to learning scales and arps.More recently, Garrison Fewell’s Melodic Book has opened my playing. I’m way behind the study group, but I’m getting a lot out of this book. Between blues, Martino-sequel lines and minor conversion, and now the triads and extensions, I feel like I have a lot under my fingers to work with and I apply it with my organ trio. I used to be terrible, now I’m just mediocre, but I’m moving in the right direction!Those two are tied for best.
Last edited by GuitarJay; 03-01-2020 at 11:11 PM.
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Les Wise - Jazz Improvisation for Guitar. Invaluable.
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Lets get right to the origins of my playing and many others............Mickey Baker and I still have the book...................wore out but unbeatable for one starting out playing jazz guitar.
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Originally Posted by citizenk74
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Nice to see some familiar books mentioned here.
Still love the Mickey Baker book. (I can see how some who have a much more modern conception of tunes and improv might not like it but what Mickey means by "hot guitar" is what I've always loved and wanted to play.)
"Linear Expressions" is a book my first jazz teacher got me into. I learned those "5 activities" and still play them.
I have Crowell's "Formulas" too. It got me back into 3nps scale fingerings. (I learned them back in the '80s but stopped using them, well, back in the '80s.) There is a consistency to them that is useful but I'm not sure they'll ever become second-nature to me. Time will tell.
I'm working in the Fewell book now. It is teaching me things I did not know (or did not fully appreciate) and that's good, but I'm too new to it to have seen it seep into my playing. Again, time will tell.
I like Carol Kaye's approach too. I play her ii-V-I exercise often and love many of her "pro's jazz phrases."
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For American jazz, it was a couple of Warren Nunes' slim books. Solo Patterns, I think, is the one which introduced me to concept of tonal centers. That was valuable!
His blues book is another slim volume with some very useful info.
Best book overall, was Nelson Faria's Brazilian Guitar Styles.
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Mickey Baker, once you understand this all the other doors open.
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It was mostly over my head when it first came out and the notation seemed intimidating to a teenager, but over the years, each time I went back the original orange Joe Pass book it it was apparent that Joe and/or Bill Thrasher had put it all there. The secret was to ignore the words and just read the music and hear how the examples connected with the changes. It's a great book that merits revisiting by players at any level.
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Creative Chord Substitution for Jazz Guitar: Guitar Book
Really helped my comping early on, and chord melody playing - logically set out with great examples.Last edited by bengruven; 03-02-2020 at 04:58 PM.
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Originally Posted by MarkRhodes
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Originally Posted by bengruven
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Originally Posted by citizenk74
I do think this Les Wise book is the same one that was published as "Inner Jazz" once upon a time. It is a very good book.
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Originally Posted by MarkRhodes
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God bless Mrs. K! And you too, you lucky dog. ;o)
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Originally Posted by sundogg52
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The complete Jazz Guitar by Fred Sokolow.
It's free with CD (comes extra) on Internet Archive. (Public Domain now...)
Community Texts.
One link is for the book , the other for the audio. Have fun. Ok ok, it's a tiny bit old...
https://archive.org/details/TheCompleteJazzGuitarFredSokolow
Accompanying Disc : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
16" 1920s/30s L5
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