Usefulness of generic exercise books on the guitar

[pamosmusic]

I'm not sure what you mean here. I'd say it's tough to find vocabulary that does not use coils. A coil starting on a scale degree is just a 3 or 4 note scalar fragment. As a phrasal building block, it's not often you hear a bar of jazz improvisation without a coil, no?

The repetition of them. If it’s just “any scale fragment” then there’s no reason to practice the coils in addition to scales straight up and down.

Maybe just the notion of just starting the scale in different places and stuff, but I have folks do that anyway.

But yeah … point taken.

[GuyBoden]

Obviously, we all know about the Coltrane patterns and their numerous permutations.

Major Chords: 1 2 3 5
Minor Chords: 1 b3 4 5
Dominant 7th: 1 2 3 5
Minor 7b5: 1 b3 4 b5
Dominant 7b9: 1 b2 3 5

[AllanAllen]

For me the Barry Harris scale outlines (in the most basic form playing a scale up from root to seventh) have turned out to be really useful when learning tunes for me. So there is really much sense in learning scales in that manner (maybe not only CAGED but in in the way I described above according to Goodrick's "Advancing Guitarist") and bringing them up to speed.

I don't get your point, of course you should learn to go from root to seventh before going across the whole neck.

[enalnitram]

Obviously, we all know about the Coltrane patterns and their numerous permutations.

Major Chords: 1 2 3 5
Minor Chords: 1 b3 4 5
Dominant 7th: 1 2 3 5
Minor 7b5: 1 b3 4 b5
Dominant 7b9: 1 b2 3 5

Coltrane is excellent source material, since he plays a lot of eighth notes. Kinda resembles Bach in that sense. Because of this, back in the day, I analyzed Giant Steps and Countdown, isolating unique or distinct four-note groupings, in the order that they most appeared. I also did this with the head to 26-2. I worked on this for about a year. I don't regret doing it but I didn't prefer the direction it was taking me. It helped me with my ear and getting around the neck in ways related to the chord and not some scale, but I didn't want to sound like that.

[Mick-7]

I found Nicholas Slonimsky's book to be helpful for both technique and ear training - contains more patterns than you can shake a chapman stick at.

Amazon.com

[lawson-stone]

Yes, my idea is also to use it as a complement to my practice, an enrichment, of course combining it with many other aspects of learning.
However... I see Coker's book as somewhat more musical, at least what I have been able to read at first sight.

One nice thing about books like this is that they get my fingers out of their habitual comfortable patterns. I have to read the music, figure out a fingering or three, and especially if they are horn lines they won't always "sit" comfortably on the guitar, which is great because it breaks me out of fingering "autopilot."

[Moonray]

I have one called "Solo Phrases by the Masters / Great Moments in Jazz". (Sher) It contains all instruments, and identifies the source of the lick.

This book sounded interesting being phrases by master players.
Couldn't find any mention of a book by that name on the Sher website.
Does it have some other title and have the name you gave as a subtitle?

[Mick-7]

This book sounded interesting being phrases by master players.
Couldn't find any mention of a book by that name on the Sher website.
Does it have some other title and have the name you gave as a subtitle?

It's out of print: Amazon.com

[Moonray]

It's out of print: Amazon.com

Thanks for that, pity it's out of print, I'll keep an eye out on my travels around the web.