The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
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  1. #1

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    This 2018 book (published by Sher Music Co) does not seem to have been discussed much here - unless the Search is not working. So, here's an overview of what I think is the best intro to jazz guitar playing I've seen.

    Chapter 1 - three-note shell voicing - a great and practical overview, which will have you playing great accompaniments from the get go.
    Chapter 2 - four-note rhythm guitar voicings - all the essentials, and how to use them
    Chapter 3 - converting rhythm voicings to comp voicings
    Chapter 4 - Some examples of comping using the voicings - major and minor blues in F and Bb
    Chapter 5 - Riff melodies on 12-bar blues - real tunes, not fake, pretend versions: Bag's Groove and Blues in the Closet
    Chapter 6 - Riff melodies that are not 12-bar blues - Lester Leaps In, Seven Come Eleven, A Smooth One, Salute To Charlie Christian (by Barney K)
    Chapter 7 - Using quotes from popular melodies
    Chapter 8 - Using vocabulary from BeBop tunes: Swedish Pastry, Crazeology, Mayreh, Quicksilver, Room 608
    Chapter 9 - Introduction to scales
    Chapter 10 - Arpeggios
    Chapter 11 - Modes
    Chapter 12 - Wrap-up
    Appendix A - Some Definitions
    Appendix B - Chord Names and Chord Symbols Primer
    Appendic C - Chord Types Primer
    Further Notes

    So, really comprehensive but not aimed at a real beginner guitar player. You have to have played quite a bit before taking it on. No tab, of course. I see this as Randy Vincent's primer for all his other more focussed and more advanced books. The use of real tunes is a winner. I highly recommend this book if you want to learn modern swing to post bop music, from standard to advanced modern harmony. Anyone who has sort of played jazz for a few years would - as in my case - feel there is much to learn here. Highly recommended.

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    The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
     
  3. #2

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    That looks really good

  4. #3

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    Looks great. I've got Randy's book 'Line Games', which is a great source of inspiration and covers a range of topics that I don't see in other jazz books (how to start a solo, solo breaks etc).

  5. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by Rob MacKillop
    This 2018 book (published by Sher Music Co) does not seem to have been discussed much here - unless the Search is not working. So, here's an overview of what I think is the best intro to jazz guitar playing I've seen.

    Chapter 1 - three-note shell voicing - a great and practical overview, which will have you playing great accompaniments from the get go.
    Chapter 2 - four-note rhythm guitar voicings - all the essentials, and how to use them
    Chapter 3 - converting rhythm voicings to comp voicings
    Chapter 4 - Some examples of comping using the voicings - major and minor blues in F and Bb
    Chapter 5 - Riff melodies on 12-bar blues - real tunes, not fake, pretend versions: Bag's Groove and Blues in the Closet
    Chapter 6 - Riff melodies that are not 12-bar blues - Lester Leaps In, Seven Come Eleven, A Smooth One, Salute To Charlie Christian (by Barney K)
    Chapter 7 - Using quotes from popular melodies
    Chapter 8 - Using vocabulary from BeBop tunes: Swedish Pastry, Crazeology, Mayreh, Quicksilver, Room 608
    Chapter 9 - Introduction to scales
    Chapter 10 - Arpeggios
    Chapter 11 - Modes
    Chapter 12 - Wrap-up
    Appendix A - Some Definitions
    Appendix B - Chord Names and Chord Symbols Primer
    Appendic C - Chord Types Primer
    Further Notes

    So, really comprehensive but not aimed at a real beginner guitar player. You have to have played quite a bit before taking it on. No tab, of course. I see this as Randy Vincent's primer for all his other more focussed and more advanced books. The use of real tunes is a winner. I highly recommend this book if you want to learn modern swing to post bop music, from standard to advanced modern harmony. Anyone who has sort of played jazz for a few years would - as in my case - feel there is much to learn here. Highly recommended.
    Thanks so much, and no, this has NOT been covered. I had actually requested this from a couple of others who have the book and not heard back.

    There was early speculation that this might simply be a compilation of his previous books into one, mostly overlapping that material. Anyway, looks good. I have the cellular approach and one of his chord books. I'll definitely have to check this one out.
    Thanks again.

  6. #5

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    I have Randy’s Drop 2 and 3-Note voicing chord books, they are very good and they too use examples from actual tunes to demonstrate the useages.

    A plug for Randy - one of these books had some missing pages at the end, I emailed Randy in the U.S. and he replied immediately apologising and saying he would fix it a.s.a.p. The very next day I received a new correct copy from his publisher in the UK.

  7. #6

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    I think he is building a collection of books which will personify how to play modern jazz guitar, roughly 1950 to the present. And with this "Introduction" he has provided the foundation book, Volume 1, if you will. We're lucky to have him on our side.

  8. #7

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    Seems quite swing oriented?

  9. #8

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    Initially, but it goes beyond that into bebop and modern bop. The comping rhythms are more complex than usually found in swing, as are the voicings. But keep in mind it is an introduction, and his other books zone in on different aspects of playing modern jazz.

  10. #9

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    There are some sample PDF pages to view here: The Guitarist's Introduction to Jazz by Randy Vincent | Sher Music Co.

  11. #10

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    $28 (USD) at Amazon. Looks good. I was unaware of this.

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  12. #11

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    They seem nice, I saw some excerts and previews.
    I'd love to go through them - it is always fun.
    But they are not available here and it is too expensive to buy them with delivery from Amazon, makes no sense.
    So maybe if I come across some local guy who bought it I'll give it a try.

  13. #12

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jonah
    They seem nice, I saw some excerts and previews.
    I'd love to go through them - it is always fun.
    But they are not available here and it is too expensive to buy them with delivery from Amazon, makes no sense.
    So maybe if I come across some local guy who bought it I'll give it a try.
    It’s available as an e-book for download.

  14. #13

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    Quote Originally Posted by pcjazz
    It’s available as an e-book for download.
    Thanks.
    Not a big fan of musical e-books. I only buy them if it is something I really desperately need and cannot get a printed edition.

  15. #14

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    Thanks for posting about this book. It looks great.

    For those considering picking up a copy via mail, Sher Music sells it directly from their website (print or .pdf)--you don't have to buy from Amazon (they'll own the whole world soon enough).

    The Guitarist's Introduction to Jazz by Randy Vincent | Sher Music Co.

    I'm curious if the print has any particular advantage. I'm kind of leaning toward gettng a .pdf.

  16. #15

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    Tbh if I go for it I would probably get 'Three-Note Shell Voicing and Beyond' Book...

    There was quite long excert from it somehwere inthe net, I think this material is very well-organazied and can be used both for myself to improve some things. I feel like it is situation when you seem to know almost everything of the material already but still it is put in a way that you discover something new in it.

    and for teaching - if ever needed - too. it is really good investment in my opinion.
    It is 200 pages.

    As for Guitarist's Introduction... it seems like a more abridged edition of his other books. Which is great but today I would prefer something more detalized, nore details = mor fun)

  17. #16

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    Yeah it would be for teaching. I’d also have something to recommend to people who ask me what books in recommend. I like the emphasis on comping before soloing. It appears to be close to the way I would do it.

  18. #17

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    Quote Originally Posted by 44lombard
    I'm curious if the print has any particular advantage. I'm kind of leaning toward gettng a .pdf.
    I think the pdf is $6 cheaper, but if you have to print it out and bind it (-the print version is spiral bound, which means it will lay open flat on a music stand, which is a real plus), the savings are less. It becomes a matter of preference, I guess.

    And in my admittedly limited experience, pdfs don't print as large as originals. (They seem a font-size smaller.) For old eyes such as mine, that can be a big difference.

  19. #18

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    Quote Originally Posted by MarkRhodes
    I think the pdf is $6 cheaper, but if you have to print it out and bind it (-the print version is spiral bound, which means it will lay open flat on a music stand, which is a real plus), the savings are less. It becomes a matter of preference, I guess.

    And in my admittedly limited experience, pdfs don't print as large as originals. (They seem a font-size smaller.) For old eyes such as mine, that can be a big difference.
    I prefer the pdf versions of Vincent's books -- I read them on a large iPad and mark them up with the iPen (or whatever they call the stylus). I do a lot of travelling and it is great to be able to take a whole library of music and instructional material with me. The only drawback is with multipage charts where the page turns are in inconvenient spots.

  20. #19

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    Quote Originally Posted by pcjazz
    I prefer the pdf versions of Vincent's books -- I read them on a large iPad and mark them up with the iPen (or whatever they call the stylus). I do a lot of travelling and it is great to be able to take a whole library of music and instructional material with me. The only drawback is with multipage charts where the page turns are in inconvenient spots.
    That makes sense. Have an iPad but not an iPen. Have to look into that. The convenience for travel is undeniable.

  21. #20

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    I stopped by first to say thanks to Rob.
    What I love about teh forum that you never know how turns.

    After this thread I began to look through the excerpt from Randy's Three-Not voicing and Beyond.
    And I found so interesting (though again it seemed I knew all that) but as an organization it is very convinient... how he uses shell - voicing to extend almost to anything...
    and then triad application is great too (in some sense it can be also covered by his treatment of 'shell voicing').

    There is nothing new, but it is somehow new.
    I had some kind of frustration recently .. but this spotted some 'blank spots' in my knowledge and ways to cover it. and it gave food
    for thought for practicing, and immidiately I applied it to real music too.

    I am thinking about buying his books now.

    But I am thinking about 'Three-Note Voicing and Beyond' and also wanted to ask what do you think about "Drop2Book'...??

    I know all Drop 2 voicings quite well and use them... besides I think that Randy's approach to 'shell voicing' somehow covers Drop2's two (as well as Drop 3'.. or whatever)... it can be derived from it.

    I am asking becasue abothe 21dollars is quite an amount in my reality for a pdf book.
    Last edited by Jonah; 12-02-2019 at 04:40 AM.

  22. #21

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    Well, thanks, but the real thanks go to Randy for putting all this together.

    It's easy to get overwhelmed by his other books, any page of which could set you off for a few months, they really are amazing books. By contrast, the Introduction covers more subjects in one book, which some might see as tasters for the other books, but really there is enough to keep most of us busy for years.

  23. #22
    Quote Originally Posted by Jonah
    I stopped by first to say thanks to Rob.
    What I love about teh forum that you never know how turns.

    After this thread I began to look through the excerpt from Randy's Three-Not voicing and Beyond.
    Funny, I did the same thing with line games this week. Just before going out of town I grabbed it thinking it was the cellular approach . Anyway, I'd never really done anything with line games , but spent a few days off-and-on shedding some of that material this week. I don't think you can go wrong with ANY of Randy Vincent's books honestly. You can definitely go down the rabbit hole, but they're great rabbit holes.

    Quote Originally Posted by Jonah
    But I am thinking about 'Three-Note Voicing and Beyond' and also wanted to ask what do you think about "Drop2Book'...??

    I know all Drop 2 voicings quite well and use them... besides I think that Randy's approach to 'shell voicing' somehow covers Drop2's two (as well as Drop 3'.. or whatever)... it can be derived from it.

    I am asking becasue abothe 21dollars is quite an amount in my reality for a pdf book.
    Yeah. His book is a lot more than just basic drop two voicings. It's a lot more about how to apply sets of voicings to chords etc. There are some chapters on bebop scale chord voicings which are basically the diminished chord scales used by Barry Harris Wes Montgomery etc. he talks about these court voicings in the context of being "enclosure chords".
    Last edited by matt.guitarteacher; 12-02-2019 at 09:51 AM.

  24. #23

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    Lying Games? Flying Games? They sound like fun books, Matt!

  25. #24
    Quote Originally Posted by Rob MacKillop
    Lying Games? Flying Games? They sound like fun books, Matt!
    Ha! Speech to text . Hit post accidentally as I was on the run at that moment. Meant to edit up and post later.

  26. #25
    Quote Originally Posted by matt.guitarteacher
    Funny, I did the same thing with line games this week. Just before going out of town I grabbed it thinking it was the cellular approach . Anyway, I'd never really done anything with line games , but spent a few days off and on shedding some of that material this week. I don't think you can go wrong with ANY of Randy Vincent's books honestly. You can definitely go down the rabbit hole, but they're great rabbit holes.



    Yeah. His book is a lot more than just basic drop two voicings. It's a lot more about how to apply sets of voicings to chords etc. There are some chapters on bebop scale chord voicings which are basically the diminished chord scales used by Barry Harris Wes Montgomery etc. he talks about these court voicings in the context of being "enclosure chords".
    He also has chapter on modal voicings which is interesting. Basically the idea that you can voice a major scale pretty simply by alternating ii7and iii7 chord inversions melodically. Then, similar with melodic minor using the 6th and 7th degrees half dim I think?

    Anyway, his books are very rich material but very different from other method books I'm used to. He frontloads a lot of examples which are more advanced etc. There's never a clean delineating point where he says, "Okay. Here's the method part, ... the exercises you're supposed to be practicing". It's okay once you kind of learned that that's his style. But you DO have to find a place to kind of start.

    I really like that one of the chapters in the drop 2 book is called "things to practice" or something similar.