Customer Reviews

21st Century Pro Method / Jazz Guitar - Swing to Bebop

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is the first method book I've ever been happy with, and I've bought quite a few guitar books over the years. It assumes you already know your way around the fretboard but aren't a virtuoso. The passages are often challenging, but always attainable after a few days practice. The examples are often interesting (but not always, i.m.h.o.), and the sample solos given at the end of each section are wonderful. I've been skipping the scale exercises, as they're pretty bland (get Barry Galbraith's book #2 from Jamey Aebersold's series if you want to practice scales instead). Doug Munro's comments are easy to understand and written in a nice casual style, and the accompanying CD is excellent. Highly recommended!

To start, this book isn't really a jazz method book, but rather a very well illustrated book on jazz keys (Imaj7, IIm7, VIIb5, ect.). Guitar method books are supposed to be designed to teach and usually go very in depth about each of the topics. This book however, only show the various key that make jazz music distinctive from other types of music. It does a great job of explaining the music theory behind jazz, but does little to help teach technical aspects of playing jazz (i.e. left hand fingerings, tempo, etc.) After you get over the fact that this book won't teach you a lot about jazz, it does have some cool solo pieces. The music CD included is decent as well, my only gripe is what is being played isn't exactly the same as the music is written in the book. Overall, if you're an intermediate player looking to understand jazz music theory a little better, this is a great buy. If you wanting to actually learn to play jazz you should look at buying a good method book rather than this one.

The title of this book suggests that it follows ah historical progression, from the Swing era to Bebop. That's not the case. Rather, Munro presents a series of chapters centered around different modes found in Jazz- Major, Dorian, Mixolydian, Aeolean, Locrian, diminished, whole tone. Each chapter presents scales, chords, arpeggios, and riffs, culminating in a few sample pieces illustrating the use of the material presented so far.

The reader is pretty much left on his or her own as what to practice, and how much of the material relates to other material, and how to put it all together. The presentation of the scales and arpeggios isn't terribly systematic within each chapter, and some of Munro's fingerings are somewhat idiosyncratic. This is not a book I'd recommend a beginner study on their own, but I can see it being used as an adjunct to other study. The beginner to Jazz study might be better served with a book like Mel Bay's Complete Jazz Guitar Method or Mel Bay Complete Jerry Hahn Method for Jazz Guitar.

This book is an excellent resource. I have looked for a book with good examples of jazz licks for a long time. I take these licks and make them my own and have been able to implement many new ideas into my playing. The music theory, although explained, takes a back seat to techniques such as arpeggios and double stops and many good ideas for swinging 8th notes. Bebop and Beyond is also a great one.

Good book. The CD supplied with it gives a good sense of the needed feel and rhythms. Without it, I would be doing a halfed arsed version of each example and only partially learning. It is very challanging stuff for me, but I have already found that I am able transfer a lot of the skills to other genres of music. I bought this book to increase my fretboard dexterity, and it certainly works. It also covers every aspect of music (in a Jazz sense), rhythm, lead, chord scale relationships, modal theory etc. Not only is this an interestng Jazz book, I find it is a good all round musical learning experience.

I have been working through several jazz guitar instruction books over a number of years, even with one dating back to the 1950's by Mel Bay. Well I can honestly say that the hype surrounding this book is for once well justified. It truly is a modern and professional approach to jazz guitar instruction and is made all the more effective with the attached CD which opens up the student to a whole new dimension in music instruction. The book is very detailed in the presentation of scales, arpeggios, chords,and solos as well as the theory behind music in general and jazz music in particular. I have made great leaps in my learning because of this book. The title of the book may be slightly misleading as many of the jazz guitar styles and examples Munro draws upon come from outside of the Swing to Bebop period. One annoying drawback to the book,and it seems to be an affliction of just about every other guitar instruction book I have worked through, is the "hip" language used by Munro, which throws him back to the era of Mel Bay. Still, if you can manage to put his sometimes stilted lingo aside, as I easily did,it is a brilliant book and I eagerly await the second volume.