Customer Reviews

Al Di Meola - A Guide To Chords, Scales & Arpeggios

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This book is not for the uninitiated. It certainly is no course for beginning guitarists, as most would find it unfulfilling and incomprehensible. However, if you are a veteran guitarist who wishes to vastly increase his/her chord and scale vocabularies, then this book is perfect. It is really nothing more than a chord dictionary, with two added features. The first is that the chords are arranged in terms of complimenting one another. Thus you learn chord relations, and not just chords. Secondly, the scale section is organized similarly; after learning a series of chord relations, the student then moves on to learn the relevant scales. Once again, it is an incredible book, but not one for someone who just wants to add a few more chops to his/her vocabulary.

I have tried many methods of training. Most fall short on many accounts, some less so. Although this book is terse and strangely organized (you have to flip back and forth constantly to follow the lesson plan) it is well worth doing.

In less than a week I can already feel the difference in my playing. It might be the fact that I am simply following the instructions and not wasting any time during the small amount of time I get to practice, or the combination of chord, scale & arpeggio exercises. Whatever it is, it works.

It has also helped with sight reading. I have gained some confidence in that area by trying to read while playing (although the current tempo tends to make that quite difficult). There are some errors in the music notation, but they are easy to spot and ignore.

My suggestion, above and beyond what the authors suggest, is to play all of the exercises with a metronome. Even the chord groupings. It increases the benefits of the exercises with very little extra effort.

I recommend this book because it provides a practical, effective way to approach the daunting mass of information that one must assimilate to play jazz guitar. Ten lesson plans are outlined, each covering chords, scales, arpeggios, reading and playing tunes. Each lesson is designed to take roughly two weeks for the diligent student (two hours of practice per day is the suggested minimum). Thus, much of the guesswork has been taken out of planning a practice routine, allowing you to use your time efficiently and progress quickly toward your goals. Unforunately, as tends to be the case with books written by and for guitarists, the writing itself is often egregiously bad and the overall sensibility embarrassingly un-p.c. But stick with it and you can expect great improvement in your musicianship.

Al gives you 10 different forms of the most important chords used in jazz and arranges them logically by sound compatability. If you learn even 5 of these forms you will be better off than most guitar players. One very wise reviewer once said,'In music it's all about the chords' !' There's a whole lot of truth in that because from the chords you can derive arpeggios, figure out modes and even derive tonal centers. Al says you should learn 4 things in equal amounts. They would be 'Chords, arpeggios, music reading and scales. He includes a few of his own compositions for you to learn eventually and recommends 'Classical Studies for Pick Style Guitar'. There is no tab and no CD. Those items may have doubled the price of the book. Al does not advocate guitar tab. I highly recommend this book !

This is the ultimate guitar players guide to learning how to play like Al Di Meola. There are plenty of chord charts, multpile lesson plans which (if followed dilligently) should have you playing and reading music at an advance level within the year! Although it was written back in the 80's it is still relevant today!
I would have preferred some tablature in some of the lessons (no tab anywhere in the book) however the point of the book is to force you to learn to be a good musician and part of that is to force you to read notes and to find them anywhere on the guitar. If you are looking for shortcuts this book will give you none of that! Al is not a fan of short cuts and he leads by example. The oly real criticism I have is that there are suggested readings that are reuqired to supplement some of the lessons (which can be a little inconvenient given that they may not even be in publication any longer) but the book does do well as a "stand alone" instruction manual.
I was very pleased with it and have been studying it in great detail since its arrival. It gives you a little look inside the discipline and mind of Mr. Di Meola. I highly recommend it for serious guitar students. Discipline will be required if you want to see progress.

Every early interview with the man himself always seemed to get around to how he made sure that he first learned all his chords, scales, and arpeggios, in every key. This book seems to demonstrate that thinking.

The chord section is very comprehensive, organized, and presented in a manner
that makes things palatable while still heading down a very analytical path.
There are some chords presented that are very challenging and others almost impossible to play as whole chords--good thing we have arpeggios.

The scale section provides a very good overview of the basic western tonalities and
The argeggios section is also a very good beginng that leaves the student with
a full understanding upon completion.

All in all an excellent resource tool.

I tend to use this study as source for alternate picking workouts.

I feel like this book gives me the tools to be a great guitarist. It is challenging and pretty straight forward, it wastes no time and from the first lesson you are working out some difficult lessons and memorizing a TON of chords. I haven't really stuck to the lesson plans I kind of pick and choose and memorize the chords as I can because there is so much work to do here. If you sat down and completed this book I think that you would be a pretty awesome Jazz guitarist. My only complaint is that it is in notation which I am not that great with, so it adds to the difficulty. There are no fretboard diagrams here except for the chords. In the back he covers what types of scales and chords can be used with what. Great book, I hope to finish it someday.

By player, I mean someone who knows a decent (major scale, diatonic harmony, amount of theory behind the guitar. If you have maybe a semester's worth of jazz guitar (or any class that REALLY emphasizes chords and one that REALLY emphasizes the major scale and some diatonic harmony) this book is amazing. If you know how chords are made and understand their function, then you can point out to yourself why, oh why, Al is making you 'memorize' all of these chords. The problem with memorizing chord shapes and not why they are shaped that way, is that you can no longer apply them to any part of the neck and grab the notes you want. He dives into chord voicing a little bit, but it's generally up to you to find the easier forms of the chords he wants you to play (some of which are simply impossible on an acoustic/classical guitar, and I have pretty large and stretchy hands). That aside, the book does VERY well in teaching you chords, scales, arpeggios, soloing, rhythming, and nonsensing. It is also funny when you notice how much DiMeola's arrogance shines through in his writing style. I still love you Al, ego and all.
NOT TO BE YOUR FIRST GUITAR BOOK!!!! The only reason it doesn't get five stars is because I really think it would be helpful if the book described what makes a chord a chord.

I recommend this to anyone who would like a good tool to tie together subjects of arpeggios, chords and scales. A good book to study the guitar

Its a MUST if you wanna know more about the music of Al Di Meola although its kinda bored to some people.