Customer Reviews

BERKLEE JAZZ GUITAR CHORD DICTIONARY

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

 

 

I can remember when Jazz was a suspect subject at the University... Before Musician's Institute... Before Dick Grove... Before North Texas State... there was BERKLEE. I hold the school, faculty, and curriculum to the highest standard. I began cataloging chords while working through William Leavitt's MODERN METHOD FOR GUITAR with a qualified instructor.(RECCOMMENDED)! I was hoping to find a supplement to support my catalog, and Levitt's three volume tome. THIS ISN'T IT.
Appropriately priced, this book is 36 pages of chords in a 6x9 paperback, with notation, TAB, and chord blocks. Some essential voicings, and some left out. No cowboy chords. No rhythms. One (of four) inversions per string set for example. No disrespect to Mr. Peckham- not a thorough study, nor intended to be. It would be beneficial to see a page or two to decide whether or not it's for you.

No extra junk, just new interesting ways to voice chords. I love this book.

Amazon really needs to do something about how titles like this appear on the Kindle. Since all the chords are graphics that cannot be zoomed into on the Kindle they appear as small nearly unintelligible images on a large blank page. All they would need to do is let you zoom in on a page. I guess the logic is there is not need for a zoom because changing the font size is the equivalent of zooming. This is fine with text but doesn't work for graphics. Please fix this Amazon.

As far as the print version goes, Rick is a great teacher and I recommend this book, but only the print version.

I had a high opinion of Berklee and I felt the book should be a step above the rest. WRONG! This book must have been put together on a lunch break. It measures 6"x9"-WOW! With such tiny pages it isn't possible to put a lot of information in the book. Sounds like a plan. Rick Peckham should be ashamed to put his name on this book. Overpriced--- poorly written. It has already hit the trash can.BERKLEE JAZZ GUITAR CHORD DICTIONARY

I was actually disappointed in this book. It does not have as much as I expected. A basic guide to some movable chords but still missing alot of essential jazz chords. Oh well. It is useful, just not complete.

Berklee doesn't mess around with literature they use in their course work. Getting more and more into jazz guitar, I was looking for a reference for chords, inversions etc. I wasn't expecting the contents of the book to be so vast. This is more than your average chord book, especially for as cheap as it is. If you are getting interested in exploring the world of 7th, 9th, 11th, add 9, voicings, then this book has a lot to offer you.

I bought this book to have a reference for chords. I like how the chords are described using both tab and fretboard notation. A must have for your library!!

The Berklee Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary provides you with easy to access and USEFUL chords. I wish I'd had this book when I was just learning jazz guitar. I wasted too much time on useless chords. This dictionary will add to the toolkit of the aspiring and intermediate jazz guitarist. It will also aid in your mastering of the entire fretboard since the 90+ chords are placed throughout the fretboard.

I would say that this book is just OK. When I am playing a song and really need to know a chord I usually just look it up on a poplar chord and scale finder site online. It has some great jazz chords in it that I use to learn but not really to "look up" what I need. I still use this book often though because I do like the diagrams and I use it as sort of a checklist for chords to remember, so in that sense it is worth getting. There isn't much intro or any reading in it, it is pretty straight forward. It is a good learning tool more than it is a chord bible. It is small and will fit in the pocket of your guitar's gig bag.

This book is is easy and quick to read, and ready to be put into practice. It is most helpful for those who have a few years experience on the guitar and are already able to create/improvise melodic lines with their instrument. In fact, the melodic improviser will quickly make sense of all the chordal forms and inversions and find ways to connect them in a good musical context.