Mel Bays Complete Book of Harmony Theory and Voicing [Paperback]

Bret Willmott (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1994 | Series: Complete

This is a very comprehensive text that combines theory, harmony and voicing material with emphasis placed on voice leading. Although this book's primary focus is on four-note chord voicings on the middle strings of the guitar, much of the knowledge conveyed here can be appreciated and used by all jazz musicians, not only guitarists. Topics covered include: Tensions, Voice Leading Chord Scales, Enharmonic Chordal Substitutions, Fourth Voicings, Chromatic Guide Lines, Triad Over Bass Voicings, and much more! The best part of this book, however, is the unique and practical way the author takes modern harmonic concepts and shows you how to apply them in real music situations! Written for the intermediate to advanced music theory enthusiast who wishes to master this facet of music.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Bret Willmott is a highly acclaimed professor at Berklee College of Music and a noted educator, author, and performer world-wide. He has been a faculty member of the College for over twenty years and a performing guitarist for more than thirty years. He has played a key role in the development of Berklee's Guitar Department curriculum including the creation of several new courses focusing on rhythm and harmony. His classes and lessons are most often attended by advanced students and have included Berklee alumni Bill Frisell, Wolfgang Muthspiel, and Kurt Rosenwinkel. Bret's musical history includes studies and/or performances with Pat Metheny, Gary Burton, Mick Goodrick, and Bill Leavitt as well as guest appearances on recordings with Mike Stern, Dan Gottlieb, and Bob Moses.

Professor Willmott is the author of two internationally acclaimed harmony texts entitled Mel Bay's Complete Book of Harmony, Theory, and Voicing and Mel Bay's Complete Book of Harmonic Extensions for Guitar. In addition, Bret has published a variety of articles for noted journals including Guitar Player and Jazz Player. He is also an established clinician with presentations in Europe and the United States including appearances in several International Association of Jazz Educators Conventions.

Product Details

• Paperback: 248 pages
• Publisher: Mel Bay Publications, Inc. (March 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 156222994X
• ISBN-13: 978-1562229948
• Product Dimensions: 11.7 x 8.8 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #605,001 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Advanced jazz guitar harmony, April 28, 2008

By 

Al - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mel Bays Complete Book of Harmony Theory and Voicing (Paperback)

This is an extremely dense book, which covers modern advanced jazz harmony. The voicings are based on the "drop 2" concept, which takes the 2nd note from the top in a closed voicing and drops it an octave down. We are instructed to play these voicings on the middle four strings of the guitar, to avoid ambiguity in terms of fingerings. Given these precepts, the author deems it sufficient to only notate the top note of each voicing. That means one has to figure out the rest of the notes to be played from the chord symbol. Since the voicing is already specified as drop 2, there is only one correct way of playing the chord. But it's a lot of work compared to working through books with chord diagrams! I think it's part of the point that you have to put in quite a bit of effort to work your way through this. Particularly for guys looking to improve their "session chops", I can imagine this book would be a nice woodshedding tool. Personally, I found it a bit too heavy-going. Working through 8 bars of chord progressions took me over 30 minutes, and apart from finding that the progression sounded rather like a Zawinul composition, I can't really imagine I'll get much use for a load of maj7#5 and 7sus4 substitutions...

In short, it seems to be a great book for serious jazz guitarists. For those simply looking to get a little more jazzy flavour in their chord repertoire, this is probably not the place to start.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Kind of an encyclopedia, May 23, 2011

By 

G. Wajnglas "Django rules" (Paris, France) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Mel Bays Complete Book of Harmony Theory and Voicing (Paperback)

The title is well chosen : this book lists all the possible chords on the 4 middle strings, starting from the different inversions of C7M, then altering those to C7, Cm7, C7b5#9, etc. Of course altering one chord can make it a substitute one for an other (and vice-versa), so through all the books the chords are grouped by their alterations and the corresponding substitutions. There are some musical examples (all written, don't expect any tablature here !) to show their possible uses, and some pages on parallel voicings. Voice-leading is used all through the book.

The author advices to do the same work on other groups of strings (1-4, 3-6), but as the book is very dense, you'll need to order another whole life to do so !

IMO, this is a nice book, usable to get some ideas, to practice chord reading, to get other substitution chords, but which shouldn't be practiced alone, expecting to become a great jazz player. Its exhaustivity makes it very indigest and far from the way one should learn music, even if (I repeat) there are some great ideas and views. I'm still amazed by the huge work Wilmott accomplished here !

I wouldn't advice it for beginners, but if you're a music geek, why not ? ;)

17 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars MINDBLOWING!, July 5, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Mel Bays Complete Book of Harmony Theory and Voicing (Paperback)

this is the work of an obvious GENIUS. i never heard the man play but he sure can open up the concepts like no other. MINDBLOWING WORK OF ART is what i call it. it has helped me a lot though i think i'll take a few years to fully assimilate the book. non of that bullshit play jazz guitar in 3 weeks nonsense you see in other books. this is THE MOMMA!