Beginning Jazz Guitar: The Complete Jazz Guitar Method (Book & DVD) [Paperback]

Jody Fisher (Performer)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1995

You don't need to have a doctorate in jazz to sound like you do. This series by brilliant performer and educator Jody Fisher teaches you the concepts, techniques and theory specific to jazz and how to apply them to both lead and rhythm guitar playing. Book: 96 pages. DVD running time: 1 hr 10 min.

Product Details

• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: Alfred Publishing Company; Pap/DVD edition (July 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 073902406X
• ISBN-13: 978-0739024065
• Product Dimensions: 11.9 x 8.9 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #193,357 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

80 of 80 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Probably the best tutorial in print, October 1, 2004

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J. Janssen (San Diego, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Beginning Jazz Guitar: The Complete Jazz Guitar Method- Beginning, Intermediate, Mastering Chord / Melody, Mastering Improvisation (Paperback)

I've played guitar for more than thirty years and have focused on straight ahead jazz for the last 15 or so. All that time I've absorbed bits and pieces of musical knowledge from method books, lick guides and transcriptions as well as from the experience gained playing with others. No resource that I've encountered offers the degree of fundamental understanding that one can gain from this series of books.

Unlike most other method books, "Beginning Jazz Guitar" starts from chapter 1 with a dual track instruction mode of chord and scale studies mixed with a moderate dose of musical theory AND the author wisely limits the first volume to just the major scale. Too many other fine publications insist on bedeviling the student with a bewildering array of scales and modes in rapid fire succession. This volume shines when it comes to supplying answers to real world questions as the student might actually encounter them. Additionally, Jody Fisher presents scales in a format that encourages horizontal rather than vertical playing (one of the most important and most overlooked aspect of improvisation). As a matter of fact, more experienced players may have to relearn scale positions to work through the etudes and excercises in this book since they are fundamentally different than those normally found in most instructional texts.

Likewise, for a beginning book, the text does a credible job in presenting harmony and chord progressions with just enough theory to understand how progressions are structured and how to extend and alter chords. Most books present chordal theory in the first part of the book and then take up lead playing in the second half as if they bore no relationship with one another. Again, the author scores with the dual track approach.

Finally, the information contained in the "Coda" at the end of the book is worth the price alone. One could spend half a lifetime studying jazz guitar and not stumble over some these gems of info.

As a companion to this book I might also recommend "All Solos & Grooves for Jazz Guitar" by Jim Ferguson (Mel Bay) which serves up major scale studies along with more advanced solos utilizing similar techniques. As a matter of fact all of Ferguson's books would fit in nicely with this series.

All in all, an excellent resource for the determined student.

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Learning Jazz or reading TAB, March 15, 2006

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Kjell (Oslo, Norway) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Beginning Jazz Guitar: The Complete Jazz Guitar Method- Beginning, Intermediate, Mastering Chord / Melody, Mastering Improvisation (Paperback)

I have used this book a lot since I got it, and I have learned much from it. While I at first was quite entusiastic about the book, I am slightly more critical now.

The book proceeds along two tracks, chords and solo. In both cases etudes goes alongside the theory so you can apply what you have leared. But after learning some of the etudes, I started wondering if I had really learned the theory. You learn to play basic triads on any three adjacent strings, and this accompanied by an etude. But as the etude is written in TAB I do not think about whether the chord I play is an d-minor or an A major or any other chord. I found that when I took an old song-book and tried comping using the same basic triads, I had to think about how to form the chord and hence I learned more. For many of the other etudes I got a similar feeling that what I learned was not the chord or the fingering, but to read TAB.

Another strange point is that the book starts out by a short review of the pre-requisite. You are supposed to be familiar with fingering of the pentatonic scale, and basic blues chord progression. But nowhere in the book would lack of such knowledge be an aparent problem.

Still, this is an good book. The basic theory is excellently explained. I have learened a lot from the book. It starts out easy both in construction and voicing of chords and improvisig, proceedin to modes of the major scale.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good Book to Learn More Sophisticated Guitar, June 3, 2008

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M. Dacre (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Beginning Jazz Guitar: The Complete Jazz Guitar Method (Book & DVD) (Paperback)

First off, when this book says "beginning," it does NOT mean it is targeted to a complete beginner to guitar. It means it is written for a guitarist who knows the basics of rock guitar and would like to learn more about the more sophisticated and traditional jazz style.

The book assumes that you already know a couple scales (pentatonics, etc.) and most standard rock chords, and I greatly appreciated that it assumed I knew these, because I was afraid the book would be too "dumb" in the beginning.

This book is fantastic... it shows you what to play with clear diagrams and explanations and all the etudes and songs are written in TAB and traditional so it exposes you to playing guitar using traditional notation, which is an important skill.

I highly recommend this book. If you are a fairly good intermediate-level rock guitarist who knows all the basic open and barre chords, this book will pick up right where you want it to and help you add some sophistication to your playing... all you have to do is practice what it teaches you!