Mel Bay Essential Jazz Lines in the Style of Grant Green for Guitar [Paperback]

Corey Christiansen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 8, 2003

Grant Green was one of the most innovative jazz guitarists of the 1960s. His horn-like lines, original tone, and superb sense of time elevated him to being one of Blue-Note Records first call session players as well as a respected bandleader. This book covers many of the techniques Grant used in his playing and provides many melodic lines in the style of Grant Green for minor, dominant seventh, short and long ii-V, major, and minor ii-V chord progressions. Chapters on double-slurs, double-stops, pentatonic and blues scales as well as chapters on the basics of the jazz language will help guitarists understand and play the music of Grant Green. Presented in standard notation, tab and fretboard diagrams, this book comes with a play-along CD that will assist guitarists in mastering this material.

Product Details

• Paperback: 56 pages
• Publisher: Mel Bay Publications (January 8, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786662743
• ISBN-13: 978-0786662746
• Product Dimensions: 11.4 x 8.6 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,758,152 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars This book is not what it seems, April 27, 2005

By 

B. O'Connor - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mel Bay Essential Jazz Lines in the Style of Grant Green for Guitar (Paperback)

Be very careful about this book. It claims to be "essential jazz lines in the style of Grant Green" but it's no such thing. Jazz and blues scales are listed, but they are very general and not specifically characteristic of GG, and the cd contains guitar licks that GG virtually never used. You might learn a thing or two about jazz in this -- though the explanations are very limited -- but nothing about the style of guitar playing associated with GG and other similar guitarists.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Too litlle Grant Green, January 9, 2007

By 

Antonius J. Van Heide "7 string guitarist" (Bergen, Norway) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Mel Bay Essential Jazz Lines in the Style of Grant Green for Guitar (Paperback)

Allthough the cover looks nice, the contents of this book are, to say the least, very "meager" and does not really give in insight into the beautiful playing of the late Grant Green. The accompanying CD is a waste of money and effort.

3.0 out of 5 stars In the style of, September 28, 2010

By 

A.C.Slater - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mel Bay Essential Jazz Lines in the Style of Grant Green for Guitar (Paperback)

The past reviews I believe are too critical... In the style of means that the licks in the book are similar but not necessarily riffs taken from grant green. The book is meant to learn more in the style of Grant Green and be able to practice the riffs/ideas in different keys hence the cd (Which I didn't find useless as I used the cd) If you listen to Grant Green you do find that he uses the blues scale frequently and the slide pull off technique described in the book is used in almost every Green song and a ton of his licks.

Also people not happy with this book should read the descriptions of the book first as Corey Christiansen has done a number of books in this series. Its not to get you to sound like Grant Green (transcribe all his songs if this is what you want) its to incorporate some of the important elements of the greats into your style. You need to develop your own ideas for this series of books to help. (I know shocking!)