Jazz Guitar Chord System (Acoustic Guitar Magazine's Private Lessons) [Paperback]

Scott Henderson (Composer)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1999 | Series: Acoustic Guitar Magazine's Private Lessons

The essential guide to jazz chord voicings and substitutions, complete with a color-coded method for over 500 essential voicings. Players will understand chord functions and their harmonic possibilities better than ever before, as well as inversions, extensions, alterations, and substitutions. Players will also be able to increase their harmonic vocabulary for accompaniment, composing and chord-melody playing.

Product Details

• Paperback: 16 pages
• Publisher: Musicians Institute Press (January 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0793591651
• ISBN-13: 978-0793591657
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,510,337 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not a complete system. Don't waste your time & money., May 13, 2007

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C. Brooks-Lytle (Philadelphia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Jazz Guitar Chord System (Acoustic Guitar Magazine's Private Lessons) (Paperback)

The impression you get when you look at this book initially is that it will be a complete chord system. That is not true. Although many of the chord voicings work in theory, a large portion of them aren't usable because they don't sound very good. The system is also not presented very clearly. The idea is to use enharmonic thinking so that one chord can be used in multiple contexts. The presentation is very complex and confusing- and I'm an advanced level professional/ performing guitarist with 2 degrees in music.

Part of what makes the presentation somewhat confusing is that it is based on colors for different chord types.

Save your money and buy Steve Khan's chord book. Khan's book has better voicings and is organized well.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Easily Worth The Money, August 24, 2007

By 

Monkey Business (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Jazz Guitar Chord System (Acoustic Guitar Magazine's Private Lessons) (Paperback)

I went to GIT back in the late 80's and was fortunate enough to see Scott perform many many times . He is a total master of the guitar .I can think of no one that blends rock and jazz together as well as he on the Tribal Tech recordings.

Concerning this book , it is a short one 5 pages or so total. While I agree with the previous reviewer that the voicings may have limited usage, I disagree that they sound bad. I think they sound beautiful and I can hear them working well in solo guitar or during rubato or slow spacey grooves with a band. For everyday usage in typical situations I agree again with the previous reviewer that Khans book is more practical.

What I did with the book is to take a chord type say major and write out all the voicings that have the root on top ,then the 2nd on top , then the 3rd , etc and do this with the other types as well and them memorize the 500+ chords .I did that for about a month and found it very useful.It would take me 1/2 to one hour to play through it all.When I wrote it out I obviously had a lot more than 5 pages maybe something like 20 or so.Doing so really helps with visualizing the neck and you have a much more thorough collection of chords than Khans book by far .Khans book has a very limited number of minor seven flat five chords.altered dominant chords,major seven sharp five chords,etc. While maybe not for beginners this book is worth a lot for than the 5 bucks I paid for it .

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not worth it., May 9, 2008

By 

T. Lian - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Jazz Guitar Chord System (Acoustic Guitar Magazine's Private Lessons) (Paperback)

A student showed up at my place with a spare copy of this... er, book.

I must say I have rarely seen anything so needlessly complicated

and useless. The idea that any given set of tones can have different interpretations is of course nothing new, but if I am to learn a voicing that is irksome to grab, at least it should sound good. Few of these do.

What really gets me is the title: "The essential guide to Jazz chord voicings & substitutions". What nerve! It is no such thing!

This might have a potential audience among those who already know every common jazz chord, and are looking for a challenge, but if you are advanced and energetic enough to "do the work", you are certainly capable of coming up with a system of your own to top this. Doing so is also more fun.

Once I managed to grasp what the author was trying to say, I immediately spotted half-a-dozen ways to improve this mess, but I can't be bothered.

This could have served as a coaster, were it not for the aggravation I feel by looking at it. How anyone can give this thing five stars is beyond me. My copy goes in the bin.