The Guitar Grimoire: A Compendium of Guitar Chords and Voicings [Paperback]

Adam Kadmon (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 082582172X | ISBN-13: 978-0825821721 | Publication Date: June 1, 1993

Every chord of every key and mode is presented with thousands of diagrams and charts. Includes polychords, chord substitutions, inversions and movable voicings.

This indespensable volume belongs in every guitarist's library.

This book is a "where to" book, showing you exactly where to find any chord in any key on your fretboard. It is a professional reference tool to enhance your music library and playing that you will use for many years to come.

Editorial Reviews

Review

" A great book...check it out." -- Guitar for the Practicing Musician Magazine

"The Guitar Grimoire is a complete reference manual..." -- Guitar World Magazine

"The guitarist's Rosetta Stone. Puts other attempts to shame." --Rob Boissiere

Product Details

• Paperback: 220 pages
• Publisher: Carl Fischer (June 1, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 082582172X
• ISBN-13: 978-0825821721
• Product Dimensions: 11.7 x 8.7 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #433,571 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Pure Info, April 2, 2002

By 

J. J. Hall "rasav" (Ft. Worth) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Guitar Grimoire: A Compendium of Guitar Chords and Voicings (Paperback)

This book is just fretboard maps of chords and voiceings. It is a wonderful referance tool and will add flavors to your sound stew. This is not a book to be used as a "How To" or self instructional tool, it's not laid out that way. SO, if you are looking for a way to get through a progression with out sounding like EVERYBODY ELSE this is the book. If you are just trying to figure what a Cmaj7 is There are a number of chord dictionaries that are better suited for the purpose.
Buy this book if you are are planing on going pro, or are seriously into musical studies.
Not really worth buying for the incidental guitarest.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is the one., April 20, 2005

By 

Eric Thompson (River Falls, Wisconsin USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Guitar Grimoire: A Compendium of Guitar Chords and Voicings (Paperback)

If you're a serious guitar player and you just want to know your chords, this is probably the ONLY book you'll ever need. However, if you want to get the most out of it you'll probably have to (gasp) THINK about it a little. The diagrams show you where each chord tone is across the entire fretboard. So you can just look at it, then place your fingers any which way you want and try to get a good voicing. You want to play a B Major 7 chord? Here's the notes, man. Figure out your own way to play it. If you want to stretch your fingers accross seven frets, go for it. If you want to take it easy and play it in a more conventional way, feel free. That's what's great about this book: It allows you a seemingly infinite amount of CHOICES, instead of just showing you 2 or 3 ways to play a given chord. An amazing book - Ideal for jazz players or anyone wanting to become more familiar with the fretboard.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Adam Kadmon is GREAT!, November 20, 2005

By 

J. Longfellow "Master of da skys" (St. petersburg, FL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Guitar Grimoire: A Compendium of Guitar Chords and Voicings (Paperback)

As you can read in the other reviews, this book is not in any way an encyclopedia of chords (Kadmon offers that in a whole separate edition), this is a book of thousands of charts that show you all of the notes for any given chord and any given place that they occur on the fretboard, thus giving you the opportunity to create chords of your own liking, and also to create different voicings in endless places. As with all of the Kadmon Books this book is not intended for the player that is satisfied with just playing a few simple chords and making campfire style music; this book is more directed at the musician that is interested in exploring all of the small but important intricacies of music.

Grimoire is defined as a sorcer or magicians book of spells and encantations, and with that in mind, the title of this book is exactly fitting to what it is. One thing to keep in mind though is that Kadmon was very smart in the way that he markets his books, none of them are self inclusive, they each excessively explore one single aspect, but if you make the investment of buying 3 or 4 of his books, you should have more info than most people could digest in a lifetime. Enjoy!

PS: Not for the beginner.