Guitar Secrets: Harmonic Minor Revealed [Paperback]

Don Mock (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1998

Legendary guitarist and educator Don Mock exposes the closely-guarded "secret" soloing techniques of jazz and rock giants, revealing easy ways to create ultra-cool sounding lines and patterns by substituting simple harmonic minor patterns over dominant 7th chords. These book/CD packages each contain over 60 music examples, lines, licks and patterns. All music is written in standard notation and tablature.

Product Details

• Paperback: 44 pages
• Publisher: Warner Bros Pubns (January 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 076920029X
• ISBN-13: 978-0769200293
• Product Dimensions: 11.6 x 8.7 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,128,732 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book - Great Teacher, November 14, 2001

By 

Kelly B. MacDonald (Portland, OR USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Guitar Secrets: Harmonic Minor Revealed (Paperback)

Don is one of the worlds top educators. He has a simple "only the needed info" approach that is very similar in approach to the Late Howard Roberts. This should come as no surprise since Howard tapped Don to become one of the original instructors at Hollywoods Guitar Institute of Technology.

Don provides real world applications for these unique sounds. He keeps you from spending a lot of time practicing scales that you then can't quite figure out how to use correctly.

I recommend this book and its companion on the melodic minor scale to all aspiring guitarists.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very good tool for harmonic minor learning, December 27, 2009

By 

cincinnatislim (Cincinnati, Ohio) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Guitar Secrets: Harmonic Minor Revealed (Paperback)

As I've mentioned in previous guitar book reviews, the value of lesson material must be kept in mind with regards to your level of understanding, playing ability and in relation to what your ear is both comfortable and capable of hearing and comprehending. That being said, most books will have some value but choosing one that has the most value for where you are as a guitar player is key (or you can have an entire library of lesson books that you never start or finish). I am a big fan of stuff that Don Mock has done in Guitar Secrets. I got this one and the Melodic Minor as my private instructor has been pushing me to develop these abilities in my improvisational efforts over jazz standards, chord changes. So both these books (harmonic and melodic minors) have been very helpful to discern where and how to use these scales. Specifically to the Harmonic Minor Revealed -- there's a solid explanation to the harmonization of the minor scales that put a great deal in perspective, there's a listing of the 5 harmonic minor scales (but there is an error, the third pattern is a repeat of the second patter in my copy-- so there's only 4), a list of the all the arpeggios for the harmonic minor chords, some great examples and some "out there" kind of stuff also. Like all decent books, there's a level of digestion and incubation that has to occur and you have to be careful to what level you get involved with details that may not necessarily advance your playing in an efficient fashion (again, depending on where you are as a player). The challenge would be to use the harmonic minor scale fluently in an improvisational approach. I often wish these books had a few more "in between" exercises. That is some approaches that bridge the gap from understanding what their taking about ("getting it", at least theoretically) and being able to apply it effectively ("really getting it", as a player). All that said, the Don Mock series is part of my routine learning approach.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Don Mock Rules!, April 11, 2007

By 

JP (Fletcher, NC USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Guitar Secrets: Harmonic Minor Revealed (Paperback)

This is a fascinating subject covered by an expert teacher. You have to learn to think in terms of the harmonic minor scale as a dominant 7 chord, which takes some getting used to. I really just enjoy this guy's approach and own several of his books/videos. Highly recommended!