Customer Reviews

Early Jazz and Swing Songs for Guitar Book/CD (String Letter Publishing) (Acoustic Guitar)

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This "how to play" presentation from David Hamburger does a good job of making complex songs easy to play. My only criticism is how difficult it is to use the material, because the print is SO small. The songs are sparse in their arrangement and really just fragments of the originals, but good enough for an intermediate player to experience and learn. In trying to master the three note chord shapes, the difficulty is increased by the tiny, tiny chord position diagrams. "Is that a 6 or a 9 fret? Get out the maginifying glass. This problem is really to blame on the company that designed the layout and print size. There are also subtle errors, like pick up note timing, but really, who doesn't have a problem with that?

If you've been playing the guitar for a couple of months and can handle Tablature, then this is an excellent book for you. Easy to play melody lines with nice 3 note chords makes it fun to doodle around. The chords may take a while to master as they are not your basic open string chords, but once you've got a nice strum pattern, the chords will take off. The CD that's included helps you to listen to the tune, and play along once you're up to speed.

Nicely arranged, not too difficult tunes in both notes and tablature made this a great book to own.