The Guitarist's Guide to Composing and Improvising Book/CD [Paperback]

Damian Jon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2001

Unleash the creative potential of your guitar, and express your imagination through your music! This inspiring, practical and fun approach to composing and improvising will develop your sense of dynamics, articulation, rhythm, melodic direction and musical E.S.P. Think out of the box, and journey inside this truly unique collection of creative resources for the curious guitarist. Your guitar will thank you!

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A wonderful book by a very special musician." - Mike Stern

About the Author

Jon Damian's work as a performer, composer, lecturer and clinician has taken him to five continents. His varied performances range from Bill Frisell to Luciano Pavarotti, and from the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Seiji Ozawa to the Boston Pops under John Williams with Johnny Cash. He has performed with Jaki Byard, Leonard Bernstein, Howard McGhee, Jimmy Giuffre, Sheila Jordan, Ricky Ford, Joanne Brackeen, Don Byron, Bobby Watson, Rosemary Clooney and Linda Rondstadt. He is professor of guitar at Berklee College of Music, and his students have included Bill Frisell, Mark Whitfield, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Leni Stern and Wayne Krantz. His CD, °Dedications: Faces and Places°, with Bill Frisell, features the rubbertellie ¯ an instrument of his own invention.

Product Details

• Paperback: 152 pages
• Publisher: Hal Leonard (August 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0634016350
• ISBN-13: 978-0634016356
• Product Dimensions: 12 x 9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #74,612 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Book to Buy..., April 16, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Guitarist's Guide to Composing and Improvising Book/CD (Paperback)

I'm lucky to have studied with Jon in the early 90s when I attended Berklee. In short, I'm still learning from the materials and ideas he transmitted in our lessons. This book has all those ideas and more. It's an incredible wealth of information.

Buy the book and save yourself lots of money OR quit your job, move to Boston, enroll in Berklee (it's like joining a priesthood of a 1000 frustrated guitar players), try to become a jazz-snob (growing a goatee will help), and maybe if you're lucky, you'll get one half-hour a week with Jon each semester. (He's one of the most sought-after teachers at Berklee.)

BE WARNED: This book is not for beginners, it's only for serious players and those that really really want to learn how to play well. If that's you, then this book is an excellent guide.

-- gabriel perry
...

PS - The CD that comes with his book is great. The examples are very musical and inspired. So much so, that I contacted Jon (his email addy is in the book) and bought his "Dedications: Faces and Places" CD.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Book Full of Worth!, December 10, 2001

By 

geoffmullen (boston, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Guitarist's Guide to Composing and Improvising Book/CD (Paperback)

I feel bad having to contest what others may have written in criticism of this book, but it really is misleading to say that this book is aimed at a low level. It is neither a waste of time or money.
John presents ideas in this book that many guitarists, young and old, may have never explored before. In many places he abandons the typical format of "how-to-play guitar" method books in favor of exercises that demand the student to be creative, expressive, and individual. I find this very refreshing, and necessary, in today's state of music education.
If approached with an open mind, many of these deceivingly "simple" exercises can become very deep.
There are also great exercises dealing with counterpoint, three-note structures, ear training, scale studies, etc.... These are all presented in John's own way and with a good sense of humor.
Like most worthwhile music books, what you will get out of it depends on how much you put into it. I would recommend this to guitarists who are in search of fresh ideas, but who also have self-discipline and an interest in making things their own. you can really take this stuff to the roof if you want to.
The idea that this is aimed at a low level, or doesn't contain enough hard work, is just plain wrong.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great book for the serious musician., December 17, 2001

By 

Vreny Van Elslande (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Guitarist's Guide to Composing and Improvising Book/CD (Paperback)

I have been very fortunate to be a student of Jon Damian in Berklee. He opened up possibilities and approaches to studying the guitar, which proved revealing and very inspirational to me. Now I studied with Jon myself, I can clearly see in which ways he influenced the many major (jazz) fusion guitarists that once studied with him. I'm not going to mention the names of the famous players who studied with Jon: if you want to know them, they're mentioned in his book. Jon doesn't really care about that honor anyway... he only cares about the music.
"The Guitarist's Guide To Composing and Improvising" totally reflects Jon's adventurous, imaginative teaching style and advanced musical ideas. In a light-hearted yet thoughtful way, the book teaches about the aspects of composition and improvisation on the guitar, starting from the premise that improvisation is actually "composing in the moment". Jon calls this "comprovisation". This leads to many very interesting, advanced musical ideas like for example "contrapuntal improvising". I can understand that more conservative players or musicians with a less open-minded attitude can't look beyond the light-hearted approach, and thus miss the overall point and message the material in "The Guitarist's Guide To Composing and Improvising" contains. Too bad for these musicians: mastering the guitar does indeed require a healthy dose of brains, attitude, imagination and insight. Somebody who turns down this book, obviously doesn't understand the material it covers, and is not ready for this book yet. After all, the serious student guitarist soon finds out that the ideas in the book might seem simple at first, but really mastering the ideas presented and being able to incorporate them in your playing, is a totally different ball game. Only through an ongoing process of years of dedicated practice will one get to master the material in this book. "The Guitarist's Guide To Composing and Improvising" is geared towards musicians of all levels (also the very advanced) who want to tap into advanced compositional and improvisational tools on the guitar. Being a student on the guitar for over 10 years now, "The Guitarist's Guide To Composing and Improvising" contains a wealth of material that is still going to keep me busy for years to come. I therefore strongly recommend this book to every musician/guitarist who is serious about his/her art.