Customer Reviews

An Introduction to Jazz Guitar Soloing BK/CD (Introduction to Book & CD)

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This book is based on Joe's Jazz Workshop 1 and 2 electives as taught at GIT for 20 years and was one of the best classes I took at MI.
It begins by the 'connecting game' of connecting basic seventh arpeggios of II VI progression by nearest tone and then progresses through melodic minor harmony of Altered and Locrian #2 scales to use min(maj7) and maj7(#5) arpeggio 'combo plates' to give a Jazz sound.
However, even basic connecting game takes a lot of practice to visualize one arpeggio as finishing another, or swap between different scales smoothly. This might seem a bit like painting by numbers at first, but point is to get to know sound and fingerings.
Eleven common chord 'situations' are covered; II V I in major and minor, long and short, turnarounds, bebop bridge, non-resolving II V and principle is to be able to take any Jazz standard or other tune, break it down into common situations and create lines for each.
Also covered are chromatics in maj7, min7, m7b5 and dom7 chords and targeting chord tones with surround notes.
This book contains a lot of useful information you will probably not have seen so clearly presented elsewhere, in its 104 pages.
If you get really adventurous, you can extend to all five major and minor patterns and use other arpeggios from melodic minor such as IV7 and VIm7b5, but material in book will probably keep you occupied for at least six months and probably a lot longer.

I am rapidly becoming a fan of Musician's Institute titles. I have literally dozens of books from every imaginable publisher, and few, if any, approach the MI quality of execution. This book, along with MI title Chord-Melody Guitar(bruce buckingham), are my most recent purchases. Haven't looked at Chord-Melody yet, but this book has been instrumental(pun intended) in my finally getting over the "playing over changes" obstacle that has held me back for too long. the review below provides a great synopsis, so read that re. how the subject is dealt with. suffice it to say, there are probably hundreds of titles that deal with this subject, and the bottom line is a guitarist could learn the same basic info from most of them. you get out what you put in. having said that, this is the book that helped me walk through the door. and the benefits have been lateral as well. from a listener's perspective, I am much more effective at hearing the changes in other's recorded solos.
some of you out there might share my guitar bk compulsion. cut to the chase and save some$$$ with this title. you won't regret it.

If you are like me, you have dozens (at least my wife thinks it's only dozens) of books on all the aspects of learning jazz guitar. I've learned a little something from all of them, but never really gotten proficient at soloing. I can play around over the changes, but have never felt like I had a good grasp of how to go about doing it well and producing lines that sound good. I've only had this book for a couple of weeks, but the learning process is exactly what I've been looking for. This book will help me put the little pieces together. I understand much better how to apply the Melodic Minor scale and all it's modes and arpeggios. I understand how to go about learning how to apply phrases to certain chord progressions, how to analyze the chord progressions, how to embellish the lines with chromaticism and how to work around target notes. I know it'll take a lot of work to get the concepts under my fingers, but the work will be much more organized and directed. This book is a great little road map to apply all the random knowledge I've picked up and get it under my fingers so that I can make it work for me. I expect it to accelerate my learning a ton!