Customer Reviews

Jazz Chops for Guitar

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I purchased this book with the accompanying CD a couple of years ago, flipped through it, and put it aside for more "interesting" material to work on. Having gone through numerous method books on jazz guitar I felt I was beyond the skills this volume purported to teach. Boy, was I wrong!

After reaching a certain plateau on the learning curve I just wasn't progressing the way I thought I should. On a whim I pulled this slim volume out of my pile and proceeded to leaf through it with a more open mind. After working through specific chapters (in my case fingerboard speed and economy of travel) My playing improved significantly. I was now able to reach fret positions with time to spare. Maybe that's an exageration but the excercises definately helped in arriving "ahead of the music" rather than constantly racing to keep up to tempo. Additionally, the alternate picking excercises should be required reading for anyone. My third and fourth finger strength has improved and the six fret stretches are now comfortable with my fretting hand held solidly in position. And, it didn't take that long to make significant improvment.

My only criticism of this volume is, compared to other teaching materials and given it's size it seems a little overpriced, but that's nitpicking. I would highly recommend this book/cd combo for anyone who wants to improve their technique. There's no theory, no solos and no comping patterns; just sequencing, scales and fingering excercises.

I too had this book in my pile of method books for years until I thought I would try some of the exercises. It starts of in a pretty straight forward way, but by the middle it has some amazing exercises that really help conceptualise the FULL fretboard. Highly recommend this for anyone willing to put in 15-30 min a day to make major improvements in strength, flexibility and fretboard mastery.

much of this book is devoted to basic finger exercises, none of which are jazz-specific. My philosophy is that exercises should be musical, or at least close .... About 2/3 of this book is mindless permutations. I was disappointed.

This is an easy to read book for people interested in being SERIOUS musicians. It's the "insiders" guide. I learned a lot.