Jazz Guitar Structures [Paperback]

Andrew Green (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 3, 2004

For guitarists, the technical learning curve for improvisation is fairly steep. For this reason, it is important to find multiple uses for the musical structures that you learn to execute. This approach decreases the learning curve considerably. Jazz Guitar Structures shows you how to expand your improvising vocabulary by combining small, easily identifiable melodic ideas (structures) into longer, more complex lines. In standard notation with companion CD.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Andrew Green is a freelance guitarist in New York City. A professional musician since the age of 15, he has played with such jazz luminaries as Donald Byrd, Joanne Brackeen, Billy Hart, George Garzone, Winard Harper, Willie Smith and John McNeil, among others. In addition to performing, Andrew is a faculty member at Jazz In July at the University of Massachusetts and the Mile High Jazz Camp at the University of Colorado and conducts clinics throughout the US and Canada. He is the author of Jazz Guitar Technique and Jazz Guitar Structures.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

INTRODUCTION

For guitarists, the technical learning curve for improvisation is fairly steep. For this reason, it is important to find multiple uses for the musical structures that you learn to execute. This approach decreases the learning curve considerably.

It?s easy to learn and remember structures since they form recognizable ?shapes? or patterns on the fingerboard, and playing parallel structures is something guitarists do naturally (a Minor 7 arpeggio moved up or down a fret is still fingered the same).

Structural thinking provides a relatively easy way to generate more complex lines. It increases the number of ways to play over a given chord, and helps you find new paths through familiar chord progressions. It also helps you create interesting, unexpected movement from chord to chord.

A structural approach makes it possible to see relationships between unrelated chords, a must for improvising on modern, non-functional harmonic progressions. Using similar structures also provides cohesiveness and makes it easier to play motivically.

Since a book detailing the use of every structure would be unreasonably long, I present three structures in detail to provide some insight into this way of thinking. You will then have the ability to identify and use structures of your own.

Learning to improvise can be a confusing experience. You are asked to deal with a large number of seemingly unrelated musical entities, then fashion them into coherent solos. On top of this, you hear the great players spin long, complex melodic lines that sound as if they were created from the 17th mode of the cryptophrygian harmonic major scale. They aren?t. These lines are actually made up of small, simple, easily identified structures these players have combined in interesting ways. This book will help you do the same.

Product Details

• Paperback: 136 pages
• Publisher: Andrew Green (August 3, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0970057601
• ISBN-13: 978-0970057600
• Product Dimensions: 10.2 x 6.9 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #334,783 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Subtitle says it all, "Boosting Your Solo Power" Good Book!, August 30, 2002

By 

Louis W. Arnold "life long guitarist" (Lunenburg, MA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Jazz Guitar Structures (Paperback)

While "Jazz Guitar Technique," Andrew Green's first book, (highly recommended) covers many facets of jazz guitar playing, "Jazz Guitar Structures" is focused on the process of solo line development. "Jazz Guitar Structures" provides a detailed approach to building improvised jazz lines using short identifiable structures. Anyone familiar with Andrew Green's first book, "Jazz Guitar Technique," knows that he is concise and direct in delivering information. This new book also includes a CD that demonstrates many of the lines in the book with bass & piano rhythm section accompaniment.

This book details an approach that includes hearing, facility and visualization exercises by which the reader gains experience in hearing and applying familiar melodic figures to most chord types. This approach really helps to reduce the seemingly huge amount of material that one can feel confronted with when working at jazz improvisation. This is not a book of licks or stylistic examples. Rather, it is a detailed approach to making the greatest use of short melodic structures. What excites me is that this approach, once mastered, will enable a person to fully develop many, many uses for melodic structures as they come into one's musical consciousness. As a student of improvisation, I have read interviews with the masters where one will refer to hearing one of her or his favorite players apply an idea in many different contexts. I am quite sure that "Jazz Guitar Structures" provides a method with which to do that. This is excellent material.

28 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Jazz Guitar Structures, December 15, 2003

By 

Khadri (New York, New York United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Jazz Guitar Structures (Paperback)

great..book... it changes the way you think about playing..the guitar.. it show you things that you may or may not know.. and connects the dots.. for example: arpeggios... I never thought about them in terms of a visual 4 note pattern..starting on each string.. i was always taught from low e to high e.. but Andrews book shows you the arps in small quick to finger patterns.. that lay out the whole fingerboard. Like i said stuff that you may know.. but never made the connection.. then all of a sudden a light goes on!

I have many books.. but if you really want to know what you are doing and don't have a lot of time to work on it.. this is a great place to start...

PS.. if you are looking for TAB.. try something else.( you need to at least know the basic notes and a little theory)..

This book opens up a whole new world..and the stuff sounds goooood..!

"keep Playing"

KAS...

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars whole new way of playing, October 22, 2004

By 

Jeffrey M. Bailey "jmb23233" (Richmond, Virginia United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Jazz Guitar Structures (Paperback)

It's funny how you can go for years playing guitar solos based on the same old riffs, feeling like you have hit a wall, and someone shows you one thing that increases your soloing ideas 20-fold. EVERY PAGE of this book has such a moment. It's not just full of riffs, like other books I've picked up, but linear ideas based on major and minor scale fragments, built upon different scale degrees of the chord, which you can manipulate into original melodic ideas. It this sounds technical, the book will too. It is NOT a beginning guide to jazz guitar. No tablature, so you need to know how to read music...and know your chords!!
Spend one day on one page, and get a hundred new ideas.
Great book, Mr. Green!!!!