Jazz Guitar Technique [Paperback]

Andrew Green (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 3, 2004

When improvising, what your mind hears is more often than not determined by what your body can reproduce on your instrument. Much of your conception as an improviser is determined by your technique. If you can’t play certain types of ideas, you are simply not going to conceive of them while you are improvising. Even if you could, it wouldn’t matter, since you couldn’t play them anyway. Serious chops building technical studies for single note lines and chords. Plus, the examples feature a lot of harmonic content. This book is about much more than technique...I believe this would be a great addition to any jazz guitarist's library. In standard notation only.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

A professional guitarist since age 15, author and publisher Andrew Green has performed in a wide variety of jazz settings. Currently active in the New York jazz scene, Andrew is also an educator at "Jazz In July" at the University of Massachusetts and the "Mile High Jazz Camp" at the university of Colorado.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

When improvising, what your mind hears is more often than not determined by what your body can reproduce on your instrument. Much of your conception as an improviser is determined by your technique. If you can’t play certain types of ideas, you are simply not going to conceive of them while you are improvising. Even if you could, it wouldn’t matter, since you couldn’t play them anyway.

There are many melodic structures that are physically challenging to play on the guitar. For example, anything that necessitates playing consecutive notes on adjacent strings presents logistical problems for both hands. This includes various arpeggios, triad-based lines, consecutive fourths, and large interval leaps. Since these melodic devices present such a challenge, the range of ideas in a typical guitar solo doesn’t include them.

To expand the palette of musical ideas available to you as an improviser, you must expand your technique. The way to do this is to practice things that feature physically challenging motion. By playing lines that incorporate new and different types of melodic movement, you gain the technical ability necessary to improvise with these structures, and the sound of these melodies will gradually enter your musical consciousness.

The exercises in this book will improve your technique, increase the range of your ideas, and open up new avenues of improvisation to you. You, in turn will have the opportunity to add to the vocabulary of what is possible to play on the guitar.

Product Details

• Paperback: 111 pages
• Publisher: Andrew Green (August 3, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 097005761X
• ISBN-13: 978-0970057617
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 8.6 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #247,555 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

79 of 79 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Powerful Stuff, August 16, 2001

By 

Louis W. Arnold "life long guitarist" (Lunenburg, MA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Jazz Guitar Technique (Paperback)

Congratulations to Andrew Green for his "Jazz Guitar Technique." This book is unique amoung the many jazz guitar books in print because it addresses much more than what many guitarists might consider "technique." Starting from 1)developing assertive pick hand rhythmic control, 2) demonstrating how to see and hear the same melodic idea in many areas of the fingerboard and 3) laying down a concise series of excercises aimed at mastering cross string picking, the author develops excercises and lines that are free from guitar cliches. He includes immediately useful chord voicings from the diminished scale with lots of beautiful phrases that one can apply to tunes right away.

There is more and I am certain that anyone who works with this book will make discoveries leading to improvisational fluency. "Jazz Guitar Technique" is a workbook with no wasted words or excess musical examples. It's one of the really great ones that do not come along often. I for one am glad that it is not published by one of the mega-music publishers (although it deserves wide distribution) because it is not from the conventional mold. Thelonius Monk has been quoted as saying "Jazz is Freedom." Time spent working from Andrew Green's "Jazz Guitar Technique" will help develop the musical and instrumental chops that will lead to freedom.

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An advanced book even beginners can profit from, April 10, 2003

By 

Stephen Ginsburg - See all my reviews

This review is from: Jazz Guitar Technique (Paperback)

I've been doing exercises from this book nearly everyday since I purchased it and it has improved not only my chops, but the way in which I approach improvisation as well. Although a beginner to jazz will profit from mere repetition of the studies, an advanced or intermediate player will find the harmonic ideas incorporated in the studies to be very advanced and original.

Particularly intriguing is his unorthodox approach to fingering, some of which I've incorporated into my playing.

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A thorough approach to common jazz techniques, August 4, 2005

By 

Ilia Asafiev (Maryland, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Jazz Guitar Technique (Paperback)

When I started playing guitar, for a long time I was stuck in a pentatonic box. Using common four-finger box patterns, I was eventually able to break through to other areas of the fingerboard; however, for a long time I found that many sounds that I want to achieve are too difficult to play due to shortcomings of my micro-technique. As a result, I stayed away from patterns that were not convenient for the left hand, as well as those that created difficulties for the right hand.

Andrew Green's Jazz Guitar Technique uses a gradual approach to building micro-technique. By micro-technique I mean variations within a pattern that involves moving fingers in a small span of frets/strings, with which so many people struggle.

All of the material is presented in standard notation, with numbers indicating the string to be used. For my purposes, I wrote out tablature myself using notation software for the positions indicated in the book.

The book is divided into several sections. In the first section, Green demonstrates how one pattern can be played in many areas of the fretboard, and encourages students to explore such variations.

The second section presents exercise patterns on two, three, and four strings. Each exercise is designed to provide most of the common finger pattern variations. After each of the exercises, Green presents jazz lines using the patterns from the exercises. These exercises are indispensable for developing left hand finger independence, as well as cross-string mechanics for the pick hand. The jazz lines are more advanced, and require movement across positions besides cross-string movement.

There is also a section that presents 5- and 6-string arpeggio patterns. I didn't find it nearly as useful as the exercises for 2, 3, 4 strings because the 5- and 6- string arpeggios are just broken-up chord shapes.

Another section includes chord technique. This section presents some quartal chord structures harmonized to scales, for practicing chord changes. Again, this wasn't the most useful section of the book, but it opens up doors to both exotic chord sounds and closed chord voicings over the span of the fretboard.

Finally, there's a rhythm training section. This was excellent, especially for someone as rhythmically-deficient as myself. First, each rhythmic pattern is presented on a single note. Then, a sample jazz line is presented using that rhythmic patterns. Recommended practice tempo ranges are given for each pattern also.

The book includes a bibliography and a discography, which are pretty short but include a list of standards with melody lines requiring good technique.

Overall, I've enjoyed this title tremendously. It's an excellent book to go back to and practice various patterns. While Mr. Green is rather succinct, he does provide needed guidance for fingerings to use and hints for practicing. If you're an intermediate guitarist looking for practice material, this will work great for you.