Customer Reviews

Mel Bay Essential Jazz Lines: The Style of Wes Montgomery for Guitar Book/CD Set

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I am a beginning guitarist with a passion for jazz, and as such I cannot give a very educated critique of this book, but as an enthusiastic learner I can say it is just what I am looking for. The first half explains some techniques used by wes to achieve his sound: guide tones, bebop scales, note targeting, 3rd to flat 9 notes, arpeggios and extended arpeggios etc with some background theory. The second half is a collection of lines in the style of wes, grouped into lines to be played over major minor or dominant chords, leading to phrases over major and minor ii V I progressions. Exactly the right mix of theory and practice I think. A great inspiration is an example solo which basically cuts and pastes some of the example lines and phrases over a progression and it sounds very melodic indeed. The official blurb says this book is for beginners to intermediate players which is probably right but it is not suitable for complete novices because knowledge of basics such as chord structure, scale structure and diatonic harmonies are assumed. I imagine this will keep me busy for months, and at this moment in time I can honestly say it is the best guitar book I have bought.

Nice book/cd with tab. The amount of work put into transcribing and organizing the lines shows. My only disappointment is that the lines themselves are not played. The cd only contains progressions to practice the lines over.