Customer Reviews

Mel Bay Jazz Guitar Method

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
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The chord section of Lee's book is very logical and builds up from triads, giving the student a very complete understanding of the basic building blocks of harmony. The chapters concerning solo playing are approached in a similar way, so they only scratch the surface in a very guitaristic way of moving pre-set melodic items around according to the changes. For chords, it is one of the most logical approaches I've seen so far.

I bought the rhythm part of this book standalone years ago and often wondered why I've only heard it mentioned once in an interview. It didn't survive a house move and I ended up buying a second copy of the combined edition.

Mel Bay should market this one specifically toward players who want to learn swing, western swing, and bop-style 3 and 4 note comping and moving harmonized bass lines. It's far more thorough on the subject than a lot of existing volumes, covering inversions, substitutions and extensions up to 11th and 13th chords with altered tensions. The book provides context in the form of progressions with chords as they might appear in sheet music. It's a nice combination of physical drill and theoretical explanation.

That said, part one on single note playing is very elementary, very dated and not very interesting. If your interest is primarily line playing, I'd look elsewhere. But if you're into chords, particularly in a swing or western swing setting, there's a lot of good stuff here that'll reward the effort. Part 2 alone is worth the price of the book.

When I bought this book initially I thought, hmm what can a guy with sideburns as big as Elvis teach me now. Boy was I SOOOO wrong!

This book is the most logical method I have ever seen for teaching Jazz chord voicings. I really didn't get it till I worked through this book.

It's worth EVERY penny.

I've used and recommended the Ronnie Lee text -- especially the chord section (originally volume 2) since 1968. There is no better exploration of jazz chord substitution theory anywhere. It could also be used, in that sense, by keyboardists and melodic instrumentalists. The ideas (though not specifically spelled out that way) of chord substitution can also be applied to improvisation -- using the chords melodically as arpeggios. I paired with book with Mel Bay's Orchestral Guitar chord study book to learn the various jazz chords, and they clearly show how to build chords in the different positions, with exercises and drills for their application. Today, I would probably pair it with Warren Nunes' chord texts, but Ronnie Lee is more clear in discussing the actual application and substitution of the chords.

I studied the melodic interval theory section (originally volume 1) on my own in high school and had a huge leg-up when I took classical harmony on the university level.

I have yet to find another Jazz guitar method book as practical as this one. This is not a great place to start but if you already have a good basic understanding of the instrument, can read music and understand basic chord theory, then you're probably ready for this book. If you take your time and work through this text diligently, both your improvising and rhythm playing will be greatly improved. Good luck!

This book is the end all for beginning guitarist interested in the jazz idiom. I studied it twenty years ago and have benefitted from it's disciple. The Rhythm section in Part II is excellent.