Customer Reviews

Patterns, Scales And Modes For Jazz Guitar (berle)

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Like all of Arnie Berle's books, "Patterns, Scales, and Modes" is so well-organized and well presented that it seems almost too simple. Arnie begins by introducing you do basic scale forms, while simultanously present related arpeggios. That's something not many methods do, but it's something that a lot of jazz teachers think should be emphasized from the start. (Some, like Carol Kaye, don't even teach scales, going straight to arpeggions!) And every scale and arpeggio example is presented with excercises designed to let you hear how the examples sound in a real musical context. That's important.

As others have noted, the book is written in musical notation, not tablature, although there are also diagrams showing how scales and arpeggios lie on the fingerboard. Being able to read music is a necessity- but really, all you need to know is the basics: Names of notes on the staff, how key signatures work and so forth. You don't need to actually be able to read for guitar; Arnie teaches you that as he goes along. A sight reader would be able to progress a bit faster, of course. By the time the reader works his or her way through this book they should feel comfortable playing and improvising basic jazz lines in most any context.

Ideally I'd combine this book with Berle's "Chords and Progressions for Jazz and Popular Guitar" (and a good listening library of jazz records). Together, these two books contain all the aspiring jazz guitarist would need to get started.

I must admit that I have had a lot of frustration using this book. Many of Mr. Berle's riffs and excercises are presented without much context, other than an explanation that the riffs are pulled from this chord or that scale, plus chromatic notes. Thus, it sometimes feels like Berle's book is another in a long line of "play the notes of this scale, in some random order, over this chord" instruction books.

However, I think that this book's problems stem more from the scope of the task that the author has taken on. This is essentially a book for beginning jazz guitarists. Given the difficulty of playing jazz, this is not necessarily a book for beginning guitarists, unless conversant in some other instrument.

This book does not undertake to give a thorough explanation of chord voicings, melodic or harmonic theory, or thinking in a modal or non-functional context. For a better understanding of these elements of jazz, you need to seek out more advanced resources. This book undertakes only an explanation of spotting the diatonic key centers and playing the "correct" notes over a few choice examples of standard jazz changes. This in itself is a significant task, especially since Berle attempts to break down the subject to a level that any relatively intermediate guitarist could understand.

I would recommend this book if you have a smattering of theory and a desire to start learning jazz. For a very good all-purpose resource on jazz theory that covers a lot more ground, I would recommend Mark Levine's the Jazz Theory Book.

If you are not a music reader, don't let the lack of Tab put you off of this book. Berle clearly diagrams every position, and each note has both finger and string indicators. This may be one of the best resources for you to start learning to sight read, and you will need that skill if you want to use the more advanced resources on jazz playing, particularly those that are written for all instruments. The resources in this category include The Jazz Theory Book, the Aebersold series, and Building a Jazz Vocabulary.

this is an excellent introduction to scale modes and their application. like all of mr. berle's instructional books, it is written in an understandable fashion and gets its various points across without a lot of esoterica. this material is aimed at the intermediate guitarist who wants to understand a little of the basic tools for jazz guitar improvisation.

There is no tabulature in this book at all. I guess that's good because I need to work on my sightreading anyway. There are several fretboard images though which makes some of the exercises easier. But then he'll have a fretboard display of 1 arpeggio on the page and then introduce 2 or three variations. This is an intermediate to advanced level book. I felt that his other book "chords and progressions for jazz and popular guitar" was a lot more fun.

This is a very clear and well thoughtout approach to the subject of jazz theory. It's one of the best I've seen and it's specific to guitar.

This book is filled with useful licks and carefully chosen exercises to master guitar jazz improvisation with minimal effort. This book cleared the mistery of jazz improvisation. After working on the exercises in this book, I am able to improvise jazz guitar only by looking at fake books. A must for all who want to master guitar improvisation.

recieved book in used condition which was almost like new. This book should be in all guitarist librarys

very pleased with purchase and price

This is the book that I have been looking for to complement my other (Jazz Chords and Progressions) book by Arnie Berle. This is a fantastic book. The material is straight foward and to the point, however I wish all of the examples were written out in every key. Reading basic music is required. I am only half way through the studies and my improvising has improved. I can't wait to finish this book. I feel that at last I can put it all together.

Sincerely

George West

The Uptown Jazz Band

This book is an excellent resource, but it's not a beginner's text by any means. If you could play 1/4 of this book by memory, you'd be able to improvise under all manner of circumstances. By all means, learn to read music before you use this book.