Customer Reviews

Mel Bay Presents Advanced Modern Rock Guitar Improvisation

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Living here in Boston has given me the opportunity to study with great Berklee Professors (Tomo Fujita & Don Lappin)... never Jon though. He's too busy. I've seen Jon play in pretty small bars here in Boston and always asked myself how he does it. This book explains it all.

This book is great for guitar players who are stuck in one position. I've been there and this book summarizes the fretboard geometry very well. Jon explains his approach to moving up and down the neck without being stuck in one position. It all makes sense.

It comes with a CD and DVD. Great Book, Great Player, Very Inspiring!!!

Baffled by modes ? Bored of pentatonics and need new ways to apply them ? I have been playing for 22 years and have a voluminous guitar library and this is a book I wish I would have had 10 years ago. The book's main concept is fretboard geometry. Mr. Finn establishes a system for mastering your fretboard. The book begins with a treatise on pentatonic scales and breaks the scales into scale fragments that can be systematically memorized in any key. This theory is then expanded to include modes. The logic of this book is incredible and reveals the repetitive nature of the guitar neck. This book unlocks your fretboard knowledge. I would suggest a vague knowledge of modes/pentatonics for best results but all can benefit from this book.

I have been playing the guitar for about 7 years from now. In this time I have been improvising with the pentatonic licks from the gratest rock guitar players. After I began to master them all, I just noticed that I was doing always the same thing. After I read this book, I began to learn new ways of playing the guitar. I think that I was able to play my improvisations with a pencil, now I improvise with full color. The content is presented on an easy and funny way, making it a really a great experience. It also has a CD, which has all the examples of the book and some tracks where you can improvise applying the learned lessions.

The pentatonics are absolutely essential for rock, blues/rock guitar. If you already know the 5 patterns of the major and minor pentatonic scale then this book would further increase your playing abilities.

This book takes the 5 patterns (boxes) of the pentatonic scale and dissects them. He illustrates a very intelligent way to use patterns derived from the pentatonics. The result is you can break out of the patterns that you usually play and expand your playing anywhere on the neck in any key.

I had a solid grasp on pentatonics and some of the modes before working with this book, however, the author, Jon Finn, has shown me how to view the actual geometry of the fretboard differently.
What I found very helpful:

I found he very effectively explained how to handle position changes between the G-B-E strings. This sounds simple, however, I now know how to navigate this area with confidence.

He breaks the 5 minor pentatonics into 5 mini four-note shapes. At first, I didn't think I would benefit from this, but I found it extremely helpful in regards to knowing how these shapes repeat over the fretboard.

Getting into modes:
He applies a similar mini-shape method to the modes which I found confusing at first, but once I played around with them, I actually found them very helpful.
He also explains how to use the modes quite well. Before, I would stay within one mode throughout a solo, e.g. aeolian, however I didn't really have a grasp on when to use the colour notes. I am now able to seamlessly interchange the modes while I'm playing, in any area of the fretboard. I found the Lydian and Phrygian modes helpful when soloing over some common blues-rock chord progessions.

There are example tracks as well as practice rhythm tracks which I found worthwhile.

I haven't explored this far yet, but he gets into Real Harmonic Minor, and Harmonic minor in the latter chapters.

Overall, the book is well written. It is organized and the concepts are continued as the material becomes more difficult. The author brings larger concepts to your attention, and lays out how larger concepts are inter-connected.

The book will not answer all of your playing needs, but I found that it filled in many holes in my knowledge, and I feel as though I have a better and more solid understanding of what to do over more complex musical examples.

I would recommend this book as a long-term study guide, while also pursuing other interests.

I've been looking for a good method on improvising and soloing. So far, I couldn't find it, until now. Great method by Jon Finn, really makes you understand the fretboard on a practical way. Two thumbs up...

Very few guitar instruction books are revolutionary or breakthrough for me. I will buy them on the number of stars in a review and find them quite disappointing. I've always believed that there are a few keys that can unlock your understanding of the fretboard and its modes - the guitar is a deceptively simple instrument - and this book is truly it. Not only that, the tracks on the CD are keyed directly to the tracks in the book - one for one. Great great book.

Hands down this is the best method ever in breaking down the scale patterns and learning to master the fingerboard.

If your shakey on your scales or simply have trouble moving from postion to postion this book will show you the light.

Even if your quite comfortable with your scales you'll learn to see things in a new light. You'll be breaking old ruts and treading new territory after some serious study.

Even after all that you'll learn some new ways to use some old tricks like say, "Pentatonic Scales".

Jon Finn is a Master Teacher.
This is the Standard all Method Books Should Aspire to but few do. This was quite obviously written by someone who cares and someone with a strong desire to teach.

BTW He's a killer Guitar Player as Well.

For me, this book was the holy grail (and is)...this is the way of looking at the fretboard that I KNEW someone had to have the keys to. I felt it was out there, and knew it would help me if I could just put it all together...

And here it is.

Buy this book. No matter what your level. It will help you. There is no higher recommendation I can give than this : EVERY guitarist SERIOUSLY needs this book, especially if you're a "visual" thinker who needs to understand what you're doing, rather than just reproduce (sterile sounding?) rote memory...

I often wonder how some guitarists seem to be able to instantly play anything which comes to their minds, sounding fresh and original and never hitting a wrong note. I'm quite shure that some of them were born this way - but most of them are simply using shortcuts to visualize notes and shapes on the fretboard and are able to use their pentatonic/blues vocabulary in a much more versatile way than average players.
This is exactly what Jon Finn is going to teach you in this book, and he does it in a really relaxed and funny way.
Some of the topics include:
-fretboard geometry,
-how to use pentatonics without anyone noticing,
-and even how to create all modes by simply adding 2 notes to the pentatonic boxes - aka 'Modes For Morons'.

I've read and worked through parts of this book many times. There's always something new in it (very much like in Guthrie Govan's Creative Guitar 1: Cutting Edge Tech (v. 1) - make shure, to check it out as well).
Just as Jon puts it: "How do you know, if you've felt the full impact? The same way you know if you've been cracked upside the head with a baseball bat. You'll just know."