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Beginning Jazz Guitar: The Complete Jazz Guitar Method- Beginning, Intermediate, Mastering Chord / Melody, Mastering Improvisation
Anyone with a knowledge of basic chords and guitar scale fingerings can dig right in and start learning to play jazz right away. Spanning from the major scale and basic triad theory all the way up to extended chords and the modes, this book features a full-length etude or song to go with every new concept introduced. Beginning Jazz Guitar breaks the age-old tradition of dry, intimidating and confusing jazz books, and provides an actual step-by-step and enjoyable method for learning to play in this style. Clearly organized into easily mastered segments, each chapter is divided into separate lessons on harmony or improvisation. All music is shown in standard notation and TAB, and the CD demonstrates the examples in the book. 96 pages.
- GenresMusicJazzNonfiction
96 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1995
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
July 31, 2021
This certainly isn't for a total beginner, and some parts of it are fairly challenging. When I was finished I felt like I needed to throw myself a graduation ceremony.
Occasionally I think Fisher gives us a bit too much to deal with at once. For example, he divides the guitar up into four "string sets" that have three contiguous strings next to one another, E-A-D, A-D-G, etc. Then he gives you chord fingerings for a major, minor, diminished and augmented chords on each of these four sets -- for a total of 16 different configurations across the fretboard. Then he gives you first and second inversion fingerings for all of those, for a total of 48 fingerings. Now admittedly, I'm overstating the difficulty a bit because the two lowest string sets are the same, and if you know where the third and fifth of the chord are you can make the chord minor, augmented or diminished by moving the third or fifth around, but still.
The presentation of things like moveable scale fingerings and 6th, 7th, 11th, 13th chords are a bit more digestible. A few of the chord fingerings were needlessly difficult. There's a series of "play along" etudes which do a decent job of illustrating concepts. Some of them are pretty challenging too, asking you to use multiple scales, change scales several times over chord changes.
Occasionally I think Fisher gives us a bit too much to deal with at once. For example, he divides the guitar up into four "string sets" that have three contiguous strings next to one another, E-A-D, A-D-G, etc. Then he gives you chord fingerings for a major, minor, diminished and augmented chords on each of these four sets -- for a total of 16 different configurations across the fretboard. Then he gives you first and second inversion fingerings for all of those, for a total of 48 fingerings. Now admittedly, I'm overstating the difficulty a bit because the two lowest string sets are the same, and if you know where the third and fifth of the chord are you can make the chord minor, augmented or diminished by moving the third or fifth around, but still.
The presentation of things like moveable scale fingerings and 6th, 7th, 11th, 13th chords are a bit more digestible. A few of the chord fingerings were needlessly difficult. There's a series of "play along" etudes which do a decent job of illustrating concepts. Some of them are pretty challenging too, asking you to use multiple scales, change scales several times over chord changes.
Displaying 1 of 1 review