Having accumulated more guitar books than anyone rightfully should, I
must agree with Sam: learn theory, sure, but make sure to transcribe
solos and learn tunes. Two things about books actually slowed down my
progress - one is their emphasis on scales, to the exclusion of almost
everything else, the second was the frustration I had reading a
well-known reference from the 70s that was so full of chord/scale
diagrams and 5-,6-,7-fret stretchs that I began to think I would never
learn the subject. Some of the things that have really helped me the
most have been gleaned from various sources. Here's a small list:
1) For scale fingerings, get Jimmy Bruno's booklet and especially his
2-tape video. Jimmy's fingerings allow you to rip through scales (when
necessary) and have logic behind them. After years of wrestling with
trying to play a G major scale up to speed using the pattern that
starts 3-5-7, 3-5-7 (E and A strings), I swiched to Jimmy's fingerings
and can now play cleanly at even fast tempos.
2) Read Clay Moore's old posts in the "justjazz.com" archives regarding
how to "grow" other chords from dim7 chord forms. Clay ascribes this
technique to Pat Martino.
3) For a decent chord book, I have learned a lot of good voicings from
Warren Nunes "Chord Bible". In addition to usable voicings, he gives
good examples how the chords are used in progressions.
4) Learn apeggios - not so you can just run them, but because they
immediately tell you where the chord tones are. Borrowing from Mark
Levine's theory book, the chord tones offer you a safe 'pool of notes'
from which to select during solos. Knowing arpeggios, you will
immediately 'see' your all-important 3rd's and 7th's (as well as roots
and 5ths); you will also be able to see how many chromatic runs are
actually based on surrounding chord tones (i.e., hitting notes that are
a half-step away from a chord tone and then immediately resolving to
the chord tone). After a (long) while, you can actually 'see' a chord
form, its arpeggio, and an appropriate scale at any position. Knowing
arpeggios, you will be able to 'see' your #9's, b9's, #5's, b5's
beacuse they are right above/below chord tones.
5) Learn your enharmonics - a great way of 'recycling' chord forms (as
Warren Nunes describes it). This doubles and triples your knowledge of
chords immediately. Then use this knowledge to also recyle arpeggios
(e.g., using the familiar Cmaj7 arpeggio at position 3 for getting an
Amin9 sound, etc.)
6) Practice reading tunes. Great for learning to read and absolutely
necessary for learning new tunes/ideas. (remember the old joke: How do
you get a guitar player to play more quietly? Answer: Put some sheet
music in front of him/her.)
7) There are a lot of great players, but few great teachers (Bruno
being a notable exception). Texts (and videos) can mislead - don't put
all your faith in them.
8) Learn music theory (especially the circle of 5ths/4ths), chord
construction, scales - but then force yourself to apply it when
learning new tunes. If you don't know a good chord form at a certain
fret, then simply make one up using your knowledge of chord tones and
try to keep the melody note on top. I've found Joe Pass's very terse
books good for theory - the explanations are extremely short, but that
can be good. Learn it by applying it to new and old songs. Music
theory works!
Its easy to make up lists like this - doing them requires a lifetime
commitment.
Nick
farnu-@... wrote:
original article:
Hey, not to be a dick or anything, but a lot of guitarists need to
get their
noses out of books. There is a book for every single thing out
there. You
should really try to figure things out on your own because you will
understand them a lot better. You should transcribe to learn
improvisation
because all of the books are written by people who transcribed a lot
and made
generalizations from the solos.
I do recomend the Jazz Theory book. Also check out "The Advancing
Guitarist"
by Mick Goodrick, and "Approaching the Guitar" by Gene Burtoncini.
If you
have those you should be all set with the material. Also, if
necessary get a
Real book. Other than that, spend your money on CDs. That is the
key.
Guitarists have millions of books and still sound bad because they
dont
listen to the masters.
So stop buying all these books and check out CDs before you go any
further.
Now, I'm not saying books are bad, but the real stuff is in the
recordings
Sam
