Exploring Jazz Guitar: An Introduction to Jazz Harmony, Technique and Improvisation (The Schott Pop Styles Series)

If you want to learn jazz guitar get this book first!I've been a semi-pro guitarist for many years and have had so much conflicting advice and opinion regarding jazz guitar - and with limited time to devote to practice, that for a long time I decided against the plunge. Recent inquiries for jazz gigs led me to take that plunge and I was lucky to choose this book. It's a beauty!Yes, you need to spend some time practicing the concepts and getting the knowledge under your fingers but this book takes you on a logical progressive course that with time and patience will have you playing jazz guitar.This is a practical, well laid out book that has great recorded support tracks. Highly recommended!!

I've only had this book (with CD) for a couple of days but I already find it is is by far the best I've ever seen - and I already have jazz tutor books running well into double figures!Exploring Jazz Guitar is well written and the CD is well recorded with plenty of backing tracks and spaces to play along using your own solos.I would recommend this book to anyone who has basic guitar playing skills and wants to learn how to play authentic sounding jazz...and to have fun while learning.Phil Capone, the musician and producer behind this book, deserves the highest praise for this rewarding tutor book and CD.

One of the best instructional books on jazz I have ever seen. I had the pleasure of seeing the author play at The Nags Head in April. He is an astounding player. Love this book.

This really is an excellent book. It helps to clear up many of the dusty corners in a guitarists theoretical and technical approach. The main benifit is the approach to theory from the minor scale starting point and a very comprehensive modal and chordal study of the C.A.G.E.D. system. Whilst these are not an end in themselves, they are, for once, presented in a way which makes sence rather than the spurious 'fast track' approach so common in electric guitar literature. The backing cd is nice and I think that with a dilligent approach this book really could make a difference to most guitar geeks. Well it's helping me a lot anyway.

This book is totally inaccessible to me. I understand the caged system and even why you might want to swop it to an edcag. What I don't understand is how anyone with no musical knowledge could make any sense of this approach. It starts with an Amin7 arpeggio and makes the assumption that you're someone who regularly plays the minor pentatonic. So an easy start for me and most people coming from a blues or rock background. Next though, rather than giving major scales, or even minor scales and explaining the theory of how the chords are constructed from them, it gives the Aeolian mode and urges you not to think about its relative major, followed by the chords you would construct to go with it, which of course are the same as the C major, but it doesn't say that and there's no suggestion of which Aeolian mode has been given. It then goes on to the Dorian and through the other modes.You would think having made the minor pentatonic assumption about the audience for the book, it would work from what you would be likely to know as a blues or rock player and build that out gradually into what's required for jazz. But certainly not in the first sections. Perhaps if you know absolutely no theory, it might be possible to just accept what's being said here and get to grips with it, but I think you'd find it really hard. I think the book assumes you already play though, and I imagine I'm not alone in having learned some theory in studying rock guitar and the leap to this is just too bizarre for me. I am also studying ABRSM jazz piano and doing blues and jazz piano from very good books by Tim Richards, so I expected something similar for guitar with this, but the approach is just so different. My hunt continues for a jazz guitar method that works the way I do. In the meantime I think I'd actually find it easier to apply the Tim Richards stuff to guitar than work through this.

Reasonabaly priced, especially with CD. But geared more towards the intermediate guitarist relatively "new" to Jazz. The book is informative, well set out. But the examples are not very challenging.If you already play some jazz, whether chord solos, or a little "jazz" lead, then the CD examples might be a bit of a dissapointment.If all you know is a penatatonic or two, and you are not "up" on jazz chords, and have only been playing a year or two, then this book is a good introduction to jazz guitar.But might be worth buying also for the "theory" side of things, if this is your weakness. Don't want to be negative. At the right stage, this could be the book for you. A good book for guitar teachers to use as examples, perhaps. Just felt that some of the "lead" could have been a bit more "adventurous".

Very complete and well written with good examples. Of course it doesn't matter how good the book it is, jazz guitar is still hard to learn!!!

Great book!

Great book, good structure, aimed at intermediate. having the audio download is a great plus.

Come tutti i libri di questa serie si tratta di un testo molto ben fatto e spiegato.Consigliatissimo per i jazzisti neofiti o per quelli che, come me, vogliono aggiungere qualche lick jazzistico con cognizione di causa al loro stile rock

Wer die Grundlagen der Akkord- und Skalentechnik bereits drauf hat und sich der Jazzgitarre zuwenden möchte, findet in diesem Lehrwerk einen sehr hilfreichen Begleiter.Autor Phil Capone vermittelt den Stoff mit viel praktischer Erfahrung. Alle Kapitel enthalten Jazzetüden zum Ausprobieren der Inhalte. Diese Spielstücke wurden von einer Combo eingespielt und klingen durchweg sehr gut.Zum Einstieg werden natürlich, harmonisch und äolisch Moll vorgestellt und für Gitarre harmonisiert, was für viele Amateurgitarristen ohne Jazzerfahrung oder klassische Ausbildung bereits eine Herausforderung darstellen dürfte. In weiteren Kapiteln geht es um die Akkordtypen Dominant und Major und schließlich um die zentrale Akkkordverbindung II-V-I in Dur sowie in Moll.Die Erarbeitung dieser Grundlagen auf rund 100 Seiten mag erstaunen, weil das oft in viel knapperer Form beschrieben wird. Der Unterschied liegt in der Qualität dieses Buches. Man erfährt hier ungleich mehr von dem, wie professionelle Gitarristen mit musikalischen Situationen umgehen, was sich äußerst spannend liest. Dieses Lehrwerk ist eben keine Licksammlung oder banale Akkordskalenauflistung, sondern eine erfreulich gründliche Ausbildungslektüre voller praktischer Hinweise zur Entwicklung als Jazzmusiker. Der Text ist durchgehend sorgfältig formuliert und verdient tatsächlich Satz für Satz volle Aufmerksamkeit.Mit Erreichen des letzten Drittel des Buches ist man deshalb gut gerüstet, nach dem Blues und einem Abstecher zum Latin zu "Brot und Butter" Standards wie "Out Of Nowhere" oder die "Rhythm Changes" zu kommen und über deren Akkordfolgen solieren zu können.