Chord Chemistry makes me wish for an extra five-hundred years of guitar life! Before he passed Ted Green said he was working on a book of American progressions. that showed how a lot of our standard changes evolved through the various eras. If anyone knows of this ones existence in any form completed or whatever I'd like to know
Wow, Ralph Denyer's book was one of the first music books I ever had. I bought my copy in the early eighties and I have read it over and over again. The book covers lot of ground and I still use it from time to time.
Never heard of the denyer book, will check it out. Chord chemistry is one of my favorites. Pretty overwhelming at first but very gratifying.
I suggest garrison fewells jazz improvisation for guitar a melodic approach. Really concise and digestible way to improvise using triad shapes we already know. Lots of easy tricks to get more advanced sounds like altered dominants or Lydian dominants.
There is also a guitar player magazine compilation book that is loaded with lessons spanning the magazines history. All the Howard Roberts articles, some of the lenny breau and frank Zappa. I think Jim Campilongo is in there too!
Just like that Beatles book you listed. This book is awesome, and was important to me. The foreword by Robert is one of the things that led to me getting in touch with him, and spending years bending my brain around his approach. Beyond that, it's a fun and comprehensive book. Nice. DT
My book recommendation is “Chord Factory” by Jon Damian.
First …..I am so happy that “Country Soul Guitar” lesson is getting the attention it deserves. Its is one of my favorites. Nothing is rushed in this lesson. The bends are beautiful. The music unfolds slow and soulful. Jim explains musically how you can create that soulful sound.
There are some very special Jim Campilongo lines that he uses often and as usual he wants to share them with us. There is a line over an E7 B7 that prefaces a bend with 5 notes and an open string, then a bend and wile holding the bend, one note is played. While the bend is descending you slide up to a second note.
I my opinion that is one hot lick and learning that lick is worth the price of the lesson.There are versions of that lick in so much of Jim music and I have never seen it in a lesson before. .“Swampland in Florida” fans may like this lesson
Jim…If you have time to read this I want to tell you I have made great progress understanding playing over changes. Over a year ago I wrote on this forum asking advice on understanding how to bridge the gap between playing over simple changes and the changes in “I got Rhythm”. You gave me some ideas but I continued to struggle.
I turned my focus to another area, learning chord inversions. I stumbled upon a book called “Chord Factory” by Jon Damian. He has a great teaching style similar to you. His approach to the information is very different from any music book on this topic I’ve read. He starts by explaining intervals. The first interval he covers is a minor second. I thought a minor second was the first minor chord after the Major.
To make a long story short I learned intervals inside and out. Now a minor 2nd, major2nd, minor 3rds and the sharp 4 and 5 can be thought of as part of my music vocabulary even though they seem to not be part of the key. At least that is what I use to think. When I practice arpeggios now I include these notes as approach notes. I use to think of a diminished arpeggio as exotic. Now it sounds exotic but its not a mystery why it sounds the way it does. I understand now how Django gets his sound and took the “Nuages” lesson. That lesson made a big impact on me.
Now when I read the more complicated lines over changes I understand them and can see how they are constructed. I went back to the ‘I Got Rhythm” lesson and “Swinging with the Cats” and listened closely to how you discuss the changes and I am now making Joyful noise! What a difference! All this practing has paid off.
Jim. …Thanks as always. You are inspirational musician and a great teacher.
I got Country Soul last week after dithering for a month, "voice leading/progressions or country soul?, voice leading/progressions or country soul?" I finally decided on the later and love it.
I started out playing in a straight Bill Frisell style, but am increasingly working with bends - the issue is that I have 11's on and more than half-step bends are hard. Will stepping down to 10's be sufficient or should I just really get slinky and go to 9's?
Lots of good posts recently! I've learned a lot from the community - Jon Damian is on order!
I also ordered the Jon Damian book today after reading this post. I'm excited about it, as I've semi-recently realized that my triad and chord knowledge is lacking.
I’m so happy you both like the post and are interested in the book. There is so much more I could have said about what I learned and continue to learn from this book. The author gives each interval equal weight and often-in funny and profound ways. So I came away with a completely different way of looking at a scale. Now I see all the intervals even if I am playing just the 1,3,5 and flat 7.
Who would have thought a minor 2nd is such a powerful music statement? Jon Damian points out Alfred Hitchcock got a lot of mileage out of it in “Psycho”.
Something I would like to share with both of you is, once you work with the book and get a new respect for the character of each interval, go back to some of your Jim Campilongo lessons and listen again.
All of his lessons, to me, are like Zen poems. The more you look the more is there. In between teaching the basic lesson he touches on musical areas that as you grow you will understand and recognize.
Here are two examples. As I wrote above, now I look at a scale completely different. I see all the intervals. One of Jims lessons he talks about how “playing the guitar is like 3d chess”-that statement is much more profound now. In “I Got Rhythm” he talks about odd fingering because the lines are “horn” lines not guitar friendly like most blues lines. A guitar player trying to sound like a horn player now explains why I was seeing minor 2nd’s and #4’s mixed in with part of an arpeggio.
Lastly, if you get as excited as I did after working with the intervals go back to Charlie Christian, Monk and Django. Django links all these cool intervals together on one string! Maybe that is why he is referred to as music geniuses.
I was at the berklee bookstore and trying to find a new book. My eye went to that one and when I saw it had bill frisells endorsement on back I was intrigued.
I asked the clerk what he thought of it and he said "ask the man behind you, he wrote it."
It turned into a long conversation about music and guitar players. Eventually I took a few lessons
An eccentric, fiercely intelligent and absurdly creative man. I heard that in his creative workshop he was known to put a goldfish in front of students and instruct them to play and let the goldfish be the conductor.
Anyone who hasn't heard him search Jon Damian rubber tellie.
Wow. That was amazing. He reminds me of Keith Jarrett - which is high praise. I've often wondered what Jarrett's wildly inventive romanticism would sound like on a guitar - this comes pretty close. I've looked at his other youtube links (why aren't there dozens of them?). "Eccentric, fiercely intelligent and absurdly creative" feels about right!
Glad you brought up the horn lines - there was a thread last fall related to this that was really good. I am fascinated by the topic. I can name 4 or 5 very influential guitarist in my life (yes, Jim - talking about YOU!) but I'd sure love to have a month to do nothing but study Ben Webster's lines - or the rest of my life for Artie Shaw.
It seems like I've played myself through countless guitar books the last twenty years or so and I can honestly say that few are as good as mr Campilongos lessons.
You need to be able to read music to get the good stuff out this book. Years worth of arpeggios and patterns (or licks in guitar speak). This book was recommend to by my sax teacher back in the eighties and I have it as reference almost like Chord Chemistry.
I've got the Goodrick book and can never seem to get much traction on it. I've gone through the single string and open position stuff and felt it was good, but started to question my return on investment. That's one thing I like about Jim's lessons is I REALLY feel I get a great return technique, repertoire, and theory wise for the time I put in.
So I would appreciate it if those who have used the book could fill me in on how they used it and how specifically it helped their playing/musicianship. Maybe this should be it's own thread?
I do like the pithy aphorisms Mick has at the end of the book.
I think the Advancing Guitarist can be likened to a book of poems. It´s probably not the book you want if you need hot licks for the next jam session. AG gives you ideas and suggestions on how to approach the guitar that you are free to accept or to disregard. One thing that has stayed with me is the attitude of curiosity towards the guitar and music in general that Goodrick tries to convey with his aphorisms and comments. I am paraphrasing here: "A student asked me, should I do X or Y? Why not both?".
You don´t need to go through it in order. Instead, if you are ever feeling stuck, you could just choose (maybe even randomly!) one thing from there and work on it for a while, like a month. Ask yourself questions: Where can I use this? Is this for me? What would happen if I tried to do X? How I about I try playing all that backwards? And so on! That being said, I would complement it with other things, such as learning songs etc. while trying to apply the things learned from the Goodrick book. You have to be in the mood for it, but you need to be willing to put in some time as well!
On a more practical note, the single string stuff helped me view the fretboard in a new way. I should probably revisit that part… Also, there is an improvisation challenge where you are required to tape yourself for a certain amount of time each day for a month while _improvising_ and to listen back to the recordings after the month. Pure, free and conscious improvisation turned out to pretty hard work when you try to make sense musically! I did this once, and the results were very interesting - you could hear where I was truly improvising musically and tapping into fresh ideas and where I fell back on licks. Plus, I got good ideas out of those recordings. Another thing I should revisit...
Jon Damian´s The Guitarist´s Guide to Composing and Improvising is in the same vein, IMO, if a little more user-friendly.
Thanks JMH, a nice synopsis. My limited experience with the book gave me the impression that it's not a cover to cover type thing where you can't do something when you start and then you can when you're finished. I'm going to take your advice and pick off little chunks and work on them until I've exhausted it in my mind, and then move on to something else in the book.
My intention is definitely to complement it with other things. I'm thinking 30 minutes a day on AG.
The improvisation challenge sounds interesting. I've done that kind of thing before, but never 30 straight days without listening till the end. I can only imagine what that will sound like. I'm getting the impression that as you work through the book you won't be able to say "look what I can do now", but at the same time things will be changing with your playing.
No problem, I am happy if you found my ramblings useful. Don´t be afraid to put AG down for a while if you just aren´t feeling it either, you will probably end up picking it up another day in the future...
Comments
I recommend this one:
http://www.amazon.com/Chord-Chemistry-Ted-Greene/dp/0898986966/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1361391533&sr=1-1&keywords=ted+greene
Ted Green said he was working on a book of American progressions. that showed how a lot of our standard changes evolved through the various eras. If anyone knows of this ones existence
in any form completed or whatever I'd like to know
I suggest garrison fewells jazz improvisation for guitar a melodic approach. Really concise and digestible way to improvise using triad shapes we already know. Lots of easy tricks to get more advanced sounds like altered dominants or Lydian dominants.
There is also a guitar player magazine compilation book that is loaded with lessons spanning the magazines history. All the Howard Roberts articles, some of the lenny breau and frank Zappa. I think Jim Campilongo is in there too!
Just like that Beatles book you listed. This book is awesome, and was important to me. The foreword by Robert is one of the things that led to me getting in touch with him, and spending years bending my brain around his approach. Beyond that, it's a fun and comprehensive book. Nice. DT
First …..I am so happy that “Country Soul Guitar” lesson is getting the attention it deserves.
Its is one of my favorites. Nothing is rushed in this lesson. The bends are beautiful. The music unfolds slow and soulful. Jim explains musically how you can create that soulful sound.
There are some very special Jim Campilongo lines that he uses often and as usual he wants to share them with us. There is a line over an E7 B7 that prefaces a bend with 5 notes and an open string, then a bend and wile holding the bend, one note is played. While the bend is descending you slide up to a second note.
I my opinion that is one hot lick and learning that lick is worth the price of the lesson.There are versions of that lick in so much of Jim music and I have never seen it in a lesson before. .“Swampland in Florida” fans may like this lesson
Jim…If you have time to read this I want to tell you I have made great progress understanding playing over changes. Over a year ago I wrote on this forum asking advice on understanding how to bridge the gap between playing over simple changes and the changes in “I got Rhythm”. You gave me some ideas but I continued to struggle.
I turned my focus to another area, learning chord inversions. I stumbled upon a book called “Chord Factory” by Jon Damian. He has a great teaching style similar to you. His approach to the information is very different from any music book on this topic I’ve read. He starts by explaining intervals. The first interval he covers is a minor second. I thought a minor second was the first minor chord after the Major.
To make a long story short I learned intervals inside and out. Now a minor 2nd, major2nd, minor 3rds and the sharp 4 and 5 can be thought of as part of my music vocabulary even though they seem to not be part of the key. At least that is what I use to think. When I practice arpeggios now I include these notes as approach notes. I use to think of a diminished arpeggio as exotic. Now it sounds exotic but its not a mystery why it sounds the way it does. I understand now how Django gets his sound and took the “Nuages” lesson. That lesson made a big impact on me.
Now when I read the more complicated lines over changes I understand them and can see how they are constructed. I went back to the ‘I Got Rhythm” lesson and “Swinging with the Cats” and listened closely to how you discuss the changes and I am now making Joyful noise! What a difference! All this practing has paid off.
Jim. …Thanks as always. You are inspirational musician and a great teacher.
Neal T
I started out playing in a straight Bill Frisell style, but am increasingly working with bends - the issue is that I have 11's on and more than half-step bends are hard. Will stepping down to 10's be sufficient or should I just really get slinky and go to 9's?
Lots of good posts recently! I've learned a lot from the community - Jon Damian is on order!
Jason
Who would have thought a minor 2nd is such a powerful music statement? Jon Damian points out Alfred Hitchcock got a lot of mileage out of it in “Psycho”.
Something I would like to share with both of you is, once you work with the book and get a new respect for the character of each interval, go back to some of your Jim Campilongo lessons and listen again.
All of his lessons, to me, are like Zen poems. The more you look the more is there. In between teaching the basic lesson he touches on musical areas that as you grow you will understand and recognize.
Here are two examples. As I wrote above, now I look at a scale completely different. I see all the intervals. One of Jims lessons he talks about how “playing the guitar is like 3d chess”-that statement is much more profound now. In “I Got Rhythm” he talks about odd fingering because the lines are “horn” lines not guitar friendly like most blues lines. A guitar player trying to sound like a horn player now explains why I was seeing minor 2nd’s and #4’s mixed in with part of an arpeggio.
Lastly, if you get as excited as I did after working with the intervals go back to Charlie Christian, Monk and Django. Django links all these cool intervals together on one string!
Maybe that is why he is referred to as music geniuses.
Neal T
I was at the berklee bookstore and trying to find a new book. My eye went to that one and when I saw it had bill frisells endorsement on back I was intrigued.
I asked the clerk what he thought of it and he said "ask the man behind you, he wrote it."
It turned into a long conversation about music and guitar players. Eventually I took a few lessons
An eccentric, fiercely intelligent and absurdly creative man. I heard that in his creative workshop he was known to put a goldfish in front of students and instruct them to play and let the goldfish be the conductor.
Anyone who hasn't heard him search Jon Damian rubber tellie.
Glad you brought up the horn lines - there was a thread last fall related to this that was really good. I am fascinated by the topic. I can name 4 or 5 very influential guitarist in my life (yes, Jim - talking about YOU!) but I'd sure love to have a month to do nothing but study Ben Webster's lines - or the rest of my life for Artie Shaw.
Thanks for the links!
Jason
It seems like I've played myself through countless guitar books the last twenty years or so and I can honestly say that few are as good as mr Campilongos lessons.
Two books deserve to be mentioned here.
The Art of Contemporary Travis Picking: How to Play the Alternating Bass Fingerpicking Style/Mark Hanson
http://www.amazon.com/Art-Contemporary-Travis-Picking-Fingerpicking/dp/0936799005/
This is a beginners book but it's one of the best ever. Highly recommended
Patterns for Jazz - A Theory Text for Jazz Composition and Improvisation: Treble Clef Instruments/Gary Coker et al.
http://www.amazon.com/Patterns-Jazz-Treble-Jerry-Coker/dp/0898987032/
You need to be able to read music to get the good stuff out this book. Years worth of arpeggios and patterns (or licks in guitar speak). This book was recommend to by my sax teacher back in the eighties and I have it as reference almost like Chord Chemistry.
It's the best guitar book I ever had
So I would appreciate it if those who have used the book could fill me in on how they used it and how specifically it helped their playing/musicianship. Maybe this should be it's own thread?
I do like the pithy aphorisms Mick has at the end of the book.
You don´t need to go through it in order. Instead, if you are ever feeling stuck, you could just choose (maybe even randomly!) one thing from there and work on it for a while, like a month. Ask yourself questions: Where can I use this? Is this for me? What would happen if I tried to do X? How I about I try playing all that backwards? And so on! That being said, I would complement it with other things, such as learning songs etc. while trying to apply the things learned from the Goodrick book. You have to be in the mood for it, but you need to be willing to put in some time as well!
On a more practical note, the single string stuff helped me view the fretboard in a new way. I should probably revisit that part… Also, there is an improvisation challenge where you are required to tape yourself for a certain amount of time each day for a month while _improvising_ and to listen back to the recordings after the month. Pure, free and conscious improvisation turned out to pretty hard work when you try to make sense musically! I did this once, and the results were very interesting - you could hear where I was truly improvising musically and tapping into fresh ideas and where I fell back on licks. Plus, I got good ideas out of those recordings. Another thing I should revisit...
Jon Damian´s The Guitarist´s Guide to Composing and Improvising is in the same vein, IMO, if a little more user-friendly.
My intention is definitely to complement it with other things. I'm thinking 30 minutes a day on AG.
The improvisation challenge sounds interesting. I've done that kind of thing before, but never 30 straight days without listening till the end. I can only imagine what that will sound like. I'm getting the impression that as you work through the book you won't be able to say "look what I can do now", but at the same time things will be changing with your playing.
Thanks for the feedback.