I have very mixed feelings writing this review.
On one hand, I absolutely love what Cecil Alexander shares in his many releases from Jazz Video Lessons – what they call PDF packages.
On the other hand, this one felt… lacking.
And it’s not because the material is subpar. (It’s not, it’s great material as usual, especially when you just take it as practice material). But… the problem is when you buy this PDF package, you basically get these exercises with ZERO context.
There’s no written introduction or any text to accompany ANY of the exercises.
A book would usually at least have some introduction or ending and maybe some text to give context to the exercises. But, I guess the fact that they have always positioned these releases as PDF Packages – makes it logical for it to basically be presented like this – exercises with a table of contents and a cover.
To be honest, the YouTube video that promotes each release has MORE information from an educational explanation perspective compared to the actual PDF.
So if you are attracted to the material because of Cecil’s teaching on the YouTube video – you are getting none of that in the PDF. It’s kind of sad to be honest since if they spent just another 20 minutes with him explaining each exercise in a simple way in addition to him playing it, the added value to each PDF release would double or triple, and I believe more people would enjoy these releases even more.
That being said, the accompanying videos are well shot, with high quality footage of both Cecil’s left and right hands so you can see what he is playing clearly.
Also, for more experienced jazz guitarists, you will see the logic of the warmups by playing them a bunch of times (mostly to identify when Cecil changes keys to move the exercises either chromatically down by step or by a logical cycle). The cool thing about these warmups is that once you understand the logic of what Cecil is doing, you can basically take the concept and create variations based on the ideas.
All in all, if you want warmups – this release will give you warmups. If you want to learn from Cecil about what his thought process is regarding the material at least with Cecil directly explaining, you get none of that here.
Do I like these? Will I practice these? Sure. Will I recommend this release as a way to understand Cecil’s playing? Not a first choice.
Pros: Great warmups.
Cons: No explanation of any of the warmups, thought process behind it, logic or theory. No text description to help understand the material at all.
TLDR: If you want some warmups, this PDF (not book really) might help you. However if you want some educational context to the material, you will not get any. This is literally like buying exercises from Cecil, with zero context except that they are for warmups.
[Review Archive]
I wrote a lot of other book, course and video reviews too. Check out the rest here:
[Read more reviews]
[Submissions for Review Consideration]
- Are you an author who wrote a jazz, guitar or music book?
- Have you created a DVD or an online video course or subscription based website?
- Would you like me to review your book/course?
Please send me a message at azsamad3 at gmail.com with:
For courses: a link to the course/video/product + access info etc.
For books: a link to the book (Dropbox) or PDF attachment (if it’s small) for review consideration.
Depending on whether I dig the book/course, I’ll let you know if I do plan to review it!
I cannot guarantee a review for every submission & if I’m not too into it, I may opt not to review it. I mean, it’s better to get a good review that for me to write a bad review just because it’s not a match for the kind of stuff I dig right? :p
NOTE: All reviews reflect my honest personal opinion so be aware that I will point out both cool Pros and Cons that I see in the work. You dig?
Leave a Reply