This is a book released back in 2000, written by jazz guitarist and educator Corey Christiansen. The format is great with the first section covering rhtyhm guitar (voicings, jazz blues chord progressions, chord substitution and comping rhythms) and the second sections covering single note soloing.
The book assumes that you know nothing abut the style and builds up the material in a very step by step way. If you’ve been curious about playing jazz guitar or learning some jazz blues, this book can be a good guide. Everything is laid out clearly and you get chord diagrams, scale diagrams and even single note etudes that help you get the concepts into your fingers.
In the second section, Corey teaches important sounds like the Mixolydian scale, the various “Bebop” scales, the “3 to b9” sound and enclosures. All these are staple bebop sounds and form a good foundation for the style.
Although this book could be used as a self-study book, I believe the book perhaps would work best as a textbook in a class or private lesson, with an experienced teacher guiding the student. Essentially all the concepts are great, it’s just that having a teacher augment the book with recommended listening, transcription homework and jamming together would help internalizing the material in a much smoother way.
In conclusion, I’m happy I recently checked out this book. It’s always interesting to see work from a great educator like Corey, and this is an interesting (earlier) work from him.
Pros: Good material, well written and systematic.
Cons: Some chapters might benefit from extra material by a private teacher.
TLDR: Interested in jazz blues playing? Check this book out for some guidance in this style!
You can try to get this book on Amazon or eBay. It appears to be out of print so prices may be higher than the original US$19.95 list price.
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