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Book Review: Between the Voicings by Hristo Vitchev

December 27, 2017 by azsamadlessons Leave a Comment

I first met Hristo Vitchev while I was living in the San Francisco Bay Area. We both had studied at San Jose State University at different times and had studied with Rick Vandivier. I even had the great pleasure of sharing the stage with Hristo once! We’ve kept in touch over time and earlier this after an e-mail conversation inquiring about his book, Hristo very kindly sent me a copy of it!

This 256-page book is a massive work filled with a lot of cool ideas and voicings. Hristo has really embraced a guitaristic way of approaching voicings. Dividing the chord shapes into left expansion, central expansion and right expansion – this fingering-centric approach actually naturally opens up different intervallic possibilities for the guitar shapes. Then, he divides the chapters into major, minor and two dominant chord chapters over 3 string sets. Interestingly enough, this is quite an elegant approach to go beyond the arranging based (drop-2, drop-3, drop-2&4) voicings approach that most guitarists may be more familiar with.

In this book, I find that it’s more about intervals, colors and the physical possibility of executing the sound. Knowing Hristo though, a lot of the voicings present wide stretches in order to access interesting intervals. This is definitely a book that is worth checking out after you get your fundamentals down. This isn’t really a book for beginners though you might still benefit by buying a copy now for your personal library. As your skills develop, this book will be a valuable reference to open up your creative outlook on harmony for the guitar.

For a sample of Hristo’s way of thinking harmonically, check out this free 3-part lesson series from his YouTube channel. Also, you can also purchase a video lesson of him teaching the concepts from the book here: http://www.jazzguitarsociety.com/masterclasses/hristo-vitchev-harmonic-expansion/

If you’re curious about Hristo’s playing, please check out my previous blog post compiling his warm up routines: Hristo Vitchev 21 Daily Warm Ups For Jazz Guitar

Pros: A lot of material to work on. Good diagrams, a systematic approach once you understand the main concept.
Cons:
The material may be overwhelming (it was for me at the very beginning). Also, the left hand stretches are challenging!
TLDR:
 For anyone looking for a very guitaristic, visual way of building new voicings, Hristo’s book may provide a lot of new food for thought. It will require a lot of work (the voicings are physically demanding with the stretches at times) but if you want new sounds, this may be a way to expand your harmonic vocabulary.

This book was a gift from Hristo to me. Thanks Hristo!

How to Buy:
You can purchase book here from Hristo. Please tell him you found out about the book this post, if you do get it too! 🙂 https://gumroad.com/l/LmWPx

[Read more Book Reviews]

Book Review: Voicing Modes – A Chord Voicing Approach to Hearing and Practicing Modes by Noel Johnston

Book Review: The Outside Sounds and Substitutions of Modern Saxophonists for Jazz Guitar by Kevin Miller

[Submissions for Review Consideration]

  • Are you an author who wrote a jazz or music book?
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Please send me a message at azsamad2 at gmail.com with:

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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? 🙂

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Chord Melody, Composition, Guitar Chords, Guitar Technique, Jazz, Jazz Guitar, Jazz Guitar Harmony, Jazz Guitar Harmony, Music Theory, Practice Secrets, Video Lessons Tagged With: comping, guitar lessons, guitar voicings, how to practice guitar, jazz chords, jazz guitar, jazz guitar techniques, jazz voicings, practice

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