There’s a tradition of books organising chord voicings based on different tonal limitations. Some are complex like Mick Goodrick’s almanac series. Some are application based, like Steve Khan’s Contemporary Chord Khancepts book.
In Pentatonic Voicings, composer-guitarist Hristo Vitchev examines the A minor pentatonic scale.
Now the question is: How did he get to 65 pages of material here?
Well, Hristo does this via 14 versions of voicings. Then, he takes the voicing up both horizontally & vertically across the fretboard.
There are 3 note voicings and 4 note voicings. Some are easy to play & many are challenging stretchy shapes.
You can explore the voicings step by step or by playing what catches your eye.
This is more of a reference book rather than a book that shows you the musical applications.
This book would benefit guitarist looking for new sounds for composing and improvising. It can help you build a strong vocabulary of chord voicings with many applications.
For me, it’s fun to just open to any page & try these voicings out. Then, I usually would take those ideas and apply them to a chord progression or song I’m working on.
This is definitely a D.I.Y. (Do It Yourself) book with some assembly required. If you’re looking to be spoonfed, this might not be for you.
In conclusion, get this book if you’re already comfortable with standard voicings in jazz & want to get fresher sounds. The more creative you are, the more this book can help you.
Pros: Excellent book that organises pentatonic voicings for modern jazz comping & compositional purposes.
Cons: None.
TLDR: If you’re a jazz guitar harmony geek & you collect Mick Goodrick & Ted Greene material like other people collect comic books, this might be for you.
This book was a gift from Hristo to me. Thanks Hristo!
You can get it here: https://gum.co/kOupf
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