Book Review: The George Benson Method Pocket Book Vol.2 – Minor II, V, I Ultimate Lines

I recently reviewed the first volume of this “Pocket Book” here.

If you haven’t read that review yet, I suggest reading that first as it addresses many of the things that come with the territory when discussing Peter Farrell’s eBooks.

In this review, I’ll talk directly about the content and the quality of the material presented.

The format of the book is the same as the previous volume. After 7 pages of the introduction (cover, introduction by George Benson, Peter’s bio, book credits and introduction to the material) you get 20 pages of 60 minor II-V-I lines in the key of Cminor.

Yet again, the lines are straight up jazz lines with chromaticism, substitutions and with a variety of rhythms and phrasing.

These are not your typical continuous 8th note lines. These are rhythmically interesting phrases with good melodic contour. There are sweep picked fragments, alternate picking and tons of fingering choices that you can study to get even more value from the book.

My typical pet peeve with guitar lick books is when they don’t notate phrases clearly or when they don’t write out the left hand and right hand fingerings.

No such issue here with this book. Everything is clearly notated so you can focus on actually learning to play these lines (and not guess what fingerings to use).

So much of jazz guitar playing requires a high level of technical proficiency to get the kind of fluidity and flow needed… this book might help you improve your guitar skills so that your jazz improvisation actually sounds more jazz rather than textbook (or theoratically correct).

In conclusion, this book provides potentially hours and months of practice, should you choose to give it the attention it deserves. Great lines & great ideas that can potentially improve your jazz guitar playing chops and vocabulary.

Pros: Great lines, clearly notated with fingerings for both fretting and picking.
Cons: No audio or video recording of lines or explanation for the lines. You can’t print out any of the material, this is stricly an eBook.
TLDR: If you enjoy the kind of lines that you have heard Peter Farrell or George Benson play, this follow up eBook to the first pocket book might be helpful to give you insights into their note choices and fingerings.

You can get the Pocket Books here: https://peterfarrellguitar.com/pb/

UPDATE: April 9, 2023 – Since this review, I’ve received accompanying MP3 audio files that demonstrate each line in the books. Peter I believe sent these to buyers of both volumes of the pocket books. This is a welcome addition to the books & helps study of the material. Thanks Peter!

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