Brazilian guitarist Isaac Negrene’s Modern Linear Vocabulary for Guitar series continues. In this volume, Isaac examines the Mode 3 by Olivier Messiaen.
As a fan of Isaac’s first two books, I couldn’t wait to check out this book. He delivers the goods here. The book gives you 20 contemporary sounding guitar lines. These include legato, hybrid picked, arpeggiated ideas and tons of technically demanding passages. These are 16th note phrases, between 3 to 8 bars long.
There are 20 lines in the book. But, you could break these into smaller etudes & exercises. I ended up taking like 4 to 10 notes at a time to digest his ideas.
The best part about the book is how Isaac has notated both his left hand and right hand fingerings. This is important especially when practicing this less common sound.
The accompanying videos & audio examples also help guide guitarists. He includes slow, medium and performance tempo versions of the lines in the audio version. This time, Isaac also gives a page of voicings. This is helpful to give us ideas for the harmonic possibilities of these lines.
If you like guitarists like Ben Monder, Nelson Veras, Tim Miller, Allan Holdsworth and Hristo Vitchev, this book might be for you.
I would recommend using this book as an ongoing project or part of a daily practice routine. There’s so much in here even at 29 pages. Do not underestimate the depth of this material.
Get this book if you like contemporary jazz guitar lines & want to get that sound into your fingers.
Pros: Great work, well presented, video, audio & book all well thought out and planned!
Cons: None.
TLDR: If you like these kind of modern vocabulary, this book is worth adding to your music stand.
I received a complimentary review copy of this book from Isaac. Thanks Isaac!
You can get Isaac’s book on his website here:
https://www.modernlinearvocabulary.com/
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