Back in December 23, 2017, I published my first book review on this website!
It was for Kevin’s Miller original self-published book, “The Outside Sounds and Substitutions of Modern Saxophonists for Jazz Guitar“.
Since then, I’ve written and published 264 reviews in the past five and a half years.
It’s probably fitting to celebrate with a review of Kevin’s new book published by Mel Bay.
My initial thought was this is probably the same book but just edited or formatted for release. What I realized as I read & played through the book is that although the concepts and topics are the same as his initial book, this version is different!
The cool thing is that although there are actually less musical examples in this volume, each example appears to be well chosen to demonstrate each concept or substitution described.
As I played the lines, I was immediate inspired to try out variations and ideas of my own.
It’s also important to note that some of the sounds are VERY OUTSIDE. So, you probably will end up spending hours at least on each sound introduced. This is a very good thing. There’s definitely something in here for anyone interested in outside playing.
I enjoy the format that Kevin used in the book by giving the scale fingering, then a line (or more) and on occasion the chord voicings that accompany the phrase, or suitable voicings for the scale choices. It’s also helpful that Kevin included the picking and slur suggestions in the patterns section of the book to get the right flow for those lines.
In conclusion, I recommend this book for intermediate and advanced jazz guitarists curious about different ways to play more chromatic in their solos. I got a lot out of my first read of the book & look forward to working with this book more.
Congratulations Kevin on this release! Hope to see other books in the future going deeper into some of these concepts or perhaps on another topic.
Pros: Good lines, well organized book with a lot of interesting concepts, scales, voicings and exercises to help develop your outside playing.
Cons: No audio recording of examples. I wish there was a recording to accompany the book!
TLDR: Concise well edited book that delivers on what is promised. If you wanna play outside ideas, this is a book that has A LOT of ideas for you to explore.
Get the physical book & eBook here:
https://www.melbay.com/Products/31006/outside-sounds-and-substitutions-for-modern-jazz-guitar.aspx
And…
Check out my other book, video & course reviews here:
https://azsamadlessons.com/book-reviews/
[Submissions for Review Consideration]
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Please send me a message at azsamad2 at gmail.com with:
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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?