I recently attended the Thailand International Jazz Conference 2024. As usual, in between the workshops, I went to the Mahidol University music bookstore to see what cool books might be around. I found this book and was immediately interested since this is a topic close to my heart. It was 450 baht which felt reasonable with the topic and size of the book.
First thing: this book is in Thai. But that won’t stop me from studying it as I can use Google Translate to read it. I just needed to use my camera and it translated the text in-app.
The music notation was all well organized so going through the book was a fun process. The spiral binding was also helpful for me to study it since this is a big book.
All the material is designed in a step-by-step way to help you understand the CAGED system. It’s clear that Jetnipith did his research to make sure that he presented this topic as clear as possible.
I can picture this being a good book for teachers to use as part of their private lessons and maybe even group classes.
The only things for me were the fact that this book is pretty dry in the sense that it is fully focused on teaching the topic without giving that many musical examples in context. This is basically a text book and workbook. For teachers and students you will need to figure out more examples of how this works in the context of different styles. Some of the more musical examples are jazz-oriented, which makes sense since Jetnipith is a jazz guitarist. Still, it does feel like more examples beyond the exercise format might be helpful.
The other thing is that it was difficult to access the accompanying videos in the book. Video links are hard to access because each requires a QR code and sometimes the links don’t work when I try using my camera. The compiled QR codes in a PDF is not easily accessed on a phone too. Would be great to have clickable links on the PDF for easier study on a computer OR a playlist with all the videos in one place. The videos are all unlisted videos on YouTube. Videos are well recorded and there is even tablature on the screen itself. I understand the concern with the PDF being illegally shared (and the videos too) but unfortunately this is the reality of creating online media.
Besides those points, the book is really amazing. I’m happy to see such a great effort to enrich the Thailand guitar world. I’m not sure whether there are more books at this level of depth in Thailand for guitar, but I certainly would love to check them out if there are.
Congrats to Jetnipith Sungwijit for creating this fine book!
I recommend this highly to guitar students and teachers in Thailand to check out. It is also written on the cover that this is Volume 1 of the JK-Guitar series. I look forward to future books. If they are anything like this, Thai guitarists are very fortunate to have this knowledge in their language.
Pros: Good materials, well organized and systematic.
Cons: Video access can be cumbersome.
TLDR: If you’re a Thai guitarist who wants to learn this topic, I believe this book is a useful resource for study. For non-Thai guitarists, it is still possible to study with this book because of all the clearly written music notation, tablature and diagrams. It’s well done and I believe will be a valuable book for many who work with the material.
Get this book by contacting Jetnipith Sungwijit directly on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kurtthere.kwan
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[Submissions for Review Consideration]
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