This is a special book since I’ve seen some parts of the manuscript on Jon Raney’s website some time ago. I’ve always been curious if it was ever going to be published by a company, and I was excited to hear the news that Sher Music Co. embarked on this. Jimmy Raney’s playing is amazing and inspiring to me so this book is a welcome addition to my library of jazz guitar resources.
The book contains 11 chapters divided into three sections.
According to the introduction by Jon Raney:
The first 2 chapters of the book, except for a few minor editorial updates, section titles and ending adds, are essentially my father’s work intact from his original manuscript (and mostly in first-person as the author). The practice exercises and solos he wrote out were moved to the final chapters, along with my own. Chapters 3-4 reflect my intermingling of his materials with other materials sourced from his workshops and a widely circulated audio lesson from the ’80s where he quoted his own published instruction materials. Chapter 5 onward is entirely new material.
The initial chapters are, as Jon Raney describes them are Socratic in nature. This method makes the book feel almost like you are taking a lesson with Jimmy. I’ll share my thoughts and observations in each section.
Section I:
In Chapter 1, Jimmy begins with a I VI II V chord progression in F with three variations as the basis of the musical examples. Each melodic line builds upon the previous example, demonstrating how subtle changes make the line stronger or weaker. Jimmy also shows how certain phrases that follow the chord might not work melodically even though they might be theoretically correct. The examples also address how rhythms affect the strength of the line.
Moving into Chapter 2, Jimmy explores rhythms further by showing how polyrhythms and harmonic dislocation work to create interesting melodic ideas.
Chapter 3 deals with sequences and variations to improve lines even more. I like this chapter a lot since these are concepts that I don’t use in this way as much.
Chapter 4 discusses how to create more interest by changing the direction of the lines as well as how to use skips and broken chords in lines.
Section II:
Chapter 5 dissects the influence of Charlie Parker and Stan Getz on Jimmy’s solos on his recorded output. This is a really cool chapter as well because of all the examples on how how Jimmy uses polyrhythms to make his phrases stand out.
This continues with examples from his recorded solos in chapter 6 and more advanced examples in chapter 7. There’s literally so much to digest in this section!
Section III:
Moving on to the third section, chapter 8 and 9 are systematic and in-depth guides to internalizing the Jimmy Raney approach and vocabulary. From simple licks to more elaborate ideas, there are many exercises and examples to help one understand Jimmy’s playing even better here. I would say that these chapters provide us with specific material to practice, especially if (like me) you are overwhelmed with the amount of material in the book.
Chapter 10 puts together the material introduced in the previous two chapters to allow us to start building full solos. Closing the book, chapter 11 has additional solo studies and exercises for us to work on.
In conclusion, this is a unique look at Jimmy Raney’s playing, from an insider’s point of view. We get both Jimmy’s own explanation of how he views melodic line construction and also Jon Raney’s insights of his dad’s playing. I really see nothing else like this in the market available, especially if we’re talking about the playing of Jimmy Raney. In addition to all that we get in this book, Jon Raney has also started posting videos on the concepts and material he wrote in the book. This is valuable for anyone studying this style of guitar playing. I for one, will be certainly practicing and revisiting this book as I develop my own playing.
Get the physical and eBook versions of the book here: https://www.shermusic.com/9781883217853.php
Thank you Jonathan of Sher Music for sending me a complimentary review copy of this book!
Pros: A lot of exercises, examples, transcriptions and concepts to learn.
Cons: None.
TLDR: If you want to improve your skills to compose and improvise strong sounding melodic lines, get this book. It’s a brilliant insight into the mind of Jimmy Raney and Jon Raney’s take on his father’s guitar playing style.
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