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Jazz Guitar Books
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Joe Pass Guitar Style -
Every jazz guitarist should own this book. Make sure you get the tape that goes along with the book, and while you're at it, get the other Joe Pass books on Carole Kaye's site as well!
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Peter Sprague, The Sprague Technique -
This book gives a great foundation in arpeggios, scale patterns, and how to apply them to jazz improvisation. Next to the Joe Pass book, this is the one I spent the most time studying. Check out Peter's other books and CD's as well!
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Jim Snidero's Jazz Conception Series -
Great bebop improvisations written out and played by the great Joe Cohn on guitar. There is so much to learn from just being able to play these etudes along with the CD.
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Michael Horowitz, Gypsy Picking - Michael has finally revealed the secret of Django's right hand technique. Joe Pass used a variation of this technique as well.
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Roni Ben Hur, Talk Jazz (The Guitar Edition) - Based on the Barry Harris method, Roni spells out a path to bebop jazz guitar mastery. Definitely get the guitar edition, as Roni's fingering concepts are very powerful. The accompaning CD is a gem in itself.
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Pat Martino, Linear Expressions -
A very practical book that really gives insight into how Pat Martino constructs his lines.
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Lee Ryan, The Natural Classical Guitar (The Principles of Effortless Playing) -
A practical guide to reducing tension in guitar playing.
Jazz Guitar Solos
Jazz Improvisation Books
Fake Books
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Fake Book Index -
Type in a song, and find out which Fake Book or Aebersold Play-along has it.
Ear Training
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Alain Benbassat's "Functional EarTrainer" -
A freeware program for learning to hear notes relative to a root progression. This is a great program, and Alain made it available for free!
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Earope -
This program has intervals, scales, chords, inversions, progressions, melody and rhythm exercises - all of which are essential for jazz ear training. You can control exactly what you want to work on in each session.
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EarMaster Pro -
This is a great program for ear training. It
has interval and chord identification, progressions, scale
identification as well as a variety of rhythm studies. It takes you
through a series of steps, always remembering what you have completed,
and grading you on accuracy.
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David Burge's Relative Pitch Ear Training SuperCourse -
Although David makes a lot of waves with his
perfect pitch course (which didn't work for me), I studied his relative pitch course a few years back when it was on cassettes, and it really is
a great course! One of the unique features of the course is the 'lightening rounds' which help you identify intervals instinctively rather than intellectually. You can get the same results by using some of the software products on the market, but David's approach is worth checking out.
Play Along
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Band In a Box -
This is a tool that no Jazz musician should be without.
Entering a chord progression for improvising is as simple as writing
it down on paper (it understands all the intuitive abbreviations).
You can find a huge number of jazz fakebooks (including melodies and changes) for BIAB on
The BIAB Project Site. Don't buy the fake books that pgmusic sells - they are not that good. The other great thing about BIAB is the Jazz Soloist
feature. You can ask the program to devise a Jazz solo in a chosen
style (you can buy extra styles on the pgmusic site). These solos are
surprisingly good and you can see them in music notation and hear the
Midi track, which is a great learning tool.
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Jamey Aebersold - You can't live without the Aebersold play-alongs, and this is the best online store for Jazz related products (including software)
Transcriptions With Midi Tracks
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Jazz Guitar MasterClass -
Oliver Gannon (the brother of Peter Gannon who created BIAB) brings you
a great set of guitar lessons. Also, check out:
Jazz Guitar Solos
which has Peter playing jazz guitar solos in the styles of some
of the greats. The solos are all excellent, and the playback is in midi
so you can slow it down or speed it up as desired. There is a version
of this which is an add-on to BIAB, and there is a standalone version.
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Phil Woods Jazz Tutor -
This CD-ROM has been taken off the market for some reason. Those who
have it (like me!), know it to be a great learning aid. It features a number of Phil Woods compositions and solos, both in
recorded form as well as in full music notation and midi. On top of
that, there is a whole educational section which trains you in playing
scale fragments and arpeggio fragments over the changes of these
compositions.
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Oscar Peterson Multimedia CD-Rom -
Even more amazing than the Phil Woods CD-ROM, this features actual
Oscar Peterson performances both in recordings and in Midi with full
transcriptions. You can slow it down and play along (good luck), or
just watch the music fly by as you marvel at Oscar's technique and
improvisational clarity.
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Jazz Guitar Transcriptions - Some nice transcriptions, and great links!
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John McLaughlin - Midi versions of Mahavishnu and Shakti tracks
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Classic Jazz Solos - Including "Giant Steps"
Editing
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Coda PrintMusic! 2000 -
A full-blown music notation editor for just $69.99! This program has
almost all of the features of its big brother
Finale which are relevant to a jazz musician. You can write
compositions or exercises, chord changes, instrument parts,
transpositions (including chord changes!), and even extract parts.
You can enter transcriptions and have it play it back for accuracy,
and the
print quality is professional (especially with the free jazz font).
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Goldwave Digital Audio
Editor -
This program lets you read in music files in many formats and then
edit it and (optionally) slow it down. An excellent tool for extracting
solos for transcription.
Jazz Musicians' Web Sites
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David Liebman -
One of the great Jazz educators of our time.
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Hal Galper -
Hal's famous articles on Forward Motion are available here.
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Chick Corea -
What would Jazz be like without him? (don't ask Ken Burns)
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Makoto Ozone -
One of my favorite contemporary piano players.
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Steve Grossman - One of my favorite post-Rollins sax players.
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Kenny Werner -
If you haven't read Effortless Mastery you should get a copy immediately
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Greg Osby -
One of the most original improvisors in modern jazz. Also a very thoughtful teacher - very generous with information (I attended a master class with Greg at
Michiko Studio in New York.
Jazz Guitar Web Sites
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George Benson - Benson's official home page.
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Pat Metheny - Pat's official home page.
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Classic Jazz Guitar - My favorite Jazz Guitar bio site.
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Jack Wilkins - One of my favorite jazz guitarists of all time, and an inspiring teacher. Check out his great instructional video on his website.
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Rick Stone -
A great player and teacher.
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Adam Rafferty -
A great player plus some great study materials
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Peter Sprague -
One of my favorite guitar players and a great teacher. Check out his transcriptions and guitar method book.
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Avi Rothbard -
A great fellow Israeli jazz guitarist that is taking New York by storm. Check out his site!
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Roni Ben Hur -
A fellow Israeli and a great jazz guitarist
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Frank Gambale -
Although Chuck Wayne invented 'sweep picking' - Frank Gambale has developed it to perfection.
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Rodney Jones - One of the greatest modern players around.
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Ulf Wakenius -
An amazing player to check out.
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Lorne Lofsky -
A modern-day giant from the Canadian chordal school. Site has video clips with Oscar Peterson.
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Robert Conti -
Some good technical exercises
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Joe Giglio -
A great New-York based Guitar player, and a great newly designed web site! Thanks to Joe for including my picture sitting in with him at his regular Friday evening gig at 107 Broadway (see the photos link page 1).
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Satoshi Inoue -
A very original guitarist and teacher with a very modern melodic approach. A student of the great Jim Hall.
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Garry Hansen's Charlie Christian Site -
This is an unbelievable site with real-audio and full transcriptions of some of the most important Jazz Guitar solos in history, plus a great tutorial on the Charlie Christian style.
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Reno De Stefano -
A Canadian Guitarist and author of a series in
Just Jazz Guitar
on
Antecedent-Consequent Phrases. You can find the articles at Reno's web site.
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Jack Grassel - A great guitarist and creator of some of the best jazz guitar books on the market. "Guitar Seeds" and Jack's series of transcription books are highly recommended.
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Richard Boukas - Everything you wanted to know and hear about Brazilian Guitar.
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Gene Bertoncini - A virtuoso of the classical guitar in a jazz context.
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Paul Bollenback - One of the finest jazz guitarists around.
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Paul Meyers - A wonderful classical and brazilian fingerstyle player.
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Mark Kleinhaut - A fantastic guitar player from Maine who deserves wider recognition.
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Barry Wedgle - A jazz guitarist with an ultra-modern approach and an independent record label (Exit Records).
Midi Guitar
The Universe
NY Area Jazz Listings
Chamber Music in New Jersey
