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Top 20 Best Jazz Guitar Book
Table of contents [Show]
- What are the Best Jazz Guitar Books to Buy?
- 20 Best Jazz Guitar Book Reviews
- 1. Mickey Baker’s Course on Jazz Guitar
- 2. Fundamental Changes in Jazz Guitar
- 3. Modern Jazz Guitar Concepts
- 4. Chord Tone Soloing for Jazz Guitar
- 5. Jazz Guitar Chord Mastery
- 6. Hal Leonard Guitar Method
- 7. Martin Taylor Walking Bass For Jazz Guitar
- 8. Beginning Jazz Guitar
- 9. Advanced Jazz Guitar Concepts
- 10. Guitar: The First 100 Jazz Chords for Guitar
- 11. 100 Jazz Lessons: Guitar Lesson Goldmine Series
- 12. Jody Fisher's Jazz Guitar Chord-Melody Course
- 13. The Jazz Guitar Chord Bible
- 14. The Jazz Guitar Handbook
- 15. Complete Book of Jazz Guitar Lines & Phrases
- 16. The Jazz Guitar Chord Compilation
- 17. Jazz Guitar Fake Book
- 18. Jazz Guitar Chord Creativity
- 19. Rhythm Changes for Jazz Guitar
- 20. The Ultimate Map for Jazz Guitar
- Choosing The Best Jazz Guitar Book
Guitars are known to be one of the most popular and played instruments in the world. Getting to know more about guitars, one can not forget the exclusive Jazz guitars. Jazz guitars are an essential part of jazz composition however learning how to play jazz guitars can be a big task. These days there are many books available in the market that can help you learn about playing jazz guitars. These books are written by some of the most amazing and authentic musicians in the world.
What are the Best Jazz Guitar Books to Buy?
2) Fundamental Changes in Jazz Guitar
- Master Arpeggios & Bebop Scales
- Substitutions & Build Articulate Licks
1) Mickey Baker’s Course on Jazz Guitar
- New Harmonic Devices & Techniques
- Progressive Chord & Melody Styles
- The Latest Rhythm & Blues Phases
3) Modern Jazz Guitar Concepts
- Jazz Concepts to Create Dynamic Solos
- Contemporary Jazz Guitar Theory
- Cutting-Edge Jazz Licks & Techinques
If when you become an expert you still need to have a book so that you can keep polishing your skills. Also, these help you gain mastery over the notes and scales. Jazz guitar books comprise of lessons which offer you learning of the Jazz music and numerous examples of Jazz music as well. These books are light enough and do not contain a lot of pages but they have enough information to educate you about Jazz music and learn different styles of music in the best ways.
If you are looking for buying a Jazz guitar book, it is always advisable to browse the internet first to come across some credible websites where you can know more about these books. It is always advisable to do some of your research work before you decide to buy the book of your choice.
20 Best Jazz Guitar Book Reviews
Book Details
View Products on Amazon.com1. Mickey Baker’s Course on Jazz Guitar
Mickey Baker's complete course in jazz guitar provides useful insights on how to play jazz and hot guitar. This book is all you need if you are passionate and persistent in becoming a pro guitarist. The book has an enormous amount of information and contains 52 lessons.
Moreover, the book is more of a practical than theoretical which gives it a cut above to other related books. The best part is homework, which helps in retaining readers’ involvement.
To make it simple the book is split into two parts. The first part deals in chords and progression in which the practicality of the traditional chord grip diagram is taught. The second part entails things on to single-note playing like scales, arpeggios, and melodic phrases and one thing to be remembered is that everything is practical. Therefore, if you want to have a strong command over playing the guitar all you need is to follow the directions given by Mickey baker in this book.
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2. Fundamental Changes in Jazz Guitar
If you are looking to master the art of that perfect jazz guitar, then you must learn it from fundamental changes in jazz Guitar by Joseph Alexander. This is also great for the beginner jazz guitar solo learners because it teaches you to step by step in detail so that your basics are strong enough.
It has live recorded examples, tips, and tricks to make your learning process interesting and your sound notes authentic. Most of the people find soloing in jazz guitar quite difficult, however, with this book, you can pave the path of yours in the right direction. It will help you in creating smooth chord tones and chord progression, which is essential for soloing.
Further, it has all the vital tips and techniques to master the art of soloing especially if you want to incorporate the genuine bebop flavor like other great jazz guitarists like Joe Pass. This book is not just a book rather a gate for your success. Moreover, this book is ideal for beginners and intermediate.
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3. Modern Jazz Guitar Concepts
Jens Larsen has contributed a lot in the field of jazz guitar. One such contribution is Modern jazz guitar concepts, which provide useful insights into modern jazz guitar techniques. This book proffers a great amount of useful information and focuses on practicality. The book is designed in such a manner, which pushes you to make efforts to apply the teaching, and this is what makes this book a cut above.
Apart from 20 lessons, it contains 2 hours of audio free download and 163 live examples, which motivates and provides a great experience. Besides, it also includes 6 backing tracks to provide the experience to practice jazz lines. The best part is Jens gives lessons on YouTube and Instagram, which extends or supplement the book teachings as you can look at the videos on his YouTube channel after each chapter for a better understanding. If you are passionate and resolute in learning modern jazz guitar this book is best for you.
Book Details
4. Chord Tone Soloing for Jazz Guitar
This guide is written by Joseph Alexander for those jazz guitarists who are seeking to learn chord progressions, using three different approaches that are, the arpeggios approach, substitutions approach, and the chromatic approach. Most jazz guitarists are able to play the scales instead of the arpeggios, which is tough to emulate a bebop language that is also authentic.
This guide will teach you over thirteen jazz sequences along with the ways to combine them to create solos that are melodious and authentic. The book breaks down several bebop chord progressions into thirteen different structures that are simple to understand.
You will also learn numerous jazz guitar solo skills, such as chord tone targeting, outlining chords using arpeggios, connecting scales with arpeggios, creating a true jazz flavor by adding chromatic passing notes, and ways of adding depth and color using arpeggios extensions as well as alterations. The guide also includes fourteen backing tracks.
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5. Jazz Guitar Chord Mastery
This book has made everyone a fan of Joseph. This book is not just theory; it is written in such a simple way that intermediates are easily able to apply the knowledge gained at every step practically. Visual explanations through diagrams are cherry on the top and assists understanding. It can help you to polish and enhance skills to play Jazz guitar chords.
It is so nicely organized that as you move from one chapter to another practicing all exercises, you are introduced to new elements of chord voicing and sounds. The best part about exercises is that it gives a clear understanding of theory and helps implement the technique to play every chord voicing.
You will be satisfied that by the end of the book you will be able to learn all the arrangements of the chords and how to use them to produce the best music. This book is perfect for every intermediate who wants to master playing Jazz Guitar.
Book Details
6. Hal Leonard Guitar Method
Hal Leonard provides you with an enriching experience of mastering your guitar skills with 40 different classic jazz tunes! The guide book incorporates true jazz tunes to show the learners the fundamentals of many great, classic jazz guitarist, which can help you improvise further harbor your skills.
The book includes chord changes, skills, solo styles, and much more. It comes with 99 sample tracks, to make practicing jazz guitar skills even more. The book is accessible digitally through a special code, which involves resources for playback such as settling tempo, etc.
It also provides an easy explanation on how to master jazz guitar techniques, with sample tracks, lead sheets, and section by section procedure of how to change chord progression, and such. These methods can help you set apart by shifting chords, and learn new sounds. In the end, you'll be able to mix old methods in jazz music with new ones.
Book Details
7. Martin Taylor Walking Bass For Jazz Guitar
This guide on walking bass has been specifically written for jazz guitarists is written by Martin Taylor along with Joseph Alexander for those jazz guitarists who are seeking to seamlessly integrate walking basslines with their jazz chords, for which the book has a detailed step by step process that focuses on building these skills.
Apart from that, this guide will also teach you several other skills, such as playing the walking bass the way a bass player does, overlaying basslines and chords, chromatic notes chord harmonization to create a rich musical texture, bassline licks, and techniques for re-harmonization.
What's interesting is that apart from enhancing your skills, this guide will also teach you various picks tricks that are similar to the drummer stick tricks, along with how to create jazz rhythmic bass skips. You will also be able to download over one hundred and twenty music examples that are of studio quality, for free.
Book Details
8. Beginning Jazz Guitar
Being one of the perfect guide books about jazz guitar methods for beginners, it allows you to learn the fundamentals of jazz music and master the skill. With all the changes over time from classic to modern jazz guitar methods, this book includes all the key fundamental triad sets through expanded chords and techniques that are perfect for a beginner seeking to learn and master guitar skills.
The beginner complete jazz guitar guide dismantles the concept of a descriptive, old trend of explaining how to learn jazz guitar with an easy section by section approach to learn how to play jazz guitar with modern tunes. With each part divided into chapters about different lessons about chord progression, rhythm modification, this guide book is perfect. So, it is never late to learn a new skill, and learning jazz guitar might be the perfect one. And this book can help you adapt to the new change.
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9. Advanced Jazz Guitar Concepts
If you are looking to master your jazz guitarist skills, then you can master your skills on an advanced level through this advanced jazz guitar concepts guide book. This book offers a complete guide to improve your soloing experience through triad sets, quarterly harmony use, and knowing when modified chords should be used.
This book allows you to acquire guitar skills and concepts of many renowned artists. The package includes knowing how to make full use of tri-tone replacement when you are practicing, how to create different sounds using rhythm change with modes you are already aware of.
Further, the use of modified triad sets, and use the scales to produce modern, advanced sound riffs. It also allows you to learn interval rhythms to create soulful leaps during your jazz solos. These techniques will help you set apart, and acquire new sounds by changing chords. In the end, you will be able to combine old jazz music techniques with modern ones.
Book Details
10. Guitar: The First 100 Jazz Chords for Guitar
This guide for jazz chords is written by Joseph Alexander, specifically for novice jazz guitarists. It includes ten essential sequences of jazz chords, theories of jazz guitars as well as commonly used language that is specific to jazz guitars, a complete and simple guide to important jazz musical ideas, and a holistic system that will assist you in playing fundamental jazz chords using the entire neck of the guitar.
Using this guide, novice jazz guitarists will be able to discover different chord extensions of jazz guitars, such as alterations as well as substitutions, inversions that will help them in opening the entire neck of the guitar and drop two chords.
Jazz guitarists will be able to simplify their playing inside guide tone voicing that is considered easy as well as enhance their skills in altered dominant chords. After completing this guide, you will have memorized, understood, and learned the application of jazz chords.
Book Details
11. 100 Jazz Lessons: Guitar Lesson Goldmine Series
This book of one hundred lessons for jazz is written by John Heussenstamm along with Paul Silbergleit. As the name of this book suggests, this book contains a collective total of one hundred separate modules that cover a vast array and variety of topics.
Every topic that is included in this book consists of a detailed system; a system which consists of a detailed and comprehensive set of instructions for the reader to thoroughly follow, examples that are specific to certain theories for ease of understanding, useful tips that will assist the reader in the application of all of the instructions, diagrams that have been drawn to scale, photographs that are used for ease of association, chord grids, and a lot more that will help the reader to not only reinforce but to retain their learning experience. The guide book also gives its readers access to recordings that feature demo performances.
Book Details
12. Jody Fisher's Jazz Guitar Chord-Melody Course
This chord-melody guide book is written by Jody Fisher, who is one of the most popular jazz guitarists, educators, performers, and an author in all the states of America. In this guide and course book, Jodie Fisher has presented a system of a clear and simplified way of devising, manufacturing, and organizing various arrangements, that don't sound monotonous.
Apart from that, this guide book also consists of another similar and an easy to understand the system that assists solo jazz guitarists in the art form, that is, improvisation. For all of the concepts and materials that have been presented in this guide book, Jodie Fisher has accompanied them with a comprehensive and simplified set of supporting theories, techniques that are both easy to understand and apply, as well as a set of skills arranged in such a way that they signify and show Jodie Fisher's journey and role as a solo guitarist.
Book Details
13. The Jazz Guitar Chord Bible
This book has been solely written by Warren Nunes, for the specific purpose of creating an extension in the world of jazz, specifically in the knowledge-based and usage-based aspects of playing chords. This guide book consists of a complete, holistic, detailed, simplistic, and an easy to understand guide on three-string guitar chords as well as four-string guitar chords.
Each guide is then further divided and detailed with its applications in the world of old and contemporary jazz. These applications range from the detailed applications of passing chords to the detailed applications of altered chords. Even though this guide book consists of a vast array and variety of these chords along with their set of chord voicing, the ones that have been mentioned in this guide book are those that have been considered to be, by jazz experts, as practical as possible, as logical as possible, and as applicable as possible.
Book Details
14. The Jazz Guitar Handbook
This guide book is written by Rod Fogg. While this guide book was not written for a specific set of jazz guitarists, it can be exponentially more relevant for novice plus amateur jazz guitarists than professional jazz guitarists, due to what the guide book consists of; which are step by step guides for playing jazz guitars.
The publication follows an all-encompassing approach to jazz guitar playing as its material on jazz harmonies and concepts for soloing has a range the starts from the basics till an advanced level. It additionally consists of a variety of styles, such as bebop jazz, swing jazz, modal jazz, jazzy blues, Gypsy jazz, jazz-funk, and more styles, as well as, a mixture of tabs with notations that cover more than one hundred and twenty exercises, a compact disk with ninety-six tracks, backing tracks, and even play-along.
Apart from that, this guide book contains a comprehensive history of renowned jazz guitarists.
Book Details
15. Complete Book of Jazz Guitar Lines & Phrases
This comprehensive volume is written by Sid Jacobs for amateur jazz guitarists. The guide book has been referred to as a precious extension to the already existing archives of those amateur guitarists who prefer to improvise jazz chords. It consists of numerous text theories along with symphonic samples, each of which individually concentrates on the vocabulary, which is commonly used in the world of contemporary, as well as numerous contemporary jazz harmonies along with their applications.
This book will also help jazz guitarists in enhancing their knowledge and skills in fourths playing, fingering, slash chords, whole-tone scales, pentatonic, hip lines, symmetrical scales, bebop phrase styles, playing inside-outside, and many more.
All this is done using a combination of standard notations mixed with tablature. This guide also consists of ways through which you can access online audios as well as companion audios. These companion audios consist of materials along with chord accompaniment.
Book Details
16. The Jazz Guitar Chord Compilation
This compilation book is among a favorite among learners seeking to brush up on their jazz guitar skills. The Jazz guitar chord compilation book offers the guitar chords in form, Mastering Jazz Guitar Chord, and Voice leading jazz guitar. It comes not only with a text explaining new ideas and chords about jazz guitar, but also more than a hundred audio samples to help you master your skills.
The first book is intended to give the learners an instant and practical idea of the fundamental types of chords, and they are developed, performed, and applied.
The second book is intended to focus on different chord forms, its reversals, and leading voices, including all the string sections.
The third book focuses on how to add changes to the regular chords. The compilation provides a real depth regarded certain guitar sections, and it will surely absorb you into any style you prefer.
Book Details
17. Jazz Guitar Fake Book
This jazz guitar fake book provides the perfect guide for learning and playing the jazz guitar. With over 200 jazz classics, which include patterns, chord markers, and chords skillfully arranged for different songs, it surely stands out.
The benefit of having so many audio samples is that you get to learn your favorite chords, and also add your own modifications to it. Where learning new tunes can take you years, this book allows you to brush up on your learned techniques and master it instantly.
The instructions are easily laid out so learners of any level can pick up this book. It includes all the different chords and chord markers. Volume 1 of this guide book has been a favorite among many jazz guitar learners, and after you are done going through the entire fake book, you will end up having a better knowledge of chord progressions, symbols, and how to play jazz guitar.
Book Details
18. Jazz Guitar Chord Creativity
This guide of jazz chords for fretboard guitarists is written by Tim Pettingale and Joseph Alexander. This book consists of a holistic guide for those who are seeking to build up their jazz chord skills. These skills will help you to polish your chord sequences, to convert and apply all that you learn to jazz standards, to improve your knowledge on harmonics, to work on your rhythm, to reduce the predictability of your chord playing, to find new chords to play, and to help you in unlocking the entire range that exists within the neck of the guitar.
You will also discover various useful jazz guitarist skills, such as multi-purpose chords and chord systems that are best suited for solo accompaniment and band settings. Keep in mind that this book has not been designed for beginners as the reader must have knowledge of the basics of playing jazz chords on a fretboard.
Book Details
19. Rhythm Changes for Jazz Guitar
If you are looking to soloing expertly over some very classic jazz chord sequences, then your roadmap is rhythm charge for jazz guitar. For any jazz guitarist, it is pertinent to be aware of all the chord sequence that is why rhythm changes for jazz guitar work help you to quickly grasp the changes well enough for soloing.
The guide offers you a thorough description of the shifts of the chord, part by part. A turn by turn roadmap to how to change and extend chords. A manual guide to the chord replacements, which might come to use to spruce up fundamental changes. It offers new ideas and innovations to broaden your jazz skills.
The guide book also gives an introduction to how to solo with changed scales and chord progressions. If you are looking to master your jazz guitarist skills and learning solo, then this guide provides three solos full length!
Book Details
20. The Ultimate Map for Jazz Guitar
This book is written by a renowned jazz guitarist named Michael Anthony. Micheal Anthony wrote this book in the hopes of reducing or completely eliminating the frequency with which jazz guitarists come across stalls, sputters as well as the danger of losing creativity in the process of following an abundance of monotonous melodic lines, new ideas which may not be pragmatic, or even chord progressions.
This book is essentially a map, through the guidance of which, novice and amateur jazz guitarists will find their way to the world of skilled jazz guitarists. However, this guide book is not excessively straight-forward, therefore all novice and amateur jazz guitarists will be able to find their area of strength along with the areas that they need to improve in.
This book consists of a plethora of melodic ideas along with chord changes on the fingerboard that can occur at any point in time.
Choosing The Best Jazz Guitar Book
Jazz music is a part of classical music and is a treat to listen to. You can easily learn this music by following the Jazz guitar books so that you can explore different styles of music and get references for the notes and scales easily. Also, these books teach you about the main chords available at the Jazz guitar and how can one use them.
2) Fundamental Changes in Jazz Guitar
- Master Arpeggios & Bebop Scales
- Substitutions & Build Articulate Licks
1) Mickey Baker’s Course on
Jazz Guitar
- New Harmonic Devices & Techniques
- Progressive Chord & Melody Styles
- The Latest Rhythm & Blues Phases
3) Modern
Jazz
Guitar Concepts
- Jazz Concepts to Create Dynamic Solos
- Contemporary Jazz Guitar Theory
- Cutting-Edge Jazz Licks & Techinques
You are supposed to look through the internet if you want to buy a Jazz guitar book, by going through the online websites before visiting any store to buy these books. This will save your time and you can have a better idea of these books keeping the customer reviews and various other details in mind. If you think that any of the above-mentioned Jazz guitar books meet your requirement, and is according to your preference of buying a book, then you must click on the link mentioned below each book to get access to it.
