Jazzin' the Blues: A Complete Guide to Learning Jazz-Blues Guitar

I thought I reviewed this before. Maybe it was deleted. I am not a jazz guitarist but the simplified concise description of chords and chord theory in regards to jazz and blues is the best I have every read. This is NOT an all inclusive Jazz course but if you want to learn about Blues structures, tritone substitutions, ii V I theory etc especially as used in more West Coast/uptown style blues this presents these in easy to understand lessons that are not too complex.

This is a great book for a guitar players (intermediate and above) looking to add new ideas to their blues playing. In many ways blues is the basis for Jazz, so working thought the concepts in the book will introduce you to the concepts of Jazz and Jazz soloing. The book covers many useful concepts including:- An overview of basic music theory that is required to understand the contents of the book- Using extend chords (9, 11 and 13th and altered chords)- Learning the art of chord substitutions- Learning when to use the various scales- Secondary dominants and the II V progression- Side slipping and moreBasically a great book for people who what to go beyond the playing Pentatonic minor solos over standard 7th chords and add numerous new colors to your playing

The playing lessons in the book are enjoyable. The music theory that is passed along is relevant to those lessons. I thought Mr. Gnapes explained the complex content clearly and the studies and short videos in the entire series are wonderful enhancements to the learning experience.

I have to say that I was very disappointed when I first received this book. I have his other two books on the blues and rate them the best out there. The reason I was initially disappointed was because the songs appeared at first glance to be very simple - even near the back they appeared to be only slightly challenging. I was wrong - these are the most frustrating songs to learn, probably in part because they look so easy. I can't really explain why, but I think its because my fingers have become accustomed to 'moving' in blues fashion, and these songs don't. With that said, I highly recommend this as a way for use blues guys to transition into the jazz world. It's frustrating, but not to the point of wanting to give up.

Jazzin' the Blues an excellent resource for taking the blues to the next level. Stuffed into 100 pages is an incredible amount of material that will keep you busy for a long, long time. I have a couple of other John Ganapes books and they are certainly good for the basics. However, this is my favorite because it covers more advanced topics: seventh chord structures, ii-V-I progressions, extended ii-V-I progressions, secondary dominant chords, flat-five substitution, minor blues harmony, major & minor chord substitutions, and a lot more. If you want to break out of the pentatonic box, this will propel you forward.

You know the blues and want to give the next step. Read , read . read.With all this multimedia technology books that need to be actually read to learn are been discarded.Give this a shot. That is my recommendation.

This is in fact one of the clearest most well written books for jazz guitar that I've ever encountered. I would highly recommend this.

Great product, just what I needed, fast delivery, good value.

The books in this series are of a consistently high standard. Jazz is a musical form that a lot of musicians are wary of playing because it seems to be so inaccessible. While this book makes no claims to turn the reader into John McLaughlin, it does get you started and progressing. The theory aspects of jazz are very clear and easy to follow.A few words of warning, in the earl part of the book chord scales are briefly explained, and one of them is VERY difficult to play due to the finger positions. I'm a big bloke and I was struggling to do the chord fingerings which resulted in some swearing. On the next page the author acknowledges that the finger positions are very difficult and provides an exercise on how to play the same chords using different finger positions. The biggest strength of this book is the way in which it boosts the reader's confidence.

It's not often that you will find such a great book about guitar playing.I have lots of them, but this one stand's out by far...There is some theory with exercices to help understanding it.And there is a lot to be learned, and I think this book is going to keep me busy for awhile.I have only been able to work on a few pages since I bought it.Seeems easy at first but I guess it will get harder as I will go along.Never played jazz before and the little I have learned so far "sounds" Jazzy.Think this book is good for people who have played blues before.And for people willing to go patiently till the end of it...I found this book so great that I am going to get one of the other book's of John Ganapes.Blues you can use, I bet I will find very valuable tricks to improve my blues playing too.The review by Joe Shott is a much better review than mine but I wanted to let you know that this is a great book !

very interesting and easy to read ,as in that everything is explained in a simple manner and makes perfect sense because of this .read through and play the exercises and its and its not hard for Mr joe average pentatonic to sound a lot better and more interesting very soonthus amazing you blues playing palswell its working for me

This is an excellent tutor book and shows you the scales jazz musicians favour the music theory is complicated though

This is a beautiful package: it looks good, it even feels good in the hand. Inside the presentation of the text, diagrams, charts and pieces is faultless. Perfect production and editing. What about content? This definitely is not a total beginner's book. You need to have done some other studies, perhaps  Blues You Can Use: Complete Guide to Learning Blues Guitar  first in order to know the basics of blues guitar, before going on to do what this book does, which is to give it a thorough Jazz feel.It begins with a comprehensive theory review... Blues theory gets pretty mind blowing, give it that Jazz twist and things get much more complex still... want to play a piece using the Mixolydian C scale? Then you need to work out that C is the 5th note in the F scale and then play from C to C using the notes from the F scale... things get much more complex from there and you'll spend as much time studying this book as playing the music. In the early chapters you learn about playing Mixolydian scale notes from the root 6 and 5 chord shapes, there's also some good information about chord structures and how to alter them to make augmented, diminished etc. chords.On to the music - well the early pieces are as easy to play as the theory is hard to master. They sound instantly jazzy - Nice! The comping tab and the lead tab are given and, as long as you have taken my recommendation not to go for this book without any previous playing experience, you will quickly play them well and feel very self-satisfied. My one criticism: the pieces are very short indeed... each is just once through the twelve bars and it's all over in about 30 seconds... longer pieces, or at least a repeat would have been more satisfying as they are almost over before you start.Now a confession - in fact I only reached chapter 3 out of 15 before postponing these studies. Why? Because I am learning too much else at the moment by way of electric and finger picking blues... this book needs more attention than I currently have time to give it, however one day I definitely will because it (and the accompanying CD) is presented perfectly, comprises immense knowledge and includes fantastic sounding (if rather short) pieces. Not only does it need more attention than I can give it at the moment, it deserves it too. If you know some blues but want to head towards a more jazzy feel and if you're up for a mental challenge into the bargain, then I am pretty sure you'll be pleased you chose this book. Blues You Can Use: Complete Guide to Learning Blues Guitar