How to Play the Music of Stevie Wonder by Adam Rafferty is a fantastic new release aimed at fingerstyle guitarists wanting to hone their chops and add some R&B and funk to their repertoire with arrangements of the Stevie Wonder hits “Superstition”, “I Wish”, “Overjoyed”, and “Sir Duke.” The DVD/booklet sells for $34.97 at www.adamrafferty.com.

The DVD lasts just under two hours and Adam spends between 20 to 30 minutes teaching each arrangement. The video begins with a short introductory segment in which Adam encourages guitarists not to be intimidated or frustrated with the complex material presented in the video. He then briefly talks about what he calls “learning how to learn” and describes four specific stages of the learning process that students will encounter while working through the pieces. Adam adds that he continues to practice these pieces often and that he too is still fine tuning his performances!
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LJI Functional Jazz Guitar by Ed Byrne contains 255 pages of concepts and exercises that will help guitar students develop the skills needed for playing in a jazz group. Includes specific cadence & blues comping patterns, guide tone & bass lines, rhythms, voicings, and licks. 185 pages of inter-related sound files are included. The e-book with included sound files sells for $39.95 at byrnejazz.com. Hard copy is also available.

My last book review was Jazz Guitar Etudes by saxophonist Greg Fishman and now I have a review of LJI Functional Jazz Guitar by Ed Byrne who is a trombonist. Ed has performed and recorded with most of the jazz world’s leading musicians and is a trombonist, composer/arranger, and educator who has served on the faculties of Berklee College, Baruch College, University of the Arts, Greenfield Community College, and the University of Rhode Island. Many of his pupils have gone onto high-profile careers: Kenny Werner, Abe Laboriel, Chip Jackson, Freddie Bryant, Mark Elf, Papo Vasquez, and Gary Dial have all studed with Ed.

Functional Jazz Guitar (FJG) states in it’s preface that it “does not attempt be ground breaking.” Instead the text focuses on having the student play through the basic cadences and blues forms in every key. This is the quintessential material of jazz harmony that, once internalized, will allow the student to “be able to play real jazz with others.”

The examples in the book are what I’d call real “meat and potatoes” material: simple, powerful tools that sound great and are foundational rather than trying to be clever. Students working with the book are guided through dozens of exercises that demonstrate the use of embellished guide-tone lines and various comping patterns including major and minor ii v i and blues cadences in all 12 keys. Learning all of the material within and FJG and applying it to standard tunes would give the guitar student a mastery of their instrument and the solid foundation of harmonic understanding necessary for jazz playing and creative improvisation. The book includes 18 files in MP3 and Finale format to practicing along with. Vist Ed’s website to view sample pages and sound files.

FJG also has several pages of advice, observations, and reflections from Ed on topics such as ear-training, transcription, sight-singing, reading lead-sheets and more. Although the strength of the of the book is in its’ musical examples, these comments by the author add even more value by suggesting further uses and activities for the included examples.

As you can probably tell, I really like this book and I’m also a big fan of Ed’s Linear Jazz Improvisation Method books which would be a natural next step for students who have mastered the basic concepts in FJG. The only misgiving that I have about the book is that it is entirely in standard notation and I fear that the lack of tablature may scare off intermediate-level guitarists who don’t read well – just the demographic that needs this book. Since the goal is to master the included material in every key and across the entire range of the instrument, the use of standard notation leaves students open to explore all range and fingering options for themselves. Guitarists, if you need to work on your reading FJG is the perfect book to struggle through. Most examples are not too difficult and and you’ll be a better reader to boot!

So, what’s up with all of these books that are targeted toward guitarists but not written by one? I can’t say if this is the start of a new trend, but I think that many music educators have recognized that there is a huge marketplace full of egghead guitarists and that we do like to buy instructional books and videos. Is it a problem that the instruction is coming from a non-guitarist? In the case of jazz and jazz improvisation, I’d have to say no. Because jazz is a language spoken by all instrumentalists, any musician that can speak the language has something to teach you. Also, because a non-guitarist may not be familiar with all of the technical aspects of the instrument they can help you to focus on the Big Picture. So, instead of worrying about the particulars of fingerings and picking techniques they can help you make sure you’re in tune, in time, swinging, making the changes, and providing adequate support for the rest of the ensemble. This is what LJI Functional Jazz Guitar is all about!

If you’ve used this book – or any of Ed Byrne’s books on improvisation – please leave your comments below.

Jazz Guitar Etudes by Greg Fishman contains 12 jazz etudes and a CD with three practice tracks for each piece: one with the etude played on guitar, another with the etude played on tenor sax, and another with only a rhythm section. The book sells for $19.95.

Jazz Guitar Etudes is the first of two books I’m going to be reviewing that is NOT written by a guitarist. It turns out that Jazz Guitar Etudes was originally written by Chicago-based saxophonist Greg Fishman as a collection of saxophone etudes that has recently been adapted for guitar. Fortunately for us guitarists, Fishman did not simply transpose his sax studies for C instruments and leave it at that. Instead, he brought a guitarist on board. The guitar edition relies heavily on contributions from guitarist Mike Allemana who provides guitar tablature and relevant ideas of fingering and articulation options. The book also contains detailed notes from both Fishman and Allemana on how intermediate, advanced, and professional level students can use the etudes to further their improvisational skills.

Beyond these few pages of text the book gets right down to business with 12 etudes based on a variety of familiar chord progressions including blues, rhythm changes, and the changes to standard tunes such as “Alone Together”, “Body and Soul”, and “Have You Met Miss Jones”. The melodic lines in each etude are fantastic examples of classic bebop phrasing. Fishman makes the etudes thematic to a point, but doesn’t go so far as to make them sound like sound like tunes so much as really well-constructed solos that are hip and fun without ever straying from the underlying harmonies. There was obviously enough thought put into each etude that you could do an analysis of the material identifying common elements in bebop phrasing. However, just playing through the etudes will provide guitar players with a lot of great ideas to add to their vocabulary.

Once players get the etudes under their fingers they can play along with the included CD. Probably the most useful tracks to play along with are the tenor sax tracks. Playing along with Greg on the sax is a really fun and satisfying experience that will challenge your timing, tone, and articulation. Guitarists who are working to get that horn-style phrasing into their playing will especially benefit from this feature and this is the only book on the market that offers this option.

Below are videos of guitarist Mike Allemana demonstrating this feature with the etudes “Halsted Street” and “State Street”:

I really enjoyed working with this book and I hope that Greg Fishman will eventually make some of his other books available for guitarists as well. I think his books Jazz Saxophone Duets and Jazz Phrasing for Beginners would also translate particularly well for guitarists.

The Guitar Atlas: Japan book & CD by Burgess Speed is a guitarist’s guide to understanding and recreating the sounds of traditional Japanese music.

The book’s first three chapters cover some important fundamentals. Chapter 1 is a brief one-page history lesson which breaks down the history of Japan into five major eras and observes how musical styles have evolved from the sixth century until the present day. In Chapter 2 the author explains many of the the traditional instruments of Japan. These include the shamisen & sanshin (three-string banjo-like instruments), koto (a 13-string harp), biwa (a type of four-string lute), shakuhachi (bamboo flute) taiko, gakudaiko, dadaiko, and tsuzumi (drums) and binzasara (wooden clappers.) Chapter 3 delves into Japanese scales and modes and presents some really interesting insights into how these concepts have been influenced by ancient Chinese music theory which relates concepts such as Yin and Yang and the elements of Wood-Fire-Earth-Metal-Water to the traditional pentatonic Yo and In scales that are the basis for most traditional Japanese melodies.

If you’re not big into history, these first 3 chapters may seem a bit dry, but they are absolutely essential reading if you want to fully understand and appreciate the guitar arrangements that follow. The author makes a point to include detailed background information on each of the songs presented and uses his understanding of the instruments to develop specialized guitar techniques and tunings that that will deliver a wide range of distinctive and exciting sounds from the guitar. Some of these techniques include: using combination of fretted notes and open strings to recreate the harp-like sound of the koto, alternate tunings that mirror those used on the shamisen & sanshin, capos used to change timbre, using a thin pick to emulate the sound of the shamisen, and and the use of bends and legato techniques to elicit a vocal quality in some songs.

There are a total of seven arrangements in the book (and several shorter Kabuki interludes) which are broken down into the following chapters: Folk Music, Classical Music of Okinawa, Shamisen Music of the Kabuki Theater and Koto Music. The two most familiar pieces are “Sakura” (Cherry Blossoms) and “Kimi Ga Yo”, Japan’s National Anthem. All of the other pieces were unfamiliar to me, but I did enjoy trying my hand at them and the 36-track CD was a huge help in understanding how to convincingly phrase and interpret these songs. Below is an excerpt of the traditional song “Sakura” from the CD which is a good indication of what can be accomplished with the techniques presented in the book.

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Guitar Atlas: Japan was definitely a fun journey and I’d recommend it to intermediate to advanced students who read standard notation and tablature and don’t mind retuning their guitar once in a while. Beyond learning about the music of Japan, I also took away some fresh ideas about how to approach my own arrangements using some of the colorful techniques that are utilized throughout the book.

Finally, if the music of Japan is not your thing check out the entire Guitar Atlas series of books. Titles available include: Africa, Brazil, Cuba, India, Italy, and the Middle East.