New! Functional Jazz Guitar
Learn the skills needed for playing in a jazz group with this fun 255-page method. Practice specific cadence & blues comps; guide-tone & bass lines; rhythms, voicings & licks in major & minor, in all 12 keys—with 185 pages of inter-related sound files. Print & e-book formats available.
Functional Jazz Guitar is designed for all the students Ed has had who have practiced chord scales & done the usual stuff in their back room—but still don't know how to get out & function in a jam. What they had learned (chord scales) didn't prepare them for what to actually play in performance. This book does—big-time, without any need for scales or theory.
Its focus is on specific accompaniment chords & rhythms on the basic major & minor cadences & 12-bar blues—with specific voicings, rhythms, & melodic licks to go with them. It also covers Diatonic Modal Planing of triads & voicings in 4ths.
You can also mix & match the chapters, which is really cool. For example, after you learn the guide tone line in all keys, you can go to the comping chapter of the same cadences, & then play one with the other. Virtually everything in the book is interchangeable in that way.
This book was an inspiration: It is both effective & fun. Since the most direct & effective apporach is rote learning, you can practice by yourself with it, or with any combination of other players on any instruments. You can then break it up & have each person do a different part from the book, all at the same time. While it is designed for the entrance-level practitioner, it is doubtful if even Vic Juris or Dom Minasi could just knock it all off—Ed can not.
There's a common thread throughout this 255 page book. Rather than offer theoretical explanations, the book just puts the basics to work, supplying specific comping rhythms to use over a supplied paradigm walking bass line, rhythms, & other specific solutions to learn in all keys on the basic cadences major & minor; the 12-bar blues in major & minor, & funk, & diatonic planing though the modes in all keys; & in swing & Latin and funk.
All of this is practiced with supplied Finale & mp3 files & learned by music & ultimately by rote (18 separate files of 168 pages in Finale). The two major & minor blues bass lines are written out in all keys to be learned first as such & then used against learning the anticipation comping-pecks (always difficult to get used to). Then the riff-style comp is introduced.
The entire book is self-explanatory: Just play it & you are ready to play in a group. It is both efficient & artful. It addresses the various roles of the jazz guitarist, while continuing to focus on the same essential forms. All of the accompaniment material, though, is comprised of what you learned earlier in the book, so it is cumulative in nature.
Ed has taught jazz guitar (& every other instrument) for his entire career; & he has performed with & written for many of the greatest jazz guitarists in the world. Among his ex-guitar students are Freddie Bryant & Mark Elf. He makes his living performing jazz, teaching, writing, & publishing his Linear Jazz Improvisation Method books—some 46 books written for all instruments. Among his current students are world-class performers & faculty members of NEC, Berklee, Harvard, & Yale.
Here’s what some world-class jazz guitarists have said about him:
Freddie Bryant: Ed Byrne taught me virtually everything I know about composition, and he encouraged and inspired me with his dedication and love of music.
Vic Juris: Ed’s Information is as good as it gets anywhere!
Dom Minasi: For someone who has been teaching jazz guitar for over forty years, it’s great to finally have a book I can use. Ed Byrne’s Functional Jazz Guitar book is a great way to help students realize their full potential.
Product Details:
Available in both convenient e-book format & spiral-bound hard copy Clear, concise text Free Finale & mp3 sound files: 18 Separate Files Free e-mail support & blog 255 pages
Click here to view sample pages
Click to listen to a finale sound sample
Book Contents:
- Jazz thinking
- Guide-tone lines & cadences
- Blues comping
- Bossa comping
- Bass Lines
- Linear melodic solutions
- Diatonic modal planing Improvisation advice
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