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Rating: 
Summary: Worth the effort
Review: If you don't have a foundation in the basics of music theory and some playing experience go find a good teacher and work your way up to and through these books. These books are jazz based but everything in them can be applied to any other style. Totally worth the effort.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book!
Review: This actually is the second and last part of Greene's miniseries, and I decided to write about it because I bought this part based on several recommendations that it contains way more important and helpful material for guitarists, much more into the detail than Part I.Greene himself says that the topic was basically only "touched" in Part II, while in this episode, he provides even more examples and material. Or to quote Greene "so we're going to really 'hit it' now" He jumps right in, talking about condensed arpeggios, preparing to demonstrate how to solo while staying in one position. Chapters deal with "Playing through changes", "Chromatic tones", "Soloing over fast changes", "Slurring and decoration", "Rhythm and Phrasing", different scales and chords, up to sophisticated scales, chromatic progression. Greene does something here that I personally consider extremely important: Not only does he provide much useful information and explains many many important techniques and approaches, he also explains how to use them and incorporate into real playing, by talking about Rhythm and Phrasing, slurring and decoration. (Which I think is even more important than just the scales by themselves). Each chapter features easy-to understand explanations and diagrams, but the major part of this book is MUSIC. A lot of notation, with chord diagrams, all based on the topic of the chapter. I think that he not only addresses all the important topics, but also explains how to apply them to the "real world", and all that with lots of musical examples, therefore providing the reader with an actual demonstration of the discussed techniques and topics. One of the best jazz players writes an extremely complete guide to a huge topic. And pretty much covers EVERYTHING important! Not only straight theory, but also important topics like phrasing (which often is ignored and dismissed, although it is as important as the actual notes one plays). A great guide to the topic, very complete, with theory ranging from basic to very sophisticated, requiring quite some time and experimentation by the reader. Very very good, I absolutely recommend it Prerequisite: Sight-reading, good knowledge of chords and basic theory, a bit of playing experience in any case.
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