Mickey Baker's Jazz Guitar

Rating:
Summary: A classic- but not the best place to start.
Review: Back in the 1950s- and well into the 60s- there wasn't much in the way of Jazz guitar literature for the beginner. You listened and copied, or you found a good teacher. Back then, Baker's book was a godsend to beginner. He actually had the hip chords they'd been hearing diagrammed out, and dozens of hip riffs and lines written out, too. It was a great place to start from, and many guitarists will tell you that this is the book that got them going. Even Pete Townsend says this is where he learned his chords from.

But "Jazz Guitar" would not be at the top of my list for beginners. The book is really directed at the intermediate guitarist with a good knowledge of reading and playing as well as a knowledge of the 1950s jazz scene who's looking to expand his or her repetoir with some "new" hip sounds. Chords are presented without a lot of discussion. A lot of the substitutions aren't really explained at all. There's no discussion of theory. Compared to the tremendous number of great guitar books today, Baker's book is not a very good place to start. (Personally I'd use William Levitt's books, to learn reading, combined with Arnie Berle's books on Modern Chord Progressions and Scales and Arpeggios.) I'd still get "Jazz Guitar", but as a suppliment to these other books. There's still a lot of hip info to be found here, but only if you understand it going in.

Rating:
Summary: good, but. . . . .
Review: Good musical ideas, but some of Baker's claims are a bit silly.

First, to suggest that he can get almost everything about chords in 26 lessons is absurd. Second, there really isn't a lot of theory and explaination for why things are the way they are; his panacea is to just play all the exercises up and down the fret-board. Third, the writing is aweful--he really needs a better editor--I understand the motivation to practice two hours a day, but for an intermediate player his exercises get old after about 15 minutes.

This book is OK and must be taken with a grain of salt--50 years ago this was probably the best book on the market, but certainly today there are muuch more thorough methods for teaching oneself jazz guitar.

Rating:
Summary: good, but. . . . .
Review: Good musical ideas, but some of Baker's claims are a bit silly.

First, to suggest that he can get almost everything about chords in 26 lessons is absurd. Second, there really isn't a lot of theory and explaination for why things are the way they are; his panacea is to just play all the exercises up and down the fret-board. Third, the writing is aweful--he really needs a better editor--I understand the motivation to practice two hours a day, but for an intermediate player his exercises get old after about 15 minutes.

This book is OK and must be taken with a grain of salt--50 years ago this was probably the best book on the market, but certainly today there are muuch more thorough methods for teaching oneself jazz guitar.

Rating:
Summary: Classic book for intermediate to advanced players
Review: My old friend who used to play guitar for THE Army Band suggested this book to me. Realizing that coming from opposite sides of music spectrum, before using this book one may consider. My friend's career is Jazz and playing guitar as his living and I am a full time tech guy who just want to learn guitar at night by myself. Understanding pedagogy, this book is extremely useful if you are having a teacher, explain theories and walking you through all exercises. On the other hand, for beginners, explainations are at a minimum for how things are the way they are......I lost my interest simply because the learning procedures are not designed for someone whose basis of learning is pure self intructional.

Rating:
Summary: A Great Jazz Book. 52 weeks of lessons in one Great book!
Review: This book explains jazz guitar and is a great starting point for any guitarist wanting to learn jazz. This is the first book I've seen which breaks jazz down to simple lessons. It has 52 lessons each a week long and all in one book, a must for all upcoming jazz guitarists. It could save your gig!!!

Rating:
Summary: Mickey Baker's Jazz Guitar
Review: This book has a lot of errors in notes, chord symbols, and fingerings.

I understand this book came out a half a century ago and no publisher has bothered to hire a pro to proof read it.

There is some good stuff but it is the exact same material as the old book at twice the cost.

Rating:
Summary: A Classic
Review: This book was just about the only one generally available 40 years ago. I got mine from a guitar shop when I asked how I could start to play some jazz instead of R&B. It was this or "learn it yourself mate!".

I have had my copy since 1965. I haven't noticed the mistakes another reviewer speaks about - but it does need you to read music to get into the second section on lead playing. The chord section (first 26 lessons) are brilliant for the basics of progressions and substitution. It pulls no punches - Mickey Baker talks of practising for two hours a day, every day....those were the days when players thought they had to practise to get good - I struggle to get students to do 20 minutes a day now. If you're serious about playing jazz, you need this classic in your library. Any book that has been in print, all the time, for 50 years has...well you guess...how good must a book be to keep going like that?

Rating:
Summary: A Classic
Review: This book was just about the only one generally available 40 years ago. I got mine from a guitar shop when I asked how I could start to play some jazz instead of R&B. It was this or "learn it yourself mate!".

I have had my copy since 1965. I haven't noticed the mistakes another reviewer speaks about - but it does need you to read music to get into the second section on lead playing. The chord section (first 26 lessons) are brilliant for the basics of progressions and substitution. It pulls no punches - Mickey Baker talks of practising for two hours a day, every day....those were the days when players thought they had to practise to get good - I struggle to get students to do 20 minutes a day now. If you're serious about playing jazz, you need this classic in your library. Any book that has been in print, all the time, for 50 years has...well you guess...how good must a book be to keep going like that?

Rating:
Summary: A Classic
Review: This book was just about the only one generally available 40 years ago. I got mine from a guitar shop when I asked how I could start to play some jazz instead of R&B. It was this or "learn it yourself mate!".

I have had my copy since 1965. I haven't noticed the mistakes another reviewer speaks about - but it does need you to read music to get into the second section on lead playing. The chord section (first 26 lessons) are brilliant for the basics of progressions and substitution. It pulls no punches - Mickey Baker talks of practising for two hours a day, every day....those were the days when players thought they had to practise to get good - I struggle to get students to do 20 minutes a day now. If you're serious about playing jazz, you need this classic in your library. Any book that has been in print, all the time, for 50 years has...well you guess...how good must a book be to keep going like that?

Rating:
Summary: A Classic jazz method instruction book
Review: This is the book that was used in my college music workshop course years ago. I still have a copy of it, and parts of this book are very good- there is a single page at the beginning that has about 40 very unusual chords with unique fingerings that the author insists you must learn right away. There is a method here which involves learning chord progressions and then choosing substitute chords within the same harmonic progression. Thats basically what jazz is all about- improvisation. However some parts of this books are just too difficult for jazz beginners, and you will need to know how to read staff line music to understand the lead solo guitar part of the book. For chords this book is just fine. I learned some interesting progressions from this book which I still play- another great jazz book is Arnie Berle's Chords and Progressions for Jazz and Popular Guitar. Learning this style of music is so much more rewarding than just blasting out another distorted heavy-metal riff.