Latin Guitar : The Essential Guide to Brazilian and Afro-Cuban Rhythms

Rating:
Summary: efficace
Review: Comme le titre l'indique, il s'agit essentiellement d'apprendre les "clichés" rythmiques propres aux musiques latines indiquées.
L'auteur propose une série d'exercices relativement simples harmoniquement de façon à asseoir votre connaissance.
On ne trouvera par conséquent pas d'exercice typiquement "flatteur" comme dans d'autres ouvrages.
Le but est d'assimiler le groove sous de multiples aspects.
La partie afro-cubaine est un complément intéressant par rapport aux autres ouvrages traitant de la musique exclusivement brésilienne.
Un excellent ouvrage. Efficace.

Rating:
Summary: efficace
Review: Comme le titre l'indique, il s'agit essentiellement d'apprendre les "clich?s" rythmiques propres aux musiques latines indiqu?es.
L'auteur propose une s?rie d'exercices relativement simples harmoniquement de fa?on ? asseoir votre connaissance.
On ne trouvera par cons?quent pas d'exercice typiquement "flatteur" comme dans d'autres ouvrages.
Le but est d'assimiler le groove sous de multiples aspects.
La partie afro-cubaine est un compl?ment int?ressant par rapport aux autres ouvrages traitant de la musique exclusivement br?silienne.
Un excellent ouvrage. Efficace.

Rating:
Summary: A Lot of Work Ahead of Me
Review: Now I realize how a small seventy-page book can represent a year's worth of work on the guitar. The reason, of course, is that learning the instrument is all about muscular memory. You just have to do the repetitions (humbly, day after day) until the skill is in your body. Well, I'm thinking that I've found an excellent guidebook for the guitar practice that I'll do in the coming year. I love Antonio Carlos Jobim and afro-cuban music so much. It's the kind of music that I aspire to play more than anything, so I can't tell you how glad I was to find a reasonably basic instructional book that addresses it directly. But make no mistake that this is Not a beginner level book. Although I don't have a lot of skill, I've been messing around with and reading about guitars, music theory, and playing for many years, and I found the level of instruction to be perfect for me.

The excercises come in the form of chord progressions that illustrate all the different rhythms and their variations (bossa nova, samba, partido alto, bolero, cha cha, mambo, nanigo). No songs of any kind, but the examples sound almost like songs (very short songs) and are typical of the type of music that they illustrate. And the CD (which you HAVE to have, with a subject like this) is excellent. You could almost listen to it by itself just for fun, but not quite, since the tracks are only long enough to show you the exercise but not long enough to entertain. This book/CD package is an overall outstanding intro to these rhythms, though it could use just a bit more on all the afro-cubans.

Rating:
Summary: Practical, enjoyable introduction to Latin rhythms
Review: Tons of more advanced chord voicings there so you might want to be playing the guitar for a while. No need of virtuosistic skills, though. It is about internalizing the rhythms and becoming familiar with the typical chords of latin music. After mastering this book, you will be ready to read a bossa nova song-book and play the tunes with decent strumming patterns. It might help your cha-cha jams, too. The Cd really helps, too.
I am glad I purchased this book and I recommend it.