Melody Chords for Guitar by Allan Holdsworth

Rating:
Summary: NOT VERY USEFUL
Review: Allan Holdsworth is a great guitar player, but this book is a really disappointment.Someone who knows some music theory do not
need this book.A lot of chords shown in this book are also not practically used.Learning these chords are waste of time.

Rating:
Summary: Not for the advanced Guitarist , standard chords unlike AH
Review: finally, one of the two most amazing guitarists of our time gives us his thoughts on chordal work.

he uses fretboard 'chord scale' diagrams to illustrate the musical philosophy behind his work, but don't expect the usual 'chord charts'. he does not teach you to play like he does; there is not much music theory here, in the sense of which chords go together, as befits his feeling that he doesn't want to say what is the 'right' thing to do.

he does, however, give you his theory regarding chord formation and expects you to do the work to get familiar with and to advance in your own style. this is a challenging project for any musician, but it is more satisfying in the end than simply learning transcriptions note-for-note.

'reaching for the uncommon chord' contains a number of transcriptions with more traditional chord diagrams and solos transcribed in standard notation and tabular form if you want to learn some of his tunes to get an idea of how he actually plays; 'melody chords' tells you more about how he thinks, and is a great tool alone or with the reh instructional video.

i expect that this book will give me food for thought & practice for years to come. thank you, allan!

Rating:
Summary: excellent view of his advanced chordal philosophy
Review: finally, one of the two most amazing guitarists of our time gives us his thoughts on chordal work.

he uses fretboard 'chord scale' diagrams to illustrate the musical philosophy behind his work, but don't expect the usual 'chord charts'. he does not teach you to play like he does; there is not much music theory here, in the sense of which chords go together, as befits his feeling that he doesn't want to say what is the 'right' thing to do.

he does, however, give you his theory regarding chord formation and expects you to do the work to get familiar with and to advance in your own style. this is a challenging project for any musician, but it is more satisfying in the end than simply learning transcriptions note-for-note.

'reaching for the uncommon chord' contains a number of transcriptions with more traditional chord diagrams and solos transcribed in standard notation and tabular form if you want to learn some of his tunes to get an idea of how he actually plays; 'melody chords' tells you more about how he thinks, and is a great tool alone or with the reh instructional video.

i expect that this book will give me food for thought & practice for years to come. thank you, allan!

Rating:
Summary: Not for the advanced Guitarist , standard chords unlike AH
Review: I am a big fan of Allan's. I must say this book was a major letdown, as I expectd it to be centered around the chordal ideas he uses himself. Any guitarist who has a good grasp of theory and is a well educated guitarist will find this book remedial, other than whatever insight you may learn about how Allan views chords, which although interesting, will not do a whole lot for one's playing. I would reccommend "Reaching For the Uncommon Chord", even though a book of transcriptions, as a better book to get more ideas for guitar harmony than "Melody Chords".