Best Chord Melody Guitar Books?

[J***@gmail.com]

Just wondering what everyone's opinion was on what their favorite
chord melody books were.

I really want to start incorporating more solo chord melody songs into
my repertoire.


PS. Anyone seen the Novax 8 String guitar/bass hybrid?

[Gerry]

Post by J***@gmail.com
Just wondering what everyone's opinion was on what their favorite
chord melody books were.
I really want to start incorporating more solo chord melody songs into
my repertoire.
PS. Anyone seen the Novax 8 String guitar/bass hybrid?

[Stock cut and paste:]

After a lifetime of reading jazz guitar books my favorites are below.
All assume a certain measure of guitar experience. Note that these
don't concentrate on repertoire. For repertoire I recommend Sher
Publications's "New Real Book" series.

<http://www.shermusic.com>

My absolute favorite "learn by example" books with cd's, which if
memorized and digested provide years of great material, are those of
Barry Galbraith, particularly his Comping for the development of
chording technique and Guitar Improv for the development of line
technique:

<http://www.jazzbooks.com/scripts/search.asp?category=15>

There are two folio's of Galbraith's guitar arrangements published by Mel Bay.

<http://www.chordmelody.com>

Andy Polon studied with Barry and accrued a stack of solos. Jeremy
Poparad's cleaned them up in scoring software. Last sighted here:

<http://www.musiccentre.co.uk/acatalog/eBooks/free-guitar-chords/42_chord_melody_arrangements.pdf>

For

a comprehensive approach to materials and structure including
arpeggios, scales, chords, sight reading, theory and much else I
suggest Leavitt's books. Now all three volumes are in a single edition:

<http://www.halleonard.com/item_detail.jsp?itemid=50449468&order=10&catcode=00&refer=search&type=product&keywords=berklee+guitar+method+>

My

preferred approach focusing strictly on chords and scales are the two
books by Chuck Wayne:

<http://www.halleonard.com/search_items.jsp?keywords=chuck+wayne&catcode=00&type=product>

For

fingerstyle solo guitar Howard Morgen has a series that teaches you to
do write your own. They are in three volumes: Preparations, Concepts,
and Fingerstyle Favorites. Search for "Howard Morgen" here:

<http://www.elderly.com/cgi-bin/elderly/search.pl?start_position=&original_terms=&grep_string=&hits_to_return=-2&session_file=&matches=&books=on&terms=howard+morgen>

For

work with development of lines

Most of these books are available at Elderly and ChordMelody Or
sheetmusicplus.com whom I've yet to try.

<http://www.elderly.com>
<http://www.chordmelody.com>
<http://www.sheetmusicplus.com>

[Todd Lainhart]

Post by Gerry
For
fingerstyle solo guitar Howard Morgen has a series that teaches you to
do write your own. They are in three volumes: Preparations, Concepts,
<http://www.elderly.com/cgi-bin/elderly/search.pl?start_position=&orig...>

Great reply!

I think that any of the Galbraith books are gold mines. How would you
compare the Morgen books to those?

[Gerry]

Post by Todd Lainhart

Post by Gerry
For
fingerstyle solo guitar Howard Morgen has a series that teaches you to
do write your own. They are in three volumes: Preparations, Concepts,
<http://www.elderly.com/cgi-bin/elderly/search.pl?start_position=&orig...>

Great reply!
I think that any of the Galbraith books are gold mines. How would you
compare the Morgen books to those?

Morgen's books are about techniques and application for a solo
arrangements. His actual arrangment folios, and I have a few, are all
really great for performance. Many of them are not easy. He makes
full use of open strings in unique "guitaristic" voicings, liberal use
of harmonics and that kind of stuff. On the other hand Barry's
arrangements seem MADE for busting open and doing it your own way
if/when you see fit. You can certainly improvise on them easier than
the Morgen charts.

Relative to the first two books (above), Barry's technical exercises
are nothing like them. Barry's approach is really to show you stuff,
you glues it together. Morgen has attempted to give you a course for
activity.

[3***@gmail.com]

Post by J***@gmail.com
Just wondering what everyone's opinion was on what their favorite
chord melody books were.
I really want to start incorporating more solo chord melody songs into
my repertoire.
PS.  Anyone seen the Novax 8 String guitar/bass hybrid?

Depending on your playing level, you might try the Joe Pass solo
transcription books. Those will give you a flavor for playing chord
melodies and improvising on the changes.

[RickH]

Post by J***@gmail.com
Just wondering what everyone's opinion was on what their favorite
chord melody books were.
I really want to start incorporating more solo chord melody songs into
my repertoire.
PS.  Anyone seen the Novax 8 String guitar/bass hybrid?

Bob Conti arrangements or better yet his chord/melody assembly line
book

http://www.robertconti.com/chord_melody_arrangements.html

[Joe Finn]

Post by J***@gmail.com
Just wondering what everyone's opinion was on what their favorite
chord melody books were.

The ones that made a difference for me were Howard Roberts Guitar Manual
Chord Melody and some of the Mickey Baker books.

Post by J***@gmail.com
I really want to start incorporating more solo chord melody songs into
my repertoire.

There's no law against working on this with your instructor. That can be
highly beneficial. ..........joe

[Jeanmi]

Post by J***@gmail.com
Just wondering what everyone's opinion was on what their favorite
chord melody books were.
I really want to start incorporating more solo chord melody songs into
my repertoire.
PS. Anyone seen the Novax 8 String guitar/bass hybrid?

I looked at a lot of these books.The 3 best I found (because many
actually have arrangements that I don't find musical) arer:

1. The Galbraith books
2. Chord melody by Bill Hart
3 Jazz ballads by Jeff Arnold

A very good book to check is also:
Chord melody phrases by Ron Eschete

All those books are in the style of Galbraith, who was fantastic on
solo pieces. My fav artist in the style is Ed Bicket, but I'm not
aware of any book about him and his style.

Jeanmi

[Tim McNamara]

In article

Post by Jeanmi

Post by J***@gmail.com
Just wondering what everyone's opinion was on what their favorite
chord melody books were.
I really want to start incorporating more solo chord melody songs into
my repertoire.
PS. Anyone seen the Novax 8 String guitar/bass hybrid?

I looked at a lot of these books.The 3 best I found (because many
1. The Galbraith books
2. Chord melody by Bill Hart
3 Jazz ballads by Jeff Arnold
Chord melody phrases by Ron Eschete
All those books are in the style of Galbraith, who was fantastic on
solo pieces. My fav artist in the style is Ed Bicket, but I'm not
aware of any book about him and his style.

There are a number of transcriptions of solos by Ed scattered around the
Internet. I can't vouch for the accuracy of any of them because my
sight reading is so atrocious for single note lines, let alone chords.
Somebody put up an Ed Bickert MySpace page and claims to be developing a
book about Ed's guitar style. I wonder if anyone has approached Ed to
see if he'd be interested in doing it himself- he'd be the guy to know,
after all!

[Gerry]

Post by Tim McNamara
In article

Post by Jeanmi

Post by J***@gmail.com
Just wondering what everyone's opinion was on what their favorite
chord melody books were.
I really want to start incorporating more solo chord melody songs into
my repertoire.
PS. Anyone seen the Novax 8 String guitar/bass hybrid?

I looked at a lot of these books.The 3 best I found (because many
1. The Galbraith books
2. Chord melody by Bill Hart
3 Jazz ballads by Jeff Arnold
Chord melody phrases by Ron Eschete
All those books are in the style of Galbraith, who was fantastic on
solo pieces. My fav artist in the style is Ed Bicket, but I'm not
aware of any book about him and his style.

There are a number of transcriptions of solos by Ed scattered around the
Internet. I can't vouch for the accuracy of any of them because my
sight reading is so atrocious for single note lines, let alone chords.
Somebody put up an Ed Bickert MySpace page and claims to be developing a
book about Ed's guitar style. I wonder if anyone has approached Ed to
see if he'd be interested in doing it himself- he'd be the guy to know,
after all!

Can you say who that might be, or where their web-site is located?

[Tim McNamara]

Post by Gerry

Post by Tim McNamara
In article

Post by Jeanmi

Post by J***@gmail.com
Just wondering what everyone's opinion was on what their favorite
chord melody books were.
I really want to start incorporating more solo chord melody songs
into my repertoire.
PS. Anyone seen the Novax 8 String guitar/bass hybrid?

I looked at a lot of these books.The 3 best I found (because many
1. The Galbraith books 2. Chord melody by Bill Hart 3 Jazz ballads
by Jeff Arnold
A very good book to check is also: Chord melody phrases by Ron
Eschete
All those books are in the style of Galbraith, who was fantastic
on solo pieces. My fav artist in the style is Ed Bicket, but I'm
not aware of any book about him and his style.

There are a number of transcriptions of solos by Ed scattered
around the Internet. I can't vouch for the accuracy of any of them
because my sight reading is so atrocious for single note lines, let
alone chords. Somebody put up an Ed Bickert MySpace page and claims
to be developing a book about Ed's guitar style. I wonder if
anyone has approached Ed to see if he'd be interested in doing it
himself- he'd be the guy to know, after all!

Can you say who that might be, or where their web-site is located?

Google Ed Bickert. It'll be the second hit.

[Derek]

You don't say whether you are looking for how to books, or books of
arrangements.

As far as the how tos go, Jody Fisher's books on solo guitar are very
well done, and easy to learn from.

As far as books of arrangements, Robert Yelin's are pretty good.

[Gerry]

Post by Tim McNamara

Post by Gerry

Post by Tim McNamara
Somebody put up an Ed Bickert MySpace page and claims
to be developing a book about Ed's guitar style. I wonder if
anyone has approached Ed to see if he'd be interested in doing it
himself- he'd be the guy to know, after all!

Can you say who that might be, or where their web-site is located?

Google Ed Bickert. It'll be the second hit.

For those following in their hymnal, in my case on 5/25/08 it would be:

<http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=152868241&blogID=378914624>

I

spent a few idle minutes there but didn't have the endurance to figure
out the name of the guy who's fashioned this site. But he signs out as

Post by Tim McNamara
Ed Bickert book pt.2
So I am finishing my Masters in Music in jazz performance degree in 3
weeks. I am moving back to Toronto in August 08 and (due to an
overwhelming responce to have one avaliable to the public) have decided
to persue The Guitar Style of Ed Bickert book as one of my projects
while living there. I have contacts that could lead me to meeting Ed,
thus giving me an inside to his style and lesson to use for the book.
This book would be a combination of the Lenny Breau book put out by
Hal Leonard (actual lesson by Lenny) and the essential book published
by Steven D. Anderson on Lenny (angelfire site run by Ron Cid from
Montreal). I have transcribe about 25 solos from Ed and have received
many from fans. I wrote a 30+ page Masters degree thesis on his style
and have heard that its about time that one of the unsung heros of jazz
guitar get his just due. I want this to be the most comperhensive
study on his style so any transcription that you want to be added to
the book will not only be cited as well as acknowledged. Essentially
this book will have an easy to understand and grasp indepth analysis of
his style with tons of transcriptions. The Guitar Style of Ed Bickert
book will be available worldwide in a year through major distributors
so stay in touch.
CiK

[t***@gmail.com]

Post by J***@gmail.com
Just wondering what everyone's opinion was on what their favorite
chord melody books were.
I really want to start incorporating more solo chord melody songs into
my repertoire.
PS.  Anyone seen the Novax 8 String guitar/bass hybrid?

Definetly Ted Greene : Chord Progressions and Chord Chemistry.
( about chords, no songs...)