Creative Chordal Harmony for Guitar Using Generic Modality Compression | Berklee Guide with Online Audio | Learn Advanced Chord Voicings and Improvisation Techniques

This book is 95 pages of a vision that unifies harmony, melody and compositional texture in sounds that I couldn't believe existed in my guitar. In 5 chapters of discussion, etudes, arpeggio explorations, "compressed modal" explorations and a rich section on implications and applications of the material, Mick Goodrick has presented an entirely new attitude that makes perfect sense yet unlocks doorways into beautiful sounds completely missed in the harmonic perspective up to this point.In his previous books, Goodrick has consistently tackled and expanded the boundries of guitar as an improvisational and compositional instrument. He can arguably be called the granddaddy of modern jazz guitar having passed his knowledge on to the who's who of contemporary creative jazz guitar. His books have been exhaustive, uncannily insightful yet challenging in their open ended possibilities. This book may be the most approachable edition to date, with usable examples on chord progressions that demonstrate the utility of the concept and the power of the approach.One note of note: The book is written in standard notation. There IS a CD with examples played by the co-author and notable guitarist in his own right Tim Miller, but fluency in reading and triad voicings will be most helpful. If you are beyond the hand holding foundational material stage, this is a truly rewarding work. If you are searching for ways to expand your creative base and craving totally new colours to use in any situation, this book could very well be the new currency standard.I'm going to be busy for a very long time.

I've followed Mick Goodrick's books and recordings for years and truly his work is a narrative on deep and rich harmonic practice for guitarists and all musicians. This book thoroughly details a complete system that yields strikingly beautiful sounds. You need to read music and it will help to have an understanding of chord types and voice leading as well as a well developed knowledge of the fingerboard.The play along features John Lockwood on bass and Terri Lyne Carrington on drums. These are world class (I mean the very best) players. The examples are on the changes to Stella and you will know this tune backwards and forwards if you work with this book. What blows me away is Terri Lyne's and John's creativity in making this recording: the seemingly endless variety that they achieve within multiple renditions of the same tune at the same tempo is an education and an inspiration!

Mick Goodrick is a very knowledgeable guitarist. His "Advancing Guitarist" book is absolutely excellent, so I expect this one will be also. There are some issues you need to be aware of, however. First, he makes no use of tablature or chord diagrams at all. Standard notation only. Except that there are also many examples of 'non-standard' notation. For example, throughout the book he uses stemless quarter notes to illustrate his concepts. No problem, I get that. But when I see one bar containing six of them with a time signature of 4/4, I'm a little confused. And later on, he provides examples using standard notes and timing indicators, but no time signature at all. I think I know what he means, but then again, I've been studying theory for over forty years. Some explanatory notes might be a good idea. A novice may not be able to figure out what he is doing. Second, if have have a very solid understanding of basic jazz harmony studies, including seventh chords and their related scales and modes, you will be able to handle this book. Otherwise, you won't since no help is given about these things. Third, what is discussed here, and exemplified on the recordings, is for advanced, non-standard, improvising. If you are looking for info on how to do traditional soloing over standard changes, this book is definitely not for you. The info given here is for the musician who is looking for those 'way-out' ways of voicing chords and creating solo material. If this is you, you've hit the jackpot. Fourth, while I haven't listened to the CD at high volume, the mix of the bass on those tracks provided as 'accompaniment' for you to experiment is barely audible on the small player I use for practice. So, with all these things in mind, I still give this four stars. After I've played with this book awhile, I may be inclined to add one more.

I play sort of a "dirty jazz" style in funk/jazz/jam bands...needless to say most of the gigs are very improvisational in nature. There is so much soloing going on that you can run out of ideas in a matter of a few tunes. Along with good rythmic abilities and ideas, a large vocabulary of harmonic/melodic ideas goes a long way on 10-15 minute jams over one or two chord vamps.Bottom line: This book immediately gave me useable ideas for solos/comping and i'm only halfway through page 2! Good stuff :)

It won't get you hired in a restaurant, but it is certainly cutting edge and anyone who delves into it in depth will be thankful they did.Some of the concepts are not as new as Mr Goodrick indicates, however: leaving out the root is not a new idea he "stumbled upon".Another awesome book which is certainly worth exploring is Gary Campbell's "Explorations". In this book you encounter the "b6 Pentatonic" scale which is a melodic minor scale which leaves out the root and fourth degree.But I am quibbling. Mr Goodrick is an awesome musician and educator, to say the least! He's a wonderful nut as well.