Most Valuable Music Book - Your Opinion?

bleujazz3

bleujazz3

Axe-Master
As many guitarists likely own when they studied guitar or music early on; they own music or guitar instruction books. I'd like to ask your opinion of what you consider to be your most valuable guitar instruction book or books.

I've got several to speak about...The Real Book Vol II & the Fifth Edition, as well as Ted Greene's Chord Chemistry.

I used to think that owning the book was important, simply because it respected the original authors of the music as well as providing a reference for popular jazz standards. The Real Books were helpful in that respect. Ted Greene has sat mostly unopened for many years because my guitar practice schedule has fallen off for the occasional noodling or inspiration.

With these in mind, what guitar instruction books have you found to be helpful for your guitar practice or study? If perhaps you do study on a regular basis, what have you found helpful, if not books, what method of study has been worthwhile for you?
 
When I first started playing guitar I was in middle school band (trombone), that really kick-started my guitar passion.

I had all the Mel Bay books, the titles long forgotten.

The best thing that ever happened to improve my guitar playing was being in a working band.

IMO you can practice scales and study theory until the cows come home, but nothing beats practical experience.

Now a days I do a lot of on-line lessons, I like that I can get right to a particular topic without searching through bookstores.
 
I'll second Mick Goodrick's The Advancing Guitarist. I bought it in '88 and what I learned from that book did more for my playing than any other book I've read. Actually, I've been thinking about reading it again lately, and DagMat's post made just made me go dig it out. This book opened my mind to a new way of thinking about what I was playing and why I was playing it. I'm not sure I can describe it better until I reread it, but it really had a tremendous impact on my musical development, not from theory or technique, but in how I thought about what I was doing.

FWIW, I also agree with Domct203... the thing that advanced my skills the most was playing in a band, because that's where the rubber meets the road, but maybe more accurately, where the fingers meet the strings.
 
"How to Improvise" by Hal Crook is still one of the benchmarks for me for a music book that applies to any style, any instrument, any genre and is one of the most universal, never ending concept books. I use this with all my students and they can start improving and improvising on their instruments with even the most basic music knowledge.

If you can play a pentatonic scale, you can start implementing the concepts in the book today and it will improve your soloing and improvising.
 
Admin M@ said:
DEFINITELY this one:

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Ya still gotta know how to walk before you can run. Am thinking this is the same as knowing how to read before learning how to write. Helpful, but it's also important to know how to play before knowing how to compose.

Therein exists my problem: All these years of jamming with friends and playing in front of bar patrons, and not knowing how to read or write music...hand me a chord or tab chart, no big deal. Ask me to write a song so others can play it? Well, then, not so fast...
 
AtomicJeff said:
This teenager in 1976 got a huge jumpstart with this one...

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I have the same book although it doesn’t have Hendrix on it. My dad got be this from a second hand book shop in Belfast, Northern Ireland, about 20 years ago. The floppy record is still inside.

A book a really wish I got when I was just starting is Al Di Meola - A guide to Chords, Scales and Arpeggios.
 
GraemeD said:
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I have the same book although it doesn’t have Hendrix on it. My dad got be this from a second hand book shop in Belfast, Northern Ireland, about 20 years ago. The floppy record is still inside.

A book a really wish I got when I was just starting is Al Di Meola - A guide to Chords, Scales and Arpeggios.
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Actually, the book I had was with that cover.
 
Before Internet, there was something called "Rockschool". Still have the book that's quite instructive about how chords are built and intervals. Someway this part of music theory instruction better works on paper then on a screen.
 
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