All Blues for Jazz Guitar: Comping Styles, Chords & Grooves

Guitar instruction books (of which I have many) don't get any more VALUABLE and USEFUL than this one. When a book is so good that it could have done fine without the CD -- well, that's a good sign, imo. Every lesson builds on the previous one, in small, painless, almost unnoticeable steps, until a couple of weeks into the book - WHOA! What did I just play?_All Blues for Jazz Guitar_ takes you through a solid grounding in three-note "fat" chords, Freddy Green, yep, through modern "piano" sounds for jazz-blues rhythm comping. Everything's in the context of a "piece" - this is not just a bunch of chord diagrams that you have to memorize somehow and then somehow find a use for - NO. Every chord shape, every progression, is a performance-level piece of music. The "Slow Shuffle in F" is *SO* cool! And a challenge - but get this one down and you'll be a better guitar player! The same is true for every piece Ferguson presents. You can't master any piece from this book and not really feel that you've bumped up a notch. Lots of knowledge, jam-packed into every bar of every progression.The CD is cool, but the music and tab are so clear, most could learn the whole book without the audio, I think. Still, it's there anyway!A great addition to any guitar player's library. The _All Blues Soloing_ volume is equally as good.

I've been looking for a book that does not teach a purely physical beginner-like approach to the blues. This one is pretty darn close. Its tough to find exactly such an animal, because the two basic book audiences seem to be a) beginner hobbyists or b) gigging pros who make a living playing guitar. What about us guys in the middle? Maybe there are not enough of us to warrent a market.This book assumes you are a decent player who can read charts and are already an intermediate-level jazz cat. In other words, you have put in a lot of hours on a music-based appraoch to the instrument and now want to learn blues.Since I am not quite at that level, I kind of have to come in "sideways" at the material and figure out how to make use of it.My guess is an accomplished jazz player might throw 5 starts at the book, but I rated it based on what I wanted it for.I do recommend the book to guys in the middle between hobbyist and pro, because there is plenty in there to get your money worth.Thanks.

This book came highly recommended to me and I understand why - it has wonderful explanations about chord choices and transitions, and lots of short songs to practice with. The accompanying cd is very helpful. I've worked my way about 1/4 of the way through the book and have learned ALOT! Definitely not for the beginner, this is better suited for an intermediate player who is developing an interest in understanding and playing jazz.

Lots of info and tabs, but the book was scanned and uploaded and the quality of the scan is low. Redo the book just not on Kindle.

I really only have one regret in buying this, the CD that came with it is so damaged its sounds like it was recorded from a scratched CD or the volume was up to high the noise drowns out the music it's very annoying and I'm stuck with it.

Essential

This is becoming already a classic text. Ferguson shines with all his explanations and exercise.If you're into jazz blues this will be your bible.Buy it now!

Over the course of the past few years I have acquired and handful of books on jazz comping, chords, etc. After recently purchasing the Andrew Green , Jazz Guitar Comping decided to write some reviews of the three main books I have felt are worth purchasing. The third is the John Pisano, Jazz Comping Master Class.This book, All Blues for Jazz Guitar, is just that Blues which is excellent place to start as everything is constrained to the blues form. Starting with this text opened my eyes to where I could easily flow into the other two books. It really helped me branch out into more jazz harmony and richer chord forms and movements. As noted above, within the blues form, made everything very clear relative to chord substitution placement, passing chords, etc. (see my attached photo - my text has markings all over).

I feel the material in this book could and should have been presented in a much simpler manner. It is after all a collection of fairly basic jazz-blues progressions. I found the pages and pages of analysis overly technical. I have a pamphlet that covers all this same material more clearly in a few pages. But, if you are a serious and I mean serious student you'll enjoy this book. The CD is good and several of the progressions are terrific but he should have counted off the tunes. As is, I have to guess when he will begin to play. This is annoying - counting off is standard practice on play along CDs.

I've not had this book for long and have only spent a couple of hours on it in total, working through the first dozen or so pages.There's certainly a lot I can and will learn from the material, but I think prospective purchasers should be aware of a few things that I find frustrating, concerning the accompanying CD:1. There is no countdown to the recorded comping (as another reviewer has noted)2. The recordings are bashed out at fast tempi -- these may be appropriate for gigging/indicating what is necessary to get up to "pro" speeds, but they are not ideal for learning3. The keys in the recordings are nowhere close to the written keys -- so if a blues in the book begins on Bb7, on the recording it begins on Eb7 or F7 (I forget which, but I can confirm the keys are way apart since I use an electronic tuner). So if one wants to play along, a blues that is supposed to begin on the 6th fret has to be transposed up 5 or 7 frets to preserve the indicated voicings, and then the notation and tabs no longer correspond to what you are playing.Taken together, these things make the CD pretty useless to me, and I suspect to most people, except as an aural guide to what the tracks/progressions should sound like.FYI I'm an amateur dilettante with 30 yrs+ experience of playing guitar (more off than on) and a fair knowledge of / facility in playing jazz chords.

I found this book difficult to work with. It is very much about playing three note chords. The CD tracks were not very inspiring, nothing there I really wanted to play. On a more positive note, it does give a lot of information regarding comping technique, most of the CD tracks are examples of comping. I did like the section on walking bass runs,I will use the book as a reference but I did find it a little dissapointing.

Una guida eccellente per addentrarsi nel mondo del jazz-blues in maniera naturale. Scritto in inglese, con pentagramma e intavolatura sovrapposti

Very good for intermediate level.