Random Thoughts on Mickey Baker Jazz Book

[StringmanK]

Mickey Baker's Complete Course in Jazz Guitar: Book 1. This is a great book. I have had it over a year and am still on the first or second lesson. I met a guy on vacation last spring who plays guitar and has this book. Both of us in the same boat, not past the first couple of lessons. It's not that the book is "hard," but it is "work." Anybody else have this book? Any suggestions for practicing Jazz without having an uncontrollable urge to bend a string or play a good ole' Major Pentatonic lick? I can (and do) learn songs all the way through all the time and have plenty of patience, sometime going over a part hundreds of times and trying different chord shapes and scale positions (since tabs are often wrong) til I'm satisfied. I think it's a question of motivation. Learning a song is "fun," practicing jazz is "work." I'm not thinking about becoming a jazz guitarist, per se. I would like to learn more about how chords can interact (chord soloing) and how scales follow chords, and how some notes can be implied, i.e., playing some form of a D chord with out an actual D note in it, etc. So I think the "work" will lead to more "fun" when I can add some new phrasing and voicings to my personal style (or lack thereof). Thoughts?

 

[eS.G.]

I do not have this book....but I am going to.
Thank s for the tip. Sounds like an interesting bit of tortured learning

 

[Kerry Brown]

I've had that book 45 years. I made it about half way through then quit playing for 30 years. Now I'm back on the first page after three years of playing again. It took me three years to get the courage to tackle it again. Just reading the book and fretting the chords will give you ideas. That is one of the reasons I find it so hard. I hear a cool sounding chord and immediately want to try it with songs I already know.

 

[wildeman]

Dont have the book but i listen to plenty Mickey Baker. Killer guitarist, i just got a Young Jessie tape and Mickey's all over it.

 

[StringmanK]

Dont have the book but i listen to plenty Mickey Baker. Killer guitarist, i just got a Young Jessie tape and Mickey's all over it.

Hey, that's really good to know. I'll see if I can find more to listen to. I just youtubed Young Jessie, and that is killer guitar playing. Do you have any recommendations for an album with Mickey on guitar?

 

[wildeman]

Hey, that's really good to know. I'll see if I can find more to listen to. I just youtubed Young Jessie, and that is killer guitar playing. Do you have any recommendations for an album with Mickey on guitar?

There is a comp called hit, git n split or something like that.

 

[Caddy]

Is this book written in standard musical notation?

 

[StringmanK]

Is this book written in standard musical notation?

There is some standard notation, but mainy for rhythm. All the chords are diagramed. Site reading is not required to use this book.

 

[Caddy]

There is some standard notation, but mainy for rhythm. All the chords are diagramed. Site reading is not required to use this book.

Was just hoping it was not in tab. I can read standard musical notation as easily as written word, but tab to me is like Greek. Also the timing on musical notation is much more precise than tab could ever be.

Maybe I need these books. Sound interesting.

 

[StringmanK]

Man, I want to learn to read music. I can pick out all the notes and understand the timing and key signatures (more or less), but I do it very slowly. I pretty much go note by note and need to have an idea ahead of time of what it is supposed to sound like.
I have heard reading described by people who get it as reading a bar or entire line at a time and "hearing" what it should sound like in their head before they play. Is that correct?

 

[Alty]

I did look at this for similar reasons to yours Stringman but my method of learning isn't as straight forward as most but kept seeing people say 'work' and to be honest it put me off, personally I would get bored if it felt like 'work' and not fun....but as Kerry says, was going to get it just for reading and fretting new chords and then get distracted for hours by new sounds....

When a book starts off by saying "Below you have 26 chords which you must learn to use right away" [and have to convert to LH] in the 2nd paragraph it's kinda off putting to someone who only knows half a dozen as it is, I know more but don't know the names as I think I make most up as I go along....

 

[wlewisiii]

Well, I have heard of this book a few times and it's pretty cheap on Amazon, so I ordered a copy. Be fun to check it out.