The 84 Jazz Guitar Equations - by Steve Crowell

by David Alzofon
(San Diego, CA, USA)

Steve Crowell has a unique approach to the fretboard and to building a jazz guitar vocabulary of chords, arpeggios, licks, based in part on lessons he took from Warren Nunes. His site -- easyjazzguitar.com -- claims to make jazz guitar easy. Realistically, I didn't think that was possible, but as I would settle for "easier," I decided to give it a try. I was not disappointed.

The "84 EQs" book is the basic bible of the course. It includes all the scales and arpeggios in all keys and all positions (7 scales x 12 tones = 84). The second book -- "Formulas" -- builds on this foundation with licks and speed studies. There is quite a lot of new material in the second book. The third book -- "Power Soloing" -- is technically more demanding, but much in the same vein. There are a lot of solos on standards that show how he thinks. Each book comes with a DVD that is very helpful. I like the series because it is more than enough to get you going, but not so much that it gets in the way. It's a way of thinking. I would describe it as complementary, not competitive, with other methods. There's a long review of the entire course on the site (written by me, David Alzofon), so I don't have to say any more.

Of all the books Marc lists, I have to agree the most with the choice of Bert Ligon's "Connecting Chords With Linear Harmony." This is a great, great book. Ligon has written a couple of others, too -- and I like them -- but this one is the most likely to impact your playing. The ideas are simple, but profound. Once you understand the patterns, you'll start hearing them everywhere.

Finally, if you can forgive me for blowing my own horn, I would recommend my own book: "Compose Yourself! -- Songwriting and Creative Musicianship in Four Easy Lessons." It grew out of my work with jazz guitarist, MI founder Howard Roberts on his Guitar Player magazine column, as well as with Jef Raskin, creator of the Macintosh project at Apple. It is designed as a breakthrough book on creativity for new improvisers and composers. It's on Amazon.com (sample pages, too). It is tabbed for guitar, but the real subject is musical imagination.