Is there a single jazz guitar roadmap method or process that one can follow to take them from point A to point Z, making them a master jazz course? Is there a single source to do that? So in this video I want to talk about this book, which you might already already heard of. It's called The Modern Method for Guitar.
And of course, I'm going to dig into the contents of the book. I'm going to dig into how to implement in your own playing, as well as determine if it's a good fit. Maybe this book is not for you, maybe it is. And we'll find out as we go through this video. Welcome to Jazz Guitar Lessons, where we help guitarists learn jazz faster, express themselves more fluently, and have fun along the way.
My name is Marc, and if you're looking to learn jazz form better practice habits, and especially if you enjoy a French accent, make sure to subscribe. So hey guys, my name is Marc from Jazz Guitar Lessons. I've been teaching and mentoring and coaching just our students, thousands of them, since the year 2009, and I've been personally using the modern method for guitar myself in my own playing for over 20 years, so I can really attest to the validity of the materials in the book and also to tell you the do's and don'ts of trying to use this or the modern method for guitar by William Levitt is a widespread, commonly known jazz guitar method, or
a guitar method that's been referred as a textbook for the Berklee School of Music, which is an excellent way of doing a guitar syllabus really deeply. One of the things that you can see is I've got this book, which is Volume one, two and three, which has been published in three separate books, which honestly I recommend. I bought this and it's sort of a brick.
I got mine made into a hardcover. I will tell you, I don't really recommend it because it's sort of crazy. It doesn't really hold on a music stand. So personally I just recommend grabbing the separate volumes as you work on those. If it's the case for you, go digging into the contents here for a minute. Volume one really starts at the basics basics basics level, and it's ideal for guitars that can already play play by ear and perhaps want to get into reading music if you're already an intermediate player, as I was when I started Volume one or Intermediate to advance like rock or shredder, you may find the technical aspect of Volume one reallyunderwhelming, to be frank. And it's mostly the reading that's going to be the challenge. On the other end of the spectrum, if you already read music from a classical guitar background or even any other classical instruments, you may find the reading quite over underwhelming. It's going to be pretty easy to read. So the structure of Volume one, in essence, it just is taking you through the first section in what they call the open position.
So open position means we're playing the C major scale, but we keep that open, that open G, that open B, etc. and then it moves on, starting on the certain page number here to go to the closed position, meaning you can start to play C major scale with your second finger, align with the third fret, not using any open strings.
That's the basic overarching structure of the book. In my addition of Volume one, really, Section two begins with page 60, and I'll just like to point out that in the book, what's really tremendously useful is not only the table of contents, but also the index. So every topic has been really address from chord solo to picking exercises to new scales to even some theory explanation.
Everything is boiled down and dissected in the index. So I kept referring back to the index to go back to certain topics I wanted to review now about the contents of Volume two and Volume three. Essentially my thought is that volume two and three could have been condensed in one book. It would have been a big one, but essentially it's continuing with technical aspects of getting scales in several more positions of the mass.
On being seven scales for a major position, correct. And then a more single note etudes, chord solos, more duets, more theory lessons and stuff that gets more and more and more technical. So I think everything in every position is sort of the the take away of the entire book to a point where, in my opinion, because I'm still working on Volume three right now.
Back to that in a moment. Um, getting everything in all positions in is a bit overkill and not always in series theory. For instance, I'm working on a certain page in volume three right now, which is 12 scales. So C major F major beef majors, like all major scales in one position, which makes for pretty awkward fingerings and is not necessarily conducive to results.
I'd like I'll go through it because I'm pedantic and I want to do the entire thing. But as far as playing wise, as far as Improvization, it's not always useful. Hey guys, real quick, if you were enjoying this episode so far and you're interested in taking your just our playing to the next level, please reach out to us.
We've helped thousands of guitarists improvise on standards at a level they didn't even think was possible. So Lincoln Description or visit Jazz guitar lessons dot net to start today. Okay, back to the episode. So I suppose a wrap up of the content. The content means it's a whole bunch of etudes that have been written that are to be performed with that, which I find are great measuring stick for anyone who could be myself included, could be a student.
We flip open a page, you play through the city, it's great. Plus it's great for social gathering. If you're playing with another guitar friend, you can play two duets together. That's that's an amazing tool. Now let's move on to see how you can implement this in your playing. So personal anecdote before we dig into how to get in.
You're playing for me right now. I'm still volume three. I'm in page 88 as of now, and I've been making slow and steady progress. The point is, I didn't want to race to the finish line. I just simply wanted to get the lessons really integrated in my playing before moving on to the next. Hence my propensity to go back and review certain triads and certain tricky things for me.
So I'm in no rush to finish this. Again, it's more pedantic, starting with volume two. So that's my my anecdote on where I'm at and where I started actually was as an intermediate blues rock prog rock player as a teenager that could play in bands. But I wanted to learn to read and it was the main purpose which leads to my next topic.
The implementation of this book into your playing should be plainly, I would say a page or two per day played exactly as it is and then move on. Unfortunately, that's the that's the sad reality. Is it a complete jazz guitar method? It is not, and I'll get back to that in a moment. I don't think there is a single linear path that will teach everything.
However, it's one good way for seeing the context of academia that someone can take you from somewhere, meaning not reading, to go towards reading and to be performing certain things and understanding them on paper fluidly. So it's a great measuring stick, but mine by no means is this the cure all and all you do this. It's a magic pill and then you're a jazz guitarist.
That's just not going to happen. That said, it's a very rigorous approach in all three books, especially the chord solos that like chord melody Etudes, as they don't encompass any famous standards, are known tunes. It's all written, it's got to be read and it's a great way to gauge someone's musicality and reading skills. But mind you, I have to go back to an anecdote here about the usability and seeing is this for me?
Well, let me tell you a story. I'm Canadian, right? I don't play hockey. I don't watch a lot of hockey. But it is a sport here, right? So if I took you to an ice rink, say, hey, Bob, whatever, Paul, you're watching this. All right, let's come to the ice rink. I'll show you how to play hockey. And then you put this case on of course, and then you tie them and we get on the ice and I give you a puck and the stick, and you go, Here, pass K, pass it back.
We're having fun, right? That's cool. Now shoot. Okay, learn to shoot. Learn to slapshot. All right, Skate around the rink. And while you come around, I'll pass. And then you shoot to the goalie. Fun. And then what about if I get a goalie? A friend of mine is just going to put his pads on, get on the ice, and we'll do that.
And then after a week or two or maybe after a month, we'll do this every day. So. Hey, Marc, are you showing me how to play hockey? Well, yeah, Well, I just did that. Right? This is. This is what we're doing. But you say, Well, when I watch hockey on TV, doesn't look like that. Oh, you mean playing a game?
That's all right. So Berklee method, in my mind, is a great drill set to learn different separate skills. Passing the puck, skating around the rink defense how to slapshot. Right. These things are all tackled, but they do not necessarily show you how to play the game. The game would be, Oh, you're playing standards, right? So is great drills for scales or arpeggios for triads for this or that's for technique.
It's great. And there is a bit of theory in there and it's really through it's well explained. And I haven't found anything in this that I would say, well, that is like, no, that that that stands true even to this day. It's it's fantastic. Like even the strumming etudes are great, but it is not the end game. So my suggestion would be if you want to do that.
So here's the three questions is what about the content? We talked about it. How to implement this in your playing? Do it rigorously one page at a time. Record yourself, make a good measuring stick. The third question is, is this for you? Well, it is for you. If you're aware that this is just drilling and that you can complement that with something else, you say this is like your workout.
You want to get stronger at hockey, you're going to do bench press and squats and you're going to do weight lifting, but then you're going to be stronger on the ice. So make sure you play the game, Make sure you play the tunes. Is my basically my recommended advice about this book. Let's talk about the advantage of the Berklee method of Berklee series of Self.
So three S First is it's streamlined and it's completely linear playing, which I love because if I look at page 23, I can attest for sure that it's a bit harder than page 20. It's always linear, right? So it's streamline number two, it's simultaneous, which I love because certain books focus on copying or improve whatever this one will show you.
Harmony theory, sheet, chord structures, chord melody scales, positions, reading it shows you everything all at once, which is just fantastic. And the third is the strong reputation. So this has been standing the test of time because it was published ages ago, you know, Prefusion and it stood the test of time. And it's a really great method for building foundations in music.
So it's a method for building your reading foundations and to build everything on top of that, which can be supplemented by playing tunes by playing the game, by getting instructions, instructions with a teacher. Mind you, one key point that I should have addressed about Volume one is that it really starts with the first page. This is finger one, two, three, four.
This is the staff. Those are the ledger line. This is the e mailed, right? It starts where someone is basically never picked up a guitar. And at the end of volume three, typically I would say people playing that should be professional musicians. So it's a really solid foundation, but it's not anywhere here. It's all over the place. So it's underwhelming at first and overwhelming at last.
So speaking of overwhelming, it is for me in a ways, because I got to dig and review pages, etc.. So the disadvantage, it is not very modern, meaning there are no applications of the mid-sixties and on so it's of harmony, although it could have been made up in that. And you can study it further. I'll mention just quarter harmonies or total inversions and all the modal stuff and the fun been happening to have in the seventies and eighties with more modern harmonies.
That's not in the books. Also, it's not a songbook, which means that jazz standards and favorite songs are not part of this. But they did publish a songbook long here, which involves Miles Davis tunes and some Sonny Rollins soon. So it's the same sort of approach, a method to learning single note and positions. It's well notated, so it's you got to take the songbook as a supplement to the three volumes.Another disadvantage is it's very guitar centric. So while I read that, I'm like, Good, I'm a good reader, whatever. Up until the point where I got music that was written for me by a bandleader, someone that's not a guitarist or all the way to the point where I took a tenor sax part in a big band and I went to, Oh, shoot, I can't read.
So it's guitar centric and it's not for everyone. So I always recommend to be exposed to different ways that other instruments are read and write lines, because since it's guitar centric, of course he's going to make an effort to publish his studies, which he has like melodic studies for guitar and reading and this and that. There's a bunch of volumes by the same author, but it's all centered around how the guitar is played and how easy it is played.
Musical lines are not always idiomatic to the guitar, which requires another kind of study that's not part of that book analysis advantage. I do think, and I'll go on a limb saying this and with all respect and with all the work I put in that and with all understanding of how pedagogy and they call it Andrew Goji, I believe, which is teaching to adults how it can be tough.
I do believe that Volume three here is overkill, meaning the data for what it gives a player or what it would have taken out of it could have been compressed in in fewer and more wisdom oriented gym lessons. So there you have it. I've discussed at length the balance in between the rigorous approach and the limitations of the approach.
So for you, it's up to you to make a point to decide whether this is for you or not. I strongly, strongly advise you to have someone look over the études like a mentor or coach or even a fellow musician while you work through them, because there's just too many pitfalls that you may fall into. And notes that 99% of guitarists, 99% of jazz that will eventually say, become pro or be really solid, most of them all, you need up to volume two, because I'm still doing volunteer and I'm wondering why.
Anyways, so consider what you'd like to achieve. Let me know in the comments if you have any questions or what you'd like to intend and where you're at with that etude. And I will recommend two following videos here. I have a step by step improv guide in which I can guide you as a supplement to that method to decipher the improv and a copying mastery video as well, which is a great place to start to grasp the basic voicing so you can go and grab lychees and real books and stuff, which is something unfortunately our author here does not do.
So if you get just the method again, you're just drilling, but I can help you with other videos to get in the game in circulation standards. I'll see you in the next video. Thank you. Take care.
