Welcome back to Jazz guitar lessons. My name is Marc, and in this video, we're going to cover a short review of the infamous Mick Goodrick book, The Advancing Guitarist. Yeah, I believe this was first published in the eighties. It's a classic in the guitar world and it's something that I've I've dug in and returned time and time again to get more insights for the past 25 years.
So let's see what's in store for you, the contents, your approach and how you can better handle maybe discerning what you can take out of this book and how to apply it. Let's get going. 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 French accents, make sure to subscribe.
Starting with a book overview, The good news and bad news at the same time is that this book is not meant to be tackled from cover to cover. Some students will have a library of books on their bookshelves and tell me, Hey Marc, I'm really bad. I'm terrible because I have all these books and I never actually finished one.
So this is not meant to be finished. And here's a reason why It's not designed as a method and is pretty upfront. The author is pretty affronted in the beginning. Good. Rick says you provide the method. This is the stuff. This is the general. How the general what of music? And you can provide the how of you're going to implement in your own music.
So it's a good book to dip in and out of to get nuggets of information. One of the largest impacts of this book is how he laid out the approach on working on the one string at a time, meaning sort of a horizontal playing approach. And I've discussed this in another video of mine here where I just chop my strings and keep just the one.
And this has been invaluable for hearing fretboard visualizations and stuff. But remember, this is not a book step by step that's going to tell you this is how you're going to put your strings and visualize intervals and do this. He's not going to do it directly. He's going to do it via rebound and explaining all of this stuff.
So looking at older intervals across a fretboard was really useful for me, as well as visualizing intervals, knowing if you started with a single note, you can do this, you can play around and it will be a different pitch. But what if we have two notes combined? How do we address this issue of playing, for lack of a better term, dyads?
I don't really like that word we're saying. Well, intervals. How do you address intervals on the fretboard? These two things combined along with other stuff about harmony and drop twos and how chords move from one to another, were the really most impactful on my own playing. How about the content and the general approach of the book? So just you can be warned and also reassured by the fact that this book, the author really loves to tackle all possibilities.
So that's one thing I will mention that even if I would look at all these possibilities and 80% of them will wind up not being useful, you will still expose you to these different possibilities. So it's thorough. It's very a lot, whether it's for skill developments or voicings or intervals or scales or understanding. So you can you can be sure that at times it will be overkill.
And I mentioned also in this other book review here, the Berklee method, which I'm like, well, volume three is a bit overkill according to what the outcome is, but it's good to have all of the stuff laid out in advancing guitarists because this way I can think outside of the box. Maybe it can expose me to things I haven't thought of.
And also it allows me to develop the skill of discernment, like if I can practice anything, if I can paint anything and there is no frame, I wind up painting nothing. So by having the exposure to all of the color, the palette, the palette of color, then I can be discerning in knowing what I want to see, what I want to hear.
So a bit of warning as well. The book, The Advancing Guitarist does not cover any good old classics or standard progressions, although that that's a major caveat because my whole my whole teaching approach is based on let's first learn songs. This is at the bottom, the foundation of the pyramid of any, I think, worthwhile developing aspiring jazz guitar is like, Yeah, yeah, I'll play the tune.
This book is not meant to teach us songs and teach us more about these classic tunes, although it could be great for exploring. So it's a major caveat. But a same time, the stuff that explored within the book, say progressions or voicings, can and should definitely be applied on standard tunes. So in summary, the contents and approach for me has been a great pick me up when I felt I was stuck in a rut.
Rut that is, if I already felt overwhelmed and I was drowning in different options. This is not the book that would reduce my anxiety as far as what to do next with guitar, right? So. So that's the warning is like, well, if you feel overwhelmed, this is not the book to go to for pick me up. It's more of a I'm stuck in a rut, it's dry.
I keep doing the same things over and over again. I may expand my own universe by spending 1015 minutes in this book. Guaranteed. I'll find something I have haven't considered yet or haven't worked on yet, or have forgotten to go. Oh, that's cool. That's interesting. And then, of course, the rest is history. I will get on my rabbit hole and discovers discover new ways of expressing myself.
Just to give you a little taste of the introduction in the pace of the book for the contents and approach, I believed I had seen a quote from McGoldrick discussing Pat Metheny saying This book, perhaps on this one, saying, This book's dedicated to Pat Metheny, partially because he made it possible, but mostly because he never needed it. That's not from this one.
So I'm going to read a part of the introduction just to get you in the mood here. So this is this is a do it yourself book. It's not a method book. You supply the method, you do it yourself. It may I may make some suggestions along the way, but point out some things that seem important or relevant.
But what you do with it is entirely your own business. And towards the end of the introductions before best wishes, he says by itself, a book has absolutely no value is a dead thing, but in conjunction with a living human being who can understand, work and grow, a book can be very useful. So I think that summarizes really the contents of this book.
It sets the tone for the rest of the entire approach. Hey, everyone, just a quick break here. If you're loving this episode and you want to elevate your own, just our skills and reach out to us, we've gathered thousands of guitarists and becoming accomplished jazzers beyond their wildest dreams. So check the link in the description or visit jazz guitar lessons dot net to get started today.
Okay, now back to the episode. I right a few words about good Rick summit. Good Rick is not as recognized on the international jazz scene as, say, a Pat Metheny or a John Scofield. However, if you haven't, I would recommend you check some of his music, especially while he was playing with the Gary Burton's band. And actually at the point where young Pat Metheny joined Gary Burton, Mick was considered the veteran guitarist and he writes and wrote very interesting songs that are pseudo modal, ECM sounding things that I highly recommend you check out, and also look at the whole like, creative exploratory nature of how we tackled Improvizations on songs.
It was like, Yes, we're going to pay tribute in homage to, say, the Charlie Christians of the West. But I think Mick really brought the guitar to another level, not only for contributions in a book like this, but in education. I being head teacher, guitar teacher at Berklee for years, but also just in the way he decided to approach jazz as an exploratory art form.
So quick perspective on learning from the advancing guitar. So I knew it's a lot of general mumbo jumbo, but here I will say Nick Goodrick challenges the new is better, right? I think it's one of the fallacies and one of the common traps in jazz education. It's not always about the new stuff. So sometimes I got to do more of what I really know how to do, which I'll give you an example in one moment.
Or do what I'm already doing better. And we're often on a quest for looking at new voicings and new songs and new progressions and new ways to put things, put things together by, say, Mick and go back to basics and go give you an example. What if I do more of the major scale? Yeah, I can do it on a single string, which was the thing that had a tremendous influence on me.
Look at intervals within, look at how I can construct modal vamps and what kind of three part quartile harmonies aren't kid. They're. They're cool. Most of them sound like not too good. So cool. But what if I just look at the C major scale? He would say, you learn it on one string at a time, or you learn it's by simply going in a position, Fine.
Have you considered that you can do a steady number of notes on a given string before moving on to the next string? Right. This is one thing that never occurred to me before I read this book, which would be I play c d, e, f, g, a, b, c, d, e, f, g b c until I run out of threats.
But what if I did only two notes on a string? So I do c d next string e f next string J Next string B.S. Right. And then I wind up going backwards towards the nut of the guitar while I grow up the scale and never consider this. Why not? Well, it's this kind of exploration that's part of the book.
So this does not fall into the new and fresher and new stuff category. It's still the major scale, but it falls into doing what I'm doing a bit more or better. And now what if we do three notes per string CTE after year? BCD Right. What if I did three and four notes? What if I did two and three?
What if there are all these combinations of fingerings may not wind up really useful or part of my playing, but the sheer fact of exploring these possibilities really can open new avenues in my playing. And it did. It did for me, and I hope it does for you as well. I think the advancing guitarists should be on any serious guitarists shelf.
Like if you're serious about studying music, whether you want to call yourself a jazz guitarist or not, I think you should definitely look into this book and see what it can give, not just for method, but for something that can give us further explorations into the world of addressing the instrument in a really specific way. Right. And my favorite aspect of this book, and it's going to be a bit silly, it's for pure enjoyment.
There are shorts like unrelated thoughts at the end of the book where it's like this didn't fit anywhere else and some of them are jokes and considerations and that's one of my favorite things to do away from doing. Some of that can pick it up. I can look, look at the the book and read the paragraphs and ponder.
For instance, when's the last time you recorded yourself? Oh, yeah, these days. Back in the eighties. Use a tape recorder, play along with yourself. And what if you played everything? You know, half the tempo, twice the tempo? What if you decide not to play guitar for a week? What if you decide to play guitar for an entire week, 8 hours a day?
What if What if you know what if this can be a really interesting thing and I will segway before the conclusion of this video into another set of books by Mike Goodrick, which I think are worthwhile to to look at that, to look at as well. Okay. Going back to Mr. Mick Goodrick in a book that has no notes, no chords, it's called Factorial Rhythms, and that's really for all instruments.
And it's Mick Goodrick with Mitch Hoppers, which I believe was one of his students, and it features a whole bunch of key rhythms, and they're all displaced and they cover what we say the entire realm of possibilities, knowing that if I have a bar for four and I decide that there's going to be two attacks within the bar, so two notes that are played, how many combinations of two note attacks can I have and where do they land on what beats?
So this book features basically one or two bar loops that are just a bunch of he calls them factorial rhythms. So factorial you can look up the definition four factorial is three four times three times two times one. Right. So this is good for rhythmic exploration. And again, it's in the spirit of the advancing guitarists because it covers the entire set of cards.
I have 54 cards in the deck. It's like how many different ways than to shuffle those. So that's the rhythmic approach. It's interesting and not very deep. It's not a classic like the advancing guitars, but still that's another good, good reference. Now further along in this exploration with me good Rick books he calls himself Mr. Good Chord. Yeah, I don't think it's available anymore but this is a this is like a yellow pages of chords and just very cryptically written as sequences, of course, that are written just in pitches.
And it's been endorsed, I believe, by Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock. So this is something he had started in advancing guitarists, but this lays the foundation for the entire set, of course. So think of any voicing in any open or close position for any or all of the modes of major melodic, minor harmonic minor in all the voicings, in all possible voice leading to any other chord in the key.
So we see all cycles. So the point is you can open it in any page and learn something, but it's a bit overkill. I had to make myself a road map for the record, if you want to see this on camera, that's a road map of the different diatonic chords. Not my handwriting. Unfortunately, I don't write that well.
And interestingly on the cover, he says, batteries not included. Some assembly required entirely. And as if this was not enough Volume one, it's called Name That Chord. There is an entire second volume called Do Not Name That chord. Right? I got both probably 20 or so years ago, and I would say, Well, don't get these books because most of the stuff you can extract it, extract, extract it on your own.
And since that's the entire deck of cards, most voicings are just not playable on the guitar because of the amount of strings, amount of fingers and stuff. So I wouldn't say it's a good resource. It's just it's showing you the exploratory nature of MC Good Rick's writing. He's like, We want to see the whole deck of cards. We don't have to work on all of these things, but we can certainly explore how chords move into one another with different voicings.
So if this is all above your heads, that's that's fine. If it's too much, that's that's all okay. But I wanted you to consider he's that guy that wrote the Yellow Pages. Ultimately, this book could be written by a guy in a single prop going, Show me all the voicings and all the scales in all of it. Whatever.
Right? And just for the record, the joke with the blue one, which is do not mean that chord, is that most of these chords that are tackled, there are three notes over another one. Oh yeah, those are just four part voicings, some triads. But for for, for no voicings. But if I stack a triad on top of the court, for instance, if I stack a diatonic triads or BDF, it f would be a diminished triad over a C chord.
This chord does not have officially a name C because there's not a third, there's not a clear modality and tonality to it. So the do not name that chord is tongue in cheek, but the whole point is most of these chords don't have a name yet. They're still diatonic structures. And at a certain point in the advancing guitarist, he had started to lay down these things.
Let me just find the page to show you some of these nightmare possibilities. So these things, of course, not for the faint of heart. Concluding here, the advancing guitarist is a must, not just for a method book, and it's a journey into the depths of guitar and the intricacies of playing voicings and rhythm and playing together and exploring.
Right? And for me, it's been a pivotal part of my my understanding for you, how's it been So if you've used this book or you haven't, please leave me a comment below. Ask me any questions about the content of these books that I talked about and if you have gained any insights. Also, if you're at a point where you just want to tackle tunes, which is really what I recommend for anyone just getting started in the world of jazz or not having really amazing results with the improv or the chord melody.
I'd always recommend looking back at my my video here, which I put here here, which is called It's Not Your Fault, which describes the exact method I take my students with. You can get this on the free community as well, right? It's on the fellowship. You can really tackle between 5 to 10 songs to get going in your jazz journey and all.
All in all, in the end, the Good stuff or any other stuff you get from a method can later be used in context to improve your vocabulary. I think that's the main takeaway. So thanks for watching signing off and I'll see you in the next video. Take care. Bye.
