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Book Review: Joe Pass on Guitar
Alfred Publishing
ISBN: 978-1576234372
Joe Pass is the master of Jazz guitar. Jazz guitar may be mystifying to some players that are not too familiar with the techniques. However, Joe Pass has a way of simplifying it for even the novice guitar player.
One of the great examples of this simplification is Joe’s explanation that when soloing a player should only concern himself if the rhythm player is playing a major, minor, or dominate 7th chord. By simplifying this process the soloist can successfully solo and improvise with worrying about abstract chord formations.
There are three song transcriptions that are included in this book: All The Things You Are, Joe’s Blues, and Stella By Starlight. All three songs are great examples of Joe’s style of playing guitar lines and his picking techniques.
The book contains a CD so the player can hear the tracks and Joe’s explanations of his techniques. However, it seems that the CD might have been the audio track to a video production. There are times on the CD when Joe would say “I like to pick with this finger.” Well what finger would that be? The person listening can not see your technique. These are minor oversights especially when weighing the musical education the reader will get from this book.
This is a great book for anyone that wants to get some exposure to Joe Pass’ guitar style. He is a master of jazz guitar and everyone guitar player has something to learn from him. For $19.95 this book will give the guitar player months of nightly practice.
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