Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #164263 in Books
• Published on: 2003-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 48 pages

Customer Reviews

Useful.
First off, let's make it clear that this book is not for the Celtic music specialist, unless he or she is looking to branch out a little; neither is it specifically aimed at the bluegrass player, though that style is touched on regularly. Rather it is a ragbag of licks, tune and solo arrangements and exercises, mainly scale-related, which are designed to lead the player to the point of being able to play in every key, whilst having the ability to pull out a range of styles including jazz and pop if need be.

So does it actually succeed in doing all that? Well, partially. There's a lot of useful material contained in the pages of the book, but such a slim volume was never going to be comprehensive. On the one hand we do get some insight into navigating the fretboard, on the other minor scales are not properly addressed, with the emphasis being put on blues scales. Again, whilst we can pick up the odd useful lick or a different approach from the solo examples, there are some odd choices of melody notes which are rather irritating and unhelpful in getting a sense of the "shape" of a tune.

The recordings on the CD are fine, and can really help the listener to understand the nuances of the examples. In response to another review, I have to say that even Sam Bush fudges on occasion and that there's nothing wrong with the rhythm chunks - everyone plays them a different way, and if the examples given happen to be less percussive than some, well that's a matter of taste.

To sum up, the book's a bit of a mixture. I'd say that it would probably be a good jumping off point for intermediate players striving to add some new colour to their playing.