Mick Goodrick/Tim Miller: Creative Chordal Harmony For Guitar: Using Generic Modality Compression

For those of you that are in any way familiar with the work of Mick Goodrick, the approach taken in this book should be of no surprise; the self reliance required for the 3 voice leading books and the advancing guitarist is tempered somewhat here, but the patience and work ethic is no different. Mick provides a very extensive method for detailing root-less voicings, resulting in loads of "what was THAT!?" moments. This is, perhaps, advanced material, with lots of "chords for the bored", a book that I know will take years to sink in. Mick takes his approaches through "Stella" and the playing on the accompanying cd is pretty awe inspiring.

A real mind bending book, it's not often I sit down to study and have to instantly admit I'm out of my depth. I respect that. There's no questioning that Tim and Mick are masters of education.What I will say is beware of learning for the sake of it. While I can appreciate how clever this system is and I feel smart when I apply it, when you listen to Tim's demonstration of it applied in context... I must admit that I didn't really rate the sound.Still, if education is your bag, this is a must own!

It definitely is for the more advanced player - a lot of unnamed cluster combination chords and unusual voicings, and no visual guidance in terms of fretboard diagrams or tab - only standard notation. A little visual guidance could have been nice, even for the experienced player, since some of these voicings are so unfamiliar, and fingering takes a little work. However, if you are well versed in theory and notation - wauuuw!!! Amazing study in Stella, also..great - REALLY great cd-examples...

I am sure a lot of work went into writing this book and a few musicians with a very specific interest in jazz guitar may find it useful.But the hype in the publishers description is way over the top, this book is not a swiss army knife of guitar harmony!, it is a manual of jazz guitar shell voiced chords.Be warned this book is strictly for the advanced jazz musician.If your interest lie in more mainstream music then this book is unlikely to be very useful (or interesting) to you.