The Herb Ellis Jazz Guitar Method: Rhythm Shapes
The Herb Ellis Jazz Guitar Method: Rhythm Shapes Customer Review: How to really Improvise Jazz!!!
I purchased ALL three of Ellis books (this one, All the shapes…, and Swing…) and I love'em all… They are all formated as follows:
1: First, he will teach you a common chord progressions. In this book it will be the Rhythm changes pattern (I, VIm, IIm, V and the bridge…). Followed by a discussion about chord substitutions…
2: Next, he discusses scale patterns and licks… He creates licks base off the scale pattern discussed, several of them for each patterns.
3: Lastly, he illustrate how to use those licks over the progressions… the key to IMPROVISING is to learn how to revamp the licks so that they will sound different each time you play them… This concept is very important to master especially for the Beginner Improvisor because it is not how many licks you know but "HOW TO USE THEM" over and over again without sounding the same…
It is written in TAB and Music and the improvisations are outstanding! Ellis really put his heart and soul into these books and will be well worth the cost… Trust me…
You should also purchase Joe Pass Blues DVD too… Afterwords, just play play and play…
K-man