Greg FishmanJazz Guitar Etudes (with Tab)

This is a great book to increase your chops and expand ideas on guitar that one wouldn't ordinarily consider. Positioning on the fret board often travels more than expected and almost seems like what a rock oriented player would come up with but that's just my opinion or observation coming from a more classical approach. Rather than move up and down the fretboard a lot, I stretch and keep it within fewer frets or blocks of fretting. It's very readable and nicely printed. This will keep any guitar player busy for a while.

Thank you Greg Fishman and Mike Allemana for putting this book together! This is a fine collection of saxophone solos transcribed for the guitar. I agree with the other reviewer that once you start playing these, it sounds good immediately! I've been playing guitar for over 20 years now and am still exploring the richness of jazz on the guitar. Many jazz guitarists recommend playing horn-based solos and lines, and after spending time in this books, I can see why:The ear naturally "hears" the breaths in musical phrases- it's unnatural sounding to play long, extended lines of scales on the guitar with no breaks or rests or "breaths in between". Technically you can do this on the guitar because the guitar is not driven by breath; it will just sound somewhat mechanical. Sax solos have natural breaks in the phrases that help you to learn phrasing. This also sounds more pleasing to the listener (for example, imagine how weird it would be if you had to listen to someone talk and they never took a breath). It helps tremendously when you're learning the solos. I'd find myself learning chunks of notes, and being able to identify where one phrase ends and another begins. And so, to me this book is a great way to improve your listening as well as your playing.I hope these author-musicians can do more volumes in the future, this approach is definitely satisfying as well as instructional. One last note, the CD tracks are great. It's interesting to hear the subtle differences when a phrase is played on a saxophone versus a guitar. I have a new-found appreciation for saxophone music now. Highly recommended!

It's ON! The light bulbs are FINALLY Blinking LOL after years of various instructors, classes, videos, jam sessions, etc.... my acquired framents of playership are now being conjoined into a usable format. I wouldn't consider myself a musician yet...but I'm not as discouraged with the practice rut in which I was engulfed... and I can begin to SEE THE LIGHT (no tunnel train jokes please... thank you)This is NOT a collection of run of the mill "practice" etudes that fuse hand-eye coordination with staid musical lines that are guaranteed to quicken the onset of sleep.Paired with Greg Fishman's "Hip Licks for Jazz Guitar," I've found two books that can be used to enliven any hip, funky or jazz solo you might encounter. The books include tab and CDs with all etudes and licks featured full bands backed on the 1st track by a superb jazz guitarist and another track played by saxophonist Greg Fishman. A third track is provided sans guitar/sax for your practicing pleasure.Note these books are not an easy answer to auto-magically increase your musicality in fortnight. However, I would not want to woodshed without these two books by my side.With these books hopefully your musical journey, like mine, will enjoy a bit more of a pleasant path ... encointering less thorns and stones as you consume them.I'm enjoying the ride! Hopefully you are as well. If we ever meet at Durham NC's International Guitar Summit let's plan to share a few guitar lick!

Definitely a a mind blower if you've never tried to follow horn licks as a guitar player. The tempos are brisk and yet described as 'conservative' for the professional player (etudes designed for intermediate, advanced and professional players). I would say you MUST have some type of slow downer application in order to approach the material and not get overwhelmed and/or discouraged (and I do). They will give it to you in one key but you are directed to transpose each etude to all 12 keys. Given that fact, you can see this book opens up to a world of work like an origami project. So if you decide to take the deep dive, just remember studying jazz is a journey and not a destination. This book can probably work you for a very, very long time. Enjoy the process. Peace..

Lots to learn here for a "small" book. Probably will take many months or even years to get all of these etudes under your fingers, let alone up to speed!

Fantastic jazz lines for guitar! I love all of Greg Fishman's books, but as a guitar player this book is the best of all of them. Do yourself a favor and get this book, the lines are musical well-crafted and the notation is excellent. Many jazz improv books have lines that wouldn't sound good on a gig, but this book is not in that class.

In a similar vein as the Jimmy Raney book that came out years ago, "Jazz Guitar Etudes" bridges the gap in that you are practicing how "semi real solos" areput together, only this was written by a sax player. Since Jimmy was heavily into learning horn parts, the books are very similar on that level....My only problem with the book is that it has a number of redundant accidentals...as if the publisher put key signatures in and then forgot about them opting to go the Omni Book route.

Terrific etudes built on standard progressions. Great examples of pure swinging bebop phrasing.

In my opinion, etudes are a good way to learn the language and technique of jazz. These are the best I've seen. I would have gone for them without the tab, but I think it's been well worked out and saves you a bit of bother trying to find a good position to play these. It's a lot of money for a small book but I think most jazz players will like the tunes and they're sufficiently challenging that I don't know of any guitarist who could just play these straight off, so there's a lot of practice to be had from this material