Fundamental Changes in Jazz Guitar: An In depth Study of Major ii V I Bebop Soloing Paperback – 16 Nov. 2012

This book represents my first real attempt to learn how to play electric guitar properly through study. I have reached the end of chapter 6, which is a quarter of the way through the book; it has taken me months and months to get to this point! Now, most of that is down to my relative inexperience on the guitar, building up finger strength, getting familiar with string & fret locations without looking at the fretboard etc; some of it is down to my not-so-young mind being slow picking up new concepts; but I think this book also begs to be used as a springboard for further ideas, which I have tried to go along with.As other reviews have stated, it starts by presenting three chords that form the ii-V-I progression, then gets you to play around with arpeggios created from these chords. The idea is to be fluent with starting your arpeggios from the root, 3rd, 5th, or 7th across a couple of octaves, going in either direction and eventually being able to form credible sounding progressions using notes from the chords in a non-linear way, so it doesn't just sound like a collection of scales being played... At each stage of the process I have read the instructions and then spent a few hours noodling to some backing tracks (using SessionBand Jazz apps on an iPad - great for this!) and I have had a lot of fun doing this. It is all starting to come together for me now, what notes to choose, not looking at the fretboard so much, trying different styles/rhythms to play along to etc. Flicking through the rest of the book I can see there is a lot more coming up!I am sure that guitarists that are coming to this with a fair bit of experience will take a lot less time than me to absorb the information, but whatever your experience, this is a book where you should start at the beginning and make sure you are familiar with the concept in each chapter before moving to the next as they build on what has gone before. This is not a "dip in to a random chapter" style of study book.I am thoroughly pleased and excited to be learning this stuff and for me, this is a 5* book. I have two minor criticisms which are that the spidery font used on the chord diagrams makes it very hard to see the fret numbers and I would have appreciated some indication of which fingers should be used on the chords and certain note runs - for example, going from 7th fret on the 5th string to 7th fret on the third, do you bar, roll your finger or use different fingers? And how do you play that A chord in the first lesson? Its probably down to you but I'd like to know the accepted way so I don't learn bad habits (I'm using my thumb to fret the bottom string, just seems to gravitate there!)I have since bought the follow-on book (soloing in the Minor key) and the Blues compendium and am very much looking forward to working through them (I feel a New Year resolution coming...) - I should like to point out that the author and others have an active website called Fundamental Changes that contain a lot of further information and lessons - I haven't had much time to study from it yet but would like to do so when I can.

Very clear, step by step, tutorial on major ii, V, I changes, with interesting ideas on how to change between lines. Concentrates on the "a" type scale in D only, leaving you to transpose and try in different keys and positions, which is probably a good idea as it keeps things simple. MP3 demonstration tracks and accompaniment are well recorded and long enough to play along, correcting mistakes and improving as you go. Although it becomes obvious, it would have been worth pointing out that all of the arpeggio notes for each chord are within the D Major scale (except the bridging chromatics, of course) and can be accessed by playing alternate notes in the scale - 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, etc., similar to Modes, which are all in the Major scale, but start on different roots, ie., 2 for iim7, 5 for V7, etc.

Just one in a whole series of very well prepared books.Any school teacher can tell you that it's not what you teach, but what the student learns that's the important bit.This author presents the materials with the learner's experience very much in mind.Many jazz guitarists I've come across (including me) have come to music theory after having already learned to get along with the instrument to some degree, and starting to learn music theory later on, while already in at the deep end is a real challenge. This author's books have been a real help in starting from where I actually am, instead of where I ought to be. Highly recommended.

I am sure this is going to be a useful book but it is going to be hard work. The main problem for me is that the chord and arpeggio diagrams are tiny and very difficult to read, which is a problem since some of the shapes in the exercises are unfamiliar, and I have been playing guitar for many years. I can read music notation and I understand the theory which is fine but, since the author has taken the trouble to include the diagrams, it's a shame they are virtually illegible.

As with all Joseph Alexander books it's full of valuable information and audio examples. I've wanted to learn more about 251 soloing for years but never found it easy to understand. This book dymistifys the theory in an easy to understand way.

Arpeggios are boring. Everybody says so. I once had a teacher who told me "don't bother learning arpeggios ... all they are is the chords played one note at a time. If you use them in your playing, it will sound boring."Well, that's kind of right. If you only use arpeggios ... and if you playing them starting at the 1 at the start of each chord, and then play the 3rd, 5th and 7th in order every time, then yea, they are boring.But that's not what this book teaches you. It starts with the basics -- "what is II-V-i", the concepts behind it, teaches you how to play them over each chord. But then, baby step by baby step, you go "up the ladder" -- teaching you how to connect them (suddenly they don't sound so boring!), how to use passing notes, mixing in the bebop scale, and then the holy grail, tri-tone substitution.Honestly, I'd had this stuff explained to me many times, always in a dry and boring fashion, and sure enough, my playing was also boring, mechanical. But this book changed my perception of "playing the changes". I've gone through the whole book in one position, and now I'm going through it again in another position, in hopes it will eventually allow me to see the entire fretboard as one big "note soup" from which I can pick and choose as the tune progresses.... so far so good!