Mickey Baker's Complete Course in Jazz Guitar: Book 1 [Brossura]

This is one of the few books I could get back in the mid 60's to help me understand what was going on in jazz chords. Mickey Baker teaches in this book rather like I was taught 50 years ago - look at these sets of chords, see how they sound better than a straight set of majors and minors, practice them like this exercise. And so on until you get better. Interestingly, Mickey talks about how much practice you should do - 2 hours a day and each lesson will take you about a week, he says - so there's a years work at 2 hours a day according to Mickey. But by that time you should be able to comp really well and solo over any jazz tune. (Well as well as you can get in one year anyway!) This is a very practical book and one that any player having got the basics down should be able to start. Some of the chords are difficult to finger - but who says playing is easy anyway? You'll find nothing here you can't use and an approach which is very much like all good player use - no unuseable chords or fingerings, no harmony or techique just for the sake of it. All good practical playing tools.

This book is pretty much the same as the blue version, which is revised and updated in it's layout. And there's a second book that's yellow and orange cover to follow this black and yellow book one (I know cause I've got them all).

By the way - being from the 50's these books don't have TAB. But as all the chords are charted and most of the music is written in simple keys like C D G F Bb, you should be OK. At this level of playing you should be able to do this sort of basic reading.

Mickey Baker Book 1 is a bit of a misnomer, it sounds like it could be a beginner's book, let me assure you it is not. You should have some guitar skills before tackling this book. It moves very quickly through the first few lessons (which will take you a while), but the exercises do help you develop an ear for jazz chord voicing and turnarounds. It's a great book and still a classic after 50 years!

Almost every pro guitarist, and a lot of amateur ones, know the Mickey Baker books. A number of jazzers and rockers started out with them- Pete Townsend has said that he learned his chords from Mickey. This was the only specifically jazz oriented guitar method available back in the 50s when Mickey wrote it, and it's been in print pretty much continuously since then. That by itself should should tell you a lot. A lot of guitarists looking for a good jazz self-study course have looked at this book, and wondered if there was really much to be learned from few simple chord exercises and a few dozen riffs. Sure, there were a lot of good chords to be learned from it, but beyond that...?

Actually, there is a tremendous amount of information to be found in this book, but only if you follow Mickey's directions. He doesn't give you a lot of why- just "do this until you have it down." But if you do that, you'll find yourself internalizing a lot of important rules and skills that other teachers spell out. Those hokey sounding chord progressions that Mickey wants you to memorize and transpose to other keys are actually teaching you all the standard jazz substitutions. Mickey does spell out some of these rules in the second half of the book, but if you've done your homework you'll find that it's much easier to apply these rules to soloing if you've actually internalized them than if he had just told you that you could use a Lydian or Aeolian sub for a dominant chord in a 12 bar blues.

The second half of this book is all about learning to solo, and a lot of non-readers have looked at it, and been put off by the lack of tab. But you don't need reading skills beyond that absolute minimum to use this book. Mickey has provided all the fingerings below the staff for each exercise. It may be a little unfamiliar at first, but by the time you finish this book- and it'll take a year to really do it right- you'll find that you have some pretty good reading skills, too.

Even though it was written back in the 1950s, the riffs and chords Mickey teaches sound just as hip today. Some guitarists will quibble with some of Mickey's choices, or his chord names, but it's more a matter of opinion than a fault in the book. For example, a lot of contemporary guitarists would play something like Bm7-Bb7-Am7... rather than Mickey's straight descending m7ths (Bm7-Bbm7-Am7..) today, but that's something the student will learn just by listening to guitarists today.

In short, if you have some basic guitar skills- you know a few dozen chords, and you can strum along- and you're confused by all the different jazz guitar books out there- this is the one you should start with. If you follow his directions, practice every exercise until you've memorized it, and written out and practiced all the transpositions, too, by the time you finish the book you'll be able to comp and solo over most any jazz tune.

[n.b.- this edition is the original book as printed in the 1950s. There's another edition with a blue cover that was edited and re-typeset in the 70s, but that edition contained a number of errors that were introduced in the editing. This is the one you want.]