Jazzing It Up: How to Improvise with Jazz Chords on Guitar

I've been playing guitar for around 30 years and I've always wanted to learn more about jazz and chord substitutions. I have a few of Fred's Fretboard Roadmaps books, including the Jazz version (which is excellent), and got his Jazz Chord Solos book (also excellent) awhile ago.This book is a little different in that it focuses on one subject - chord substitutions and when & how they can be made. There is a LOT of information here, arranged in a logical way. Fred introduced you to a ton of moveable chord forms, then explains various substitutions, then takes you through arrangements of a number of folk or pop tunes, comparing his "jazzy" version to the original chord progression and explaining how his substitutions were arrived at.THere is a lot of information here, and it is likely beyond beginners. I don't know a lot of music theory, but I know enough to understand most of the explanations. If you're an intermediate player looking to expand your chord vocabulary and/or get some knowledge about jazz guitar chords, this is an excellent guidebook.This subject can be confusing and daunting and it will take a lot of work to go through the examples and study the substitutions, but it pays off pretty quickly if you just apply the basic concepts. For example, if you take a standard I-IV-V blues progression, with basic substitutions you can move beyond the standard major or 7th tonalities most often used in blues.Anyway, the way I've approached learning theory is to go to multiple sources and study what's there. Many/most are not explained in particularly newbie-friendly terms, in my opinion. But if you keep at it and keep reading you start to put the pieces together and little by little things start to make sense. Fred's books are a great source of information. He always explains things in a clear, concise manner.I'm very impressed by this book and I know I'll be studying it for a long time to come.

This is a good book. It would have been good to have more Jazz standards for examples, but all in all, a good resource.

This is one of Fred's best publications but not the only one. He has a huge collections of published books and this one is one of the best book published on the subject of chord melody.Fred first gives you a collections (dictionary) of melody chords as references. As you play thru... the pieces in this book, one can refer back to the chord dictionary for other voicing possibilities.Next Fred gives at least 15 chord melody concepts for arranging chord melodies: from direct substitutions to counter melodies. Each concept is illustrated and well explained.Lastly, he uses traditional songs to illustrate how to apply the concepts. Songs includes Shenandoah, home on the range, dixie, amazing grace, and many others. Though he did not use Jazz standards to illustrate chord melody, these pieces still sound jazzified.When you complete this book, you will be ready to harmonize any songs be-it, jazz or traditional.This is a great book to start with if you are new to chord melody. he has other book on this subject but geared toward picking style chord melody. Thus, after learning from this book continue with his follow up DVD Jazz Chord Solos for Beginners... a fingerstyle approach.

Great overview of chord groups, ideas for substitution for all types of chords. There are some decent comping charts and a theory appendix too that is brief. The one downside is the songs he chose for application purposes. I suppose his intent is to demonstrate how you can take a bland or popular ballad and spice it up with jazz chords. But Aura Lee! Come on man, this is as lame as it gets! I thought until i saw Home on The Range... weak stuff.

I’ve bought hundreds of guitar instruction books, at least 500, going back to the 70’s. For chord substitutions beyond the simplistic, this is one of the best, maybe even the best book I have come across. It will show you, by example, what chord melody can sound like when the basic chords are replaced by a master of the instrument. Ted Green, Mickey Baker, William Leavitt, and others have much to offer, but for me Sokolow’s use of well known tunes for the basic structure has been particularly helpful in synchronizing the chords with the melody line. These are densely populated examples of what can be done, not necessarily written for performance purposes.