Jazz Guitar Chord Mastery: A practical, musical guide to all guitar chord structures, voicings and inversions (Learn How to Play Jazz Guitar)

As a rock guitarist struggling to get from rock to jazz and jazz/fusion, you will get a lot of information, but nowhere as structured as in this book and it's predecessor. Part 1 (guitar chords in context) is how to build chords, which I already knew. I was still pleasantly surprised by some of the information in that book (for instance the voiceleading exercises are very very useful). I still wondered, though, how these jazz players were playing chords all over the neck finding chords were I didn't even know they existed. I heard something about inversions, experimented with that a little but I couldn't really wrap my head around it. This book, Jazz guitar mastery, explains it ALL in an extremely clear and practical way! I now have 28 "shell chords" for each chord quality at my disposal! The greatest thing about this book is its practical application. With the information and exercises in this book, you can immediately grab any jazz standard (or any type of music really) and comp like a pro! Besides that, there's also information on common substitutions, extentions, alternations etc. I was a bit skeptical after reading the technique-books (as a die-hard shred maniac, the exercises described in there were not challenging to me with a few exceptions), but I'm a huuuge fan of this book! This will keep me happy for years! Very well written. One thing that did bother me a bit were a few errors. In the chapter that deals with min7b5 chords in one of the examples the root note is wrong in one of the diagrams and in the chapter that deals with drop 2 and 4 voicings it said "drop 2 and 2 voicings" in the title. Mr. Alexander is forgiven because it is by far the best instructional book on guitar chords and it's theory I've ever read. And as I got the Kindle-edition, it's very very cheap.

This book helping to improve my chordal knowledge and vocabulary. Material is thorough and audio examples are easy to play along. Recommended!

This is a great resource for learning jazz chords. While it begins a bit too simplistically for my level of playing, it develops the concepts quickly and moves on to voicings and chord inversions. It then provides a great resource for using various voicings across chord progressions to help find the jazz sound you are looking to play. It follows this up with a suggestion on practice to get more familiar with playing the chords.

This book will provide you with much chord knowledge, and every chapter builds on the ones before it. You start with the standard jazz chords in different voicings and positions, then it demonstrates how the chords relate to each other in terms of upper/lower structures. On its own the book is a little boring to work on, you will need to constantly work the knowledge into your playing for it to stick (as with most books)

I'm new to the guitar, but am very familiar with jazz theory (trumpet player). I have been looking everywhere for a book that will make the daunting task of learning all the drop-2 and drop-3 chord inversions and their use simple. This book outlines the applications with the utmost clarity and simplicity, and gives a rock-solid plan to work through the material in a systematic fashion. I have been looking everywhere for a book like this. Kudos to the author for putting it together.

This book is especially good for the intermediate guitarist though everyone will find it very informative and useful. For those who get complaints from band mates that you only play power chords, this book is for you. The inversions can be used to add color in rhythm as well as some surprising inserts in leads. Recommended for everyone, not only jazz players.

I have purchased other joseph Alexander books and find them very practical and useful. I specially like this one because it continues building on chord construction, drop two threeand four voicings and inversions covered in book one one, "Guitar Chords In Context". The audio samples make it clear on how the progressions are supposed to sound. I have found alexander's material in this book especially helpful in expanding chords that can be used are used in comping and chord melody arrangements using the Real Book. This material is arranged nicely so that if you take it chapter by chapter, work through the exercises and experiment with jazz standards, it opens up a whole new dimension of chord voicings and sounds. Thanks, Mr. Alexander!

I am only beginning my journey to learn jazz guitar, and I recently came across the Fundamental Changes books. After checking out the samples here on Amazon I went ahead and bought this one. I have only scratched the surface of what this book has to offer, and I have already learned about chord voicings, some basic progressions, and alternate ways to construct chords. I may need to go back and learn some more basic theory about chords, but I have been able to understand what I've encountered in this book up to now. I highly recommend this title if you're looking to move into jazz guitar. There many other books in the Fundamental Changes series, and I'm sure that I'll buy more of them as I progress.

I was feeling stuck, playing the basic chord shapes, with this book i start to understand new ways to change what I'm playing

The clearest, most systematic chord book I know. I wish I had this book much earlier. Be prepared for a lot of time studying to absorb this material.

This is THE book i was looking for! It's perfect for people who's trying to get over bar chords, and tired to using all the same chord patterns all the time. I would buy it again.

This book encompasses many easy to play jazz chord voicings including drop 2,3,4 on many altered chords as well. Many of the chord samples have a piano-like sound. Some are reminiscent of Eric Johnson in his chord solo noodling. There are no wide interval chords that are difficult to play, and there is nothing too exotic here. There are samples that include a simple playable bass line to provide context for common changes. Chords are also arranged as playable from the 6th string, 1st string, and middle strings. This allows one to pick a chord sound that would fit in well in a band scenario, or when composing a solo chord melody arrangement. A nice book of not-too-difficult chord embellishments with detailed explanations. Audio examples are available to download that accompany the book examples. Well done!

As with most other books of Joseph, this is also a nicely paced book, easy to read and play along. I would highly recommend it to intermediate players who are stuck in a rut with chord shapes and voicings and want to get more out of their chordal playing. It is not a must to start out with the first part of this book (this is part-2) unless you are a stickler for such modalities (though there are a few references to Part-1 like the "Diminished Substitution"). The book starts off on an even keel introducing you to Drop 2 voicings and the shapes that need to be gripped first in group 1 and then later in group 2 and 3 string sets on the guitar (G1 = strings 1,2,3,4) (G2 = strings 2,3,4,5) (G3 = strings 3,4,5,6), or what can be called as the Top, Middle and Bass string sets. The interesting things are the exercises he uses to practise playing the inversions like "connecting the inversions with walking bass lines from scales", "skipping inversions", "practising in P4's, P5's" etc. He goes through the four basic chord types (Min7, Dom7, Min7b5 and Maj7) before going to alterations and extensions. He then deals with Drop 3 and Drop 2+4 voicings. I liked the Cyclic Exercises that he mentions at the end for practising these chord families (and shapes) well. In fact these are recommended exercises in any chapter. He rounds it by addressing the other four basic chord types at the end i.e. (minMaj7, Dim7, Min6 and Maj6), and the different ways of viewing these chords. All in all, a great book!