Joe Pass: On Guitar: Guitar Book & CD

Pass teaches you how he actually thinks about harmony and improvisation rather than just showing you what his fingers do. The Three Harmonic Families framework cuts through the mystique of jazz guitar and gives students a coherent system for understanding chord substitution, superimposition, and melodic development. Fifty transcribed examples mean your students can hear the concepts immediately, then study how they work on the page.

Elegant and crystalline. Pass's writing is as clear and efficient as his playing; there's no wasted explanation. The examples unfold logically, building from foundational ideas to genuinely complex harmonic applications, creating a sense of discovery rather than overwhelming complexity.

Jazz guitar students who want to understand the harmonic thinking behind sophisticated improvisation, not just fingering patterns. Guitar teachers seeking a method that develops both technical facility and conceptual depth will find Pass's pedagogical approach invaluable.

• Study the transcriptions with the CD on repeat. Hearing Pass execute these lines in context is as important as reading them. Pause and loop individual phrases until the harmonic logic becomes intuitive.
• Work through the harmonic families section sequentially. Each family builds logically on the previous one, so jumping around will obscure the connections that make the system work.
• Apply the substitution concepts to standards you already know. Take a tune you play frequently and test Pass's approaches on the chord changes before attempting original improvisation.

Assign this to advanced jazz guitar students working on solo and small-group improvisation skills. The book works particularly well in the spring when students are preparing for recitals or jazz combos, since the transcriptions provide concrete models for the kinds of harmonic sophistication their own improvisation should reach.

• Voice leading and harmonic substitution within the three primary harmonic families
• Chord superimposition and reharmonization techniques
• Connecting harmonic concepts to melodic improvisation
• Solo guitar fingerstyle voicing and arrangement
• Listening analysis and transcription from the included audio examples
• Understanding the relationship between harmonic function and melodic choice