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The Complete Idiot's Guide to Solos & Improv (The Complete Idiot's Guide) | 
 enlarge | Author: Michael Miller
Publisher: Alpha
Category: Book
List Price: $16.95
Buy New: $10.03
You Save: $6.92 (41%)
New (25) Used (6) from $9.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  2 reviews
Sales Rank: 47746
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 10.8 x 8.4 x 0.6
ISBN: 1592572103
Dewey Decimal Number: 781.36
EAN: 9781592572106
ASIN: 1592572103
Publication Date: July 6, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Practice makes perfect-and this expert guide makes it easy... Using practices and exercises, popular music author Michael Miller gives intermediate musicians the skills to learn such improvisation techniques as chord theory, scales and modes, and melodies and phrasing. All types of soloists, including vocalists, will learn how to listen to and transcribe solos from existing recordings and how to create their own solos and styling. Filled with expert advice and interviews from experienced professionals from the worlds of rock, jazz and R&B, this book gives students the skills needed to move their music to the next level.
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| Customer Reviews:
Improv made easier February 10, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
A comprehensive aproach to improvising for a variety of styles. The Forewords are by famed trumpeter, Marvin Stamm and jazz educater Jamey Aebersold with praise for author, Michael Miller and that is high praise indeed from such eminent talents.
They Don't Make Idiots Like They Used To May 6, 2007
20 out of 21 found this review helpful
This books covers a world of material on crafting rock/jazz/blues solos for less than the price of a music lesson. You need to have reasonable mastery of your instrument before tackling this book (playing scales, reading music, producing proper tone, etc.). The book will easily take a non-obsessed musician over a year to plow through and absorb fully if they do not have much background in improvisation or theory. The "Idiot" that masters the material would be an amazing idiot indeed. What makes this book stand out from others?
1) The amount of material covered: There are some gaps (like modes of the melodic minor scale), but this book does an incredibly good job of hitting important topics in comprehensive fashion. Its broad scope almost rivals an encyclopedia.
2) Clear and concise explanations: the book opts for clear explanations and illustrative examples, rather than giving technically perfect explanations. Other books deal with topics in exhaustive depth (Bert Ligon's jazz books and Mark Levine's Drop 2 book come to mind); this one presents the concepts and suggests their application, then leaves it to the student to explore.
3) Interviews - there are two very good interviews with pros from jazz and rock
4) Appendices - the appendices have some good scale charts that will be useful for reference and practice.
5) Lots of practice patterns
6) Advice that goes beyond the theory - theory is indispensible, but it doesn't equal music, any more than colors equal art. The real value in this book is the discussion of how to make solos interesting and effective. The advice in this realm is as useful to a reaasonably experienced improviser as it is to a beginner, and trancends all genres. Every solo can be analyzed through these concepts to find where room for improvement may be found.
This books has plenty to offer to the budding improviser. Do not be fooled by the bargain price or the title: it is not a half-hearted introduction or a quick fix. It is as jam-packed with information as any book on the subject could be. It will require time, practice and dedication to master the material in this book, but it will produce results if you do your part.
Because of the breadth of material covered, go elsewhere for depth (not a fault, just a fact). That might come in the form of a book on a specific topic or a music teacher. In fact, this book would probably be an excellent text to use with music lessons so that important topics can be identified and expanded, and bad habits can be avoided.
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