Al Di Meola - A Guide to Chords, Scales & Arpeggios
(Instructional). A guide to learning the basic tools for becoming a good player and musician. Includes Al's own lesson plan system, tunes, blues patterns, jazz chord exercises, playing and practicing tips, and a complete guide to chords, scales and arpeggios.
Format:Paperback
Language:English
ISBN:0793526779
ISBN13:9780793526772
Release Date:April 1987
Publisher:21st Century Publications
Length:112 Pages
Weight:0.85 lbs.
Dimensions:0.3" x 8.9" x 11.8"
Customer Reviews
5 ratings
A Must
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 15 years ago
Its a MUST if you wanna know more about the music of Al Di Meola although its kinda bored to some people.
I love this book.
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 15 years ago
I feel like this book gives me the tools to be a great guitarist. It is challenging and pretty straight forward, it wastes no time and from the first lesson you are working out some difficult lessons and memorizing a TON of chords. I haven't really stuck to the lesson plans I kind of pick and choose and memorize the chords as I can because there is so much work to do here. If you sat down and completed this book I think that you would be a pretty awesome Jazz guitarist. My only complaint is that it is in notation which I am not that great with, so it adds to the difficulty. There are no fretboard diagrams here except for the chords. In the back he covers what types of scales and chords can be used with what. Great book, I hope to finish it someday.
Excellent Value
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 18 years ago
Al gives you 10 different forms of the most important chords used in jazz and arranges them logically by sound compatability. If you learn even 5 of these forms you will be better off than most guitar players. One very wise reviewer once said,'In music it's all about the chords' !' There's a whole lot of truth in that because from the chords you can derive arpeggios, figure out modes and even derive tonal centers. Al says you should learn 4 things in equal amounts. They would be 'Chords, arpeggios, music reading and scales. He includes a few of his own compositions for you to learn eventually and recommends 'Classical Studies for Pick Style Guitar'. There is no tab and no CD. Those items may have doubled the price of the book. Al does not advocate guitar tab. I highly recommend this book !
Excellent training
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 24 years ago
I have tried many methods of training. Most fall short on many accounts, some less so. Although this book is terse and strangely organized (you have to flip back and forth constantly to follow the lesson plan) it is well worth doing.In less than a week I can already feel the difference in my playing. It might be the fact that I am simply following the instructions and not wasting any time during the small amount of time I get to practice, or the combination of chord, scale & arpeggio exercises. Whatever it is, it works.It has also helped with sight reading. I have gained some confidence in that area by trying to read while playing (although the current tempo tends to make that quite difficult). There are some errors in the music notation, but they are easy to spot and ignore.My suggestion, above and beyond what the authors suggest, is to play all of the exercises with a metronome. Even the chord groupings. It increases the benefits of the exercises with very little extra effort.
Incredibly dense - Worth the effort.
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 25 years ago
This book is not for the uninitiated. It certainly is no course for beginning guitarists, as most would find it unfulfilling and incomprehensible. However, if you are a veteran guitarist who wishes to vastly increase his/her chord and scale vocabularies, then this book is perfect. It is really nothing more than a chord dictionary, with two added features. The first is that the chords are arranged in terms of complimenting one another. Thus you learn chord relations, and not just chords. Secondly, the scale section is organized similarly; after learning a series of chord relations, the student then moves on to learn the relevant scales. Once again, it is an incredible book, but not one for someone who just wants to add a few more chops to his/her vocabulary.
Copyright © 2025 Thriftbooks.com
Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information | Cookie Policy | Cookie Preferences | Accessibility Statement
ThriftBooks ® and the ThriftBooks ® logo are registered trademarks of Thrift Books Global, LLC
ThriftBooks ® and the ThriftBooks ® logo are registered trademarks of Thrift Books Global, LLC
