Berklee Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary

Most chord books just display pages and pages of chords. This is the first chord book I have found that actually shows the relationship between different types of chords. It isn't explicitly mentioned in the book. When you learn a chord in different positions you then get to see how the fingerings are altered to change the maj7 chord for example to a 7th and then a minor7, etc.One person complained the notes are not identified. It does require very basic sight reading skills. The book may help improve sight reading if required.Yes, I do like books that hold your hand as you advance through the book. On the other hand if there is some personal investment required to learn the material it should not be penalized. This book requires some thought but it only requires basic knowledge of notation and chord construction.

I love this book! It's a great, well organized, jazz guitar chord dictionary for intermediate to advanced players. It holds a top spot in my library of guitar instructional and teaching books......it's a classic! I refer to this book all the time in my playing and teachings and wouldn't want to be without it.

I HAD to get this book for class, otherwise I probably would not have bought it. However, it has turned out to be pretty handy. I use it once in a while when I forget a chord shape or to see the inversions. The book is straight forward and easy to read and to find what you want. I like it because I have it on my mobile device so it is convenient. If it was the print version I most likely would never use it.You can also use this book along with a little study to understand drop-2, inversions, harmonizing scales, and to just plain old learn some chords. The grips presented are very manageable until the end where your flexibility will be tested. With that said, I believe there are better books for those things, use this as a portable chord dictionary.

I would say that this book is just OK. When I am playing a song and really need to know a chord I usually just look it up on a poplar chord and scale finder site online. It has some great jazz chords in it that I use to learn but not really to "look up" what I need. I still use this book often though because I do like the diagrams and I use it as sort of a checklist for chords to remember, so in that sense it is worth getting. There isn't much intro or any reading in it, it is pretty straight forward. It is a good learning tool more than it is a chord bible. It is small and will fit in the pocket of your guitar's gig bag.

In less than an hour of receiving this book, I noticed that the Table of Contents states that there are inversions for Dominant 7th chords on strings 5,4,3,2 shown on page 20. However, they have been omitted. Dominant 7th chords are ubiquitous and I use all of the inversions of 7th chords on strings 5,4,3,2 . This is a big omission – it tells me that this publication was not proofread. I’m disappointed, I’m a beginner and I have to keep a pile of several chord books next to me when I learn a song, leafing through them while I’d rather be playing. The best of all books is Chord Concepts, by Ted Shumate, REH Press, Hal Leonard Publishing. It’s out-of-print I recall and it’s more of a chord theory book than a quick chord look-up reference, though still good for looking up a lot of chords.I’m beginning to think that to learn jazz chord voicings, one has to learn the fretboard and chord theory and figure out (and listen) to chords themselves.

This book has been an essential stepping stone into the world of jazz chords. They go over the basic chord voicings and their subsequent inversions. From Major 7th chords to Minor 7 b5 chords, this book is a fantastic aid to the beginner jazz student. I saw the most mileage out of the chord inversions chapter. I am now able to comp chords and not sound like I'm lost.As with all instructional books, you have to apply yourself to see results. I spent about 3-4 hours a day going over chord inversions. By the end of the month, I was fluent in jazz. Get this book.

Most chord books don't show the notes on a staff which in my case is something I desire. Also true to the Berklee tradition, the logic of the chord development / exploration is more clear to me. Highly recommended.

Immediately starts with moveable shapes, instead of a literal dictionary of various shapes up and down neck. With a simple understanding of chord progressions, one can jump right into jamming and improvising.

Great little book. Some reviews say its aimed at beginners but i think its all levels. people moan about it not showing the root or the degrees and even that the majority of chords are in C... well it does tell you the root and all the chords are movable its just ignorance in others...it does help to know your notes on the fret board but i guess if you are studying jazz chords you have some knowledge of music theory like chord progressions and all that good stuff.

This is aimed at guitarists but half of each page is taken up with diagrams showing the notes on a staff, which I don't think most of us care about. However, I would like the chord diagram to show at least the root of the chord and preferably all the degrees of the chord. I've seen this done much better in other books. I do prefer the approach they have taken of showing only one example of the chord. I have other books that are 12 times the size they need to be because they show the same information for all 12 notes. It's not a comprehensive guide to jazz chords, but it is compact and accessible.

A good little book

I have to say at first I did nit like the format of this book,however I now find it a joy to use,i have never studied jazz but,now I am well on my way,well done!

Very useful reference book. Very handy to have it in kindle format