Product Description

A clear, practical, and systematic approach to learning how to play the great variety of scales and arpeggios that give life and expression to the musical ideas of the modern musician.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #377962 in Books
• Published on: 1994-08-01
• Released on: 1994-12-31
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 148 pages

Customer Reviews

A deceptively simple introduction
Like all of Arnie Berle's books, "Patterns, Scales, and Modes" is so well-organized and well presented that it seems almost too simple. Arnie begins by introducing you do basic scale forms, while simultanously present related arpeggios. That's something not many methods do, but it's something that a lot of jazz teachers think should be emphasized from the start. (Some, like Carol Kaye, don't even teach scales, going straight to arpeggions!) And every scale and arpeggio example is presented with excercises designed to let you hear how the examples sound in a real musical context. That's important.

As others have noted, the book is written in musical notation, not tablature, although there are also diagrams showing how scales and arpeggios lie on the fingerboard. Being able to read music is a necessity- but really, all you need to know is the basics: Names of notes on the staff, how key signatures work and so forth. You don't need to actually be able to read for guitar; Arnie teaches you that as he goes along. A sight reader would be able to progress a bit faster, of course. By the time the reader works his or her way through this book they should feel comfortable playing and improvising basic jazz lines in most any context.

Ideally I'd combine this book with Berle's "Chords and Progressions for Jazz and Popular Guitar" (and a good listening library of jazz records). Together, these two books contain all the aspiring jazz guitarist would need to get started.

patterns, scales and modes for jazz guitar
this is an excellent introduction to scale modes and their application. like all of mr. berle's instructional books, it is written in an understandable fashion and gets its various points across without a lot of esoterica. this material is aimed at the intermediate guitarist who wants to understand a little of the basic tools for jazz guitar improvisation.

tough
There is no tabulature in this book at all. I guess that's good because I need to work on my sightreading anyway. There are several fretboard images though which makes some of the exercises easier. But then he'll have a fretboard display of 1 arpeggio on the page and then introduce 2 or three variations. This is an intermediate to advanced level book. I felt that his other book "chords and progressions for jazz and popular guitar" was a lot more fun.