Worthwhile books from Mel Bay

[tbeltrans]

Returning the favor from Steve DeRosa in recommending the Masters of the Plectrum Guitar book, here are other Mel Bay books I feel are worth considering...

Jazz Standards (book 1):

https://www.melbay.com/Products/WMB0...standards.aspx

Jazz Standards II (book 2):

https://www.melbay.com/Products/WMB0...ing-tunes.aspx

Jazz Guitar Standards: Chord Melody Solos:

https://www.melbay.com/Products/WMB0...ody-solos.aspx

Brazilian Jazz Guitar:

https://www.melbay.com/Products/WMB0...zz-guitar.aspx

Barry Galbraith Chord Solos:

https://www.melbay.com/Products/9990...tar-solos.aspx

Barry Galbraith Chord Solos (book 2):

https://www.melbay.com/Products/2024...-volume-2.aspx

Mel Bay Modern Method For Guitar Complete Edition Part 1:

https://www.melbay.com/Products/3050...on-part-1.aspx

Mel Bay Modern Method For Guitar Complete Edition Part 2:

https://www.melbay.com/Products/3050...on-part-2.aspx

...and finally repeating Steve's recommendation:

https://www.melbay.com/Products/9529...um-guitar.aspx

Since w have our archtops (or will at some time), this collection can provide years of quality material to study and enjoy playing through. Each of these (except Masters of the Plectrum Guitar) have complete audio that you download from Mel Bay's site at no extra charge using the URL provided in each book. Also, all these books can be had from Mel Bay for immediate download as PDFs at a few dollars less than the printed books and the same links for the audio are provided in these too.

The Modern Guitar Method focuses on the "plectrum" style and is a good companion to the Masters of the Plectrum Guitar as well as all the other books, which can be played either via plectrum or fingerstyle.

Anyway, I sincerely hope folks find this list of books useful. I agree with Robert Conti when he says that we learn to play tunes by playing tunes. All these books (even Modern Method) contain tunes.

This book and separate CD set are an interesting collection of pieces written by William Bay. These pieces have some really interesting textures and are intended for plectrum guitar.

Guitar Images:

https://www.melbay.com/Products/2219...ar-images.aspx

Guitar Images CD set:

https://www.melbay.com/Products/1114...tar-solos.aspx

Have fun...

Tony

[cyclistbrian]

William Bay is a wonderful and prolific composer of guitar music. I started going down the "plectrum guitar" rabbit hole a good while ago but didn't get serious until.covid. I knuckled down and worked hard on reading. It opened this world up to me.Django was my gateway drug. From there it was a short leap to Eddie Lang, Harry Volpe, and many other players of the era I'd love to be as good as. Even so, I enjoy this music both as a listener and by applying my own meager talent.

To your excellent list I would add any of the Achieving Guitar Artistry series by William Bay. All of the vintage method books available on djangobooks.com for download or available by sheer luck in used book stores are worthwhile.

Matt Munisteri's courses on Peghead Nation are also an important resource. Seek out the contemporary Jonathan Stout or the incomparable Rob Mackillop for even more inspiration.

[Steve DeRosa]

Originally Posted by cyclistbrian

...Seek out the contemporary Jonathan Stout or the incomparable Rob Mackillop for even more inspiration.

FYI Mr. Stout (AKA CampusFive) is a fellow AGF member, and one of my favorites of the new generation of archtop players keeping the prewar acoustic virtuoso jazz style alive - here's a few clips:




On the other hand, Mr. MacKillop is at the forefront of the "new classical archtop" movement, a revival of a style that flourished between 1925-1940 and which formed the basis for the original Mel Bay method books (type "classical archtop" into the AGF search engine for more detailed info); a fascinating subgenre of archtop music, this style relies more on what the old-time Big Band compers referred to as "coaxing the velvet out" - that rich, warm, woody, "tone you can eat with a spoon" that fully exploits the archtop's broad tone-color capabilities - than the generally more raucous, punchy style exemplified by Mr. Stout (IMO a well-rounded archtop player should be at least familiar with both, regardless of personal preference). Again, some clips for your enjoyment:

[tbeltrans]

Thanks for these responses guys. All great stuff. I have a couple of guitar method books from the 1930s by Eddie Lang and have seen those on djangobooks too.

FYI, Rob Mackillop hangs out on the jazz guitar forum and also is published on Mel Bay. I would love to see Jonathan Stout publish something too.

I think the Guitar Artistry books might either be aimed at classical guitar or maybe there is a mixture for various approaches to guitar? I will have to look into that.

From my perspective, it is less important how good I am as a player (since I long ago left the road and decided on other directions for my life) and more about enjoying the journey. I don't mean that I have abandoned the craftsmanship of playing, but that I don't expect to remain at the level I was when I was a working full time musician.

In fact, I am more interested in learning and exploring the guitar than in actually building and maintaining repertoire for performance. That probably sounds strange to some, but I just love musical "puttering" trying a bit of this and that.

When I had my amateur radio license (I let it lapse when we moved into our condo in the late 1980s), I much more enjoyed building stuff than I did actually getting on the air and chatting with other amateurs. In amateur radio clubs, I was always involved in the building projects than in going out for Field Day. With music, it is now similar for me.

I have lots of books in my collection and tons of CDs. For a time, Half Price Books carried lots of jazz CD collections and I snapped those up, figuring that was too good to last, and it was. I also have a bunch of the Mosaic Records collections and lots of other stuff. I tend to rip the CDs I want to currently focus on and then I use Amazing Slow Downer (ASD) on my tablet to pick up what I want off the recordings by ear.

For books, I have lots of guitar method stuff and a complete collection of the original Real Books as well as the Hal Leonard versions and the Sher Music fakebooks. What is a surprise to me is how many of the books I have that are now out of print and commanding ridiculous prices on the used market. As an example, I have the full set of three Mick Goodrick "Mr. Goodchord" books for which there is a long running thread over at the jazz guitar forum. Those have been commanding hundreds of dollars on the used market. Other books typically command around $30 - $50 even though new they only cost a couple of dollars years ago.

It is great fun to just pick something and dive into it for a few days at a time.

I gave up the playing out and in a band thing a while back. I haven't done any of that since the early 2000s, and instead am just enjoying forging my own musical path of puttering around at my own pace.

Tony

[Steve DeRosa]

Originally Posted by tbeltrans

...I would love to see Jonathan Stout publish something too.

I think the Guitar Artistry books might either be aimed at classical guitar or maybe there is a mixture for various approaches to guitar...

In order:

• He does - check this out: https://www.campusfive.com/swingguitarblog
• That's how the whole 1920's "classical archtop" got started in the first place - if you see something worthwhile go for it...

[tbeltrans]

Originally Posted by Steve DeRosa

In order:

• He does - check this out: https://www.campusfive.com/swingguitarblog
• That's how the whole 1920's "classical archtop" got started in the first place - if you see something worthwhile go for it...

As usual, thanks for the excellent info Steve! I book marked Jonathan's site and will revisit the Mel Bay series.

Looking again at the Mel Bay Guitar Artistry series, it is indeed all intended for plectrum guitar, though the descriptions for some of them say fingerstyle is fine too. Anyway, for some reason, the 30% off seemed to apply for me even though the current sale is 25% off, so I ordered all 8 books to be done with it in one shot. That, along with what I already have, should provide years of enjoyment. For those interested, some of the pages on melbay.com for this series, have Rob Mackillop demonstrating a select piece from that book.

Tony

[CopyCat]

I love this topic and all of these fine suggestions.

I grew up on Mel Bay books and still enjoy them.

Until these recent posts I wasn't aware of the extent of the classical archtop world. I appreciate all the links; thanks everyone!