This is the second volume of Gonzalo Bergara's "How I Learned" series. The song list is above and the concept of this series should be pretty familiar at this point:
-Learn an etude over a popular GJ song form by rote.
-Review Gonzalo's notes as the whys and hows of each phrase.
-Transpose or adapt the phrases that appeal to you for use in your improvisations.
This second volume is meant as a continuation of the series and Gonzalo writes in the intro that you don't really need to be familiar with the first volume to work with the second volume.
I look at each etude as a month long lesson. You learn the etude and then start picking it apart to see why phrases work. The phrases are based off of arpeggios you should know. And if you don't, you'll get familiar with them by practicing the etudes and transposing them.
These books are good for a beginner, but great for the person somewhat familiar with arpeggios looking for hip and modern ways to connect them. There's a lot of work expected to be done by the student, but I'm beginning to see a payoff. I look forward to another volume.
Submitted by: Jim on 08/04/2011 06:42:42 AM