Barney Kessel: A Step-by-Step Breakdown of His Guitar Styles and Techniques Book/Online Audio (Guitar Signature Licks)

~ This package, like all issues in the Hall Leonard "Signature Licks" series, contains informative introduction to the history, equipment, and style of Barney Kessel, transcriptions and detailed analysis of each transcription (all by Wolf Marshall), and a CD by an in-house quartet (with augmentation) that demonstrates the transcriptions.~ The 96-page book/CD package contains the songs listed below. I have indicated the CD that contains the original Barney Kessel version of the tune. All of these tunes come from the mid-to-late 1950's when Barney was at the peak of his popularity and winning every poll. I have also added notes that hopefully will be helpful to people thinking about purchasing this book/CD combo. Finally, 11 of these tunes are available on the inexpensive excellent 2-CD collection  First Four Albums .* Barney's Blues ..... intro, head, guitar solo, recap ..... CD: BK Plays Standards* Begin The Blues ..... head, first guitar solo, second guitar solo, recap ..... CD: To Swing or Not to Swing* Contemporary Blues ..... intro, head, guitar solo, first interlude, second interlude, recap ..... CD: To Swing or Not to Swing* Easy Like ..... head, guitar solo, recap, coda ..... CD: Easy Like* Foreign Intrigue ..... intro, head, guitar solo ..... CD: The Poll Winners Ride Again* Indiana (Back Home Again In Indiana) ..... intro, first guitar solo, second guitar solo, outro ..... CD: To Swing or Not to Swing* (I'm Afraid) The Masquerade Is Over ..... head, guitar solo, interlude, coda ..... CD: Pole Winners Three!* Minor Mood ..... head, guitar solo, first interlude, second interlude, recap ..... CD: The Poll Winners* On A Slow Boat To China ..... head, guitar solo, recap ..... CD: BK Plays Standards* Salute To Charlie Christian ..... intro, head, guitar solo, recap, coda ..... CD: Easy Like* 64 Bars On Wilshire ..... intro, head, guitar solo, recap ..... CD: BK Plays Standards* Speak Low ..... intro, head, guitar solo, recap ..... CD: BK Plays Standards* Tenderly ..... head, guitar solo, outro ..... CD: Easy Like* Vicky's Dream ..... intro, head, guitar solo ..... CD: Easy Like~ The transcriptions in regular musical notation as well as tab notation appear to be accurate and provide considerable insight into Barney's chord voicing as well his single-note line development. Other reviewers have pointed out minor, easily corrected inaccuracies in one of the transcription.~ Since many of the tunes are written by Barney, the transcriptions also provide insight into his composing and arranging skills.~ Highly recommended to any intermediate or advanced guitarist who wants to gain insight into the improvisational melodic and chordal style of one of the musicians who pioneered the guitar in jazz and appeared on countless recordings as a studio musician.

Mr. Marshall has done a heck of a job getting all of the Barney Kessel "licks" down on paper. It is one thing to hear Kessel but when you see everything down on paper it is mind boggling. You do need a good background in theory and chord structure. Kessel's utilization of passing tones will challenge even the most experienced guitarist.

After being delayed several times, the book is finally out and I just recieved it this afternoon. I have not had a chance to go over every little bit of it, but the few songs I have, I noticed a couple errors in the transcriptions. The opening chord of 'Tenderly' is wrong(only by one note though). The single note lines look great though - it just seems a few(so far) of the chords are off. This is a typical Wolf Marshall book and the format is the same as his other ones - the songs are divided into parts, with an in depth analysis of each song. As far as song selection, I would of liked to see more chord melodies(only a couple songs here have any - and even those just have small sections of them), but I'm not really complaining because it is nice to finally see a transcription book for the great Barney Kessel.I gave it 3 stars because of the few errors I noticed and I would of liked a different song selection. However the analysis and history of each song is very well done and makes for a great read. And like Wolf's other books, there is a nice foreward, introduction and biography of Barney. There is also a section dedicated to getting the Barney Kessel sound, where Wolf talks about the guitars and amps you will need to sound like Barney.Overall, I recommend this.

Challenging but fun. Not easy!

Nice

awesome

Great tunes in this book, for me it has a good couple of years work. I love the first tune 'easy like'. Also look out for his utube lessons lots of great advice.

Barney Kessel somehow never seemed to have gotten the attention he deserved, at least as far as a broader audience is concerned. Among guitarists, however, his name clearly rings a bell. Plus, some videos of his playing, recently put on YouTube, might illustrate what a great and inspiring guitar player he really was.The book features some characteristics of his playing, which are very instructive for people who are into Jazz guitar. I found it very helpful for learning the instrument.

Livre très bien fait !!!

Raccolta di trascrizioni su pentagramma di alcuni pezzi tra i più belli di un grande della chitarra jazz. La fedeltà delle trascrizioni è notevole. Prezzo ottimo e spedizione veloce.

Once again Wolf Marshal has done a great job showing how Barney was hearing the voicings on the recordings he made. A must if you like Barney Kessel's.