For Immediate Release…

New Music Book Gives the Low-Down
on the High Art of Jazz Guitar Accompaniment

             Many of Jazz’s true innovators—George Benson, Pat Metheny, Joe Pass, Django Reinhardt, Jim Hall, and Wes Montgomery, among others—got their chops as accompanists. Alix Combelle, a French tenor saxophonist who recorded frequently with Django Reinhardt, suggested the value of the accompanist when he praised Reinhardt’s “second sense which made everybody’s music an open book….  He was,” Combelle summed up, “a great accompanist.”

            Now the innovative new book Jazz Guitar Chords and Accompaniment: Learn Jazz Guitar Chords and Various Accompaniment Styles Step by Step by Yoichi Arakawa makes essential jazz guitar accompaniment skills accessible to a wide range of players. This includes beginning guitar students and rock or country guitarists who want to learn the somewhat different approach that jazz accompaniment demands. Why should the young musician, dreaming of playing lead and becoming a “guitar hero,” be interested in accompaniment?

            “Realistically, accompaniment is important for the guitar player, regardless of the music style, because that’s what the band usually hires you to do,” explains Arakawa. “Aside from that,” he says, “it’s fun and learning a new style will help you grow as a guitarist and musician in many ways. Studying jazz, in particular, allows the player to understand more about chords and harmony. This makes the guitarist more versatile later using any style.”

            Dr. Richard Strasser, Assistant Professor of Music, Clarion University, praises Jazz Guitar Chords and Accompaniment, calling it “an essential guide in jazz guitar for amateurs, students, and professors alike.” He adds, “Results are immediate, and progress can be made at one’s own pace.”

            Arakawa, who graduated from the prestigious Berklee College of Music and GIT, teaches and plays music in Los Angeles. A born teacher who finds satisfaction in seeing his students progress, Arakawa says his teaching inspires his writing. “Many of the methods that appear in my books are born out of the necessity to develop strategies to help students overcome problems common to beginners,” Arakawa observes.

            The book includes more than 250 chords and 85 accompaniment patterns used in jazz. Covering the full range of aspects and techniques, Jazz Guitar Chords and Accompaniment guides you through progressive steps from such basics as tuning your guitar, reading basic rhythms, and understanding chord theory to a wide variety of guitar chords and accompaniment patterns and styles readily applicable to playing jazz. The book shows students:

          Each subsection of the first four chapters presents one or two chords. Large diagrams make it easier to learn to play a chord in various ways and places on the guitar, and a few accompaniment patterns are shown. The basic, underlying music theory of chords and patterns is also clearly explained.

         This jazz instruction book is but the latest addition to Six Strings’ highly acclaimed Guitar Chords and Accompaniment Series, written and developed by Arakawa. The author has penned over 40 guitar instruction titles over the years for such publishers as Six Strings, Hal Leonard, Warner Bros., and Cherry Lane. His books include Guitar Chords and Accompaniment, Great Jazz Riffs for Guitar (w/CD), 101 Basic Blues Scales for Guitar, and Best of Miles Davis.

            As the student attains a certain level of confidence and competency with jazz, accompanying other musicians will be gratifying. Jazz Guitar Chords and Accompaniment skillfully prepares the guitarist for such an experience, likely to be the first of many more!