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Jazz Anatomy - Mimi Fox

This is Mimi's second Jazz guitar course so its for the initiated. Its late beginner perhaps? No I revise that its more advanced than that. I explain below. Anyway its a 2 Lesson set offering an extensive and thorough guitar lesson comprising an over view of jazz forms. Mimi tires to make it simple for us and succeeds to quite an extent.

There are 'Learning Tools" to download using the enclosed pin and the tools are: .PDF, .mp3 bonus tracks, .mp3 jam tracks and if you are running Windows, Power Tab files and the program. I am not thrilled with Power Tab. It looks like it is for writing music and has lots of intimidating controls. Plus I cant see it matching up to the just played music either. OK so it moves! Make it stop!

Power Tab does have an interesting (96 ways to play a C) chord dictionary however. This is a physical disc from TrueFire and it will go full screen.

The curtain comes up with Mimi telling us how fret board friendly she hopes it will be for us and explains succinctly her brilliant jazz course over view. Sounds pretty darn good I got to admit! The first guitar segment begins willy-nilly out of the blue with no explanations. She plays, on her superb guitar, a Gibson ES-175 a different jazz chord voicing practically on each quarter note - 4 to the bar - popularized by Freddie Greene, who was Count Basie's guitar player. Its approaching guitar level intermediate-advanced perhaps? At least you need to be quite at home and familiar with these jazz chord shapes in order to make the changes with zest and verve. Many jazz chords are simple to play. Friendlier Jazz chord scales for example. Many require big finger stretches. Many don't.

Its only the next section we are informed that that was lesson number one: Blues in Bb. So I go to the .PDF file because I am running a Mac so Power Tab won't work. Still, in the learning tools they gave us a bunch of .PDF files. Number one or Bb has the TAB staff with each note on its proper string. Chord charts would have been easier because the musical notation or TAB is so small I am a foot from the screen trying to read it. So I enlarge it!

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Teach thy tongue to say, “I do not know,” and thous shalt progress. – Maimonides