In 1991 I bought The Advancing Guitarist by Mick Goodrick. I purchased lots of instructional books at that time. Matter of fact, I was obsessed with instructional material. VHS tapes, books, music magazines… anything to help me get to grips with the mysteries of music.
The book puzzled me.
What do I mean?
All of my other instructional books presented some sort of solution. They provided a method, a certain way of doing things. Do this exercise and you’ll become the fastest guitarist in the known universe. Learn this chord voicing and Miles Davis will call you to join his band.
More Questions than Answers
In “The Advancing Guitarist” there seemed to be more questions than answers. It made me quite irritated at first. Why spend my money and then still have to deal with all those questions about music? Even worse, more questions after reading through the book because it raised certain issues I wasn’t even aware of before.
- What note will I play next?
- Will it be a short or long note?
- Loud or soft?
- When will I play it?
- Will it be followed by other notes?
- What kind of tone quality will it have?
- What am I trying to convey by this note?
- Is what I’m going to play similar to or different from what I’ve just played?
- Am I going somewhere with this note or am I arriving from somewhere with this note, or is it just there by itself?
Mick Goodrick, The Advancing Guitarist, p99
Was I really supposed to answer those questions by myself?
Throw in a quote like:
Explore counterpoint and harmonic material from all above modes and scales for at least 20 years.
Mick Goodrick, The Advancing Guitarist, p37
Not exactly what an impatient beginner eager to master the guitar wants to hear.
Now, all those years later I simply have to smile because I know that 20 years of exploring counterpoint and harmony only let you realize you are scratching the surface of the surface.
But don’t get me wrong…
Mick doesn’t just ask questions or throw out somewhat flippant suggestions in his book. A ton of information is packed into the 120 pages. More than enough to keep you busy for a lifetime.
The book starts with an in-depth look at a horizontal playing approach, moving up and down individual strings at first, before combining them into what Goodrick calls “mini-positions.” This is nicely tied in with a study of intervals and modes, including melodic and harmonic minor modes.
Next are triads, 7th chords, quartal harmony, voicings, slash chords, etc… As I said, enough material to keep you busy for a really long time.
This is not a book for an absolute beginner, although it would put you on a great path. The lack of tablature might make it difficult to apply the material directly to the instrument and large parts of the book might be way over your head, at first.
So if you expect a quick-fix or a miracle, this ain’t the book for you. If you are willing to put in some elbow grease and work with the material over a longer period of time, you’ll see tremendous results.
My Personal Ritual With The Advancing Guitarist
Personally, I’ve almost created something of a ritual for myself.
At least once a year I pull out the book and skim through it. There’s always something that grabs my attention and I start working on that topic. Something that I simply did not catch, or was unable to comprehend the last time. In a way, it’s like a completely new book that’s releasing information to me as my musicality grows and I become ready to finally absorb it.
The Advancing Guitarist is a book full of wisdom that does not force anything upon you. It does not try to convert you to a certain view or push some special playing technique or gimmick.
It’s deep material for any guitarist willing to explore and experiment. The answers you’ll find will be your own and as a result more meaningful to you. You’ll always get exactly what you are ready for.
The Hair in the Soup
After reading so far you already know how positively I’m biased towards this book. Just have a look at the title of this site to confirm that suspicion. 😉
But there are 2 upgrades I think this book would deserve.
1) Visual enhancements
The “look” of the material is somewhat dry and too serious. A visual overhaul would spruce up the feel of the book and make it a tad more friendly. I’m not talking about adding a bunch of stupid pictures of great guitar players as is common in so many books to fill some pages. It’s just that re-grouping some of the information into smaller chunks and adding visually appealing tables would increase the impact even more.
2) A CD with sound examples
Granted, it’s not a “99 Essential Blues Licks” type of book, so it’s not as obvious to record an accompanying CD. But all the topics like slash chords, progression cycles, vamps, fragments and permutations could really benefit from some demo tracks with the material in use.
The Final Verdict About The Advancing Guitarist
If you are a guitarist, then you absolutely need this book in your library.
Period.
No matter what style you are into, or who you are influenced by, it simply doesn’t matter. It’s choke-full of concepts for you to explore. Just don’t expect any licks.
Even if you play another instrument you should at least check it out. Since you’ll have to adapt the material that’s presented for guitar to your own instrument, this might even deepen the realizations you’ll have about music in general.
Buy The Advancing Guitarist from AmazonDisclosure: The link is an affiliate link so I’ll get a small commission when you buy from Amazon. I would have recommended this book to you even without getting any money at all. It’s that good. But as small as the amount might be, it helps offset the costs of running this site – so thanks in advance for your support.
Your Input
Also, please leave a comment if you’ve read the book.
- What kind of impact did it have?
- What did you learn from it?
- Any other instructional books that you consider really important for any
serious musician?
It’s the book that had the most impact on my playing. Recently I had to buy the book again. My old copy literally fell apart because I used it so much.
Good review, keep it up. 🙂
Hi Mike,
My copy is getting close to falling apart as well. Now that I think about it I’m actually surprised that I’m still on my 1st copy. 😉
Thanks for the compliment. More to come soon.
I totally agree with you. When I got the book a couple of years ago, most of it was way over my head. But every time I work with the book again I discover new things. So, definitely a key purchase for me.
Hey Gary,
I admit that it was quite frustrating initially, but now I really enjoy getting The Advancing Guitarist out again for 2 reasons: 1) I love to learn something new from it (that I’m ready for now) and 2) it’s great to realize the progress I’ve made over the last few years, when today I understand chapters that years ago also were way over my head.
Thanks for stopping by and leaving your comment.
Is there a book before this that you would recommend for someone picking up the guitar again after a few years not playing but still a beginner trying to get somewhere?
Hi Dr Razor,
I just had another look through the many music and guitar method books that I collected throughout the years – and I realized that it’s quite difficult to boil things down to a single book recommendation.
Now don’t get me wrong, we are lucky that there’s tons and tons of great information in excellent books available – however, it is quite fragmented and spread out.
Initially, I was going to list various books, like here’s something for your right hand strumming, and then there’s a book for building chords, and 1 for general theory, and a few for improvising, etc…
But then I re-read your initial question again.
And while I don’t know what musical style you prefer to play or want to get into, I’d highly recommend:
1) Creative Guitar by Guthrie Govan
https://advancingmusician.com/creative-guitar-1
It is similar to the Advancing Guitarist in the sense that it also covers the “philosophy” of guitar thinking – how to approach the instrument – but maybe in an even more accessible way than Mick Goodrick.
Guthrie is a true guitar god – but unlike lots of other books by similar players, this doesn’t turn into a simple collection of shred licks or unmusical finger busters.
Creative Guitar covers the basic theory, chord voicings as well as the standard scale choices for improvising which you can apply over the added backing playbacks.
Volume 2 then continues with more advanced techniques:
https://advancingmusician.com/creative-guitar-2
As additional no-cost supplements you might also want to check out the following YouTube channels:
The Walliman Show:
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCn72qZqgRSUAO1u3T0_UeKw
Dolphinstreet:
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCj9mv6RBuvTWtVux76knqQQ
CreativeGuitarStudio:
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7vw9BHKDZhpke_mnJD4UqQ
GuitarLessons365:
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvnfBBzEizi1T5unOXNCxdQ
Dr Razor, I hope this helps.
If you have any additional questions, or you’d like to get more specific recommendations regarding a certain musical topic, feel free to ask.
Take care,
Marko
Hi Marko,
Thanks for the thorough response I’m going to take a look at Guthrie’s book right now.
I completely agree with this review. I have had this book for about 10 years and it comes out from time to time and it inspires me or sets me on the path to learn something new. It is not a “learn this riff and impress your friends” book. It is kind of like having an old guitar-playing friend who gives you some valuable advice. What you do with this advice all depends on your current playing level and understanding of music and your commitment to practicing and exploring the suggestions. Personally this is one of my top ten guitar books (and I have shelves full of music books).
Hi AJ,
“…having an old guitar-playing friend who gives you some valuable advice.” That’s a great summary of the book. Thanks for taking the time to share – and for your approval. 🙂
Take care,
Marko
Ok. Reading the reviews I have decided to give this book another go.
To help me decide full could someone please clarify example 2 page 21 for E & A strings.
It seems to be able to play the second octave intervals d & e on Adjacent strings on E & A, you will need a guitar with 24 frets?
Hello Lester,
You are probably thinking that you need a 24 fret guitar due to the high E note in the example. However, that note is to be played on the A-string – at the 19th fret. The lower note of the 2nd-octave-stack is a D, which is on the 22nd fret of your low E-string. So, you only need a guitar with 22 frets to play the exercise as suggested.
I hope this clears things up. If you have any additional questions, feel free to ask. 🙂
Take care,
Marko
This book has my most favourite quote about music – “Notes are a clever way to get from one silence to the next”
Hi Neil,
Yes, that’s a great quote. Initially, when I got started on guitar I was very much into all the technical players like Satriani, Vai and Greg Howe. The longer I’ve played the more I appreciate a good silence – and the clever ways of connecting those silences that Mick is talking about.
Thanks for the reminder and for taking the time to comment.
Take care,
Marko
My favourit book 🙂
It had a huge impact on my way of approaching the guitar / and still has.
Quite recently i did a lot of work on recording the guitar vamps from “The Advancing Guitarist”. I wanted to record them for practicing all the scales for myself – but then i cam to the idea of sharing it on youtube so that anybody can (- and i guess there are quite a few musicians who ‘d like to) use it.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLw57_LyaIcZeRSQ0f1njxxOVs5dxRUQ04
Hi Bernd,
great job on recording the guitar vamps. This will come in handy for lots of aspiring advancing guitarists. 😉
Thanks for sharing your work and making it available on YouTube.