Gateway to Guitar Improvisation: A Guitarist's Guide to the Revolutionary Fourth Note Principle (Guitar Instruction) Review

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(More customer reviews)This book is hard to get hold of. It would probably be most useful as a teaching tool in the hands of a good teacher. I can't say that it has yet improved my playing, though maybe it has.

It's purpose is to teach us to play freely while moving towards goal notes. It contrasts with, but also supplements and maybe comprehends, those methods that teach you to 'know where every note is', as for example the marvellous 'Jazz Guitar Structures' by Andrew Green.

Where most texts like Mr. Green's demand great intellectual development (I guess that's intellect called for, certainly a powerful acuity), by forcing you to always know precisely where you are in relation to the underlying chord, Mr DeCaprio's book helps you find your way to solid notes (examples starting with the 3rd and 7th), so that you can move carelessly in reaching those notes, and thus let your hands 'find their own way'.

I find 'Gateway' a guide to something very similar to good conversation... you've got to know the point you want to make, then just let your mouth take you there. If you planned everything you intended to say, you would be dull (unless you're a gifted actor); good conversation requires freshness of speech; you've got to suprise and gratify yourself if you expect to please anyone else.

I don't mean at all to suggest that Mr. Green's method (or any other method that requires the development of a great knowledge of where you are on the fretboard) will not lead to the same freedom; but that there is something natural in Mr DeCarpio's method that is almost aggravating in it's simple demand: end up somewhere right.

I can sometimes play movingly, but most times I intersperse terrible notes that cause me to lose my way. This book says: know someplace good to land, and then get there (with a metronome, in exactly four notes, for training), and if you keep doing that you will find expressive and personal (and, effectively, errorless) ways to get there.

I'd add something that Jon Herrington (touring again with Steely Dan) said on his web site: listen with open ears and play with an open heart.

Gateway will help you get there; but it is mysterious.

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Product Description:
Learn to improvise freely over any chord progression! The "Fourth Note" principle is a truly remarkable method for improvising in jazz and other genres, combining ear training, theory and technique to enable students to play with unrestricted creativity. In this book/CD pack, master guitarist Tony DeCaprio shows how to incorporate this technique using "focus notes" to anchor your playing within a chord progression through comprehensive, step-by-step instruction with examples for practical application of every new concept. The accompanying CD includes 99 full-demo tracks."A totally unique and revolutionary concept for teaching improvisation. There is nothing even remotely similar on the market. The approach is refreshing and brilliant. I highly recommend this book to both students and teachers."- Jimmy Bruno

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