Develop your Vocabulary Without Limitations
You can create endless possibilities
Review
This book from Isaac Negrene is out of the ordinary. For guitarists, there is an abundance of online lessons available, often for free. So, the question is when should someone spend their hard earned money on a book? Well, This is one of those times.
In Isaac’s new book, he shares out of the box, across the fretboard lines that are VERY DIFFICULT to play but extremely rewarding. These lines use large intervals, legato playing and unconventional fingerings to get more modern sounds. You know, the kind of stuff you hear people like Lage Lund, Mike Moreno, Jonathan Kreisberg, Ben Monder play – that kind of stuff. Cool, difficult, modern and interesting stuff.
I particularly love how he gave nick names to each of the 20 examples. ‘Monster Line Connection’, ‘Spread Fingers’ and ‘Confusion’ should give you an idea of what’s in store. Also, the fragments section at the beginning of the book is helpful for those who want to work in small bite size ideas before trying out the difficult longer full examples.
If you’re a music college student, this is your food. If you’re a contemporary guitarist looking to get new ideas into your playing, this is the real stuff. Like I said, these lines are hard – but man, they sound so good (when you can play them). I’m particularly excited that Isaac has foreshadowed in the introduction of the book that this is the first of 4 volumes that he’s planning to release. There’s more to come!
In conclusion, if you like modern jazz sounds – this is a great book to get.
Pros: Lots of challenging Lines, clearly notated with fingering and pick directions. Audio and video demonstrations useful to hear the lines in context.
Cons: None
TLDR: If you want great sounding challenging modern jazz lines to play on guitar, this is a great book to get.
Az Samad
About me
Isaac Negrene was born in Brazil. At the age of 16, he heard some of his friends playing Brazilian popular music, and that was the main trigger for his interest in learning guitar.
Isaac studied harmony and improvisation at UFRN (Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte) with guitarist Manoca Barreto. Soon after finishing the course, Isaac became a busy recording artist, producer, and sideman. This helped him to develop an eclectic and original style, moving through various musical genres with ease.
He has performed in venues like New Morning (Paris), Ronnie Scott's (London), MC Theater - Paradiso (Amsterdam), Pretol Club (Antwerp - Belgium), Rockstore (Montpellier - France), Espaço Brasil (Lisbon - Portugal), among other presentations in theaters and jazz festivals in Buenos Aires (Argentina), Montevideo and Mercerdes (Uruguay), Bogota (Colombia), Madrid and Zaragoza (Spain).
As a sideman, he worked with renowned artists like: Ed Motta, Elza Soares, Chico Cezar, Claudio Zoli, Toni Garrido, Tony Tornado, Pee Wee Ellis (James Brown), Guida de Palma (Portugual), Jesuton and Heidi Vogel (England).