Charlie Parker for Guitar-Voepel

[Bach5G]

I was in the LMS the other day, trying to decide between the Charlie Parker Omnibook with online access ($55) and without ($45), when Charlie Parker for Guitar by Mark Voepel caught my eye. $15. 18 tunes but all the tunes I was interested in. I’m not sure why it was so inexpensive as I see it sells for $35 elsewhere.

First impressions: Nicely laid out, standard notation and tab. Some commentary and analysis which might interest some. Useful for fingerings. Accuracy could be suspect as I’ve noticed an error in the head of Billie’s Bounce, the first tune I looked at.

A steal at $15 CDN (about $10 US).

[PMB]

If you're talking about the Eb in bar 1, that's actually correct. Voelpel's book's transcriptions are the most accurate out there and the introductory chapter provides an excellent overview of Parker's linear devices. His fingerings and positional choices are generally sound although the lines are transcribed in the original register as played on alto sax. That means that they mostly sit up around higher frets on the guitar. Transposing certain tunes down the octave or even into another key is an option worth considering.

Another option is this revised version of the Omnibook (the original is almost 50 years old!). I don't have a copy but it looks good from the samples:

Charlie Parker's 60 Melodies & Solos by Parker, Charlie, Van Bebber, Michael - qPress

[Bach5G]

That’s exactly the note I was referring to LOL!

[Average Joe]

I've mentioned it before: When I tried to break into jazz after playing pop/rock for decades the Parker for Guitar book was super helpful in making me make headway into the language. In lieu of a teacher, a teacher might have been better, but wasn't an option for sundry reasons. The Voepel book helped me translate language to the fretboard

[dasein]

It is one of a very small handful of books that I think are essential for a jazz guitarist.

Can you transcribe this material yourself? Sure. But in my experience, players coming from rock/blues/metal/bluegrass backgrounds really struggle going from mostly diatonic music written for the guitar to bebop. Not to mention the difficulties just hearing it.

Voelpel's transcriptions are not only very accurate, but the fingerings are very smart. With more experience you can alter them to your liking, but they're a fantastic starting point. Working through it will teach you how to play this language in a guitaristic way. It would be a fantastic compliment to all the Barry Harris material.

In fact, I would suggest this book before something like The Advancing Guitarist. All of Mick's books are fantastic, but they are for guitarists who can already play really well.