FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
16/02/2017
Joe Hubbard Releases Innovative New Workbook
Joe Hubbard has launched his sixth self-published book, The Chord Tone Sudoku Workbook. Hubbard, a renowned bass guitar player, author, jazz recording artist and respected educator, reveals the concept of chord tone recognition in his latest book.
With an in-depth selection of musical examples and exercises, The Chord Tone Sudoku Workbook, is one of the most complete studies of chord tones available for bass guitarists of any level. This book is more than just a method book, taking you deep inside the bass guitar fingerboard and into the world of chord tone recognition.
Understanding chord tone recognition is an essential skill to learning how to improvise spontaneously over a harmonic progression. This book will enable you to apply this concept in real-world performance scenarios, along with a deepened understanding of the theory required to master these principles once and for all!
You Will Learn to…
Resolve your lines on the right notes
Outline the chord changes so the listener will recognise the song you are playing over with no accompaniment
Familiarise yourself with all the different chord qualities
Know any chord from the root, 3rd, 5th or 7th
Unlock the fingerboard and understand what the notes are in context to different chord qualities that you are playing over
And so much more…
PRICE: £18.95 ($23 approx.)
Listen to What People are Saying:
“Thanks for sharing this great piece of knowledge. If we follow the instructions it will open up this material in multiple dimensions [relationships, recognition and simply the knowledge]. This will definitely be a 100 percenter in my daily study schedule.”
– A. Lewis
“Can’t wait to get into it!” –J. Engelbrecht
“I’d like to take the opportunity to thank you for such a great book. This is just what I’m looking for.” — D. Irish
“Being a student of Joe’s for about 3 years, I thought that I’m pretty well on chord tones. But when I started to work on exercises without bass or keys I found that I occasionally making mistakes. These exercises make me sweat and force me to think and it’s not so easy like it seems to be. So, after I completed sheet with m7b5 chord I found that I can imagine fingerboard in my head much better than before! And my note recognition better, too. So, I recommend this book for everybody who wants to improve their bass playing! – A. Basan
A complete work
I was first introduced to Joe’s Chord Tone Sudoku as three worksheets published on his website. These were great exercises you could do away from the instrument by printing them off and completing the grids: one page of twelve for Minor 7th chords, one for Dominant 7th chords, and one for Major 7th chords.
It is great to see that Joe has taken this concept to a new, and more complete level in this new book.
Joe has extended the worksheets to now cover nine chord types, but in addition to the ‘intellectual’ exercises of the grids, has added exercises for the bass which not only help to relate the grids to the bass, but considerably bolster fingerboard knowledge, and provide great ear-training.
He has done this by creating a standard rhythmic pattern for each bar of each exercise. The exercises comprise sections of four bars: one for each chord in a grid e.g. for C Minor 7 chords, one bar each of C-7, A-7, F-7, D-7.
Each section has been written as a melodic flow and, while each bar begins with the same ‘seed’ note of the grid, the exercises sound musical rather than purely mechanical,
This melodic flow is consistent throughout the exercises: this not only makes it easy to hear when you make a mistake in one group of exercises, but also helps develop your ear as you step through the chord types of each chapter: you start to hear the distinctive sound of one chord type compared to another.
Joe provides suggested fingerings for each exercise in order to maintain positional integrity on the fingerboard, and this is supplemented in the final chapter where the exercises are written out in both standard notation and tablature.
Joe grants permission to print out the worksheets for personal use, and also provides the answers in the the penultimate chapter.
To summarise, Joe has developed his Chord Tone Sudoku concepts in this book and has provided easy to follow exercises which help the student develop:
– chord tone knowledge
– knowledge of the fingerboard
– the ability to hear the distinctive sounds of each chord type.
Finally, the design of the exercises make them easy to form part of a daily practice routine, just a few minutes each day.
Usually I’m the guy in the rock or blues-ish band that knows theory. When I saw you come out with this book I thought, “Too simple for me”. But I bought it anyway as a supplement to your Bassment course. I just did the first sudoku and I did good, not too hard for me. But when I went to play the first exercise, all chords that “I know”, an interesting thing happened. I followed your instruction to say the note while playing, of course that slows it down. But some of those less common chords didn’t flow from my mouth so easily! I’m talking about the all flats chords, or where I switched from sharps to flats. Sure, all flats are a tongue twister, but I know it’s more than that. Figuring out the notes in a chord is not the same as knowing them in all sorts of inversions on the instrument. Buy this book even if you think you know your chords!
Please forgive me, but I’m not sure if comprehended the numbers suggestions for the suggested fingerings ( 0 4 2 etc). Can someone please assist me, I need clarification. Thanks in advance
Hi Larry
These are standard left-hand fingerings. Each number represents each finger of the left-hand. Zero (0), represents the open string.
If you are unsure about this, go to the tablature section of the book for fingering clarification.
Best
Joe
Hi Joe,
I bought your book and started to do the exercises. It’s great.
One question from this beginner:
Is there a logic in choosing one enharmonic note over the other? Or doesn’t it matter which one of two enharmonics I choose to write in the sudoku-boxes?
Thanks for your reply in advance
No- it matters! You need to have a good working knowledge of intervals before working through Chord Tone Sudoku, so you’ll understand the chord formulas.
Best
Joe