good chord/fundamental books?

[Pfreak]

I need some help with my chords and fundamentals.  What chord books are good for warm-up, learning chords (obviously), learning arpeggios, etc.  Any help is appreciated. Thanks!  (If you give me a book that you can buy online, please give me a link!)

Pfreak

[Pfreak]

soooooo................NONE of you guys practice your chords??  Hmmmm.............Interesting!

[Greg_Fodrea]

No response, eh?  Bummer!  I use Bastien's "Scales, Chords, & Arpeggios" with my beginner students to teach roots, 1sts, 2nds, & scales and arpeggios.  As for more "interesting" chords, I'm not a big fan of the traditional theory books I've read.  I rely a lot on "The Jazz Book" and other jazz resources for the theory behind chords.  They're more practical.  Hope this helps a little!

[bernhard]

I do not really use any books to practise chords. I simply work from any piece I am currently working on. This basically means:

i.      Recognising and naming the chords.
ii.      Learning how to play the chord (best fingering, best movement, etc.)
iii.      Understanding the chord progressions, that is, why the composer used the particular chord progression/voicing at each point in the piece.

Item (i) can be best accomplished by learning (and playing everyday) all the major chords, all the minor chords, all the seventh chords, all the diminished chords, all the augmented chords, all the augmented 7th chords, all the diminished seventh chords, all the sixth chords, and all the sus4 chords. Do these 8 basic chords in all inversions (voicings). Do them chromatically and also following the cycle of fifths. If you are completely new to all this, do one kind of chord at a time (e.g. major) and once you know them back to front add the next kind of chord (e.g. minor) and so on and so forth. To do the whole set should take maybe 10 minutes. Once you can do it, you do not need to do it anymore, just apply your knowledge to any piece you are working on, and make a habit of always identifying the chords you are playing. It is like learning the alphabet. Once you know it, you do not need to practise it anymore, you simply use your knowledge of the alphabet when reading. Any of the books that Greg_Fodrea mentioned should do the trick. This is the easy part.

Item (ii) – by just playing the chords in chromatic sequence and following the cycle of fifths as I suggested above you will already get the “playing” practice. And then by playing pieces you will also get the same sort of practice.

Item (iii) is the most difficult, mostly because the majority of Harmony books is so dreary ( I am also not a fan of the usual harmony books). However, here are two exceptions that I find perfect for understanding how it all works:

Harmonic Experience: Tonal Harmony from Its Natural Origins to Its Modern Expression - by  W. A. Mathieu

Understanding Harmony - by R. L. Jacobs

Best wishes,
Bernhard