The 7 Best Guitar Chord progression Books (2023 reviews)

guitar chord progression books
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We consider a guitar chord progression book to be a worthy investment in the long run. We are here to help you choose the right one for your purposes from all the best available products in market today.

Our review process:

Our Top Picks:

Best Overall:
Buy: Ted Greene Guitar Chord progression Book
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Best For intermediate:
Buy: Guitar head Guitar Chord progression Book
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Best starter Book:
Buy: Joe pass Guitar Chord progression Book
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Best For modern Guitar:
Buy: Arnie Berle Really Great Book
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Best For Chord progression:
Buy: Howard Wallach Guitar Chord progression Book
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Best For intermediate player:
Buy: Troy Nelson Guitar Chord progression Book
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Best For Learning What:
Buy: Arnie Berle Guitar Chord progression Book
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Best Overall: Ted Greene Guitar Chord progression Book

Ted Greene Guitar Chord progression Book
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This is a book written for guitarists who want to build chord vocabulary. This book stands head and shoulders above a lot of the music books today, because it has so much information in every page, and so much music in every progression. They are encyclopedic, and contain a lifetime's worth of useful material.

This book attempts to teach an art form on the guitar which is mastered by very few people. The voice leading is simply beautiful, and ted greene has a very nice, compact, visual way of displaying the progressions so that they take up very little space. They are not at all for beginners, but used as a reference or supplement to more gradual chord studies, the wisdom in this book will last you a lifetime.

If you want to build chord vocabulary, this is a great book. It does take dedication, but so does excellence at any craft.

Why We Like This:
  • An excellent companion to the chord chemistry book
  • Very well done and presented to an an advanced audience of guitar players
  • Lots of different variations of classic jazz progressions

Best For intermediate: Guitar head Guitar Chord progression Book

Guitar head Guitar Chord progression Book
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The guitar head guitar chord progression book is capable of outshining several other book featured in this list in overall features for the price point. The Guitar Head books are awesome. They are easy to read, fun to work from and very informative. It is a great book for beginner's, etc.

Why We Like This:
  • Best suited for intermediate and advanced students
  • New and hot release

Best starter Book: Joe pass Guitar Chord progression Book

Joe pass Guitar Chord progression Book
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This book illustrates how joes pass treat jazz charts or chord melody. It goes well with Ted Greene's Chord Chemistry and Modern Chord Progressions books. This is an amazing book to help build cord shapes and general guitar fluency. This book is great, goes over major / minor chords, maj7th, min7th, maj9, min9, diminished and augmented chords.

This is for more advanced guitar players who are looking to break out of the shackles of standard major/minor and blues-based chord progressions, and especially if you want to add some jazzy options to your playing. The Kindle version goes from chord fingerings with no chord names straight to chord names with no fingerings and the strumming pattern looks like, a bunch of downstrokes.

Why We Like This:
  • Lot of higher jazz concepts explained in barebones way
  • Add jazzy diversity to your playing style
  • Great ear training tool for the jazz guitarist
  • An inexpensive, accessible collection of joe pass' favorite chord inversions, substitutions, and extended phrases

Best For modern Guitar: Arnie Berle Really Great Book

Arnie Berle Really Great Book
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Best part: arnie berle really great book costs comparatively low and it is available to ship in 24 hours. If you're trying to understand the jazz basics and if you want to succeed in jazz, this book is for you. It is the best beginner book for jazz, and if you are serious about learning, you want to start with this one and then move on to the Jody Fisher "Jazz Guitar. It requires plenty of learning and good memory stretch for many chords and their inversions. It's mostly chords and ideas for inverting chords, which can be good if you're looking for that.

The book starts with open chords, and then moves into the rocker's favorite, 6 string bar chords, with plenty of examples of common progressions. It is easy to understand, and it certainly has applications outside of jazz.

Why We Like This:
  • Really recommended to beginners and intermediate ( and some advanced ) players
  • A super book for lead or rhythm guitar playing
  • One of the new comers and featured product

Best For Chord progression: Howard Wallach Guitar Chord progression Book

Howard Wallach Guitar Chord progression Book
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We know from years of feedback from readers, customers and amazon sellers, what most people want in a convenient and appropriate book. The howard wallach guitar chord progression book is exactly that - it's a simple book that hits all the right notes. If you are a total guitar beginner, this is a good book. This book has lots of common chord progressions laid out in a clear and concise manner that is easy to read and digest. It includes hundreds of chords and chord progressions in all styles in all 12 keys. The finger positions are clearly indicated and there are easy rhythm lessons to go along with each section of related chords.

The beauty of this book is that it is written by a master guitar player who has a graduate degree in music to be simple and concise so as not to discourage or overwhelming anyone into quitting. It is perfect for total beginners. The chord diagrams allow a beginner with no knowledge in reading music to know which chords are played in what order within that progression and build upon that. This is a great way to go outside of your comfort zone and explore other genres and sounds.

Why We Like This:
  • Well organized and easy to read
  • Great assist for progressions and basic knowledge of guitar
  • Delivers what they promise

Best For intermediate player: Troy Nelson Guitar Chord progression Book

Troy Nelson Guitar Chord progression Book
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The troy nelson guitar chord progression book gives the top-tier book a run for their money by offering flagship specs at a much more affordable price. Completing this course will help the beginner or intermediate guitarist with little grasp of musical theory not only to have some good progressions under their fingers, but more importantly to understand how they work. There is a brief but excellent recap (or introduction) to basic chord theory which covers the elements of how chords are constructed and how they relate to scales.

The lessons cover arpeggios, finger picking, barre chords, extended chords, tempo and key changes. This only takes a few pages, but it's very clear and covers all you need to know to complement the actual progressions taught subsequently.

Why We Like This:
  • Good investment for long term
  • Lot of satisfied buyers

Best For Learning What: Arnie Berle Guitar Chord progression Book

Arnie Berle Guitar Chord progression Book
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There are much easier ways to play a C6 chord, and they sound a lot better than this one. This booklet has some inadvertant gems of contextual theory. It is a first position chord grip that puts the dominant 7th note on the third string where it is likely to be muted because only a contortionist could play this chord grip and make every note be heard.

This book is a staring point for jazz guitar that is best if supplemented by an instruction book that explains and tells how to use the tools from this book. It is great for learning what can be done but gives no advancing information beyond that. The majority of the chord forms used in this book can be played with a modicum of effort by people who are not double. This is a great little book to start jazzing.

Why We Like This:
  • Good for learning what to do with chords you already know
  • Delivers what they promise