Colin Cosimini Books

jimmy

Hi,

This is my first post.

I'm trying to learn more songs and Gypsy chords. The Colin Cosimini books on this site seem interesting. What's the opinion on these? Are they worth it? 50 songs per book seems like a pretty good deal.

-Jimmy

Jack

Hi, Jimmy, and welome aboard.

For me, the Cosimini books were an enormous bargain-provided you're not looking for any of the melodies. You can see a sample page from one of the books here:
http://www.cosimini.co.uk/page12.html

The great thing about these books is that they introduce you to many of the shapes and positions used in the style that you might not think of if you just saw a standard chart. I would say that having a bit of chord theory under your belt will be a big help in understanding why Colin is doing some of what he's doing; some of the charts may seem overstuffed with changes at first, but if you dig a bit deeper, you can spend all sorts of time picking apart what he's done, and you'll end up with a solid grounding in chord theory.

A bargain!
Best,
Jack.
(There's another thread around here about these, too, if you want to read more.)

Bob Holo

They're wonderful books - they may be a bargain, but they are expensive. I took the plunge and bought all 3 with the CDs and though it was expensive I'd have to say it was worth it. It is a significant investment though.

The CDs do not have full songs - they go through the chorus / bridge once and end. However, the CD tracks are very instructive from the standpoint of strumming; the guy has great rhythm chops and his tracks will give you a feel for what he's putting into the (right hand / left hand) to get that authentic sound. I was speaking with a friend recently who said that there are also jam tracks available for ~$20/CD. So - bottom line, the three books with chord CDs and Jam tracks will be just north of $200 if I'm doing the math properly.

The books do not have lead lines / heads / etc.. but they do have chord structures and are very interesting.

In general I like the chord structures as much as I like Greg Ruby's chord structures

In general, I like the chord strucutres more than I like the RNT chord structures.

Some of the songs are in different keys than the Ruby & RNT books.

You should also take a look at Horowitz' rhythm books. I don't think he's launched them yet, but I've taken his classes and the material and changes he gets into are dead-on authentic. A bit of a warning - the "thumbover" chords hurt like hell - especially if you have stubby hands like mine. (hands of a drummer, heart of a guitarist)