Music Faculty Jake Hertzog Authors New Innovative Text on Guitar

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Jake Hertzog

Jake Hertzog, instructor of guitar in the Department of Music at the University of Arkansas' J. WIlliam Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, has just released a new book called Guitar SFX with Hal Leonard, the world's largest educational music publisher.

The book is co-authored with Ueli Dörig, creator of the SFX series that includes Saxophone SFX (Berklee Press) and Trumpet SFX (Berklee Press). The book focuses on techniques and methods of sound creation with guitars, amplifiers, effects, and studio equipment, designed for the beginner to the advanced musician.

The text includes 83 audio tracks demonstrating techniques and methods as well as musical études and practice drills.

"The landscape of the modern guitar is so vast that we hope this book will prove a great resource for guitarists, composers, educators, and enthusiasts alike," Hertzog said. "It aims to collect a large amount of information in a user-friendly format that musicians can easily incorporate into their playing." 

The demonstration tracks were recorded in Fayetteville, Arkansas at East Hall Studios by Chris Moore.

Hertzog has authored over 30 instructional articles on jazz and jazz guitar for the magazine Guitar Player as part of his series "Hey Jazz Guy." His discography as a bandleader includes nine albums ranging from jazz to classical to rock. Guitar SFX marks Hertzog's first book project and first collaboration with Hal Leonard.

Hertzog joined the University of Arkansas Department of Music in 2016 where he teaches guitar, jazz improvisation, and directs the UA R&B ensemble and songwriters ensemble.

The new book is available online. It will also be sold in select music retailers nationally and internationally.

ABOUT JAKE HERTZOG

Jake Hertzog is a critically acclaimed guitarist, composer, and educator whose career to-date has spanned nine albums as bandleader across jazz, rock and classical new music styles. He has toured throughout the U.S., Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and India and performed and recorded with a diverse cadre of artists including Randy Brecker, Ivan Neville, Mike Clarke, Blondie Chaplin, Anton Fig, Corey Glover, Barry Altschul, Dave Leibman, Ingrid Jensen and many others.

Hertzog's many projects have included the Jake Hertzog Trio with Harvie S and Victor Jones — a jazz/rock group that has released five albums to wide acclaim and radio success and headlined venues such as The Blue Note in New York and Salo Jazz Festival in Finland. Hertzog's rock group "The Young Presidents" has been featured on Vh1 and MTV as well as radio stations around the world. He also produced a documentary film about the making of their album "Coalition," in collaboration with Grammy-winning producer Rob Fraboni (Rolling Stones, The Band).

Most recently, Hertzog released "Well Lit Shadow" (2016), a classical suite for solo electric guitar celebrating themes and images in particle physics. Another of his classical projects, "Stringscapes" for two guitars, was partially premiered in New York in 2016 and is set for recording later this year co-featuring guitarist Yishai Fischer.

For three years, Hertzog was musical director and lead guitarist for Nickelodeon's The Naked Brothers Band stars, Nat and Alex Wolff. They headlined two major national tours and performed on national television shows including Good Morning America, The View, Nickelodeon's Kids Choice Awards and The Today Show.

Hertzog is a grand prize winner of the Montreux Jazz Guitar Competition, holds a performance degree from Berklee College of Music and a master's degree from The Manhattan School of Music in New York.

ABOUT HAL LEONARD

Hal Leonard Corporation is the world's largest educational music publisher, with the #1 methods for learning guitar (the Hal Leonard Guitar Method), piano (the Faber Piano Method), and school music instruments (Essential Elements for Band and Strings), plus publications for learning virtually every instrument imaginable. In its catalog of more than 220,000 available titles, Hal Leonard represents many of the world's best known and most respected publishers, artists, songwriters, arrangers, and musical instrument manufacturers. Its products are sold in more than 65 countries throughout the world through Hal Leonard offices and a large network of distributors. Domestically, the company markets to more than 7,500 music stores in the United States and Canada through a team of 50 in-house sales representatives.