Mick Goodrick

It’s an understatement to call Mick Goodrick one of the giants of jazz guitar and jazz guitar teaching.

I was lucky enough to study with Mick in 2005, in his last semester before he went on sabbatical. First indications weren’t great - I remember him starting a small alarm clock on his desk as I walked in the door, he expressed great surprise that I was there for a lesson with him in my first semester at Berklee, and then gruffly demanded “what took you so long?” “and what’s wrong with studying in Europe?”

Once the ice had been broken, he was as inspiring as everyone says - I used to practically run down downstairs to the cafe after each lesson to write down everything I could possibly remember, all the words of wisdom in response to my questions (of which there many… I wish sometimes I’d just stayed quite and let him teach me what he thought I needed!)

By the end of the semester, he was talking about his mother, showing me pictures of her and inviting me to pop in anytime at lunchtime to say hello the following semester (which I never had the courage to do, sadly).

I continue to think about what he taught me in person, and in his books The Advancing Guitarist, Mr Goodchord’s Almanacs of Voice-leading etc, and I listen to his music regularly.

A deep, wonderful musician, teacher and human being. Thank you Mick.

In conclusion, just to mention that though the Voice-leading Almanacs are long out-of-print, you can download them in PDF form here (this is an official site, set up by a friend of Mick's after he passed away): https://modernguitarharmony.com/2023/06/03/the-mick-goodrick-almanacs/