Shapes and patterns are widely used in teaching the guitar, be it for scales, chords, or arpeggios. This book takes a novel and different approach to the guitar fretboard, emphasising an intervallic thought process. Moving away from shapes and patterns, this knowledge of intervals on the fretboard and its geometric properties leads to an intelligent choice of notes based on their harmonic function. Praised by guitar greats Brent Mason, Biréli Lagrène, Brett Garsed, as well as Jimmy Brown (Guitar World) and Prof. Richard Smith (USC), Intervallic Fretboard demonstrates the versatility of intervallic thinking in various music genres and playing styles.Accompanying CD/audio is available separately (see website).– www.intervallicfretboard.com –

3NPS (three-note-per-string) scales, as used by legions of guitarists but popularized mainly by Joe Satriani, are one of the most efficient ways to navigate the fretboard and get your scales down IF you follow the guidelines in this book. As the name suggests, a 3NPS scale is any scale that contains three notes on each string, and as you'll see in this eBook, this makes for a very consistent way to map out scales on the guitar fretboard. What we’ve done here is revamped the 3NPS scale system and turned it into an incredibly effective means to learn a wide variety of scales all over the fretboard by streamlining the number of patterns, as well as the picking system. This is not a scale theory book, and contains no pentatonic scales. This is a quick and dirty (and very effective) method for learning 3NPS scales all over the fretboard; something to work on in the woodshed. It will improve your picking technique and speed. It does not require a great amount of thinking as you only need to learn two picking patterns, which is really one in two directions, and only three scale patterns instead of the usual seven per scale.

If you ask anyone who's been playing guitar for a while how to turn scales into solos, you'll likely get a variety of answers. They'll tell you to learn licks, work on your arpeggios, even learn your favorite players' solos note for note. While this is all good advice, I've had some particularly stubborn students that wanted to go beyond that; they wanted to be able to improvise using any scale up and down the fretboard, but at the same time break free from those deeply-ingrained scalar lines and patterns. It was then that I suggested the zonal approach to improvisation; by working in reduced areas of the neck with specifically designed patterns, they were soon able to create melodic, flowing lines that didn't sound at all like scales--they sounded like real music! This is the approach you'll find in this book. We dissect 15 of the most common scales, beyond the pentatonics, and break them down into zones which can be practiced either by scale, or for any particular scale across the fretboard. The objective of this book then is to provide a structured reference to make the transition from playing scales to playing, improvising and creating musical lines when soloing. It’s aimed at the intermediate to advanced guitarist looking to be able to improvise confidently and freely on the instrument in a wide variety of styles. It is also aimed at guitarists that want to move beyond rote pentatonic/blues soloing and incorporate other scales and modes into their playing, as well as building up a vocabulary to solo fluently over chord changes.

In this remarkable book, Carl Verheyen teaches his philosophy and techniques for improvising. Rather than hashing out scales, Carl teaches how to play lines with strong melodic content. By approaching melodies through intervals and chord qualities, infinite lines can be generated. Carl stresses the importance of collecting lines that can be used in improvised settings. These lines and examples will provide outstanding material for any guitarist yearning for melodic ideas and inspiration. Presented in standard notation and tab.

General Reference

Learn modern jazz guitar and theory with virtuoso Jens Larsen

The premise of Kitharologus is that Guitar technique is made up of a limited number of procedures with an unlimited number of applications. Therefore, a sound technical methodology is not one that tries to cover all possible forms of a given procedure, but rather one that identifies and trains the essential mechanism which makes the procedure, in all its forms, possible. Covering all grades from novice to expert, this book is certain to be enthusiastically embraced by any classical guitarist wishing to maximize his technique.

Have you ever seen those guitarists that sound like they know exactly what they’re doing when they’re improvising? They just seem to hit all the right notes while their playing sounds crisp and melodic, as if they’d planned it all out beforehand, or were born with a God-given sense of melody. I’d always wondered how on earth they were able to come up with such melodic and flowing lines, thinking that they must simply be gifted, or have done some serious woodshedding. Then, during one unforgettable class at music college the door was opened to a method for playing and thinking as melodically and as effortlessly as they did, and this is what I want to share with you in this eBook.

Guitarists face a sometimes overwhelming number of choices as to where to play a given note or phrase and what fingering to use. While a given fingering for a scale or phrase may be possible, it may not be practical. In this book, jazz guitarist Jimmy Bruno lays out six fingerings for the major scales which he has found to be the most efficient in his thirty years of professional playing. These patterns are then used to derive fingerings for the dorian mode, mixolydian mode, natural minor, harmonic minor, and melodic minor scales. Illustrations are provided in notation and tablature with fretboard diagrams aiding visualization. By using these fingerings consistently, the guitarist will eliminate all unnecessary fingerings and remove a major obstacle to his or her development as a musician.