A JAZZ GUITAR BOOK FOR GUITARISTS LOOKING TO UNDERSTAND THE POWER OF UPPER VOICINGS At over three hundred and sixty pages, Upper Structures, Synonyms & Slash Voicings For Jazz Guitar takes a wide ranging and in-depth look at the subject of upper voicings and their application with respect to the guitar. Slash voicings and synonyms are also cover in great detail with numerous examples showing how these musical concepts connect and work om individual examples both played and explained in text and narration, to lick ideas and then full blown solos, this book covers a huge amount of material that will help you understand how upper structures work. WHAT LEVEL OF GUITAR PLAYER SHOULD CONSIDER THIS BOOK? This book is aimed at experienced guitar players and will act as a practical reference and technical guide for players, teachers, educationalists and music conservatoires. With hundreds of musical examples, chord progressions, music and chord diagrams, lick ideas and solo examples as well as in depth theoretical explanation, this book is a must for every aspiring jazz and contemporary guitarist. SECTION ONE - FOUR CHAPTERS INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING TOPICS: Stacking Chords, Chord formulae, Chord extension & alteration, Triads as upper structures, Pseudo scales, Inferring altered dominants, Generating chords across the neck, Chord & line superimposition, Voice leading, Vagrant harmony, Inferring altered dominants, Single line solo ideas, Tri-tones & flat five concepts, Chromatic movement, Deconstructing altered dominants, Synonyms, Movable solo lines, Cascading chords, Motif development, Sidestep line movement. SECTION TWO: A three chapter lick library of 70 original lick ideas that demonstrate each upper structure voicing category. All licks are offered in mp3 format as well as including narration from the author on the points of interest and technical challenges of the line. Each lick is provided in musical and TAB notation. Every chord type includes arpeggio patterns across the fretboard with large format easy to view chords included with each lick example. SECTION THREE: Three chapters offering original jazz guitar solo examples over three well known jazz standard progressions. Full analysis from a comparative, melodic and harmonic viewpoint is included. Solos are fully notated in music and TAB with chords provided in large easy to view format. SUPPORTING DOWNLOAD Over one and a half hours of mp3 files included. Section 1 music examples, Section 2 demonstration licks with author's technical narration and Section 3 which includes complete solo demonstrations as well as a wide range of backing tracks for you to practice over the three included sequences. There are one hundred and sixty nine mp3 files in total.

GUITAR EXAM EXERCISE BOOK INTRODUCTION For guitarists looking to further their playing technique and/or who are preparing for ABRSM, Trinity, Guildhall or indeed any classical/fingerstyle guitar exam, this book is for you. Created by virtuoso guitarist and conservatoire lecturer James Akers, this guitar manual has been created to help players develop their technique to help ensure performing success, not least in the preparation for grade exams. The exercises and studies in this book are graded to correspond to the technical demands required of each grade from 1 to 5, in both classical and acoustic guitar syllabuses. A section with more advanced techniques is included towards the end of the book. Instructions, including fingerings and tips for success are included. All examples are given in both staff notation and TAB. Although largely corresponding to the various grading systems available, this book can be used by anyone as a means of improving their guitar technique. BOOK CONTENT 85 exercises & 16 studies grade 1 to grade 5 and beyond covering: GRADE 1 - The exercises for grade 1 are intended to help the guitarist in the early stages of their development build up their finger strength, improve their coordination, tone production, speed, and accuracy. GRADE 2 - The exercises for Grade 2 extend and consolidate the ideas introduced in Grade 1, providing more material to allow the evolving guitarist to improve their technique in a systematic way. GRADE 3 - New techniques are introduced, including slurs, (or hammer-ons and pull-offs) and natural harmonics. In addition, as well as exercises, there are several specially composed study pieces, in a variety of styles, to allow the techniques learned so far to be practised in a more musical context. GRADE 4 - Common descending arpeggio pattern across three strings, 4 note chords using all right-hand fingers, multiple slurs, or hammer-ons and pull-offs, in various finger combinations including open strings and multiple fretted notes, the half-barre technique for the left hand. GRADE 5 - Ascending arpeggio patterns, speed & rhythmic pattern exercises, left hand workouts with repeated patterns, mixed ascending/descending slur patterns, full barre technique BEYOND GRADE 5 - Tremelo technique, natural harmonics in exercise and within a study. STUDIES Sixteen original studies are provided for grades 3 onwards: GRADE 3 - Six studies individually demonstrating various left hand finger combinations, two part chordal textures, three part chords, ascending slur and hammer on techniques, GRADE 4 - Four studies individually demonstrating arpeggio playing, three and four part chordal performance, half barre in a musical context, ascending and descending slurs, playing in complex time signatures, introducing natural harmonics. GRADE 5 AND BEYOND - Six studies individually demonstrating arpeggio playing, slur exploration, speed study, thick textured chordal playing, tremelo study, artificial harmonics in melodic scenario. DOWNLOAD All exercises and studies have been recorded by James Akers and are included as a free download to accompany this book. Details of how to access the free download are detailed within the publication.

A collection of some of the most well known songs from Scotland arranged for guitar by internationally renowned Scottish guitarist James Akers. Each song is offered at beginner, intermediate and advanced levels. The songs included in this book of Scottish folk songs are as follows: Ae Fond Kiss Ca' the Yowes Comin' Thro' the Rye Green Grow the Rashes I Once Loved a Lass My Love is Like a Red, Red Rose Neil Gow's Lament for the Death of his Second Wife The Bluebells of Scotland Flowers o' the Forest The Skye Boat Song Wild Mountain Thyme Ye Bank and Braes o' Bonnie Doon All songs are notated in both music and guitar TAB notation; if you cannot read music, you can still play all of the songs offered in this book. The advanced arrangements have been arranged in a style based around the work of contemporary folk guitarists like Tony McManus, Stephen Wake and Ian Melrose. In this style, traditional melodies are combined with elements from other genres. To complement this title, a special free download has been created which includes a PDF of all the chords (in full color) and the lyrics for the beginner versions. Details on how to get the download are within the book. Without doubt, James Akers has created a book of music that can be used by an individual guitar player on their own or with a guitar teacher from beginner to advanced. If you love Scotland, and you love guitar, then this is the book for you.

A JAZZ GUITAR BOOK FOR GUITARISTS LOOKING TO UNDERSTAND THE POWER OF UPPER VOICINGS At over three hundred and sixty pages, Upper Structures, Synonyms & Slash Voicings For Jazz Guitar takes a wide ranging and in-depth look at the subject of upper voicings and their application with respect to the guitar. Slash voicings and synonyms are also cover in great detail with numerous examples showing how these musical concepts connect and work together. From individual examples both played and explained in text and narration, to lick ideas and then full blown solos, this book covers a huge amount of material that will help you understand how upper structures work. WHAT LEVEL OF GUITAR PLAYER SHOULD CONSIDER THIS BOOK? This book is aimed at experienced guitar players and will act as a practical reference and technical guide for players, teachers, educationalists and music conservatoires. With hundreds of musical examples, chord progressions, music and chord diagrams, lick ideas and solo examples as well as in depth theoretical explanation, this book is a must for every aspiring jazz and contemporary guitarist. SECTION ONE - FOUR CHAPTERS INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING TOPICS: Stacking Chords, Chord formulae, Chord extension & alteration, Triads as upper structures, Pseudo scales, Inferring altered dominants, Generating chords across the neck, Chord & line superimposition, Voice leading, Vagrant harmony, Inferring altered dominants, Single line solo ideas, Tri-tones & flat five concepts, Chromatic movement, Deconstructing altered dominants, Synonyms, Movable solo lines, Cascading chords, Motif development, Sidestep line movement. SECTION TWO: A three chapter lick library of 70 original lick ideas that demonstrate each upper structure voicing category. All licks are offered in mp3 format as well as including narration from the author on the points of interest and technical challenges of the line. Each lick is provided in musical and TAB notation. Every chord type includes arpeggio patterns across the fretboard with large format easy to view chords included with each lick example. SECTION THREE: Three chapters offering original jazz guitar solo examples over three well known jazz standard progressions. Full analysis from a comparative, melodic and harmonic viewpoint is included. Solos are fully notated in music and TAB with chords provided in large easy to view format. SUPPORTING DOWNLOAD Over one and a half hours of mp3 files included. Section 1 music examples, Section 2 demonstration licks with author's technical narration and Section 3 which includes complete solo demonstrations as well as a wide range of backing tracks for you to practice over the three included sequences. There are one hundred and sixty nine mp3 files in total.

The Jazzomat Research Project takes up the challenge of jazz research in the age of digitalisation. It intends to open up a new field of analytical exploration by providing computational tools as well as a comprehensive corpus of improvisations with MeloSpyGUI and the Weimar Jazz Database. This volume presents the main concepts and approaches of the ongoing project including several case studies that demonstrate how these approaches can be included in jazz analysis in various ways.

This book provides discussion and exercises for the use of three-note voicings in jazz guitar. The book also includes some four and five-note voicings. Includes chapters on shell voicings, walking guitar, triad pairs, quartal and secundal harmony, and more. With an introduction.

(Guitar Collection). If you're new to jazz guitar, you are probably eager to learn some songs. This book provides chord-melody style arrangements in standard notation and tab for the most popular songs jazz guitarists like to play. This accessible collection of must-know jazz hits include: All the Things You Are * Body and Soul * Don't Get Around Much Anymore * Fly Me to the Moon (In Other Words) * The Girl from Ipanema (Garota De Ipanema) * I Got Rhythm * Laura * Misty * Night and Day * Satin Doll * Summertime * When I Fall in Love * and more.

Improvisation is the art of composing in the moment with freedom of expression.Do you feel like you're learning non-stop and getting nowhere, trying to put all the vast theory and exercises together to make it work and sound great, but your jazz lines are still not coming together and you're constantly overthinking everything when you really just want to play? ? The Master Arpeggio System for Jazz Improvisation (MAS4JI) teaches you just 10 master arpeggios and how to use them in 10 simple steps to help you generate endless jazz lines for massive gains with minimal effort.? Learn how to improvise using triads and arpeggios, target tones and voice leading, quartal arpeggios, pentatonic scales, superimposition, chromaticism, side-slipping, tri-tone substitution and more without all the endless exercises and complex music theory using an innovative method that's easy to learn and apply.? Play with your intuition without paying the high costs of tuition; MAS4JI is designed to fast-track guitarists to playing and improvising sophisticated jazz lines as fast as possible using simplicity to generate complexity.? So much time and effort can be invested in the intensive learning process with relatively little results. MAS4JI is the shortcut through the forest that you can take without wandering down the wrong path and getting lost. ? MAS4JI is versatile and can be easily applied to blues, rock, metal, progressive, fusion, and jam band playing styles to bring new dimensions of expression to your solos! Remember, the music came first and all the analysis and theory came later to describe what's happening. The Master Arpeggio System for Jazz Improvisation distills the intricate language of jazz lines into one you can speak comfortably so you can play now, think later.

(Guitar Book). Lead sheets for 200 jazz standards, including the melodies, chord symbols and professionally arranged guitar chord diagrams for each song. Songs include: All the Things You Are * At Last * Beyond the Sea * Come Sunday * Desafinado * Embraceable You * A Fine Romance * The Girl from Ipanema (Garota De Ipanema) * I'll Be Seeing You * I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm * In the Mood * It Could Happen to You * Just in Time * A Kiss to Build a Dream On * Lazy River * Love Me or Leave Me * Mack the Knife * Moon River * My Foolish Heart * My Way * The Nearness of You * On a Slow Boat to China * Pennies from Heaven * Satin Doll * Sentimental Journey * Stardust * A Sunday Kind of Love * Tea for Two * Time After Time * When Sunny Gets Blue * Witchcraft * You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To * and many more.

“Steve Swayne’s How Sondheim Found His Sound is a fascinating treatment and remarkable analysis of America’s greatest playwright in song. His marvelous text goes a long way toward placing Stephen Sondheim among the towering artists of the late twentieth century!” —Cornel West, Princeton University “Sondheim’s career and music have never been so skillfully dissected, examined, and put in context. With its focus on his work as composer, this book is surprising and welcome.” —Theodore S. Chapin, President and Executive Director, The Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization “. . . an intriguing ‘biography’ of the songwriter’s style. . . . Swayne is to be congratulated for taking the study of this unique composer/lyricist into hitherto unnavigated waters.” —Stage Directions “The research is voluminous, as are the artistry and perceptiveness. Swayne has lived richly within the world of Sondheim’s music.” —Richard Crawford, author of America’s Musical Life: A History “Amid the ever-more-crowded bookshelf of writings on Sondheim, Swayne’s analysis of Sondheim’s development as a composer stands up as a unique and worthy study. . . . For the Sondheim aficionados, there are new ideas and new information, and for others, Swayne’s How Sondheim Found His Sound will provide an intriguing introduction into the mind of arguably the greatest and most influential living Broadway composer.” —talkinbroadway.com “What a fascinating book, full of insights large and small. An impressive analysis and summary of Sondheim’s many sources of inspiration. All fans of the composer and lovers of Broadway in general will treasure and frequently refer to Swayne’s work.” —Tom Riis, Joseph Negler Professor of Musicology and Director of the American Music Research Center, University of Colorado Stephen Sondheim has made it clear that he considers himself a “playwright in song.” How he arrived at this unique appellation is the subject of How Sondheim Found His Sound—an absorbing study of the multitudinous influences on Sondheim’s work. Taking Sondheim’s own comments and music as a starting point, author Steve Swayne offers a biography of the artist’s style, pulling aside the curtain on Sondheim’s creative universe to reveal the many influences—from classical music to theater to film—that have established Sondheim as one of the greatest dramatic composers of the twentieth century.