Chord Tone Soloing: A Guitarist's Guide to Melodic Improvising in Any Style (Musicians Institute: Private Lessons)

I wish I had discovered this book a long time ago as it is the real starting point for anyone after learning open and barre chords.I am now actually learning chords, scales, keys, and how to improvise - I’m learning to play the guitar. I now know all the fretboard notes and can transpose from one key to another.The system is so easy after you’ve learnt the key fretboard notes of the 6th, 5th and 4th strings and on only the 3rd, 5th, 7th and 10th frets, as then you can navigate the whole fretboard which is an essential skill.David Mead's system starts with dropping CAGED system letters for the numbers 1,2,3,4&5 and then the scale notes for 1(root), 2,3,4,5,6&7. Then things actually start to happen because it is now simple patterns and everything is put in such an excellently simple way and with a common reference; instead of learning the notes for each scale, one learns the number of each note within the scale and their intervals. Now you can immediate count out all five scale patterns on the fretboard. The website for the session tracks is also great, with the ability to loop the session where you want the drums and rhythm and then pan the lead out so you can play over it.This book is only 118 pages and cost me £12.00 but it is a complete teaching system, even outlining how to practice, what to practice and a little psychology on why to stick within your practice session each day and why not to go over it.I began guitar by trying to learn, on the cheap. I would try very hard to learn my favourite songs from tab; pink floyd, Metallica, smashing pumpkins, white stripes.Firstly, I was only ever able to play parts of songs. Also, even what I could play made no sense and was difficult. I did not ‘feel’ the notes and I had no idea how to improvise. I could not even strum over any random song.I was really thinking I would give up because it was not fun and if this was learning, I could not see where the ‘freedom’ of expression was - I was beginning to hate guitar.Luckily, I found the Justin Guitar theory course which introduced the CAGED system. I investigated this and, through another excellent theory site cagedguitarsystem dot net, a recommendation for this book was made and I am so excited now that I’ve made so much progress but more that I’m learning how to express myself with a guitar. I’m not playing my favourite songs yet but I’ve got a fantastic hobby now that is rewarding, truly creative and is starting to sound like I know what I’m doing - I can actually rock out too.I know we're not all the same. I can only share my experience of this book from what I want to get our of it, which is to understand music and be able to play it on guitar. I do not want to study classical or read music. I just want to rock to a backing track and now I understand the time involved to develop the skills and have a real achievable plan for getting there and it is because of David Mead and this book.Thank you David Mead. Because of you, I've stopped watching impossible guitar how-to YouTube videos and have made more progress in 1 week than in the entire year.

It's said that decades ago, most jazz players would build their solos on chords and the tones within them. That nowadays plpayers take a scale note approach and build solos from playing the 'right' scales over the chord harmony. In fact either way works well and as a teacher I get all my students to apporach soloing both ways becuaes they seem to get different results and sounds.This is the best book I've found for concentrating on chord tones and building solos around them. You'll end up with very musical, smooth solos that your audience will appreciate. If you're a rock and blues player, you'll end up with solos that sound like Mark Knopfler or Gary Moore and you'll find yourself getting away from running up and down penatonic and blues scales and discovering a whole new world of soloing out there.Everyone taking this approach needs to know their scales and chors so here's a couple of suggestions. the best scales book I know is Jimmy Brunos and he has a DVD and a book that goes through his approach.Jimmy Bruno, No Nonsense Jazz Guitar [DVD]Six Essential Fingerings for the Jazz Guitarist (Jimmy Bruno Jazz Guitar)There's a nice support book from Hal Leonard - not work a book but more reference material for soloingScale-chord ConnectionAnd the scales approach to soloing is best covered with two books from Gibert and Marlis from The Musicians Institute in Los Angeles. Don't bother with their DVD as it skips through the work and doesn't really give you anything more than a summary of what's in the first book. You'll only need the first book of this pair at this stage. (Buying both will give you at least a year's work to really absorb it all and apply well.)Guitar Soloing: The Contemporary Guide to Improvisation [With CD]Advanced Guitar Soloing: The Professional Guide to Improvisation

This is a great book for improving your soloing skills. Some of the books I'd tried to work through weren't terribly helpful, they ended up being too dry and I often couldn't see how the exercises would translate into actual solos. With this book, the chapters are short and concise, making it well structured and keeping you motivated. The material presented is really helpful in improving your solos, and gave me a different perspective on soloing. Everything is really well explained and there's a very helpful section on making up your own personalized practice schedule and how best to go about practicing.The music theory used is explained pretty much from scratch, so even if you don't really have an extensive knowledge of music theory, this book is for you and will really help you develop that knowledge and apply it to you guitar playing.If a friend of mine asked me what I would recommend if they wanted to buy a book on guitar, this would be the one. I have quite a few different ones, but this is still one of my all time favourites.