Chord Tone Soloing Private Lessons Series: A Guitarist's Guide to Melodic Improvising in Any Style [With CD (Audio)]

by Barrett Tagliarino

Book Overview

(Musicians Institute Press). Learn how the professionals create monster solos with this easy-to-use book with online audio The accompanying audio includes 68 tracks of exercises, licks, solo examples, and play-alongs. Includes all necessary foundation materials; detailed instructions on how and what to practice; essential concepts for players at every level; developing your real-time melodic reflexes; soloing over any progression in any style of music;...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0634083651
• ISBN13: 9780634083655
• Release Date: June 2006
• Publisher: Musicians Institute
• Length: 112 Pages
• Weight: 0.97 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 8.9" x 11.7"

Customer Reviews

What do you do in between strumming chords?!

This lesson book and CD is exceptional. What does the beginner or intermidiate guitar player do between strumming those endless chords to make the music more interesting? How do you fill in those "spaces" in your playing to take things to the next level? What can you do that sounds impressive and professional besides just strumming chords or finger picking them? The answers to ALL of those questions are right here in this book! The book lays out how that you can add interesting melody lines and great "riffs" or phrases to your chords and does it in an easy to understand way with examples that you can both see and hear. The musical solos are based on the current chords that you are playing, so both hearing them and adding them in becomes easier. In a nutshell these lead pieces make sense, musically and formationally and are easy to transition into with your current chord understanding. I would rate this book as "excellent" for those who have a basic understanding of chords and chord movement and guitar students who would classify themselves as being on an intermediate level. This course will take you to advanced level if you apply the concepts!

If this doesn't get you soloing...

You can't teach creative improvisation, but you can teach the prerequisites, and Tagliarino's books are the best organized, most approachable methods of understanding the guitar and its relationship to music that I've come across. He doesn't just give you the concepts, he quizzes you on them and gives you good practice materials. Used in combination with a live teacher, or alternatively, a lot of self-discipline, they are great stuff.

Fantastic book that covers territory most other books ignore

I've been a guitar player for over 20 years and a guitar teacher for the past 5, and this book is one of the best I've come across. Whenever I show a student scales, they want to know how to turn those scales into music. I can remember having the same frustration when I was starting out. The information in this book answers that question, and clarifies a lot of the confusion about playing a solo. This book is clearly written, absolutely packed with information, and - most importantly - that information is presented in manageable, fun chapters. This book has given me a whole new excitement about playing. A guitar instruction classic.

Good book

This book is the advanced user manual for your guitar. If you already know the basics such as chords and scales then this book is EXACTLY what you need. Basically it covers the how and why of music and how you the guitar player should think about it. Be forwarned this is not a book that will make you better overnight. In fact there is a chance that you will feel as though you have gotten worse at first. My reccommendation for those that can afford the time is to buy this book and use it right along side a good relative pitch ear training program....seriously. If you want to be a good musician then the methods in this book will provide the how and why while your ear will be responsible for the when. I have A LOT of guitar books...as do most of you reading this. This book teaches you the way to think about the guitar. It will take a lot of serious practice to ingrain the material in these pages, but those that do will transition for ok players to real players. Plain and simple: Best book I've bought in a long time. One draw back. The sound tracks are corney sounding...but that's a very minor issue in light of what this book provides.

Common sense approach to improvisation for all styles.

Barrett Tagliarino books are easy to follow. This one uses a format similar to his Fretboard Workbook. Ideas are introduced with easy to read chord diagrams that revolve around the CAGED system of chord organization. Chord tones are emphasized as one solos. This outlines the chord progression making the soloist sound "melodic," instead of simply playing the right scale over chords. This book expects the reader to be new to soloing and progresses in baby steps. The other book on the same subject by Berklee Press called "Melodic Improvisation" is much more advanced and focuses on heavy weight jazzers like Pat Martino, Wes Montgomery, Joe Pass, and monster players of that caliber. This book is accessible to rock, folk, bluegrass, and country guitarists, not just jazz cats. The secret to success, the point of the book, is to target chord tones as one solos, but how does one do that? To answer that question, Barrett provides in depth guitar theory, a lot of break down and analysis, scalar choices, key center analysis, and a lot of down home humor along the way to keep things from getting overwhelming. All-in-all, Tagliarino has written another instructional book you'll want to keep in the library for continued study.