The ultimate guitarist's reference book with playing techniques, solo and improvisation concepts, exercises and jam tracks. The purpose of this book is to demystify the relatively simple concepts or tricks around which much of rock guitar is built. The book is designed modularly, allowing the reader to choose any topic at any time, but is can also be sequentially as a method. Topics includes warm-ups, pentatonic scales, bending and vibrato techniques, blues scales, string skipping, major scales, alternate picking, modes, economy picking (sweeping), arpeggios, two-hand tapping, minor scales, legato techniques, exotic scales, whammy bar, how to build a solo, practice planning, and improvisation. Each concept is discussed in a thorough and easily understandable manner. The accompanying CD includes over 80 licks and exercises plus more than 20 jam tracks, helping the student put the concepts directly into practice. In notation and tablature.

CONTENTS

Foreword
Six Tips for Practicing
Survey of the Study Program
CD Playist

Chapter 1 - Warm Ups
Note Location
Chromatics
The Spider

Chapter 2 - Pentatonic Scales
Stretch pentatonics
Sequences
Jam Tracks

Chapter 3 - The Blues Scale
Blue notes
Scale positions
Licks

Chapter 4 - String Bending/Vibrato
Smear, release and unison bends
Circle, rock and jack-off vibrato

Chapter 5 - The Major Scale
Scale positions
Licks
Projects

Chapter 6 - Alternate Picking
3-notes-per-string scales
Pedal tone licks
Mega-chops
Paganini

Chapter 7 - The Modes of the Major Scale
3-note-per-string scales
Modes
Tonal colors
Pitch axis system

Chapter 8 - Legato technique
Hammer-ons
Pull offs
Slides
Shapes

Chapter 9 - Triadic Arpeggios / Triads
Welcome to the land of arpeggios!

Chapter 10 - Economy Picking
Sweeping
Scales
Arpeggios

Chapter 11 - Four-Note Arpeggios
Standard/long form fingerings
The Jan Hammer scale
Chord substitution

Chapter 12 - String Skipping Technique
Scales
Arpeggios
Sequences
Repeating Patterns
Licks

Chapter 13 - Two Hand Tapping
Tapping scales and arps
Eight-finger tapping
Harmonics tapping

Chapter 14 - The Harmonic Minor Scale
Modes
Jam Tracks
Projects

Chapter 15 - The Melodic Minor Scale
Positions
Modes
Altered Scales
Licks

Chapter 16 - Exotic Scales
Whole tone scale
Diminished scale
The Enigmatic scale

Chapter 17 - The Vibrato Arm
The whammy bar
The dive bomb
Wang bar clips
Legato phrasing

Chapter 18 - Effective Learning - Practice Planning

Chapter 19 - Improvisation - Building Solos

Appendix
Discography and literature
List of symbols