Basix®: Jazz Guitar Concepts: Guitar Book & CD

Practical and encouraging. Brown's writing avoids the academic tone that intimidates young improvisers while still respecting the harmonic and melodic sophistication jazz demands. Each section builds measurably toward real soloing ability.

Jazz guitarists at the early intermediate stage who want to move past playing scales and start using them musically. This book works equally well for self-taught players filling gaps in their theory foundation and for students in a jazz ensemble who need structured, focused practice between rehearsals.

• Sing the scale shapes before playing them. Your ear absorbs the intervallic relationships faster than your fingers alone can teach, and you'll internalize the sound of each mode.
• Use the CD performances as a steady reference point. Loop individual tracks and solo over them repeatedly; consistency matters more than speed at this stage.
• Study the licks in isolation first, then transpose them to different keys and positions. This transforms memorized patterns into genuinely usable vocabulary.
• Record yourself playing the exercises and listen back without the CD. You'll hear rhythmic phrasing and tone quality issues that real-time playing masks.

Assign this to jazz ensemble members who are still developing their improvisation chops, especially guitarists who've relied on ear training alone. It also serves as a standalone supplement for private studio instruction when a student needs focused work on modal concepts before tackling more complex changes.

• Applying major, minor, and modal scales to chord progressions
• Reading and executing jazz licks in standard notation and TAB
• Building vocabulary through scale diagrams and fingering patterns
• Connecting harmonic theory to improvisation on the instrument
• Listening and transcription through CD-based performance examples