Jazz Tracks: Guitar Book & MP3 CD

Working through these tunes feels like sitting in with the masters. The repertoire connects you to the foundational language of jazz guitar, and the long accompaniment tracks give you room to breathe, fail, and discover your own voice within the form.

Self-directed guitarists serious about jazz improvisation and guitarists in jazz ensembles who need focused resources to strengthen their soloing vocabulary. Intermediate to advanced students benefit most, though the range of difficulty allows earlier-stage players to build fundamentals without feeling constrained.

• Start with the slower tunes and use the extra space in those accompaniment tracks to experiment with targeting chord tones before running full bebop lines.
• Study the scale diagrams alongside the lead sheets so you internalize both the fingerings and the harmonic context where each scale applies.
• Record yourself soloing over the tracks and listen back to catch phrasing habits and timing issues you might miss in the moment.
• Loop sections of the accompaniment to work on specific changes or licks rather than always playing head-to-solo-to-head.

Assign tunes throughout the year as independent study work, rotating through the collection so students have fresh material to develop every few weeks. The included scales and chord changes make this a self-contained practice tool that doesn't require supplemental handouts or additional transcription work.

• Improvisation over jazz changes (blues, ii-V-I progressions, modal structures)
• Reading and applying jazz scales from notation, TAB, and fretboard diagrams
• Phrasing and time feel in jazz idioms
• Listening and responding to accompaniment rhythmically and harmonically
• Solo construction and development within a form