Amazing Phrasing - Guitar: 50 Ways to Improve Your Improvisational Skills

by Tom Kolb

(Guitar Educational). This book with online audio explores all the main components necessary for crafting well-balanced rhythmic and melodic phrases. It also explains how these phrases are put together to form cohesive solos. Many styles are covered rock, blues, jazz, fusion, country, Latin, funk and more and all of the concepts are backed up with musical examples. The 50 ideas are divided into five main The Basics covers fundamental but all too often forgotten techniques, such as slurs and vibrato, that can breathe new life into your phrases; Melodic Concepts explores various aspects of melodic phrasing, such as motifs, chromaticism and sequences; Harmonic Embellishments discusses the melodic potential of harmonic intervals (dyads), chords and chord partials; Rhythmic Concepts explores various aspects of rhythmic phrasing, such as accents, free-time phrasing and metric modulation, and how it pertains to melodic soloing; Solo Structure all of the topics discussed in the book come together to help form the big picture. The companion audio contains 89 demos for listening, and most tracks feature full-band backing. The audio is accessed online using the unique code inside each book and can be streamed or downloaded. The audio files include PLAYBACK+, a multi-functional audio player that allows you to slow down audio without changing pitch, set loop points, change keys, and pan left or right. Also available for keyboard, tenor saxophone and trumpet.

Genres: Music

88 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Tom Kolb graduated from Musicians Institute in 1989 as an honors graduate as well as “Student of the Year.” A veteran of over 4,000 gigs, Tom Kolb has worked in nearly every musical situation imaginable, from tours to sessions to his own funk/rock band the Gurus.
He has been a featured artist and musical director for Star Licks Videos and a regular contributor and columnist for Guitar One magazine, as well as the writer of Classic Rock Workshop (MI Press/Hal Leonard). His specialties are rock improvisation, melodic soloing, and rhythm guitar.