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MELODIC CONCEPTS,
Book II:
Fundamentals of Jazz Improvisation
for electric guitar
by David M. Shere
copyright © David M. Shere 2016
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Guitarist and composer David M. Shere graduated magna cum laude from
Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, WA, May 2003, with a Bachelor's degree
in Music Composition. David completed M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in composition at
UCSB, September 2006 and 2007, where he studied with Dr. Jeremy Haladyna,
Dr. Joann Kuchera-Morin, Dr. Scott Marcus, and Dr. Curtis Roads.
Currently David teaches at Music Center Of The Northwest, a community
music school located in North Seattle, WA (mcnw.org).
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MELODIC CONCEPTS, Book II: Table of Contents
Chapter 1a: "Shell" chord fingerings 1
Chapter 1b: Common chord fingerings 2
Chapter 1c: Fundamental scale fingerings 5
Chapter 1d: Additional scale fingerings 11
Chapter 2a: Major scales, 6th string root 25
Chapter 2b: Major scales, 5th string root 28
Chapter 3: Major scale Diatonic chords in every key 31
Chapter 4a: One octave major scale modes- relative 43
Chapter 4b: Two octave major scale modes- relative 56
Chapter 5: Major scale modes-parallel 80
Chapter 6a: One octave major scale arpeggios 86
Chapter 6b: Two octave major scale arpeggios 99
Chapter 7: Major scale arpeggio fingerings-parallel 111
Chapter 8: Major scale chords- falling 5ths progressions 115
Chapter 9: Major scale ii-V-I melodic studies 127
Chapter 10a: Minor scales- melodic, harmonic, & natural 138
Chapter 10b: Melodic minor scale chords 150
Chapter 10c: Harmonic minor scale chords 154
Chapter 11a: Major pentatonic scales 158
Chapter 11b: Minor pentatonic scales 167
Chapter 11c: Pentatonic exercises 176
Chapter 12a: Jazz blues chord progressions 191
Chapter 12b: Jazz blues scales and licks 197
Chapter 13a: Additional exercises 211
Chapter 13b: Basic Sequences 217
Chapter 13c: Advanced sequences 220
Chapter 13d: Advanced scale and arpeggio studies 224
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MELODIC CONCEPTS, Book II
INTRODUCTION
In 2008, while giving private guitar lessons at Jensen’s Music in Santa
Barbara, CA, I wrote Melodic Concepts, Book I, a method book discussing single-
note soloing ideas for the electric guitar. Book I primarily addresses rock and blues
guitar techniques using 3 notes-per-string fingering strategies; the exercises can also
be applied to acoustic guitar. It is based on material from my personal practice journal
archives, and was intended to be the first of a series.
Due to the demands of teaching and performing, as well as several other
intervening book projects, the Melodic Concepts series got shelved temporarily in
order to focus on writing class material emphasizing jazz theory. In the meantime,
however, I continued to accumulate practice journal pages documenting literally
thousands of my own guitar playing exercises for inclusion in future method books.
8 years and hundreds of journal pages later, I have finally completed the next
book in the series. Melodic Concepts, Book II represents a progressive increase in
difficulty with comparison to the content of Book I, and focuses primarily on jazz
guitar chords and scale fingerings. My main reason for compiling this book is that it
contains a tremendous amount of curriculum that I use recurrently in private lessons
day to day. Collecting it all in a single easily publishable format saves me the trouble
of needing to continue painstakingly digging up and copying out the same information
in bits and pieces repeatedly by hand, and also I went to some great lengths to
organize the material in what I hope is a logical, orderly manner.
Thanks for reading, and I hope you find this book useful.
-David M. Shere
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