: free course in 29 lessons

Modal and impressionist colours

• The Dorian mode: minor with a bright side
• Mixolydian and Lydian: two coloured majors
• The Andalusian cadence and Phrygian
• Improvising in the manner of Debussy

Jazz

• The ii–V–I and guide tones
• Bebop lines: approaches, enclosures, the bebop scale
• Swing: phrasing, accents, articulation
• Jazz accompaniment: comping and rootless voicings

Classical and free improvisation

• Partimento: improvising over a given bass
• The concerto cadenza
• Free improvisation: telling a story
• How to practise improvisation

Guitar: improvising all over the neck

• The five positions of the pentatonic scale
• Blues guitar: bends, slides and phrasing
• Connecting the positions: chord shapes and CAGED
• Playing the changes: target notes inside the shapes

Guitar: rhythm and fingerstyle

• Improvising rhythm guitar: folk, funk, reggae and swing
• Fingerstyle and open tunings: the American Primitive spirit

First steps

• Improvising on the black keys
• Call and response
• Rhythm first
• Developing a motif
• Targeting chord tones

Accompaniment and pop

• Left-hand accompaniment patterns
• Pop ballad over I–V–vi–IV

The blues

• The 12-bar blues
• The blues scale
• Shuffle and boogie-woogie
• Turnarounds, intros and blues effects