Polyphonic Improvisation

Juampy Juarez teaches polyphonic improvisation — soloing with lines and chords together — for the solo guitar style, duo with a bass player, or guitar trio. Many fine solo players finish their chord melody arrangement and then improvise only with single-note lines; in Juampy's view that's where the music starts to sound weak. His approach draws on past masters like George Van Eps, Jimmy Wyble, and Ted Greene, adapted to his own style.

What's covered

• A full polyphonic solo demonstration over Stella By Starlight, then the tips behind it
• Triads as the core tool: combining diatonic triads with lines through every degree of the scale
• Adding 9ths and 6ths to the triads for richer colors, then mixing the two
• Playing triads horizontally and vertically across the fingerboard, plus chromatic expansion of the lines
• All the scales are covered — a different view of the scales and your overall guitar vocabulary
• Right-hand technique: fingers or pick-and-fingers for the polyphonic material
• Examples applied to jazz standards, blues, and II-V-I sequences

Useful well beyond soloing — the same material feeds comping, chord melody arranging, and composing.