Art of Solo Guitar - Part I

Guitarist Paul Bollenback explores the art of solo jazz guitar, focusing on chord melody techniques and real-world performance strategies. Rather than teaching rigid, worked-out arrangements, Paul shows you how to make musical decisions in real time — an approach he developed on countless duo gigs with saxophonists, vocalists, and flutists, where solo-guitar skills were simply part of the job.

What's covered

• 1-3-7 and 1-7-3 voicings — sophisticated but playable shapes that support a melody
• A detailed walk through It Could Happen to You, with the melody phrased around the lyric
• Navigating register challenges so chords respect both the melody and the instrument
• Creating movement in melodic spaces with Brazilian-influenced harmonic motion and augmented passing chords
• Common substitutions, including the G7–G7aug–C7 move
• Building the harmonic vocabulary you need for duo work with singers or horn players

Includes 14 pages of chord voicings and exercises. A strong fit for intermediate to advanced players who want their solo guitar work to feel flexible and genuinely musical rather than memorized — and Paul's first piece of advice applies to everyone: just sit down and play through tunes, a lot.