8 Chordal Etudes for Jazz Guitar

"8 Chordal Etudes for Jazz Guitar" by Hristo Vitchev

The chordal études presented in this book are specifically designed to augment and enrich the chordal vocabulary of the player while working on voice-leading, stretching, coordination, dexterity and strength training for the left hand. The many different voicings I have used throughout the text are the result of years of exploration of the fretboard and represent some of my favorite ways to interpret harmony on the guitar.

All études are composed over the chord progressions of famous jazz standards which would facilitate the implementation of these very common harmonic movements into any musical situation.

For the practice and execution of the material presented here I welcome each one of you to come up with different rhythmic and stylistic ways of playing the études and transform them into your own playing styles and personalities. Playing them rubato, arpeggiating, with straight eights feel, or a specific swing rhythm, etc. I have notated them in the simplest possible way so that all the attention and concentration can fall over the study of the specific voicings at play.

More than anything it is my hope that everyone can find some new ways to think harmonically over the fretboard and develop some of the ideas into concepts of their own. Last but not least, it is essential to pay a closer look at the tablature notation included as that precisely shows the intended fingerings and ways to play the voicings. Quite a lot of times the highest note of a voicing will be lower in pitch than the note on the previous string, creating a very nice tension and internal movement in the sonority.

For more info please e-mail: hristo@hristovitchev.com